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Chapter 12
Dante
That hadn’t been what I’d expected her to say. “What?” I’d been surprised to find her standing there, pounding on my door, since she’d been avoiding me as much as possible since the morning I’d kissed her.
“Your brother is a jerk.”
I blinked slowly at her. “Where did you see him?”
“At my job. He came in…” She hesitated and I felt dread curl inside me. If he’d hurt her, I’d fucking kill him.
“And what?”
“Nothing. He was just an asshole, wouldn’t even tell me his name.”
I looked down at her dirty work boots, jeans, and sweatshirt. “Where do you work?” That probably wasn’t the most relevant question since she’d had an altercation of some kind with my brother. Luckily, she was still alive. That told me she must not have told him she thought he was an asshole. Nico wasn’t known for his patience—with anyone.
Havoc looked at me like I was crazy. “Malavita,” she answered.
I remembered she’d said she worked at a stable. That explained her clothes and the—I sniffed lightly—smell. But it hadn’t occurred to me to ask which. The fact that she was working at one of our family’s businesses was a weird little twist of fate. “Did he hurt you?”
Now she just looked stunned. “No… Who asks something like that?”
I laughed scornfully. “You don’t know my brother.”
“And I don’t want to. Do me a favor? Tell him to stay away from me.” She turned and started for the door before looking over her shoulder at me. “Both of you, stay away from me.”
My mouth dropped open, and I moved forward and caught her shoulder so that she turned to face me. “Hey! What did I do wrong?” She started to answer, but I cut her off so I could plead my case. “Just because Nico…” The blood drained out of her face, leaving her pale and wide eyed.
“What?” I was completely lost when it came to this woman. I’d never had someone rebuke my advances so thoroughly, but interest me so much.
“His name is Nico?”
I nodded, wondering what her issue was.
“What…” She licked her lips and my eyes dropped down to follow the movement of her tongue. I cleared my throat and focused back on what she was saying so I didn’t end up popping a boner in these sweats. “What’s your last name, Dante?”
“Romano,” I said cautiously. Her eyes widened even further and I cursed inwardly wondering if she somehow knew who my family was. There was more than one Nico Romano in New York City, after all. The look on her face made it clear that she knew something, though.
“I have to go,” she whispered and rushed out the door before I could say anything further.
“What the hell was that about?”
I looked over my shoulder where Ciro was leaning against the hallway entrance, munching on a bag of chips. Scrubbing my hand through my hair, I shrugged at him while pulling my cell phone out of my pocket. I dialed a number and waited for my dickhead, mobster brother to pick up.
“Dante,” his smooth voice sounded amused. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Cut the bullshit, Nico,” I barked at him. He liked to pretend he was cultured, but I’d known him most of his life and I knew where he’d come from.
His voice lost the tone of humor and was replaced with something dangerous. “What happened?”
I rolled my eyes. Leave it to him to think I’d come crawling to him if I was in trouble—egotistical fucker. “What the hell did you do to Havoc?”
There was silence on the other end of the line for longer than expected, so I pulled the phone back to see if the call had been disconnected. I brought it back to my ear in time to hear him start talking.
“What did she say?”
“The truth,” I laughed, but I wasn’t about to tell him she’d called him an asshole. That would be like putting a target on her back. “She asked me to tell you to leave her alone. What did you do?”
