by Bella J.
“So, I’ll take that as a yes, then.” Lucio moved closer, both men straightening, their warning glares fully focused on us.
“What the fuck is your problem?”
Lucio shrugged. “I don’t have a problem. Do you have a problem?”
I had to smother a laugh. If pissing these guys off was Lucio’s plan, I’d guess it was fucking working.
“Listen, man,” one of the men took an intimidating step forward, “just fuck off before we hand your ass to you on a silver fucking platter.”
Lucio seemed offended. “No need for violence. I just need to see a certain Layla Moore for a teeny-tiny second.”
I saw the guy at the back move his hand under his jacket. On instinct, I reached and placed my hand on my own weapon. I appreciated Lucio’s little display of balls, but going on a shooting spree at the side of the road in broad daylight was not ideal.
Lucio held up his hands in a mock surrender. “Whoa. No need for that. I just—” And then he darted toward the stairs, rushing past the men before they tackled him to the ground. He thrashed and fought, but when his eyes met mine, he winked. That was when I realized he was creating a diversion for me to slip into the house. Sly motherfucker.
While Lucio kept the three men busy—by getting his ass kicked—I rushed around the house to the back door. I knew there was another guy in there with Layla and Kate, so I grabbed my gun and slowly eased the door open, peeking inside.
Voices came from the direction of the living room, and I softly stepped inside, keeping my gun at the ready. Every step was slow and calculated. I could not fuck this up and let Lucio get his ass beaten to a pulp for nothing.
“What is going on, Layla?” I heard Kate’s voice.
“You know I can’t tell you that.” My heart skipped a beat when I heard Layla. I moved through the kitchen and placed my back against the wall by the door.
“How do you expect me to accept that? After all this time?”
“I know it’s a lot. And I’m sorry I’m dragging you into my mess.” I heard the remorse in her voice, the regret. It made me want to take her into my arms and never let go. “But I had no other option,” Layla continued. “You are the only family I have left. I had no choice but to come to you for help.”
“Does Dante know?”
“He knows I’m here, yes.”
“Does he know everything?”
I inched to the side, peeking around the corner. Kate was sitting on the couch with Layla standing before her.
“No, he doesn’t.”
“You need to tell him, Layla. He needs to know.”
What the fuck was Kate talking about?
A movement at the entrance caught my eye. It was the bodyguard shifting from one leg to other before clearing his throat. He was paying careful attention to the women, and I got the feeling he wasn’t happy with their conversation.
Layla looked at him before letting her head down. “I need to see this through, Kate. I have no choice. It’s the only way I can protect him.”
The sound of glass shattering came from outside, and the bodyguard rushed to the window. “Fuck. Come on.” He grabbed Layla’s arm and started to drag her toward the door.
“He said I had twenty minutes,” Layla pleaded.
“We’re leaving. Now.”
“Stop!” She tried to jerk her arm free from his hold. “You’re hurting me.” And that was when the possessive fuck in me took over.
I ran into the living room aiming my gun. “Take your fucking hands off her.”
He twisted her arm and slammed her back against him, holding his arm around her throat, his gun against her temple. “Take another step and I’ll blow her fucking brains out.”
I stepped to the side, slowly making my way toward Kate, who had fallen to the floor. “If you so much as hurt a fucking hair on her head, I will cut you up and send the pieces to your mother for her fucking birthday.”
“Dante,” Layla breathed out, “what are you doing here?”
I ignored her. I focused all my attention on the fucker behind her, never taking my eyes off him.
“Let her go, and I’ll allow you to leave here with both your balls.”
He tightened his hold around her neck. “I have three men waiting outside. There’s no way you’ll be able to get out of here alive.”
A click sounded from behind him. “Think again, motherfucker.”
“Layla, get down!” I yelled, and she dropped to the floor the second the gunshot went off. Blood spattered against the wall, and the bodyguard’s lifeless body dropped, Lucio standing behind him with the gun.
I rushed across the room toward where Layla was crouched, crying as she frantically tried to get the blood off her face.
“Layla.” I leaned down, placing my hands on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
She looked up at me, tears streaming down her face, her golden hair covered in streaks of crimson. “Dante. What have you done?”
Chapter 11
Layla
I was covered in blood. A dead man was lying beside me, crimson staining the laminated floors as his blood pooled around him. My heart was beating so fast, so loud, it was all I heard. Everything else was on mute. Dante was rushing toward me, but in my view, it all happened in slow motion. For a few seconds, my thoughts were scrambled, my mind confused, yet alert.
Adrenaline burned as it swooshed through my veins, my chest rapidly rising and falling with every breath. Nothing about the scene that played out in front of me made any sense. Everything was wrong. The harder I tried to pull my mind from the fog, the more I realized Dante had played right into his hands.
“Layla, are you okay?”
I focused my gaze on his face—the face I had fallen so helplessly in love with so many years ago. The face I still loved.
“Dante.” My voice was nothing more than a rush of air. “What have you done?”
If only he knew. If only he knew how much was at stake—how deep all of this went. Every molecule of my being wanted to tell him. I wanted to scream at him, to let him understand this all was so much bigger than just us.
