Page 53 of Unhinged Little Angel

He lets out a sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose. “For the love of fuck, Sal, if you tell me you forced that man into a marriage he didn’t want, I really will shoot you.”

I huff out a laugh. “No, Enz, it’s not like that. He… uh… came to me and told me he needed help.” Honesty doesn’t have to include the part where Dante drugged me, as far as I’m concerned. “I still don’t know all the details, he wasn’t ready to share them, but someone’s coming after him and he thoughtbeing married to a Moretti would be enough to scare them off. So I agreed to help him out.”

“Help him out,” he mutters, shaking his head. “Any idiot can see you’ve been in love with him for years. How do you know he isn’t setting you up? Settingusup?”

“He’s not,” I growl, filled with the same certainty I’ve had from the start. Dante is a lot of things, but I’d bet my life he couldn’t have faked the fear in his eyes when he told me he was in trouble. “He was attacked. That’s proof, isn’t it?”

“Or it’s the perfect way to make his story look real,” Lorenzo counters.

“He didn’t dislocate his own shoulder or brand himself,” I argue through clenched teeth. “He’s telling the truth.”

Lorenzo is silent for several long seconds while my heart pounds.

“I hope so,” he says with an air of finality, and I don’t have to ask to know what it means. If I’m wrong, it won’t matter that we’re family, I’ll just become another liability.

I nod, my certainty not wavering for a second. I might not know the whole story yet, but I know Dante is everything he says he is. I’m willing to bet my life on it.

DANTE

“I’m bored,” I sigh, slumping down on the couch. “Take me somewhere.” I already know the answer, but needling Luca is the only entertainment I have around here.

“Absolutely not. If you’re bored, we can watch a movie.”

“We’ve already watched a thousand movies, and they all sucked,” I grumble. “Are you afraid of Salvatore?” I taunt.

“Yeah.” He nods earnestly. “Who do you think had to mop up Antonio’s blood a few days ago?”

I roll my eyes. “He’s still alive… I think.”

There’s a knock at the door. I sit up so fast a jolt of pain radiates from my shoulder. I clench my teeth to keep from gasping. Luca heaves himself off of the couch and pulls his gun out of its holster.

I arch an eyebrow at him. “You think someone who wants to attack me is going to come to the apartment and politely knock at the door?”

He shrugs. “Better safe than sorry. Wait here.”

He disappears down the hall, and I listen to the faint sound of beeps as he disarms the alarm and then opens the door. The clomp of boots is the only clue I need to know who came to visit.

“I never thought I’d say this, but I’m so fucking glad you’re here. I was about to die of boredom,” I call out, earning a faint laugh in return.

Sparrow steps around the corner into the living room with Luca right behind him.

“Sorry, bestie, this isn’t a social call.”

My gaze falls on the folder in his hand.

“What’s that?”

He looks over his shoulder at Luca. “Give us a couple of minutes?”

Luca’s thick eyebrows pull together and he frowns.

“Yeah, go.” I wave him off, my eyes still fixed on the folder, my heart beating faster with every passing second. Sparrow wouldn’t have… would he? I’ve seen his hacking skills, they’re almost as good as mine, so I know hecould. Most of it is public record anyway.

Luca hesitates another second before pointing towards the balcony. “I’ll be right out there. Five minutes.”

Neither of us say anything as he crosses the living room and steps outside. As soon as we’re alone, Sparrow closes the last few feet of space between us and tosses the folder onto the cushion next to me, then braces his hands on the back of the couch.

“Salvatore asked me to dig up whatever I could about Don. He didn’t give me any details at the time, just a name.”

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