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“No, it doesn’t.” She ripped her hand away. “Nothing I own belongs to you. It’s mine. Always has been and always will be. Some measly piece of paper doesn’t change shit.”
“Sienna, think about this. Clearly.” I tried reaching for her hand, but she pulled it away. “Right now, there’s probably not much we can do. But if my father takes it, integrates it into his own business, then when he passes, we can split it again.”
“Ha.” She laughed. “What, fifty-fifty? How is that right when we held the majority?”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. “I’m just trying to help.”
Sienna stood abruptly, grabbing her purse. “I never asked for your help, Dante. You just keep showing up.”
“If you don’t want me here, then why are you still with me?” I demanded. “Why fucking bother going after me in the rain just to bring me back home?”
She stopped halfway to the door. Glancing over her shoulder, her eyes caught mine. “Because I felt sorry for you.”
My mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out. The door slammed shut behind her. Furious, my hand swept whatever was on the countertop to the floor. Breathing hard, I tried to ignore the sting of her words. They couldn’t be true. Could they? I try and think back to when she’d found me. How she’d looked at me, as if I’d completely lost my mind. She’d taken me home and let me get out all the pain and suffering I felt. She allowed me to let the monster out until it had crawled back to where it had come from. Who would go through all of that just because they pitied someone?
But there was more to it than that. My feelings for Sienna had grown. She’d saved me from myself. From my father, who probably would have hunted me down like a rabid dog. She’d brought me back to reality, and that I couldn’t ignore. But I never knew how she felt about me.
Now I did.
If that’s how she wanted to play it, then so be it. If she really thought I was the monster she’d grown to believe, then fine. I’d play her monster. I’d be the villain she wanted me to be. I hadn’t had shit to do with her business failing, with her family losing power, though I guess I couldn’t technically say that. I had married her. My father had always planned for something like this to happen despite my efforts to save her from it. I’d tried. And now I knew I’d failed.
Sienna would go to her office. She’d plan with Mateo on how to save her family, though from what I knew, there was nothing. And then she might turn her sights on me when she realized it was too late. Or Mateo would. Either way, if I stayed here, I would be a dead man by morning. My feelings for Sienna didn’t matter. She would always see me as the enemy.
Standing, I headed towards the bedroom, grabbing my suitcases. I would be long gone by the time she got back. I tossed my clothes inside before zipping it up. And then I just stood there. Waiting. Waiting for her to come back and tell me she was sorry, to tell me that she loved me. That she finally trusted me. But that would never happen. I could see that now.
There was too much shit between us. The Snake. Our parents’ death. My father’s ambitions. The Commission’s lack of expectations for her. Sienna was fighting a battle she didn’t want help with, and I could only offer for so long. It didn’t matter how I felt for her…she’d already made the decision for both of us.
I looked towards the living room, my eyes landing on the sofa. Just minutes ago, she was in my arms, her mouth against mine. Minutes ago, she had trusted me enough to give herself to me. Had all that been a lie? Just an easy fuck? I didn’t know. With Sienna, I never knew. And I wasn’t going to stick around long enough to figure it out.
Tossing my luggage into the back seat of my car, I peeled out of there. I had only one place to go—a place I didn’t think I’d be back at so soon after last night. The drive was long and silent, my blood roaring in my ears, trying to drown her words out. No one was waiting for me at my parent’s estate. Or, now I guess it would be my father’s. It was late; the sun had long ago set. Tommaso would be asleep by now, and my brother was probably out at some club getting shit-faced like always.
I parked the car, not bothering with my clothes in the back. I still had some here, and I’d just have Tommaso get it in the morning. Unlocking the front door, I stepped into the darkness. The house was silent, almost as if no one lived here at all. But I knew my father was around here somewhere, most likely in his own room or in his study. Maybe he’d even be celebrating by himself or figuring out the next step in his bullshit plan.
Not wanting to run into him, I take the back staircase to my room. Nothing has changed. Everything is as I’d left it from my last visit here with Sienna. But it feels empty. My eyes land on a photo of our family from long ago. We’d gone to a private beach where no one would be able to see me with my mother and father. In the photo, they sat behind us on the sand, my brother’s arms around my shoulder. We were so young back then. So naive.
I flip the picture down, feeling disgusted with myself. I had no fucking clue what I was doing anymore. I’d wanted to save Sienna from my father and then from the Snake. But now? She’d made it perfectly clear she didn’t want me around. And how was I supposed to protect her when she wouldn’t even let me near her? After tonight, I knew that if we hadn’t been enemies before, we were now.
Sienna was going to hate me for the rest of her life, and all because she thought I was working with my father. It pissed me off. If she thought that, then she’d never really known me. I hated my father for what he was, what he did. I hated him for trying to turn me into an exact replica of his own sorry ass. She should have known that.
Sighing, I sink down onto my bed, too tired to even remove my clothes. Swiping a hand down my face, I try to ignore the ball of nerves in the pit of my stomach, the ice in my veins. There was nothing I could do tonight, I knew. Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I would deal with Sienna. We couldn’t risk a war between our families now, not with an unknown aggressor still stalking the streets, waiting to pick us off one by one. As much as I didn’t want to help her right now, I knew I would. I couldn’t let her die by the Snake’s hand simply because she was blinded by centuries-old hatred for my family and me.
I fell back against the bedspread, hating myself. I was weak, just as my father had always told me. Maybe I’d always known that it was true. I was going to fight for Sienna even when she didn’t want me to, all because I loved her.
I just hoped she wouldn’t kill me for it.
TWENTY-FIVE
SIENNA
My anger followed me out into the garage. Furious, I opened the car door, my tires screeching as I backed out of my parking spot. This late in the night, the docks will nearly be empty, though I know Mateo will be waiting for me in the office. My mind was blank, seething. For one brief moment, I had allowed myself to hope that Dante did have an answer to save my family. And then he’d opened his stupid mouth and showed me what his true intentions were. What they’d always been.
I tried to ignore how my heart felt like it was shattering as I sped towards the docks. But I couldn’t stop the sobs that slipped past my lips, my shoulders shaking. Tears blurred my vision of the road, the lights turning to dots of color against the windshield. I felt like I was tearing in two. Like my heart was shredded.
Despite everything, I’d trusted Dante. Even when Mateo warned me not to. Even when my family had been against this marriage from the start, I’d started to trust him. He’d helped me get through my father’s murder and had been helping me track down his killer. And then he’d shown a side of himself I was sure no one knew about. That vulnerability was what had gotten to me. I’d been weak. I’d let my defenses down.
And now my family was paying the price.
If I could turn back time, I would. I would never have agreed to marry Dante in the first place. Or I would have killed him the first night we’d been married. But I knew, even then, that I wouldn’t be able to do that. From the first time we’d run into each other at the club, I knew there was something different about him. But now? Now I wish my heart didn’t get in the way.
