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CHAPTER EIGHT

DANTE

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So, I kidnapped Adelina.

I guess that’s what this is. She keeps using the term. I’m calling it pre-wedding jitters.

Not that she knows we are getting married. But we are.

One step at a time, though.

Despite being in a different part of the house, I can hear the echoes of her banging and screaming and I clench my teeth.

“Dante! Are you going to do something about that?” My mother demands from the doorway of the living room.

I lift my head.

I’m home. Thank god for my men. They were able to get me back into the estate after arranging the meeting at the warehouse. I’m starting to think the feds aren’t after me.

Nick has been tasked with sniffing around for some information, but with nothing on the news about my father’s death or the raid, it’s making me itchy and uncomfortable.

Which is probably why I’m choosing to stay away from Adelina. She tests my patience on a good day. Right now, I don’t know whether I want to strangle her or fuck her into submission.

I do know which one I’d rather do.

“No. She’ll work it out,” I say, wishing my mother would get out of my face.

I know she’s grieving my father and worried about where Gianna is, but I’ve got a lot on my plate.

Not wanting to leave the house, I’ve been meeting with all the general managers of our legit companies advising them of Papa’s death and that I am now in charge.

There have been tears and shock.

Honestly, I don’t have time to be everyone’s fucking shrink, but I have to nod and console them, waiting for the appropriate moment to tell them that it's business as usual. That my expectations are the same as my father’s, and I will visit them soon.

The more illegal (read: very illegal) arm of our organization has been slightly different. It’s just juggling lava. They’ve been trying to negotiate higher prices, threaten to work with other families and a bunch of other shit.

Some of them I shut down.

Most of them I got heavy-handed.

“Try this bullshit with me and you’ll find out I’m much crueler than my father. Feel like testing the theory, or do you want your sister to live?” I told one guy.

Last I heard, our shipment arrived.

It’s been keeping Jono and Nick busy.

“It’s been six days! I’m sick of her screaming.” Mama throws her arms in the hair.

I drop the tablet I’m reading from.

Jesus, between Adelina’s shouting and banging and my mother’s complaining, I can barely fucking think.

“Fine!” I stand, glaring at her. Then stride past her, shooting her an even darker one.

“Don’t push me. I’m not in the mood,” I say as I keep walking. Then I add over my shoulder. “Try ringing your daughter again.”

“I’m not your slave, Dante. Do not speak to me like that.”

Is she fucking kidding me right now?

I spin around.

“You will do as I fucking say! I am not your son anymore; I am the head of this family,” I yell.

Short.

Fuse.

Blown.

“Ring Gianna. She needs to come home!” I fling my hands out like any good Italian does.

I need her home.

Carlos Baldoni is a little upset with me for taking his daughter, and I need Gianna to trade. She was always promised to Leo; she knows that. Now I need her to do her fucking job.

It’s been almost ten days since the bust, and the cops have told us nothing about where she is or went. Well, they haven’t told my mother or Nick.

Mama demanded my father’s body be returned and they’ve agreed. Not once have they asked about me or where I am.

Weird.

I have a feeling they have nothing on me, so I’m a free man.

Thank fuck.

I’ve also spent the last six days since returning home recruiting some experts to dig into Barrett and find out who this Braxton guy is (especially given he might have my sister!) But the organization has tight as fuck security.

I’m not surprised.

But someone will talk. It’s just a matter of time.

So yeah, I kidnapped Adelina.

She has always been mine, and I fucking told everyone. No one believed me, so that’s on them. Once I tasted her pussy, that was it for me.

Not to mention, her housekeeper saw me one night when Adelina was sneaking in some dinner. She wanted to take the plate and caught a glimpse of me inside her bedroom.

She knew who I was.

So I couldn’t take the chance.

Carlos would send her straight to a family to be wed if he knew I’d been inside her bedroom for days.

And knowing I’m now a boss, he would quickly put two and two together knowing I plan to make her mine.

Two days after I locked her inside my house, Carlos sent word that he wanted her home. With a nicely packaged threat to me.

Which I ignored.

Once I send him Gianna and tell him this is the only deal I’m doing, he’ll have to live with it.

Unless he wants to start a war between the two families. Let me be clear, if it comes to that I will happily do it. Adelina is never leaving. She will be my wife, and she will fucking tell me she wants me.

Plus, I have something else up my sleeve that I’m working on. Something that will change everything.

Getting my little sharp-clawed kitten here was easy.

Nick drove us into the Baldassare Estate after being at the warehouse meet while we hid in the back of the vehicle. Addy thought we were dropping her off at home.

“I don’t need to hide,” she whispered as she lay prone against my body.

“Shh,” I said to her. “Let my men do what they do.”

“Stupid gangsters,” she muttered. “It’s three in the damn morning. I am tired.”