I was losing control. I was losing the fight against those who threatened everything I loved.
Dante wiped at my cheek—probably trying to get the blood off my face—before running his hand down my arm, wrapping his fingers around my elbow. “Come on. We have to go. Now.”
I pulled back. “No. I can’t go with you.”
He frowned in confusion. “Layla, there’s no time. We need to leave.”
“No, Dante. You don’t understand.”
“The one thing I do understand is if we don’t leave right now, a whole lot of shit is going to come raining down all around us within the next few minutes.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw a man helping Kate up from the floor, and he glanced our way. “Dante, bro, we need to leave, pronto.”
Dante pulled me to my feet. “Layla, I know something is going on. Matteo is using you to get to me somehow, but you need to trust me. You need to trust that whatever it is Matteo has over you, I can help you.”
With every heartbeat and every breath, I wanted to believe I could trust in Dante. That I could share my burden with him and not feel so damn alone. But deep down I knew I was in too deep, too far gone for anyone to help me now.
I jerked my arm free from his grip. “You can’t help me. No one can.”
Kate stood next to the man across the room, tears running down her face. “For God’s sake, Layla. Tell him.”
“I can’t, Kate. You know what’s at stake,” I argued.
“Exactly. And he has a right to know.”
Dante glanced from me to Kate, then back to me, confusion plastered on every contour of his face. “Okay, whatever the fuck you two are talking about, we don’t have time right now.” He grabbed me around my waist and pulled me up, throwing me over his shoulder.
“Dante! Stop. Don’t do this.” I thrashed against his back. Fought to get free. But he only tightened his
grip on me as he rushed out of the house. “Dante, you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“We can discuss the matter of me not knowing what I’m doing later.”
Within seconds, Dante shoved me in the back seat of a car and got in next to me. Kate climbed into the front passenger seat while the other guy slipped in behind the wheel. The engine started, and I immediately grabbed the handle of the door, but it wouldn’t open.
Dante looked my way. “Child lock.” I glared at him, and he shrugged. “Safety precaution.”
The car swerved onto the road, the force shoving me to the side, and I glowered at the driver.
Dante noticed. “Layla, meet my cousin Lucio.”
Lucio glanced in his rearview mirror. “It’s nice to meet you, Layla. I’m sorry about the…you know.” He gestured with his fingers around his face reminding me that I was still covered in blood. A chill ran down my spine, and I had to suppress the bout of nausea that crept up my throat.
I turned my attention to my best friend crying in the front seat. “Kate, are you okay?”
“No,” she whimpered. “No, I’m not okay. I’m definitely not fucking okay.” She turned in her seat to look at me. “I just saw a man get shot right before I was hauled out of my own damn house. I can’t do this anymore, Layla. I just can’t.” She shook her head. “If I had known how deep this shit went, I never would have agreed to any of this. Goddammit! I should have taken both of you straight to the police station the day you showed up at my fucking doorstep!”
Dante glanced from Kate to me. “Both of you?”
I kept staring at my sister, silently begging her not to say anything more, but she ignored my plea. “I’m not doing this anymore, Layla. Either you tell him, or I do.”
“Kate, don’t.”
Lucio sped up. “Since this sounds like a serious convo, I suggest you continue once we get home. Dante, we have three tails on our asses.”
Lucio barely finished his sentence when a car smashed into the rear of our car, causing Kate and me to yelp as we jerked forward. Lucio and Dante let out a string of f-bombs.
Dante spun around to look out the back window. “Fuck! Goddamn Mancusos. They’re trying to force us off the road.”
Fear and panic tightened like barbed wire around my lungs. “Dante, you need to let me go. Stop and let me out.”
“Not a chance.”
“Dante, please. I’m begging you.”
His gaze cut my way, the intensity in his dark irises conveying the message that there was no way in hell he was letting me go, no matter how much I begged.
I sank back in my seat, instinctively wrapping my hand around my elbow—the elbow where the vein was starting to itch with need.
I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate on my breathing. I needed to calm down. I needed to regain control. There was too much at stake for me to lose my shit now.
The car swerved to the right, then to the left. Dante pulled out his phone.
“Antonio, we have a situation. I need help getting tails off our asses.” He squeezed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “I swear to God, seriously, Antonio. Jesus. Can we bicker about this like old goddamn ladies after we manage to handle this situation? Yes. Track my phone, and you’ll know where we’re moving.” Dante hung up. “Fuck!”
“Big bro giving you a hard time?” Lucio glanced in his rearview mirror.
“Something like that.” Dante sighed. Obviously, things hadn’t changed between him and his brother. I remembered how they used to fight all the time—and I knew it was mostly because of me. Antonio was definitely not chairman of the Layla fan group, that was for sure. Dante never knew, but I once overheard a conversation between them. Antonio told Dante I was making him weak, causing him to choose between me and his family. I never truly understood why Antonio thought that way, but after I found out who his family were—what they were—I understood. For families like theirs, loyalty was everything. They lived for loyalty. Killed for loyalty. That was why Antonio never liked me. He knew being with me would make Dante leave, and we planned to…until the day our fate was sealed with one moment. One revelation. One secret.
