“Hey.” He glared at her blearily. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been waiting for you.”
She shut the door. “Shut the hell up, Dante. You’ll give your mother agita.”
Dante sputtered out a laugh as Teresa kissed him on the forehead. “We’re corrupting her, Mama.”
Teresa chuckled at her son. “Before you know it she’ll be cooking almost as good as you.”
“I learned from the best.”
Teresa sighed, the sound full of happiness. “Get some rest, mia fiamma. I’ll be back soon.”
“With food?”
Wow. She’d never seen anyone make such adorable puppy eyes before. Dante had the skill down to an art form.
“Si, with food.” Teresa kissed her son on the forehead once more. “Elizabeth?”
Something about Teresa’s tone filled Beth with the need to salute. “Yes?”
“Watch over my son.”
“I will.” It wasn’t a difficult promise to give. She had every intention of remaining glued to his side until he was discharged.
“Where were you?”
She flopped into a chair next to his bed. “Francesca the Terrible wouldn’t let me into the room.”
His expression didn’t bode well for Francesca. “I told the hospital staff to let you in.”
“Well, apparently she didn’t get the memo.” More like Francesca had shredded it on arrival, but Beth didn’t want to strain his relationship with his sister any more than she already had. “The doctors say you’ll live, by the way.” She didn’t bother trying to hide her relief.
“I heard.” He pouted at her. “You weren’t hurt.”
His voice was almost accusing. Beth hid a grin. He was cute when he was all doped up on pain meds. “I’ll run right out and stub my toe if it will make you feel better.”
He smiled ruefully. “I can only think of one thing that would make me feel better.”
“Name it.”
He leaned back against the pillows. “Come over here, and I’ll show you.”
The sexy glance had her approaching the bed cautiously. “Dante, your arm...”
“The hell with my arm,” he growled as he reached up with his left hand and pulled her down next to him.
The sweetness of the kiss rocked her. She’d never felt anything so powerful in her entire life. Lightning raced through her body, her fingertips tingling as she felt him deepen the kiss, and she hesitantly put her hands on his chest, flexing her fingers slightly, unsure for the first time just what to do. She was afraid to hurt him, but at the same time just feeling him reassured her on some level.
She hadn’t lost him. That was all that mattered.
“I see you’re feeling better,” she whispered.
“Right as rain.”
Just as he kissed her again, the door to the hospital room opened again. “Excuse me!” Francesca’s voice interrupted them.
Dante glared at Francesca. “Excuse yourself. Don’t you bother knocking anymore?”
“I gave strict orders that you weren’t to be disturbed.” Francesca made a move toward Dante’s chart.
Beth had so many things she wanted to say, but now was not the time. Francesca could wait until Dante was healed.
But damn if her tongue wasn’t going to be bloody from biting it so hard.
“Elizabeth, I want you to leave Francesca and me alone for a few moments. Go and get something to eat, it must be lunch time by now.” Dante’s voice shocked her with its cold fury.
“More like dinner time.” Elizabeth stood to go. With a small smile, she brushed a gentle kiss against his mouth. “I’ll be back in an hour.” She waved to Francesca. “See you soon.”
“I cannot believe the nerve of some people.” Francesca grabbed hold of her arm, halting her progress out the door. “I told you that you weren’t welcome here.”
“Francesca, this stops now.” Dante’s tone was lethal despite the drugs, and Beth worried he’d try to get out of bed to confront his sister.
She’d never heard him that pissed before. “It’s okay, Dante. I’m a big girl.”
“That’s one word for it,” Francesca muttered rudely.
Beth took a deep breath and reminded herself that she didn’t want to share a jail cell with Kensington.
“I want Elizabeth. I don’t want Lillian. Is that clear enough for you, Francesca?”
“She got you shot, Dante. She’s not going to be allowed back in here.”
“She did not get me shot. The perpetrator we were chasing got me shot.” He snarled at her as she continued to glare at Beth. “I will never be with Lillian again. What will it take to get through to you?”
“Lillian was good for you, and you know it.” Francesca waved one hand toward Beth. “That woman is not. I won’t see my brother stuck with some puttana who can’t find her own man. Now let me go.”
“Puttana? If anyone’s the whore, it’s Lillian.”
“Lillian made a mistake.”
“Lillian fucked another man in my bed.”
Francesca gasped, but Beth doubted it was because of Lillian’s infidelity. “I’m your sister, and I love you. I don’t want you to ruin your life with someone who isn’t worthy of you.”
“And Lillian won’t ruin my life?”
Beth began backing toward the door. Maybe if she got Teresa or Russ in here they’d get their children to calm down. She didn’t like how red Dante’s face was becoming, or the way the heart monitor was speeding up.
She especially didn’t like the flames dancing along his skin.
“She won’t ruin my life!” Dante shouted, loud enough to cause a commotion in the hallway. “Do you understand me? This ends here, Francesca.”
Francesca stomped her foot. “It does not end until you and Lillian are together again. I liked who you both were when you were with her.”
