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So much for letting him live.
We’re naturally deceptive creatures, quite literally wired to deceive.
“Let’s move,” Dante grits, quickly regaining control of his breath as he slowly lowers the body to the floor. “We need to be as quiet as we can, Giana. The quieter the better. Stay behind me until I see what we’re working with. We don’t know that he hasn’t lied to us. He’s a fucking pig. I wouldn’t actually trust a word from his mouth.”
I shake my head as Dante goes to step around me and reach a hand out to grab him. “Listen. Two men plus Santiago against you, Dante. Not happening. We need to find another way.”
My chest feels like it’s going to explode. I’ve gone from thinking I’d never see him again to having him back, to being on the verge of losing him all over again. I refuse to lose this man. Not before I even have the chance to have a decent conversation with him after all of the madness that’s unfolded.
“We’re going to draw them out and get them one by one. This isn’t my first time in a position like this. You need to trust me.”
There’s that word again.Trust.Trust a man who has no doubt been deceptive from the start…? I wish I could fully give him that right now. I just can’t.
His words remind me that he’s a mafia man. Just like my father.
Something I had no clue about until the night I shot my brother.
Dante has blood on his hands, too. I just don’t know how much.
Am I really about to trade one mafia family for another?
Does the price of freedom outweigh all that comes with it? I don’t know the answers to any of these burning questions, but I do know I don’t have time to think about all of this. Not right now. I tuck it away for later. There will be a later. There has to be.
We start to descend the stairs, and I’m thankful for the white carpet beneath my feet, allowing us to go unheard and not draw attention to ourselves.
“Can you get one of them over here?” Dante’s voice is barely a whisper against the shell of my ear.
I nod as his words sink in, immediately knowing what I have to do. Not thinking, just doing.
In this moment…I am my father’s daughter.
I have to be.
After a quick reminder to my conscience that none of my father’s men are without guilt or fault, that I’m not assisting in killing innocent men, I straighten my spine.
None of us are innocent.
Not in this world.
Dante nods at me to go ahead, a knife in his right hand, and he winces when he moves his left shoulder. I haven’t even asked him how his wound is healing. There’s been no time for small talk. He reaches to his side and yanks another knife out of a holster before flipping it to me.
I stop as one of the guards speaks, his voice halting my movements.
“You gotta admit, you’d love to get some Amato into your bloodline, wouldn’t ya’, Charlie? Some action with that beautiful fucking Amato girl wouldn’t hurt anybody.” His voice is cheery and light as he talks about my potential future children, and my fists clench with an undeniable rage.
That gross asshole.
“Fuck yeah. I’d love to get some of that,” the other guard says before letting out a whistle.
I steady my shaky limbs, begging my body and mind and mouth to behave. I am so sick of men and their futile beliefs that women are for their enjoyment. I unclench my jaw, and pain shoots through from my jawbone to my ear.
“Excuse me,” I call to the two guards posted in front of Santiago’s suite, stepping forward. “We need two men to help hold the dress so I can get in it. My mother isn’t answering her phone. I only have one man upstairs. Can one of you please assist? I’m running out of time, and I don’t want to be late for the ceremony. My father won’t be happy if I keep him waiting.”
Both guards move to come toward me, and I glance over as Dante sneaks back up the stairs we just descended. It’s probably better that we get back upstairs prior to attacking him in order to avoid the other guard hearing anything.
A dark-haired guard pushes the other backward, much to his dismay, and comes to follow me up the stairs.
“Well, beautiful, I guess today is my lucky day, isn’t it?” he says as we reach the top of the stairs.