“I can’t be here with you,” I said softly. “You have to let me go back.”
“Go back to Matteo? There’s a better chance I’d let hell freeze over.”
I closed my eyes and lightly shook my head. “You don’t understand.”
Lucio swerved the car to the left. “Big bro might be pissed off at you, Dante, but the man sent us what we need just in time.”
Both Dante and I glanced out the back window. Two Audis came from either side of the road, turning in behind us and blocking our tails from following.
Lucio laughed victoriously. “That’s right, motherfuckers! Yeah!”
It was clear that Lucio loved the adrenaline, the chase. There was a smile pulling at the corners of Dante’s mouth as well, showing me that he loved it too.
This was him. Who he was. A Valenti.
No matter how much he had loved me in the past, how deeply he cared for me, he wouldn’t have been happy if I had taken him from his family. The danger of living this kind of life exhilarated him. He craved the adrenaline rush, lived for the power. And why wouldn’t he? He was born into a very wealthy, powerful family. It was all he knew. He was raised to be this dominant, powerful, and intimidating man who sat beside me now. It was because of this I decided to leave.
We drove in silence, Lucio still racing down the streets even though we had lost the vehicles that followed us. Dante and I didn’t speak a word, but I was achingly aware of him sitting so close to me. My body recognized him, feeling the familiar crackle of electricity between us. It never failed. From the first day I saw him, I felt it. It was too damn powerful to ignore.
“I hate being the new kid.” I pulled my hair up in a ponytail, then glanced down at the faded denim jeans and white sweater I was wearing. I looked like a poor girl whose mother died in a tragic car accident, and her father sat with his ass in prison because he couldn’t keep his hands off other people’s money.
Oh, that’s right. I am that girl.
Kate handed me my backpack. “I know it’s hard, but this is good, Layla. We needed a new start, away from New York and all the memories. I promise you, this will all work out. Just give it time.” She pulled me in for a hug.
A part of me felt sorry for Kate. She took it upon herself to take care of us—of me. Being five years older, she knew I only had her to rely on. I always hated that she was so much older than I was, but it turned out to be a blessing. If she was any younger, I would have been shipped off to some other family member who really didn’t give a shit about me…or Kate.
Even though it sucked being new in town, going to a new school, the least I could have done was try to fit in. To make it seem like it was easier for me than it really was…for Kate’s sake.
I gave her a peck on the cheek. “Okay, then. It’s time for me to go pimp myself and make new friends.” Kate laughed, and I smiled. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
I shoved one of the unpacked boxes out of the way and against the wall as I walked out the front door. We’d only moved in two days ago, and both Kate and I were lazy unpackers.
As I stepped outside, I glanced up and down the road. It wasn’t exactly one of the richest neighborhoods, but at least it wasn’t one of the worst.
I placed the earphones in my ears and pressed play on my phone. It was a way to make the other kids think I didn’t give a shit—that I was too preoccupied with listening to the latest top forty hits to even realize I knew no one.
I pulled my backpack over my shoulders, took a deep breath, and mentally told myself this day would be a piece of cake, and I’d have a ton of friends before the end of the week. Yes, it sucked being new. But at least no one knew the baggage which was now my past. No one knew about Richard Moore, the man whose genes I shared, sitting with his ass in jail. And if I had my way, no one would ever k
now. According to me, my dad was dead. He died the second he got cuffed and placed in the back of a squad car on the night of my fourteenth birthday.
Deep in thought, I walked along the sidewalk listening to my favorite U2 hit. I hoped I’d one day be lucky enough to meet someone I wouldn’t be able to live with, or without.
Just as I turned the corner, I was shoved hard from behind, the earphones yanked from my ears as someone grabbed my phone.
“Hey!” I braced myself against the building wall, the asshole running down the sidewalk.
Screeching tires raced down the street. A slick, black Audi made a sharp turn to the right, pulling up on the curb, hitting on the brakes. The timing was fucking perfect as the snatch and grabber ran right into the car just as the driver opened his door.
Poor asshole got slammed right in the face, falling backward, flat on his ass.
Adrenaline rushed through my veins, the shock causing my shallow breathing. But it was only when the driver got out of the car that I inhaled sharply.
Ink black hair touched his leather jacket collar, while broad shoulders cast a shadow over the guy who still lay on the ground.
“Jesus, Gio. Can you do anything other than snatch and grab?”
“Fuck you, Valenti.”
The driver looked up and straight at me. My heart stopped.
“Are you okay?”
I swallowed hard. “I think so.”
He pulled Gio, AKA the snatch and grabber, up by his collar. “Give the pretty girl back her phone.”
I walked closer, suddenly painfully aware I had chosen to wear my most worn-out jeans and my mother’s oldest, most favorite sweater. Now I kind of wished I had put a little more into my grooming efforts for the day.
Gio smiled at me, and I had to stop myself from staring at the gap between his two front teeth. Thank God for the braces I had three years ago, or there might have been a good chance my smile would have ended up looking like that. Creepy as shit.
“Oh, come on, Gio.” The driver slammed Gio’s front against the side of the Audi. “Don’t make me ask you again.” He glanced at me over his shoulder. “I’m Dante, by the way.”
