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In all the times that Valentino had been in a rage like the one Dante was in, I never left the room with less than a few bruises. Yet, Dante hadn’t hurt me. He’d walked away, and I couldn’t stop dwelling on that.
I’d thought his refusal to hurt women was a weakness. In a way, it was, but it was also a touch of decency that Valentino had never shown.
I thought about all the briefings I’d had about Dante and his father.
I considered the photos of our men who had been killed by either Dante or one of his immediate family members.
Valentino’s parting words resonated through my mind every day, driving me to continue on this mission.
Make me proud and avenge the family you lost because of that man.
But it hadn’t been because of Dante—not really.
Days passed by, and in the meantime, I kept up my workout routine to not only help pass the time but also keep me active. I needed to be on my A-game when the time came to kill Dante, and if I was too busy laying around waiting for something to happen instead of preparing myself, I’d be dead in the water.
During my days spent with Valentino, he taught me a lot of things. Most were lessons that I still remember carrying the bruises of weeks later, but he’d instilled a focused mindset in me that wasn’t easily shaken.
My workout routine was mainly cardio-based and helped me maintain a flared heart rate since I knew that’s what I’d be dealing with once I fled Dante’s clutches. Upper arm strength was next. Thankfully I was able to use one of the bars inside of Dante’s closet to help with my pull-ups since surprisingly he kept his clothes hung on thick metal rods. Which I suppose made sense considering his suits alone were heavy because of the dense material.
I needed to keep myself focused—my eye on the prize, as it were. No matter what happened between Dante and me and the weird energy I could feel pulsating between us, I needed to remind myself not to fall into his deadly trap.
By the time I was finished, I was sweaty and out of breath. A quick shower later and I strode down the stairs of the house and inched around the corner to eye the breakfast table. I’d expected to find Dante there as he had been most mornings around thistime. I’d watched his habits since being here, and he always made a point of coming for breakfast.
Not this morning.
His large frame didn’t fill his usual seat, but a small girl sat right beside it, sitting straight as she scooped spoonfuls of oatmeal into her mouth.
Bria.
She grinned over at me. “Hi,” she said, waving shyly.
I had a few options. I could go back to my room and figure out the best way to continue to make myself useful and necessary here, or I could sit and eat breakfast with this small child.
Here, I might be able to find out information about Dante that he wouldn’t dare tell me any other time. That thought had me striding toward her with a catlike smile and sitting in Dante’s usual seat.
“Hi, Bria,” I said.
“Do you play checkers?” she asked immediately.
Confusion blasted through me at the question. How old was she again? I couldn’t remember if Dante had told me.
“I don’t. Why do you ask?”
“Because Uncle Dante told me that you were only mean because you’re still learning how to be part of a family. He said it was like how I just learned to play checkers.”
I tried to put the pieces together but failed to understand her point.
“I was going to teach you to play checkers so you can learn new things and be better at family stuff. We need another girl here.”
I wondered if this was sound logic or the logic of a child at play.
“You and your uncle are a family?” I asked. “What about your mommy and daddy?”
Her eyes dropped to her plate. “I don’t have a mommy, but I did have a daddy.” She shrugged. “When I was still little, he went up to heaven.”
I bit my lip. Who was I to grill this little girl for information? She was so sweet, and she didn’t deserve to be hounded about a loss that was surely tragic. She also didn’t deserve to lose another close family member.
My heart sank into my ass.
