Page 49 of Vicious Union

Dante is a fast runner; I’ll give him that. But I have him in my crosshairs. I pull the trigger and manage to land a hit to his arm. He stumbles but stays upright.

“Damn it.” I sprint after him, Massimo right beside me. Dante is leaving behind a trail of blood.

We run up to an old warehouse, but the door is locked. Massimo kicks in the door, and we scramble inside. A click beside my head makes me stop.

Looking to the left, I see that Dante is right there with his gun pointed right at my head.

“Shit,” Massimo mutters.

“Drop your guns,” Dante orders. “Both of you.”

Massimo lets his go, but I hold onto mine. I’m not letting Dante get away again. My pride won’t allow it.

Dante presses his gun against my head. “I said drop your gun. Or I’ll blow your fucking brains out.”

“If you’d wanted to, you would have done it already,” I say.

“No. Because I don’t want De Luca blood on my hands. I just want to be left in peace. I’m tired of being on the run.”

Massimo scoffs. “You tried that shit on me, and it didn’t work. You don’t just want to retire, Dante. You want power.”

“Not anymore. I did at one point. Because my father wanted it, so I wanted it, too. But I’m done. I’m done with Rocco chasing me. I won’t kill either of you, but I will if you come after me. So, let me go. I’ll leave New York. No one else needs to die.”

“I don’t believe you,” I say as I turn my body and grab his arm, angling the gun away from me. A shot goes off, and a bullet lands in the wall.

Dante growls and shoves me back, aiming his gun at me. He pulls the trigger and lands a shot near my feet. I quickly back up.

“I’m leaving,” he says. “Don’t follow me.” He backs out of the warehouse, then takes off running.

“Come on,” I say and start sprinting. I stop when I see that Massimo is just standing there. “What’s wrong?”

“What if he has a point?”

“What?”

Massimo shrugs. “What if Dante has a point? Enough blood has been spilled. I say we let him go. He wants to leave. He doesn’t have the manpower to hurt us. And you could have died just a moment ago. Both of us could have. I want to go home to my wife. Not chase some asshole I don’t give a damn about.”

“Well, I want to go after him,” I argue.

“That’s because you’re not living for anyone other than yourself. But, Emilio, you have a wife now, too. Go home to her. Dante isn’t worth this shit.”

“Rocco will be mad at us.”

“So?” He chuckles and claps me on the back. “I’m not afraid of our big brother, and neither should you be. I’m heading home. Don’t get yourself killed.”

I watch Massimo walk out of the warehouse. After a moment, I run out, intent on going after Dante, but he’s long gone.

I have no choice but to go home with my tail tucked between my legs. Maybe Caterina will be in the mood to make me forget about how I failed to catch Dante.

But when I go to our room, she’s not there. I check everywhere in the house. It’s empty.

“Caterina!” No answer.

I check my phone. Nothing.

Where the hell did she go?

I call Gabriella and ask her, but she has no idea. After calling Lara and Ophelia, neither of whom knows where she is, I start to panic. Dante couldn’t have gotten to Caterina.

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