Page 210 of SINS & Riley
The letters whirl until the whole room tilts with them. My pulse skips, then slams.
Kennedy scoops Valentina before I drop into the nearest chair.
And then it hits. Full force.
Dream Team.
Etched into stone at the cliff’s edge. A lone slab that always marked my way. My guiding light.
“What is it? Your blood pressure?” Kennedy’s voice spikes, sharp with fear.
My breaths rip in and out, ribs straining like they might snap. It isn’t blood pressure. It’s my heart breaking.
“Should we head to the hospital?” Tia asks.
I shake my head. “I need Dante.”
“I’ll call him now.” Tia bolts for her phone as Kennedy mouths, What?
Tears sting hot. A lump swells in my throat, thick enough to choke me. The words scrape out anyway, barely a whisper.
“I think I know where their father is.”
“Where?”
She slips a tissue into my hand as I let the words fall, heavy and inevitable.
“I think he’s with Da.”
74
DANTE
“So. You found me.” Uncle Andre drags on his cigar like it’s a dick, lips curling around the words.
“I did.” My voice is flat.
I stroll in slow, and take in the space.
The room should be paradise. Doors flung open to a turquoise Caribbean sea, a small white boat bobbing in the distance, salt air pouring through.
How it still reeks of sweat and cheap smoke is beyond me.
His face is still a mess of bruises and botched stitches that makes me grin. And that fucked up nose?
Yeah, no surgeon alive could make it whole again.
Not that it matters. Nothing about him will be whole in an hour.
I move past them and peer at the monitor. “You’re not the only person I found.”
“I’d caution you against any sudden moves,” he hisses, jerking a thumb at the guards. “They’ve got itchy trigger fingers.”
Two soldiers stand like statues, rifles loose at their sides, eyes laser focused on me.
“If you’ve come to grovel, it suits you,” he says, biting down on the cigar. “Shame about Tuscany and what? Nearly four hundred women and children. Reduced to ash, wasn’t it?”
I shrug and pull open the fridge, scanning the premium liquor and beer. I grab a water. “Word travels fast. And as much as I hate to burst your bubble, you heard wrong.”
