Page 84 of Powerful Deception

“You, um, you have blood on your cheek.” I say, no reason to lie to him.

Dante’s eyes go slightly wide at my comment, and I watch him swipe at his face and the small specs spread on his olive skin.

“I must have nicked myself or something.” He says with a nervous chuckle.

Or something else, because a nick to the face wouldn’t splatter like that.

He didn’t go to the club like he said he was, he went to deal with something mafia related.

I don’t say anything though, I just give him a closed mouth smile and nod.

“I’ll leave you to finish out your day, I just wanted to show you Angel walking.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem.” Another tight smile from me.

“I’ll talk to you when I get home.” he says, before ending the call and I’m left staring at my screensaver.

I don’t know why, but the fact that I saw blood on Dante’s face stays with me, more so than the kiss he gave me before he left.

Did the kiss surprise me? Absolutely. Since we started this whole arrangement, he has not one kissed me before he left the house. Better yet, he has not even kissed me in front of the kids.

We’ve strictly kept it to either my wing, or the living room and kitchen when both kids are asleep.

So yes it surprised me.

But the kiss was still not enough to keep me distracted and overly think about why Dante had blood on his face

That little fact stays with me as I get the kids their afternoon snack and put Angel down for a nap.

Why was he covered in blood?

Because he was probably off killing someone, just like he killed your dad.

I try to push that thought away as I get Alessandra settled in the living room with some schoolwork she has for the holiday break.

The more I let the thought circle in my head, the more I feel the need to do some digging.

“I’ll be right back, okay? I just have to grab something from your papi’s office. I will be gone for only five minutes.” I tell Allie.

She gives me a nod and she starts to work on her turkey drawing.

When she’s set, I quickly make my way upstairs and head directly to the office.

Another surprising thing that Dante did this morning was to give me permission to use his office.

I really had no reason to ask, but Gallo has been sending so many messages to the burner phone asking if I’ve found something, that I just took the chance.

I don’t know what is making Gallo so persistent all of the sudden, but it was enough to build up the courage to ask this of Dante.

He didn’t even think about it, he just said yes. And now as I approach the door, I feel like I’m going to puke.

Am I really doing this? Am I really going to walk into his office and snoop around until I find something incriminating to either put him in jail or six feet in the ground?

After all the time that he has spent in my bed these last few weeks, do I still want to do this?

No, it has nothing to do with what I want. It’s what I need to do, for me, for my dad, for every other person that has suffered because of the powerful people this city has. So that’s why I place my hand on the door number and twist it open even with nerves running through my body.

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