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DANTE
“It doesn’t feel right to me,” I told Romeo, narrowing my eyes at the men in front of us. They couldn’t see us, but we could analyze every move they made from the dark corner that we were parked in. Lorenzo had sent us to watch the shipment and make sure it got handed over properly. But my gut was screaming at me that something was off.
“Yeah, something’s wrong,” Romeo agreed.
He cracked his neck, the sound reverberating inside of the car. We weren’t in our own cars, or the usual SUV. Instead, we’d pulled out one of the random older ones from the warehouse where we kept anything we didn’t want people to know we had. The place was jam-packed with secrets. I had no doubt that I didn’t know half of the things within its walls.
We were incognito, making sure the soldiers from the Pozzi family were doing what they were supposed to be. They were in charge of letting our shipment come through their territory untouched, and so far they’d loaded up what they could in several trucks. But still…something didn’t feel right.
“What’s that?” Romeo asked, handing me the binoculars. “Second man from the right is hauling a square crate. It’s not one of ours.”
I placed the binoculars in front of my eyes, thankful that they had night vision on them so that I could see everything clearer. “There’s a second one behind him with another crate.” I tried to zoom in to see what was written on it, but I couldn’t make it out from this far away.
There was only one way to find out…
I dropped the binoculars to the floorboard, turned to quickly glance at Romeo, then pushed open the car door. I winced as the creak of the metal sounded like a bomb going off in the otherwise quiet area.Shit. We’d alerted them to our presence before we’d even gotten halfway to them.
There was no time to draw our guns as a body ran full force at me, wrapping his arms around my waist and yanking me to the ground. The stones bit into my skin, my breath forced out of me with a whoosh.
“Fuck!” Romeo shouted, and then I heard thepop pop popof his gun.
But I didn’t need bullets to take out the man who was on top of me and raising his fist. I didn’t need the cool metal device that was sitting in my holster on my waistband and my leg. All I needed were my hands and the rage that I hadn’t seen him coming.
I shunted upward, bringing my fist up and smashing him under the chin. His eyes rolled back in his head, his body swaying to the left, but he was still on top of me. Bucking my hips, I punched him again, this time in the temple.
I knew exactly where to rain down my hits to incapacitate a man, and the more my knuckles met his flesh, the harder I hit. I was enjoying it. I wanted to let my anger out. It had festered inside me for months on end with no way to release it. But now, with this man, I could let every ounce of it out. I could kill him with my bare hands, and there was nothing anybody could do to stop me.
He groaned, his pain hitting my ears and making me grin.
Two blows to his chest was all it took to finally get him off me. But I didn’t wait, I pounced, kicking him, then throwing my fists at any part of his body that I could. Blood spurted onto my hands and face—his blood.This man had no idea what he was doing when he tackled me to the ground, but he would when I was finished with him.
“Stop, please!” he screamed, holding his arms in the air in surrender.
I didn’t listen though. The red mist had descended. The part of me that I’d tried to bury was back full force, leading the way, and letting violence please me.
“Dante!” Romeo shouted from somewhere near me, but I was too far gone to listen. Too enthralled with the red pooling around the man. Too obsessed with how my knuckles burned with each hit.
It was heaven. Pure heaven.
“Dante, stop!” Romeo’s voice was louder now, closer, parting the mist and pushing his way through to me. “Dante!” His arms banded around me, and my fight-or-flight instincts kicked in. I’d never chosen the latter, so I swung at him, connecting with his jaw and causing him to stumble backward. He didn’t let go of me though, so I went down with him with a crash.
“Get off of me,” I growled, warning him to let go.
“You need to stop.” His arms contracted tighter around me, holding one arm captive, but I still had one free that I tried to hit him with. All I did was make contact with the ground though. “We need to get out of here.”
I could hear footsteps—quick footsteps—coming toward us.
The mist started to lift, and bullets hitting metal finally had it dissipating completely. “Romeo?”
“Get up!” he shouted, pushing me off of him.
I stumbled to the side, trying to gain traction as bullets flew by me and into the car we’d driven here in.
Romeo grabbed my arm, leading me to the car, and we both dove through the open doors. My chest heaved, my muscles burning with exhaustion, yet I felt…free. Like I’d finally let out the part of me that had been missing.
This was who I was. This was the Dante that my father had raised.
