CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

DANTE

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“Drive past again,” I say, for the third time.

Nick turns from the passenger seat and watches me. “You sure?”

“Yes, I’m fucking sure.” I growl, not bothering to look at him. I feel like shooting him. I want to shoot all of them.

She left me.

She fucking left me.

When we pull into Adelina’s street, the driver slows, as he has every other time, but now I have a different plan.

“Stop here.” I demand.

The driver immediately obeys, but it’s Nick who twists. “Boss. What are we doing? We don’t have enough men with us to confront Carlos.”

I rip open the door, ignoring him.

“Open the trunk.” I demand as two of the soldiers from the car behind us dart out and surround me. I glance up at the Baldoni estate, taking in the men at the gates, the large trees and lamp posts lighting the way toward the house.

From here I can see a few lights on in the house, but it’s not fully visible.

What I know for a fact is that Carlos and Leo will already know that I’m here.

“Dante,” Nick says, holding up his hands and stepping between me and the limousine.

I glare at him, death in my eyes.

“Don’t do this,” he says, looking surprised.

“Get him out.” I nod to one of the soldiers and then stare Nick in the eye one more time. “You going to stand between him and the bullet or get out of the fucking way?”

Nick curses. “He fucked up. I get it.”

He more than fucked up.

Jono let the woman I’m going to marry walk out of the restroom, right fucking past him, and into the arms of my now enemy.

“You don’t fucking get it.” I ground out, getting in his face. My second. The man I trust the most in my life. I could fucking kill him with my bare hands, I’m so full of fury.

I hope Adelina can hear me from her bedroom.

I hope she hears the bullet as it slides from the chamber into Jono’s head as he loses his life.

Out of the corner of my eye I see his body flip and flop, fighting the soldiers as they carry him to the sidewalk. His cries are muffled, and even if they weren’t, no one would be able to stop this.

“Now, they’re going to demand I send them my sister. Who is already fucking married. Then what? Then what will I have to pay to get her back? My mother’s life?” I yell. “Your mother? Your sister?”

He knows how this works. Every man around me knows how this works.

So does Adelina.

“Fuck.” Nick glances away, disgust at me and all of it lining his face.

Adelina made a choice that’s going to cost a lot of people their lives. She knew Jono would pay for letting her escape.

I hope she cries a fucking river all night.

Even if they weren’t good friends.

I can’t have weak men in the business. Certainly not at my side. I was told two months ago that Jono was taking money from one of our organizations. A family who already paid us a big amount. When I learned the grandmother lost her life because they couldn’t pay for the medical bills, I made sure they were able to pay for her burial and a nice headstone.

A headstone. As if that fucking makes up for it.

I could never prove that it was him, but doubt has been simmering underneath the surface, making me trust him less.

One thing I know about humans is if they’ve done it once, they’ve probably done it before. And will again.

Did Jono let Addy go on purpose?

Possibly...

Was he watching her as closely as he should’ve been, knowing how much she meant to me? Me, the fucking Baldassare boss?

No.

If he had, he would’ve noticed it was her walking past him.

Adelina might be clever, but she’s also fucking gorgeous. He couldn’t have missed her.

Tonight, Adelina can have his life on her conscious, along with my powerful message that I’m deadly serious about making her my wife.

I pull the gun out of my waistband and take a few steps away. I step one leg over Jono’s body and unscrew the silencer.

I want the entire house to hear.

The entire fucking street.

I point my pistol at his head and meet his terror-filled eyes.

“This is for everything you’ve taken from me that was never yours.”

Bang.

His body shudders. Then lays there dead.

Eyes open.

Lifeless.

My men around me are silent. Jono was one of them. They’ll hate me for it, but they’ll also respect me.

Which is how this world works.

I might not agree with many of my father’s business activities, but while I’m the boss, this is the way things are.

The blood drains from Jono’s head and I grab a stick lying on the grass, then write my future wife a message on her white driveway.

“Jesus,” Nick mutters, and when I straighten I see him wipe his hand over his face.

I glance around at my men, who have their guns out, pointing down but ready, protecting me.

When I turn back to the house, three of the Baldoni soldiers stand watching the scene. I see the confusion on their faces. I haven’t threatened them or those inside the house, so technically they can’t retaliate.

I killed my own man on their driveway.

“Let’s go.” Nick grabs my arm and guides me back into the limousine. This time, he climbs inside with me.

We speed away.

I twist the silencer back on the weapon and place it on the seat next to me.

Then I face Nick. The boy I grew up with. The boy I trained, who became a man and my best friend.

“Do not betray me. I need you. But I will kill anyone who puts me or my family at risk,” I warn him.

He nods.

“That includes Adelina,” I say, reaching for a tissue to wipe the blood spray off my face.

“Yes, sir,” he replies.

I glance away and let him grieve for his friend.

And quietly do the same.

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ADELINA

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I run to the window when I hear the shot sound out.

I know it’s him.

Dante.

“Oh shit.” I grip the window frame, waiting for more gunshots. With each heartbeat, I wonder if he will kill my entire family.

Or me.

I knew he would go crazy, but I didn’t know how much.

Silence.

A few moments later, I hear vehicles speed away and slump, relieved. I don’t know who or what he shot but thank god, it’s over.

