“What?”
“My family legacy. My name.” He didn’t turn around, just flexed his hands around the frame, his muscles taut like they were going to snap any second. “It’s a long story — maybe I’ll tell you before you leave.”
“Tell me now.”
“You should get dressed.”
“Dante…”
“My father had to die — in order to actually live… he was buried by her so at least… in his death he found his soul.”
“What?”
He looked over his shoulder. “Joyce Alfero owned Luca’s soul in life — and now, now he has it back in death. It’s the saddest fucking thing I’ve ever heard, the idea that he walked around on this earth with complete knowledge that she existed — but he could never have her. Not in the way they wanted.” With that, he walked off leaving me breathless.
And wanting.
Because every single time Dante walked out of a room, I felt a part of myself break off and crumble to the ground.
He’d snuck past my defenses.
He’d shown me his true colors.
The face of a monster.
And I wanted that monster — and the man.
Suddenly sick, I slid down to the ground and told myself to be an adult about the situation.
If he was that upset about me leaving.
He’d ask me to stay.
And I was too much of a coward to ask him if he wanted me to.
If he wanted at all.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Dante
CHRIS WAS ALL smiles and handshakes that morning.
I wondered how long it would take for me to bleed him out if I stabbed him with the butter knife. Three seconds? Four? I just had to hit a main artery. Easy. I could do it with my eyes closed.
“Careful.” Chase coughed into his coffee while I kept vivid lifelike daydreams of Chris’s death in the forefront of my mind.
“We should go.” He grabbed El’s bag. “How many classes do you have today?”
“Two.” Her smile was forced.
“Great, I’ll see if I can get away from a meeting so we can do lunch, sound good?”
“Yeah, just text me.”
Watching them interact was pure torture. Didn’t he get it? The way she shied away from him like he had the plague? The smiles that never reached her eyes. The hesitation in her steps?
“See you in class, Dante,” she said in a hopeful tone.
“See you…” I answered in a rough voice as the door closed behind them.
I thought I’d be able to breathe once they were gone, instead I tortured myself with visions of his mouth on her, visions of him kissing her goodbye, reaching for her hand.
I slammed my empty mug back onto the table.
And was left with nothing but the handle and a shattered mess of porcelain.
“Shit that was Nixon’s favorite cup.” Chase whistled.
Mil walked into the room and yawned. “Did I miss breakfast?”
“Well you’ve been missing everything else, why not?” Chase said in a sarcastic tone that immediately told me I needed to make sure Mil had nothing sharp she could throw at his face.
Mil gave him a sad and exhausted look. Her smile didn’t reach her eyes either; she looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks. “Hey I said I was sorry you know I was doing Family stuff.”
“Funny.” Chase stood. “Because I thought this was your family. That I was your family.”
“Not in front of Dante,” she said with clenched teeth.
“Dante’s the only one I feel like I can talk to without lying, so yeah, we can do this in front of Dante.”
Nixon chose that really inopportune moment to walk in with Trace. “You guys okay?”
“No,” Chase spat, while Mil said, “Yes.”
She went over to the coffee pot. “We just didn’t get much sleep last night.”
I wondered if Nixon could tell she was lying.
Just like I wondered if anyone had noticed that her hands were shaking as she poured a cup of coffee.
“Hey, maybe lay off the caffeine a bit, Mil,” Trace said softly before she gave Nixon a wide-eyed look.
Chase’s chest rose and fell like he was getting ready to fight someone or something.
Nixon jerked his head to me, basically saying do something.
I grabbed Chase by the arm. “Take me to school.”
“No.”
“Yes. I have a chem test to study for and I could use the time.” Bullshit I wasn’t even in chemistry.
“You’re taking chemistry?”
I ignored him, grabbed the keys, tossed them in his face, and opened the door.
He stomped out of the house started the engine and nearly took off without me in the car with him.
I jerked open the passenger door and turned off the loud music. “Talk to me.”
“You hate small talk, you can’t even stand to sit through family dinners,” Chase muttered.
“Yeah well this time I guess I’ll just do the listening, what’s going on?”
Chase slammed his hand against the steering wheel over and over again until he jerked into traffic and hit the accelerator. “I can’t trail her without her recognizing one of the cars — she knows all of my associates and I honestly don’t trust worth shit what she’s doing. If I tell any of the guys—” He stopped talking. “My job is to protect her, even if it means I protect her from herself, but I’m flying blind. She won’t talk to me about it. And this morning, was the first time she looked afraid like maybe she’d gone too far. And I don’t know what the hell to do.”
I took a deep breath, letting the words sink in. Did he know Sergio was suspicious? Did he know that he was getting watched just as much as his own wife?
I had a choice to make.
I trusted Chase.
But did I trust him to do the right thing when the love of his life was hanging in the balance?
“Can I ask you a question?” I glanced out the window to give him the idea that I wasn’t studying his body language and how he answered. I’d like to think of myself as a good human lie detector, Sergio had taught me well — too well. Between that and the sign language, sometimes I felt like he’d given me too much too soon — because when you see people you love elude you — lie to your face — that’s when things get real and I hated that I’d often been on the receiving end of those lies more than I could count with both hands.
“Sure, that’s all you’ve been doing this entire time anyway.” He sounded bored as he jerked the car through the open gates and onto campus. “You gonna ask or just stare at the trees and daydream about a girl who’s currently in a car with another guy?”
“Remind me to find someone else for the pep talks in the future,” I grumbled, then sat forward, folding my hands as he pulled into a parking spot and killed the engine. “If you had to choose between Mil and the rest of your family — what choice would you make?”
Chase’s hands froze around the steering wheel as his breathing slowed and then he turned and locked eyes with me, this wasn’t my friend staring back at me, I could almost see what people saw when Chase the assassin looked at them through the barrel of his gun.
I didn’t want him as my enemy.
He may not be giving me a choice.
Damn Mil.
“I was raised to protect one thing and one thing only.” Chase’s eyes narrowed. “Blood.”