My hand slid down her back, letting her once more lay her tear stained face against my chest as she sniffled out. Her legs are shaking and I want to lift her up, take her out of this place but she hasn’t gotten her apology from the person who most owed it to her.
And I’m not leaving without it.
Justin looks at us, his face blanched white as he starts to realize that I really would have no problem ending his life tonight. He wouldn’t be the first person I killed or the last.
He would just be another mark on my soul. At least this mark would be done to protect someone in my life. That always made them less damaging.
“I do not like to wait.” I warn and I debate how Ilaria would be if I shot her ex-boyfriend in the face. Probably wouldn’t be the best thing at the moment.
“I-I am s-s-sorry.”
The blubbering idiot was sobbing and by the way that Ilaria squeezed her fists into my shirt hearing him say it wasn’t helping her. He was shaking as he stood, exposed and pathetic in his piss stained boxers.
At least he looked the part.
He deserved the humiliation for what he had done. He deserved worse.
“Don’t make me come back here.” I warn, shifting the gun back, tucking it away to free up my hands.
Pulling Ilaria’s left hand in mine she looks up at me, so much smaller than the proud girl who broke two of Enzo’s toes earlier today with the heel of her shoe.
I don’t like seeing her like this.
The way she is unsure about everything didn’t sit well with me.
No one would shatter her again.
All of her emotions were mine and mine alone. And I didn’t share well with others.
It didn’t matter that we weren’t a love match. We had made a promise to our families and I always made good of my promises. My words were my bond and that was the code I followed.
I should have asked if she was ready but I had waited long enough and I wanted that son of a bitch to see me slide the ring onto her finger. She looked at the ring and then at me, And there she was again. The girl who wouldn’t be broken.
“Dante.” My name on her tongue made my mouth dry.
The way she said my name, her hand slipping into my hair as she pulled me down so close to her that I could smell the skin of her neck, wishing to kiss the pulsing point that was beating there.
“Get me out of here.” She whispered for just me to hear.
She was so close to dissolving and she knew her worth. Knew he didn’t deserve another one of her tears to be spilled in front of him.
Turning, I gave Justin one last warning glare before walking out of the place with Ilaria at my side, officially mine.
6ILARIA
Dante left me alone to shower when we got back to his place.
A small miracle because from the quiet car ride where he was grinding his teeth the whole time I wasn’t sure that he was going to be able to stop himself from fighting with me when we got back to his place.
But when we made it to his penthouse of glass and no personality, Dante had pointed to a room and told me I could get ready for bed in there. It was a silent command but it was made known we did have to talk before bed.
Part of me wanted to be like a child who would crawl into bed, hiding under the covers to pretend that I was asleep to avoid being punished. But I also knew that Dante didn’t seem like the type that would do anything to hurt me.
It was close to 1AM when we finally made it back to his penthouse in the North End.
He wasn’t in one of the brick buildings that lined the neighborhood but across the street in one of the ocean front condos. A gorgeous view of the Atlantic on one side, the other overlooking the neighborhood and Boston, like he could watch all that he owned.
It was a three bedroom bachelor pad, from what I had seen in the walk to the bathroom. The living room was an open concept with a kitchen attached so you could see the TV while you cooked. One of the bedrooms off to the left as soon as you walked in was his gym. Tons of weights and equipment were stuffed inside. There was his office through the next door and finally the room he let me in must have been his bedroom with an en suite.
Everything was in basic colors, swirls of black and gray because of course Dante wanted to have a place as cold as he was.
It wasn’t a surprise that there was nothing about his place that made it feel like a home because that would mean letting people in and I knew men like Dante and how they struggled with that. That’s just the world that we live in. How we were raised.
Men like Dante were the perfect candidates for extensive therapy and yet none of them ever got it.
I slipped out of the shower, thankful for my gym bag that had a spare set of clothes inside. Just a basic pair of gray sweatpants, white socks, and a sweatshirt in the same heather gray as the pants.
Dante had a small blowdryer that I used to loosely dry my curls as I looked at my face. Puffy eyes from crying, no makeup on.
He was really going to see who he was going to marry tonight.
Fucking Justin.
My eyes closed as I leaned over the sink, brushing my teeth and willing myself not to throw up again at the thought of my now official ex boyfriend.
This day had taken too much out of me and I wasn’t sure how tomorrow would go.