“Well then shut your eyes”—and mouth—“and go to sleep.”

“We’re lying in the trunk of a car, Dante, and...your thing is digging into my hip.”

I smirked in the darkness.

She wasn’t talking about my gun.

Having Adelina tucked up against me, with adrenaline rushing through me, had me hard as fuck.

“Well then, spin around and I’ll put my thing somewhere more comfortable.” I rasped.

She punched my chest with her clenched first. It was so pathetic I almost flipped her over and tugged down her black leggings and fucked her pretty pussy.

When the trunk opened and our eyes blinked, adjusting to the night air, I sat up and Nick gave me a hand out.

“Welcome home, Boss,” he said, as Adelina sat up.

“Why are we here?” She glanced around, and it didn’t take long for her eyes to land on me as she worked out what was happening. “Dante. No.”

I lifted her out of the car and began carrying her toward the front door. “You will thank me for this one day.”

Slap.

I flinched back and glanced at Nick, who quickly roped her wrists as she began to scream.

“Let me go!”

Jono ripped open the front door, and I carried her inside.

“You can’t kidnap me! Let me go!” she screamed again. “My father is going to kill you.”

I rolled my eyes at Nick, who smirked.

Jesus, it had been like trying to carry a slippery octopus through the house with all the wriggling and slapping. Kicking open a room downstairs, which I knew had appropriate security, I dropped her to the floor.

Then shut the door behind us.

“Stop.” I held up my hand as she climbed to her feet and began to approach me with wild abandon.

She obeyed.

I knew she would.

Adelina has been raised by a mafia boss and it’s in her DNA to obey me now that I am one.

“Your father will be told you are with me.”

Her eyes widened. “No. Send me home.”

“Your housekeeper saw me. She will talk. What do you think he will do when he learns you were walking around the house free as a bird for three days while I was in your bedroom hiding? He’s not going to believe we were playing Monopoly.”

I watch her work it out.

I took Adelina because she’s mine, but I also did it to protect her. I put her at risk. Carlos wouldn’t hurt his daughter, but he would send her away to be married.

I can’t allow that.

It was probable, even if I hadn’t gone to her, that once he learned of my father’s death—and that I was now a don— he would do it, anyway. I made the mistake of telling him when I was young and dumb that I was going to marry her.

He never wanted it.

Adelina paced the room and took in the bed and the reinforced windows. They weren’t exactly bars, but the frame itself had locks she’d never be able to break out of.

The door behind me was the same.

It had a digital lock.

Fear began to fill her pretty eyes, and I glanced away, ignoring the guilt that threatened to change my mind.

If I had a choice, she would be here of her own freewill. But Adelina wasn’t there yet.

Yet.

“You need to stay here. I’m not letting him use you against me.”

The look on her face was one of disgust and it made me angry.

“I hate you!”

“I know.” I met her eye-to-eye and held her gaze, letting her know I wouldn’t change my mind. Then I opened the door as she began to scream once more.

“Dante. No. Don’t do this!” The door closed as her fists slammed against it on the other side. “Dante! This is kidnapping! Mrs. Baldassare! Help. Someone help.”

I stood on the other side for the next ten minutes as she screamed herself raw.

“I fucking hate you! I am going to kill you. Let me out of here.”

I heard her attempt to break the glass windows.

And fail.

“Dante,” my mother said from the other end of the hall.

“I’m home,” I said, stating the obvious. “Adelina will be staying with us for a while.”

Forever.

“Is she?” Mama lifted a brow. Not much phased her. She was the wife of one of the most notorious mobsters, after all.

“Yes. She’s just getting settled.” I smiled as we both listened to her shouting.

That’s when I heard her break a mirror and punched in the code to unlock the door.

“If she kills herself, Carlos will hunt you down to the ends of the earth.” My mother warned me.

“Thanks Doctor Obvious. I’m not going to let her commit suicide. Jesus.” I snarled and ripped open the door.

Adelina stood there with a piece of glass in her hand, blood dripping from it.

Fury ripped through me.

This wasn’t going to go the way she thought it was. Concerned she would hurt herself more, I did the one thing I could do to resolve the situation quickly.

I pulled out my weapon and pointed it at her head.

“Drop the glass and step back,” I demanded.

“You won’t shoot me,” Adelina replied, but we both heard the wobble in her voice.

I stepped closer. “Want to find out?”

She took a step back and her shoes crunched on the glass.

Fucking hell, what if she had been barefoot?

Damn idiot.

“You want to fuck me, not shoot me.”

I took another step and then another.

“Do not underestimate your worth, kitten. I want to fuck you, but not at the cost of you cutting my face. You are nothing but a pawn,” I lied.

Hate filled her eyes.

Now I can’t get the image out of my head.

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