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“Open this door,” I demanded.
“It—It needs a key?” He didn’t sound too sure.
“Then go get it,” I bit out.
He scurried back down the stairs. I didn’t know if the others had left or not, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d fled. This was my territory, after all. They’d promised to keep their eyes and ears open, but they hadn’t promised to deal with this. And Sal? He probably thought his son could handle me.
Guess again.
If it was Dante, if he’d done this, he was a dead man.
The server reappeared, tossing me the keys with shaky hands. I stuck it into the lock, twisting the knob until it finally opened. The door swung open, light from the hall spilling into the dark room. Dante was on the floor, hand to his head. His eyes squeezed shut against the sudden light.
When he finally noticed me, he did a double take. “What the hell happened?”
SIX
DANTE
“What the hell happened to you?” Sienna asks. When she’d first stormed in, she had looked pissed off. Now, she just looked wary. Suspicious.
“I was outside, walking around the banquet hall and checking the perimeters, when I saw someone walk down the hall between the kitchens. I didn’t recognize them, and they definitely weren’t working here.” I rubbed at the back of my head. Pain thudded against my temples. “Went upstairs, found the security outside your door shot, and then I was attacked.”
Sienna’s mouth opened before shutting again, a more determined look on her face. “You didn’t see their face? Anything at all?”
“Not very well. That’s why I went after them.” Something about her demeanor was off. “Why, what happened?”
She grimaced. “Well, I got the vote. No thanks to your father.” Again, the suspicion crept across her face.
“I had nothing to do with whatever he had planned,” I told her. “I swear.”
She was still looking at me oddly. Like I’d somehow done something wrong, but I had no clue what it was. Besides getting fucking jumped. That was a mistake on my part. I can’t even count how many times my father had told me to always check my surroundings. And what had I done? Not that.
“Why weren’t you able to take him out?” she asked, her voice sharp.
Good question. “I was taken by surprise.”
“I’ve seen you take out a mark, Dante. You were able to kill Marco in a club full of people with no one the wiser. And yet, some random guy knocked you out and somehow locked you in this room?”
“You don’t believe me?” I frowned. “You’ve got your title as Don. I didn’t stand in your way. And you don’t believe me on this?”
She studied me for a moment, her eyes roving across my face, trying to detect the lie. There wasn’t one. I watched her silently, letting her evaluate my honesty, even if it pissed me off. I liked her like this—pushy, fiery. It made me want to test her limits. To push her up against the wall just to feel her wrath. But right now, she looked as if she’d spill my guts if I even took a step towards her.
“You haven’t seen the message.” Her eyes darted away, unable to look at me.
“What message?”
Turning, she went back out into the hall. The bodies were still on the floor. Probably because the staff had been instructed to not come up to the second floor unless called for. It took me only a second to figure out what she was talking about. The blood had dried, nearly black against the white walls of the hallway. The words were clear, making my breath catch in my throat.
I couldn’t tell if it was the blood on the walls, but my vision went red.
“You think the guy you saw was the guy who did this?” Sienna asked coldly.
I forced myself to look at her. “Probably. I didn’t see anyone else.”
“The Snake?” She left the words hanging between us.
“Most likely.”
