Chapter 6 - The Woman Dante Was Supposed to Marry
The flash drive was encrypted.
Of course it was.
Apparently my parents could hide evidence from organized crime but could not leave their daughter a convenient password.
For forty-eight hours, Dante’s people tried to break it.
During those forty-eight hours, I learned three things.
Dante hated cinnamon.
Nico secretly watched baking competitions.
And I was falling in love with a man I absolutely should not love.
The realization arrived while Dante was asleep.
He had fallen asleep on the penthouse couch around 3:00 A.M., still wearing his trousers and white shirt, laptop balanced beside him.
He looked younger asleep.
Less dangerous.
I covered him with a blanket.
His eyes opened instantly.
His hand caught my wrist.
Then recognition softened his face.
“Clare.”
“You sleep like a paranoid serial killer.”
“Occupational hazard.”
“You need eight hours.”
“I need four.”
“You need therapy.”
“That sounds expensive.”
“You own buildings.”
He smiled.
Then his thumb moved unconsciously over my wrist.
Neither of us spoke.
The elevator chimed.
A beautiful woman stepped out.
Tall.
Dark-haired.
Elegant.
She wore a cream suit and looked as if she had never spilled coffee on herself in her entire life.
Her gaze dropped to Dante’s hand around my wrist.
“Oh.”
Dante released me.
“Isabella.”
My stomach did something humiliating.
The woman smiled.
“So this is Clare.”
“You know me?”
“Everyone knows about you.”
I looked at Dante.
He suddenly seemed interested in his laptop.
Isabella laughed.
“Relax. I’m Isabella Romano.”
The name meant nothing to me.
Apparently my expression revealed that.
“Our families have been allied for thirty years,” she explained.
Then she looked at Dante.
“And once upon a time, everyone assumed we would marry.”
There it was.
Jealousy.
Hot, ridiculous, immediate jealousy.
“How romantic,” I said.
Dante closed his eyes briefly.
Isabella’s smile widened.
“Oh, I like her.”
“I’m going downstairs.”
I headed toward the elevator.
Dante followed.
“Clare.”
“I’m fine.”
“You are not.”
“Congratulations, Doctor Mobster.”
He caught the elevator before it closed.
“Isabella and I were never together.”
“Not my business.”
“Then why are you angry?”
“I’m not.”
“You’re murdering the elevator button.”
I looked down.
I was.
“Go entertain your almost-wife.”
Dante stared.
Then smiled.
That infuriating, devastating smile.
“You’re jealous.”
“I’m going to press the emergency alarm.”
“You are.”
“Goodbye.”
He stepped inside the elevator with me.
“You’re enjoying this far too much.”
“Immensely.”
I glared.
He leaned closer.
“For the record, Isabella has been married for six years.”
I blinked.
“To whom?”
“Nico.”
The elevator doors opened.
Nico stood outside.
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
“You married that?”
Nico frowned.
“Excuse me?”
Dante laughed so hard he had to put a hand against the elevator wall.
It was the first time I saw him lose control completely.
Even Nico smiled eventually.
For ten seconds, everything felt normal.
Then Isabella appeared.
“We broke the encryption.”
The humor vanished.
Inside Dante’s office, files covered three screens.
Shipping manifests.
Bank transfers.
Names.
Dates.
Photographs.
Evidence stretching back decades.
Michael Moretti had documented everything.
But one file mattered most.
PROJECT ORPHEUS.
Victor Sanzaro’s network was still active.
Not twenty-five years ago.
Now.
Dante’s expression became stone.
“This could destroy him.”
“Then give it to the FBI.”
Nico shook his head.
“Sanzaro owns people everywhere.”
“So what?”
“We need someone outside his reach.”
Isabella spoke.
“My brother works with a federal anti-trafficking task force. Quietly.”
I stared at her.
“Can we trust him?”
“With my life.”
“Mine is the one currently at issue.”
She nodded.
“Then with yours.”
Dante began copying files.
Suddenly every light went out.
Darkness.
Nico swore.
Emergency lighting flashed red.
Dante pulled me behind the desk.
“Security breach.”
Gunfire erupted somewhere below.
My blood froze.
“How?”
Nico checked his phone.
“Someone disabled the internal system.”
“Inside person,” Isabella whispered.
Dante’s face changed.
Betrayal.
The office door burst open.
A guard entered.
“Boss, west stairwell compromised.”
Dante handed Nico the flash drive.
“Get Clare out.”
“No.”
Dante turned.
“Clare.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“This is not negotiable.”
“Everything with you is apparently not negotiable!”
A bullet struck the doorframe.
Dante pushed me down.
“Now!”
Nico dragged me toward the private service corridor.
Isabella followed.
We descended three floors.
Then Nico stopped.
A man stood at the bottom of the staircase.
Tommy.
My diner manager.
I stared.
“What are you doing here?”
Tommy smiled.
Not the nervous smile I knew.
Something colder.
“Sorry, Clare.”
He raised a gun.
Nico moved in front of us.
Tommy’s weapon remained pointed at me.
“You should’ve stayed invisible.”
My stomach dropped.
“You work for Sanzaro.”
“For eleven years.”
Every memory rearranged itself.
Tommy knowing my shifts.
Tommy grabbing my arm the night Dante arrived.
Tommy always asking about my mother.
“You were watching me.”
“Yes.”
“Before Dante.”
“Yes.”
Nico’s hand moved slightly.
Tommy noticed.
“Don’t.”
Then another voice came from behind Tommy.
“Drop it.”
Dante.
Blood stained his shoulder.
His gun was steady.
Tommy laughed.
“You won’t shoot. Not with her behind me.”
Dante’s eyes met mine.
Something passed between us.
Trust.
I dropped instantly.
Dante fired.
Tommy collapsed.
Silence followed.
Dante reached me.
“You okay?”
I nodded.
Then I saw his shoulder.
“You’re bleeding.”
“Not important.”
“To me it is.”
Something changed in his eyes.
Before either of us could speak, Nico’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face hardened.
“What?”
He looked at Dante.
“Sanzaro knows we have the drive.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
Nico continued.
“And he has Dr. Warren.”
I stared.
“He survived?”
“Yes.”
Nico swallowed.
“Sanzaro says we have until midnight.”
“To do what?”
Dante looked at the flash drive.
“Trade the evidence for Warren.”
I knew immediately what Dante intended.
“No.”
His eyes met mine.
“No trade.”
“Clare—”
“My mother protected this for three years while dying.”
My voice broke.
“My father died for it. We finish what they started.”
For several seconds, Dante said nothing.
Then he nodded.
May you like
And that was the moment I stopped being the waitress Dante Caruso needed to protect.
I became his partner.
