The Cartel shooting up our party.
Dante and I not being able to communicate.
Francesco’s hand on my throat on the roof.
My friends giving me looks all day that were on the border of pity.
My life was a mess and every time I tried to put the pieces together it shattered again. It was the most out of control I’ve ever been.
My body went slack and they exchanged a look before I let out a sob.
Francesco let go of me like I was made of fire, his hands going up in a surrender pose as he looked at Dante for what to do.
My hand slides around one of my arms as I sniffed, looking at the man I was supposed to marry in a week.
“I texted you. I asked if you were okay and you didn’t answer me. You let me go twenty four hours not knowing what was going on, locked away at my fathers house like a child without a text back? What’s wrong with you? Hunh? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I went to shove him again but Dante wrapped his arms around me, dragging me to him as I breathed in the scent of him, holding onto him as I fisted his shirt, sobbing against him as he smothered my hair, trying to make soft sounds to calm me.
But I couldn’t be calmed.
My legs buckled and Dante kneels down on the ground as I scream into his chest, letting out a sound so feral, aching with pain in his shirt as he tightens his grip on me, making sure I couldn’t move an inch as I shattered.
“Principessa…”
I howled.
Broken.
This man had managed to break me. After everything that I had been through this was what finally gave into my grief, unable to control myself as I let my emotions take over so violently.
I gave up my control.
“Take her, Francesco.”
My heart is breaking as he rejects me. Pulling me away from him as I tried to adjust to what is happening.
I am being lifted up from the ground, handed over into another man’s arms as Dante let me go.
My eyes, nearly swollen, burning with tears, looking at Dante, his eyes hard as he gives me a look that makes me sob again.
Sighing, he steps in closer, taking my face in his hands as he makes me look at him. Vision blurry and his image shaking as more tears fall down my face.
“You are marrying me, Ilaria. But I need to do this business to guarantee that I will be the one at the end of the altar waiting for you. I need to do this to keep you safe. But I will call you as soon as I can.”
He is confusing me.
I don’t understand what his veiled speech meant. All I knew was that he had pushed me away as I cried and it hurt me. Even as he touched me now it wasn’t enough an I needed him to give me more of him.
His thumb swipes at the tears I have falling and I lifted a hand for his face, rubbing over the beard that was in the shadow of growing.
“I want to go home with you, Dante. Please. Please can I go home?”
His eyes close like the words were an attack against him.
Every time I said please and home he flinched like it was a punch landing straight in his face. Seeing him fight the rage of not being able to give me what I wanted sent shivers down my spine and I whimper trying to get out of Francesco’s arms and back to Dante.
I want Dante.
But he steps back, leaving me with another man as he walks to his bike, shoving his helmet on. Not even giving me the satisfaction of an answer.
“Keep her safe, Francesco.”
And then he was gone.
I whimper as I watch the way he fades from view and frozen in horror that he had just left me there. After I had begged him to take me home he had rejected it.
Did he not think that we shared a home? Did he really think so little of me that leaving was easy for him?
I had given him too much of myself and this was my punishment for feeling.
“Are you done making a scene? Can you climb back up your ladder and hide away all night with your little friends?”
He was setting me on my feet as I shook, unsteady from the burst of emotions. Francesco frowned, steadying me with a hand on my hips as he took in my appearance, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.
But what sense could he make?
I didn’t even fully understand what was going on. I was just overwhelmed with this need for Dante, wanting to feel safe. He was where I felt safe and he had left me with Francesco instead of staying and letting me feel protected. Dante had left me in the hands of another