I know it’s not over.

I check the lock on my window and walk to the end of my bed, wondering if I should ring him. I don’t want anyone getting hurt. Dante needs to know it wasn’t right to kidnap me. Surely he understands that.

“Miss Baldoni. Miss!” One of the housekeepers says from my doorway. She’s cracked it open, which is breaking the household rules, but I can hear in her voice it's urgent.

“What is it, Emily?”

I walk over to the doorway where she holds up her phone and shows me the image.

“Who sent you that?” I demand, grabbing it.

Oh, my god.

“Simon. One of the guards at the gate...we’re...seeing one another.”

My eyes snaps to hers. “This is my driveway?”

She nods.

I shove the phone back in her arms, race back to my bed and grab my dressing gown, then run down the hall as I pull it over my shoulders.

My feet pound on the hard driveway as I run the long distance to the gates.

Leo is already there when I arrive.

“Go back to the house,” he orders, but I ignore him.

A couple more steps and I can see clearly the body and message drawn in blood. The same one on Emily’s phone.

“I said GO BACK TO THE HOUSE Addy,” Leo yells.

“NO!” I yell back, gripping the black bars on the gates.

There, in red against the white of the driveway, beside Jono’s body, are the words:

You Are Mine

I swallow.

It’s a message. A warning. A promise.

Jesus, he killed one of his best friends because of what I did. He knew this would destroy me.

I hear a sound escape my lips as my body slides to the ground. My arms take a little longer, still gripping the bars, and I twist awkwardly.

“Fuck.” Leo grabs me and lifts me into his arms. I quietly sob against his chest.

Jono is dead.

I knew he’d be punished, but I didn’t think Dante would kill one of his best friends. Who the hell is he? For a second I thought I could love him, but now I know I never could. He’s as cold and calculating as my father.

As his father.

As all of them.

Dante Baldassare is a gangster, just like all of them.

I could never love him.

“What do you want us to do with the body?” Someone asks, and I press my face into Leo’s shirt.

“Graham. Take over,” Leo says to his second and carries me back to the house.

“Yes, sir,” he answers in our wake.

“Leo, he killed him.” I sob. “He killed Jono.”

“I know. That motherfucker,” he replies roughly.

Leo, like all of us, grew up with Jono. I can’t say he was my favorite person, but we played on the same playgrounds, went to the same movie theaters, and drank at the same bars. He was Dante’s friend, and we did all the things kids do in their teens and twenties. Together.

We were mafia kids. We couldn’t hang with too many others.

Now he’s dead.

Because of me.

“What’s going to happen now?” I ask when he puts me back on my feet near the front door.

I don’t want to go back inside.

I don’t know what I want anymore.

“That will be up to Father.” Leo places his hand on his hips. “He wants me to marry Gianna. You are to marry Roger Amato. The rest...fuck. If Dante doesn’t drop this, Adelina, it’s going to create a multi-family war.”

Because of me.

“There’s only so much Carlos will accept. His pride.” Leo rubs his jaw.

I nod, knowingly.

I reach out my hand and touch my brother’s arm. “Dante has wanted to marry me forever, you know that.”

“Since he was fucking five years old. I remember him telling me.” Leo shakes his head.

He did?

“Five? What did you say?” I ask, surprised.

Leo gives me a silly smile. “I said, that’s gross.”

I can’t help smiling back. They were two little mafia heirs learning to be men. Bad men.

Which they’ve achieved.

“Do you love Gianna?” I ask. I’ve never asked him the question before.

Leo rubs his forehead. “It doesn’t matter. You know that, Addy. I will do what needs to be done to protect and strengthen the family.”

“Will it though? Frank is dead. Dante is hardly an ally now,” I press.

“It could be more reason to marry her. The choice isn’t mine,” he says coldly.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Do I love Gianna like he loves you? No. I would never kill my best friend because a woman left me,” Leo says, finally meeting my eye. “I know you aren’t happy about Roger, but he will protect you. That’s different from the obsessive dominance Dante has shown.”

I feel my body burn.

He is dominant and a part of me desires it.

Get on your knees and open your mouth.

His words can make me wet in almost a split instant.

On your knees. If I have to ask you one more time I will force your mouth onto my cock.

The feel of his thick, long member filling my mouth, dominating me. Making my nipples ache to be squeezed.

How many times have you played with your pussy, Addy, while thinking of me?

Too many times to admit without shame.

Not just while I was under his roof, but for years prior. It was always his face. His muscular frame. His dark, watchful eyes.

It’s not his dominance I’m afraid of. It’s falling into the abyss and never being able to climb out. It’s losing myself in everything Dante Baldassare is.

His world.

This world.

He thinks he loves me, but he doesn’t truly know who I am. What my thoughts and desires are.

He’s assumed.

That silly man.

If I am honest, I do love him. I always have.

But that doesn’t mean he’s the right man for me.

A part of me will always wonder had I stayed, if I would have been happy. He promised me a beautiful wedding and lots of babies. I would be protected, loved, cherished.

Happy?

No.

I have already spent twenty-six years as a member of a crime family.

If I’m willing to leave everyone and everything I know and love, including my father and brother, then I know I can’t stay and marry Dante.

He’s wrong.

I’m not his.