Page 43 of Throne of Sin

“Give me five minutes and I can be ready.” I remember hearing about Savio’s fights back in the day. I imagine he’s only become more ruthless.

“We don’t have time. The limo is here. Sorry,” Robin answers sheepishly.

Tanya chuckles and leads the other girls out of the house, leaving Robin and me alone. “I could stay and wait for you,” she offers.

I wave her off. “It’s fine, I’ll see you there.”

“Here.” She hands me a piece of paper. “It’s the address.”

An hour later, I hold up the piece of paper, double checking the address against that of the hole-in-the wall building in front of me. The outside looks charred from an old fire and one of the windows are boarded up, but there’s a large, clean window on the other side of the steel door that shows just how busy it is inside.

I jerk the large door open and my focus is immediately pulled to the cage in the center of the space. The room is loud, buzzing with an energy that clearly has everyone excited. I head toward the back to get myself a drink, fighting through the crowded room as I make my way to the bar. It takes a while to nudge to the front of the line and I use the time to scan the crowd, looking for anyone I might recognize.

“Dante was a terror today. Did you see him?” One of the waitresses gossips behind my back. My ears immediately perk up, straining to hear.

“I keep my head down and do my work. I want no part of this conversation,” a different one replies.

I finally catch sight of him out of the corner of my eye. He’s by his brother, who’s dressed in shorts and no shirt, his hands are taped and they’re walking toward the cage.

“Savio Mancini!” The words boom through the speakers and the room erupts in applause and shouts.

“Do you think the rules don’t apply to you?” The voice is close and I turn to see if they’re talking to me. I frown at seeing Max.

“Excuse me?” I turn from him, my eyes following the brothers. I always envied their closeness because I’ve experienced nothing like it before.

“Dante’s girls don’t come here.” My skin prickles at Max’s words.

“They all said they were coming.”

“They’re all at Dante’s, where they’resupposedto be. I saw them with my own eyes before I headed here.”

I drop my head back. Of course they would lie to me. I expected more from Robin, I thought maybe we were friends.

“Just great.” First, I missed my first day at the new office and now this. I shake my head, annoyed. No matter how hard I try, it still never works out. Story of my life. “You don’t have to say any more. I’m going to head to the bathroom and leave.”

Weaving through the crowd, I make my way to the bathrooms. I’m fucking pissed off now. This was not how I wanted to spend my day.What a waste! I raise my hand to push open the bathroom door harder than necessary, but someone grabs hold of it and pulls me in the other direction.

I collide with a solid wall of muscle, the impact rattling my teeth. I’m surrounded by the familiar masculine scent I’ve always loved. I look up and meet Dante’s hard gaze.

“Fuck off, Dante!” I’m in no mood to take his shit when I already know I messed up.

Tsk, tsk, his tongue clacks with disdain.

“I’m not in the mood right now,” I reply.

He pulls me away from the bathroom and into a small side room then locks the door behind us. I’m shoved against a metal shelving unit. “I don’t give a shit about your mood, Demi. You’regoingto listen to me for once in your life.” His dark gaze is set firmly on me.

I wiggle to get out of his grasp, but he’s too strong. His one hand brings both of my hands up, holding them against a metal bar. I try to knee him, but he moves and places himself between my legs, pinning me further. If I wasn’t so pissed off, I might enjoy our little struggle.

“That office is yours, free and clear. I expect nothing from you.” I stop moving, not expecting those two sentences to come from his mouth. “Today, I waited for you, and the girls showed up for you. Everyone was excited to see you succeed. I hate that you missed out on that because you didn’t want to be around me. All you had to do was tell me. I would have placed one of my men there instead. I should have never been so selfish, wanting to be a part of your happiness. I suppose old habits die hard.”

If I was uncertain before, I now realize, without a doubt, that I’m still in love with Dante Mancini. The feeling overwhelms me, my senses go haywire and each of my nerves feel like they’re firing all at once. We’re both breathing hard, our chests pushing against each other.

Needing to set the record straight, I answer, “I wanted to be there, but someone messed with my alarm clock and it never went off.”

We stare at each other as he assesses if I’m telling him the truth. His eyes turn brighter and I take it as a sign he believes me.

“I wanted to be there, I swear,” I whisper. “I was even looking forward to seeing you.”

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