“They’re here,” Dante said, finally letting out a whistle. “The back-up’s good to go.”
“Get home as quickly as you can,” Federico laughed through the phone. “We’ll handle the rest.”
***
Dante didn’t slow until we reached his house. He drove past the gates, stopping to instruct the guards to be extra careful tonight around the perimeter, and we drove in silence up to the house.
He parked and killed the engine, and suddenly, the silence felt deafening.
For a long moment, neither of us moved. I stared straight ahead, my body still vibrating with adrenaline and my mind racing with everything that had happened.
“Alisa,” Dante said softly at last. “Are you okay?”
The gentleness in his voice broke something in me. A sob tore from my throat, and then I was crying so hard I could barely breathe.
“Am I okay?” I choked out between sobs. “My father sold me to monsters, and he doesn’t even care if I live or die. He just wants to save himself.”
Dante unfastened his seatbelt and mine, then pulled me across the console into his arms. I should have resisted, should have maintained the anger I’d felt earlier, but I was too exhausted and far too broken. I collapsed against his chest and let him hold me as I cried.
“I’ve got you,” he murmured against my hair. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
I just lay there in his lap for what felt like ages, until the soft patterns he drew on my back helped soothe my nerves. When I finally managed to stop sobbing, I remembered all the mean things I’d said to him earlier.
“Dante.” I pulled back enough to look at him. His face was lined with worry… for me. “About earlier, I didn’t mean it when I said you’re the same. I was just… “
“Overwhelmed?” He gave me a small, kind smile. “Wouldn’t anyone be?”
Once again, his kindness took me by surprise and made me question all the biases I had about him, all because he belonged to a world I knew little about but not enough to paint with one singular brush.
“I need to know why you’re doing this for me,” I asked in a hoarse voice. “By keeping me, even now, aren’t you asking for war with the Pavlovs?”
“You know why,” he said quietly.
I considered his answer. In my heart, I think I always knew. Dante had never treated me with cruelty, only with spectacular kindness. He’d saved me, protected me, respected me when I pushed him away.
He’d treated me just the same as he had when we had been together all those years ago.
“You’re nothing like them,” I admitted again. “I’m sorry for what I said.”
He brushed a strand of hair from my face with a feather-light touch that sent sparks shooting down my spine. “You were right about some of it. My family isn’t clean. But I swear to you, Alisa, I would never use you to gain something for myself.
I believed him. God help me, I believed him.
“There’s one more thing I need to know,” I said, gathering my courage, because even now, despite knowing he meant what he said, I feared it might change someday soon like it had back then. “Something I’ve wondered for four years.”
His expression turned guarded, but he nodded for me to continue.
“Why did you leave me?” I asked, the old pain surfacing alongside the new. “Four years ago, when things were good between us. You just… disappeared from my life. No explanation, no goodbye. Why?”
Dante’s eyes held mine, and I saw in them a regret and pain so deep that my breath hitched.
“How about we head in for a drink while we talk?” he asked, hoarsely, before turning his gaze from mine.
Chapter 19 - Dante
With shaking hands, I poured some whiskey into two glasses. Ever since she’d asked me why I’d left the last time around, my nerves hadn’t settled.
It’s the same question that had haunted me on repeat since I’d walked away from her that night four years ago. The thing was, I felt petrified that she wouldn’t understand, that she’d get mad and go running, and whatever progress I thought we’d made would have been for nothing.
