Page 41 of Ruthless King
The elevator doors glide open, and Magda appears, racing across the penthouse to the entrance foyer. She dips her head. “Hello, Signor Dante.”
He drops his coat in her arms without so much as a greeting and marches toward me.
“Heybastardo, I know Mamma taught you better manners than that.” I tick my head at Magda who lingers by the entrance, cheeks rosy.
With an eyeroll, Dante whirls around and gives my housekeeper a tight smile. “Morning, Magda.” His gaze pivots to meet mine for an instant before landing on Stella on the chaise. Her textbook is splayed out beside her, and her curious eyes are fixed to my brother. “I couldn’t believe it when Clara said you were working from home today, but I guess now I understand why.” He smirks and takes a step toward Stella. I move in front of him. “How very unlike you, Luca. A quickie in the middle of the workday? Or did you break one of your precious rules and allow the pretty girl to spend the night?”
“I’m not someputtana—” Stella shouts, but I shoot her a narrowed glare. Shockingly, she obeys my unspoken command. Good, she’s learning.
Undiluted fury pounds through my veins. I can feel Stella’s questioning stare boring through the back of my head, but I don’t take the bait. My brother is simply trying to rile me up, and I refuse to let him win. “Sheis none of your business,” I grit out. Inhaling a deep breath, I don the cool mask, the one of the C.E.O., the enforcer. “What’s so important that you came all this way?”
“I need to talk to you about the Red Dragons.”
“So talk.”
He motions to Stella. From the corner of my eye, I catch the tense set of her shoulders, the faint quiver of her lip. Dante’s right of course, I shouldn’t be discussing my business in front of her, but a tiny fucked-up part of me wants her to know what sort of monster she’s dealing with so she’ll stay away when our arrangement is over.
“I said talk,” I rasp out.
His eyes flicker back and forth between us before he discharges a frustrated grunt. “Jianjun Zhang is getting too ballsy. His kid took out half a dozen of our guys in the Meatpacking District last night.”
I hiss out a string of curses. Fucking Bo. I’m going to end thatrompicoglione. I should have that day in the subway. Hell, I would have if I’d known that was Stella on her knees. “Did he get into our warehouses?”
He shakes his head. “No, the guys were able to take the fuckers down before they found the merch. The cops showed up and Tony handled it, but it was close.”
“Why is this the first I’m hearing of this?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugs, his eyes lifting over my shoulder to Stella once again. I puff out my chest, broadening my shoulders to block her from his view. “Guess Tony thought you were otherwise occupied.” A smirk pulls at his lips.
I ignore the jab and begin to formulate my plan for retaliation. Those damned Red Dragons need to be put back in their place. I try to play nice, negotiate, make deals, but they don’t know how to act like gentlemen. “Tell Tony to ransack their warehouses on the Lower East Side. I want all of their shit burned down.”
Dante blanches, jaw nearly unhinging. “All of it?”
“Did I stutter?”
“Luca, that’s easily half-a-mil in blow.”
“I’m well aware of that, brother. And I don’t want that shit on my streets.” I might be a man of questionable morals, but I do not peddle drugs. Never have, never will. There are plenty of other ways to make money without destroying the brains and rotting the bodies of this city’s future.
“You do this, and you’ll have the entire Chinese Triad on your ass.”
“Don’t worry about my ass. Just do it.”
He shakes his head, hissing out a breath. “Will do,capo.” He just stands there staring at me. His dark gaze flashes to Stella again, and the desire to gouge his eyes out for even looking at her rushes through me like a runaway train.
“Anything else?” I grind out.
“Nah, nothing else, bro. I’ll see you at the Heart Ball tomorrow?”
I nod. “See you there.”
“Hope to see you again, gorgeous,” he calls out over my shoulder, and a wild tremor races up my spine. I grit my molars to keep from biting his head off.
Dante smirks again as if he can feel my rage before he whirls on his heel and saunters toward the elevator, grabbing his jacket from Magda. Again, he completely ignores her when she offers a murmured goodbye.Idiot. Just because he hates me for stealing his birthright by assuming the role of C.E.O. in Papà’s business doesn’t excuse his behavior toward my employees.
The moment the elevator doors slide closed, Stella appears in front of me, jabbing a finger at my chest. Luckily, she’s just shy of hitting the nearly mended bullet wound. “What the hell was that? I’m not some piece of furniture you can just talk around.”
“You’re pissed because I didn’t introduce you to my piece of shit brother?”
