CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

DANTE

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I lift my finger to my lips.

“Dante.” Her voice shakes as she says my name and I glance across the road, wondering what has upset her. If anything.

“Why are you crying?” I demand.

“What?” She wipes at her paling, wet face and glances at the couple across the street that are hugging.

I follow her eyes.

When I turn back, she’s staring at me, panic beginning to set in. She thinks I’m here to take her back to New York.

That’s unlikely.

I still don’t have a clue how the next ten minutes are going to go, but her tears are killing me.

“Why are you crying?” I demand again.

She blinks. “That’s what you want to know? Why I’m crying?”

I can see the confusion on her face.

“Yes.” I growl.

Adelina blinks again and then almost jumps when her coffee and cupcake arrive.

“Would you like one sir?” the server asks.

I glance down, then back at him. Is this guy joking?

“Do I want a pink cupcake?”

“Yes.” He nods.

Jesus, my gangster game must be really fucking bad today if he’s asking me that. Or my masculinity.

Then again...I am in California.

“Sure. Why the fuck not.” I say and toss a twenty on the table.

He disappears.

Finally.

Adelina glances around the coffee shop, then back at me.

“I’m alone,” I say. “Well, two of my men are outside.”

“Does my father know where I am?”

“No.”

“What are you planning to do with me?” Adelina asks, wiping her eyes some more and looking like her world has come to an end.

I lean back in the seat.

She has no idea how hard my heart is beating right now. If she did, she’d be feeling a lot more confident. But I learned the art of not showing fear decades ago.

Truth is, I’m fucking terrified.

“I’m going to marry you.” I answer.

Her eyes dip to the table and she pushes the cupcake away.

Twice. That’s twice I’ve kind of, almost, sort of asked Adelina to marry me and she’s looked like she wants to throw up.

Nice.

“Dante—”

“Why are you here?” I demand of her, needing to know if she ran from me or our world. Her eyes flick to mine. “Why are you here, Addy? Did you leave me? Did you run from me? Tell me.”

She opens her mouth to answer, but a pink fucking cupcake is slid between us.

“And your change.” He starts to count it out.

My eyes don’t leave hers.

“Answer the question.” I rasp, not giving a fuck the servers is still there.

Adelina blows out a breath and lifts her coffee, taking a sip, like it’s her lifeline.

Finally, he leaves.

“No. Yes. I ran from all of you,” Addy replies, and more tears start falling. “Four days. I guess that’s more than anyone else in our world gets.”

Four days of freedom.

I know what she means.

But she hasn’t answered my question. In some ways, she has.

I ran from all of you.

A shimmer of hope sparks inside me.

“I told you I loved you,” I say, watching every single muscle in her face.

She nods, her face drops, and more tears fall.

Motherfucker, this woman is killing me.

I lean forward and gently tug her hand across the table, wrapping my fingers around hers.

“Kitten.” Her eyes lift. “Do you fucking love me or not?”

A sob escapes her.

“Say it.”

“Dante, don’t.”

“Say it, Addy. I’ve waited my entire fucking life. Tell me you love me,” I say, my voice thick with emotion.

She swallows and straightens her shoulders.

“I can’t.”

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ADELINA

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MY LIFE HAS just crumbled before my eyes. Dante found me and is going to take me back to my father.

Or worse, force me to marry him.

You love him, you idiot.

“How did you find me?” I ask, pulling my hand free.

He sits back and his face darkens.

I take a minute to take in his outfit. Something has changed. He looks...fresh. There’s not a lick of black on him. His jeans are dark blue, and while I can only see a hint of it from where he’s sitting, I know they look sexy on him.

A white shirt is hanging loose over them. Although that’s not entirely accurate because of his muscular frame and how fitted it is.

With his olive skin and a peak of his tattoos under the rolled-up sleeves, he’s breathtakingly handsome.

Watching me, Dante doesn’t answer my question for a long time while I work out if I can run and escape.

Stupidly.

As if I could outrun him and his men.

What would he do? Toss me over his shoulder and throw me in a car? I want to hate him, but there’s a part of me that wants to throw my arms around him and tell him how damn happy I am to see him.

My father doesn’t know—that’s what he said.

That’s something.

Perhaps I can negotiate with him.

Right now, the fate of my life is in his hands. Which means he gets to choose what happens next.

Not me.

Him.

And for that reason alone, I will never admit to him that I love him.

“You were never out of my watch,” Dante admits.

What?

I glance away, wanting to scream. How fucking dare he? All this time, I thought I was free. I thought I was setting up my life and independent of that world.

I let out a frustrated growl and do something that surprises us both. I pick up the pink cupcake and throw it into his face.

Dante tosses it on the table as I freeze, shocked that I did that, waiting for him to explode. Instead, he licks his fingers, wiping the icing from his nose, and says, “Hmm, surprisingly good.”

I leap to my feet.

“Go away. Just leave me alone,” I yell, no longer caring to be quiet.

He slowly stands, and I spin and run out of the coffee shop.

I know he’s following.

I know his men are following.

But I don’t care.