“You liked that she told you my business.” Dante struggled to sit up, ignoring Beth’s hurried movement to push him back. “The only thing Elizabeth will tell you is to go to hell.”
Francesca spat something out in Italian. “Vaffanculo, che cazzo.”
“Francesca! Basta!”
Oh, thank you, Jesus. The cavalry was here. Teresa marched into the room, followed by Russ.
“Your brother runs his own life, Francesca. Who he chooses to see is none of your business, and he chooses not to see Lillian. Let it go.” Teresa stared at her daughter, her expression hard and unyielding.
“She’ll ruin him, and I’ll get to say I told you so.” Francesca walked out of the hospital room, twitching her lab coat back into place as she went.
“Are you going to tell me not to see Elizabeth, Mama?” Dante sounded weary, but at least the heart monitor’s beeping had slowed once more.
“No, Dante.” She glided across the room, a tiny, regal woman. “Questo, ci prende un impegno e tenere su con entrambe le mani. Lei non è come l’altro che hai sposato.” Teresa settled gingerly on the side of the bed and patted Dante’s hand gently. “I never liked the other one. This one—” she grinned, “—I like. She makes mia fiamma shout in anger at his sister.”
“Francesca has no right to say who can and cannot enter my room.” Dante’s eyelids were drooping.
Teresa shook her head. “No, she does not. Francesca always thinks more of her own importance than anyone else does.” Teresa watched as her son began to slip into sleep. “I will watch over your Elizabeth until you can, si?”
“Si, mama. Si.”
Together, Beth and Teresa sat and watched Dante sleep, vividly aware of how close they’d both come to losing him.
Chapter Sixteen
When Beth reentered the hospital two days later, she got a surprise she hadn’t been expecting.
&nb
sp; “Purvis!” Beth hugged Dante’s partner tightly. “You’re going home?”
“Soon. Lakisha and I are here to check on Dante.” He hugged her back, but his strong arms didn’t hold her as tightly as they used to, and that worried her.
“How are you feeling?” She stepped back and checked him out from head to toe. He looked fit, if a little tired.
“The docs say I’ll be fine. I only came here to check up on Dante, then its straight back to bed.”
She stared at Dante’s door, glad she couldn’t hear anything at all. Hopefully Francesca wasn’t skulking around somewhere, ready to run her off again. “How is he?”
“Feeling ready to leave, I’d imagine. Dante hates hospitals. I’m betting he argued his way into an early release.” He stared back at her, a wicked grin on his face. “You take it easy on him, you hear? He’s never had to deal with someone like you before.”
She grinned up at him. “What makes you think I’m not going to take it easy on him?”
“Because I’ve known you forever, and I know exactly what you’re capable of. Remember?”
The emphasis on that last word wiped the grin off her face, replacing it with horror. “You wouldn’t!”
“Let’s just say that, as long as you toe the line, a certain youthful indiscretion will remain our secret.”
“That’s blackmail.” Beth glared at Purvis. The man would never go through with it.
She hoped.
Purvis smiled serenely. “Yes, I know.”
Shit. He would.
Behind him, the door opened. Dante stepped out, fully dressed. “What’s blackmail?”
Beth tensed as Dante slipped his arm around her. Uh-oh. He would come out just as Purvis threatened her. “What are you doing out of bed?”
Purvis laughed. “Later, Dante. Take care of my girl.”
“Your girl?” Dante’s low growl sent shivers down her spine.
Purvis merely winked at her and sauntered off, leaving her alone with Dante.
To head him off, she turned in his embrace and hugged him back. “Have you been discharged?”
“Yup. I am going the hell home. Willing to drive me?” Dante settled in the wheelchair behind him, grinning at the nurse waiting to wheel him to the front of the hospital. He held up a little blue piece of paper. “I have a pain prescription, and I want to go home and sleep in my own damn bed.”
“Does Francesca know you’re checking out?”
“Francesca doesn’t tell me what to do.” The look on Dante’s face said not to ask any more questions.
Beth shrugged. “All right. Let’s get you home.” She followed Dante and the nurse out of the hospital, telling him to stay put while she got the car. Once she pulled up, she helped him settle into the passenger seat. He was pale by the time she was done getting his seatbelt hooked. “I hope you know what you’re doing by going home tonight.”
“I know what I’m doing. This isn’t the first time I’ve been shot.”
Like she wanted, or needed, a reminder. His day job was dangerous, but it was his night job that terrified her. Jennifer Blake’s mutilated body popped into her head.
She slid in behind the wheel, fastened her seat belt, then began the short drive to his house. “Where do you want to go to fill your prescription?”
“Pick a place, I don’t care.” He leaned back wearily in his seat, one hand reaching up to rub absently at the bandages under his coat. “What does Purvis have on you that you don’t want me to know?”
She should have known he wasn’t going to let something like that go. When she glanced at him his gaze was sharp and filled with curiosity. “None of your business.”
“It’s not that difficult to find out, Elizabeth.” His voice was quiet, but she could hear the determination.
She sighed. “It’s more an embarrassing situation than an illegal one, and I’d really rather not go into it if you don’t mind.”
He grinned. “Embarrassing? To you? It must be a hell of a secret, then.”
She flushed slightly, squirming in her seat. “Drop it, Dante.”
He ignored the warning in her voice. “How old were you when the embarrassing situation occurred?”
She heard the amusement in his voice and clenched her hands on the steering wheel. “Never mind.”
“Did it have anything to do with Purvis?”
She took a deep breath and reminded herself that strangling a wounded man was definitely not good. “Let it go.”
“You know I’m not going to be able to do that.” He eased around in his seat so that he was staring at her directly. “What exactly could Purvis have on you that would make you blush like that?”
His curiosity had been aroused, and like a dog with a bone he was going to chew and chew until he got to the marrow of her humiliation. Hell, it might be better just to tell him rather than let Purvis do it. At least she’d be able to control how he was told. Purvis would have far too much fun with the tale. “I was in a little trouble when I was sixteen.”
Dante’s grin widened. “Purvis was working Vice when you were sixteen.”
Beth could feel her teeth clenching as she became more and more uncomfortable. “Yes, he was.”
Once again he ignored the warning in her voice. “I can’t see you doing drugs, and I know you’d never do anything truly illegal. You have too much integrity for that. So why don’t you just tell me so I don’t have to call Purvis?”
She sighed roughly. “When I was sixteen I was picked up for prostitution.”
The silence was deafening. When she turned to face him she fully expected to see shock or horror. Instead, he sat patiently, clearly waiting for the rest of the story.
Once again, his acceptance was nearly her undoing. “I really hate talking about this,” she said unsteadily. “It’s embarrassing, it’s humiliating, and Purvis has been holding it over my head for years.”
Dante nodded. “Tell me what happened.” His quiet question was totally nonjudgmental.
“It was Halloween, and I was on my way to a party dressed as a hooker—” She had to stop because his laughter was so loud she could barely hear herself. She waited until he got himself back under control. “All right, so I picked a poor choice of costume, poor neighborhood, poor everything. During a routine sweep, I was picked up with the real prostitutes, fingerprinted, photographed, charged and booked. And if you don’t stop laughing, I swear you’re going to walk home.”
He bit his lip, but it didn’t work. Little snorts of laughter kept escaping. “What did your parents say?”
Beth grimaced. “Like they gave a shit. By that time, they’d both been remarried twice, and I was kind of an afterthought. Luckily, Purvis knew my dad, and knew of me. He’s the one who got the charges dropped. But every now and then, when he wants something from me, he shows me those mug shots to get me to do what he wants.” She shook her head. “It’s fucking annoying.”
Dante leaned back in the seat, his smile turning wistful. “When I was sixteen, I was picked up for shoplifting.”
She turned to Dante to see him watching her with a wicked grin. “Liar.”
He shook his head. “Truth. Ask my mother. The lecture I got...” He wrinkled his nose. “Well, you’ve met my mother. It was mostly in Italian, calling me a teppista and a ladro. She broke out the wooden spoon and began hitting me with it.”
“What?” She couldn’t picture Teresa hitting any of her children.
“Remember, my mother is a Legionnaire. She fully expected her children to toe the line, and I didn’t.” He chuckled. “It really pissed her off when the spoon broke and I just laughed.”
“What happened? Did she call the police?”
“Nope. I had to return the merchandise, apologize to the merchant and work in his store for a week doing w
hatever he asked me to do.”
“How did Purvis find out about it?”
Dante laughed. “He shopped in the store.”
Beth grinned. “He’s why you became a cop, isn’t he?”
Dante nodded. “He used to talk to me. Back then, I was so angry all the time. I just wanted my parents to see me, not a Seris and a future warrior, but a kid.” He sighed roughly. “I think they saw more than I realized, but back then? I was a punk.”
“Does he blackmail you too?”
“Hell, yes.”
She started to grin. “He’s such a rat bastard, isn’t he?”
“One of the best.”
“I think he’s going to retire.”
“I think so too.” Dante sighed. “I’m going to miss that son of a bitch.”
“Maybe we should get Lakisha to give us some blackmail material on him.”
Dante grinned. “I like the way you think.”
* * *
It didn’t take long to get the prescription filled, and they arrived back at his house a half hour later. Beth immediately went to get him a glass of water, intent on feeding him his medication and sending him off to bed.
Dante had every intention of going to bed, but he didn’t plan on going alone. He’d been half hard since seeing her standing in the hospital with Purvis, and now that they were back in his home he had every intention of having her, pain or no pain.
He followed her into the kitchen and wrapped his good arm around her. He slid his fingers under her shirt and began to make circles on her bare skin, biting back a smile when she shuddered. He pressed against her, his cock hard and eager.
She set the glass on the counter, turned off the water, then spun to face him. “Dante.”
He could hear the warning in her voice, but also the desire. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. “Elizabeth.” He nibbled her neck, determined to get her to agree to come to bed with him.
“You’ve been shot.” She trembled as he caressed her stomach.
“Mm-hmm.” He was trembling as well, his hand shaking as he stroked her. “I need you.”
“You should be in bed.” Her voice was shaking.
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