Stolen: Dante’s Vow by Natasha Knight
Dante
Mara smiles at Scarlett first, recognizing her from the night at the house in the Netherlands. She looks at her rounded belly. My sister-in-law glows with the pregnancy. She’s beautiful already but like this, happy, she’s almost too bright to look at.
I want that for Mara.
I want her to glow with happiness.
They hug and Scarlett rubs her back then draws away to look at her. Mara’s about an inch taller than Scarlett but so much younger. Not only in age but in every way.
“It’s really good to see you again,” she says. “I was so worried about you. We all were.”
Mara smiles. I see the effort it takes. “I was worried about you, too.”
Lenore sniffles and we turn to her. She has tears streaming down her face. Mara’s eyes fill up and she glances at me momentarily before letting Lenore hug her so tight I’m afraid she’s going to break her.
“Darling girl,” Lenore says. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
Mara’s eyes are huge, she’s got her arms around Lenore but she’s not crying. I can’t tell what she’s thinking.
Lenore draws back, looks her over, then hugs her again, telling her she’s made all her favorite foods. I wonder what they could be considering she was five last Lenore saw her. I have no idea what her favorite food is. I wonder if she even has one.
Cristiano hangs back. I can see she’s a little more leery of him. Like she is with me in a way. She glances at him then quickly away and I bend down to pick up Alessandro.
“And this is Alessandro,” I tell her.
He extends his arm to shake her hand. She smiles at him, taking in the eye patch. She shakes his little hand.
“It’s nice to meet you, Alessandro. How old are you?”
“Four.” He holds up four fingers, double checks that it’s only four, then adjusts his patch which in his rush he’s gotten twisted.
“Let me fix that there, little man,” I tell him, setting him down and crouching to take off the patch then put it back on. He’s watching Mara.
“I hear you’re going to be a big brother soon,” she says.
“Yeah. It’s going to be a girl though,” he says, not hiding his disappointment.
“Hey. Girls are fun.”
“I guess. I’m helping get her room ready.” He glances at Scarlett then leans closer to Mara. “If it wasn’t for me everything would be pink.”
“Well,” Mara starts with a smile. “It’s good you took care of that.”
He nods.
Scarlett rolls her eyes over his head.
I straighten as a door opens and Charlie comes out of Cristiano’s study. “Sorry, I had to wrap up a call,” he says, eyes on Mara.
She stiffens as he approaches but her reaction to him isn’t what it was to Cristiano, my men or me. Still, he stops a few feet away. “It’s very good to see you, Mara. Welcome home.”
“Thank you,” she says, then turns to me and I see the plea in her eyes.
“I’ll take Mara upstairs. We’re all pretty tired.”
“I made up her room at the far end,” Lenore says, clearly a little disappointed by the reunion. Cristiano puts a hand on her shoulder.
“I’ll show you which one it is,” Noah says. “It’s right next to mine.”
Mara smiles at him and I watch him lead her to the stairs. I turn to Cristiano. “You have a room for Matthaeus?”
He nods. Matthaeus has a house on the mainland. His family home. But he usually stays here when he’s in town. I get the feeling he doesn’t like being in that old house with all its ghosts. The ghosts in ours aren’t his. They don’t bother him.
I turn to Lenore. “She just needs to adjust. It’s all a shock.”
“I know,” Lenore says, eyes misty.
Cristiano rubs her back and Alessandro takes her hand. “Make me a snack?” he asks. He’s a sweet kid and instinctively knows to distract her.
I pick up my duffel and Mara’s shopping bag and walk up the stairs. After dropping my bag in my room, I walk down the hall where I can hear Mara and Noah talking. I notice Mara’s room is just a few doors down from Lizzie’s old room. I wonder if that was a great idea but with all the guests, we’re running out of space. Lizzie’s room has been turned into Alessandro’s room in any case.
The door is open, and I see the pair of them standing at the window. Noah is pointing something out. I clear my throat and they turn.
“I’ll take it from here, Noah.”
He hesitates, then nods. “Sure thing.” He walks out of the room. I close the door and go to her.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure. I barely remember my grandmother. I mean, I don’t. Not really.”
“You were five. That’s understandable.” I open a dresser drawer, see the clothes inside. Scarlett took care of buying clothes for her so everything would be ready. She did it before I even went to get her never doubting that I’d bring Mara home.
Since all that happened with her brothers, Rinaldi, her own uncle, she’s been working with trafficked women all over the world. Helping to get them home and reintegrated within their families and society. Mara has always been top of mind for her. I wonder if that’s because it was her brothers who took her to begin with. I wonder if Mara’s put that together yet.
“There are clothes. Everything you need.” She nods and I go to her. “Listen, why don’t you have a shower then get some rest. You don’t have to come downstairs yet if you don’t want to. You just take your time. We all just want you to feel okay. All right?”
“What happens now?”
“What do you mean?”
“Felix. Why did he come after me? Why does he want me back?”
I consider how much to tell her, my mind split between here, her and what I need to do. I need to talk to St. James. Figure out if he had anything to do with the attack at the warehouse. I need to talk to Charlie and Cristiano about what went down and find out about this new buyer. Tell them what St. James said about this alleged recording. There’s so much to do but taking care of her, making sure she’s okay, it’s the most important.
“He’s going to sell me again, isn’t he?”
Fuck. I wasn’t going to tell her that. “It doesn’t matter what he thinks he’s going to do.”
“Was he planning to get me back all along? With Samuel giving me that bracelet, he’s known my location for a long time.”
“Don’t worry about Felix, Mara. I’m not going to let him near you.”
“You don’t know him. You don’t know how determined he can be.”
I brush a hair behind her ear. She looks tired. “Try to relax. Get some rest.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I head back tomorrow,” I say, knowing she won’t like it but biting the bullet and getting it over with. “Matthaeus and I.”
“What?”
“You’ll stay here.”
“Here? Without you?”
“You’ll have Noah,” I can’t help but say.
She looks confused. “You can’t leave me here. I don’t want to be here.”
“This is your home. This is where you’re safest.”
“No, you said…You said I’d be safe with you.” She shakes her head, panic making her eyes wide and bright. “And this is where it happened. Where it all started. This is where…just…” she stops, squeezes her eyes shut for a long moment as she drags in a deep, shaky breath. “Down the hall, a few rooms away, it’s where they did it. Where they…”
I take her arms, rub once, hold tight. “That’s over. Years in the past. It’s safe here now. You’re safe here, Mara. There’s life in this house again. Laughter. A life for you.”
She shakes her head violently and tries to pull free of my grasp. I don’t let her go. “I can’t be here. Not without you. I won’t.”
“You will,” I say with a finality that surprises even me. “You don’t have a choice.”
She shoves against my chest. “Let me go.”
I do and she takes two steps away. “You drugged me again.”
No luck she’d forget that. “That was a mistake,” I say, no sense in mentioning it was Matthaeus, not me.
“What if I hadn’t woken up in time. What if he’d—”
I go to her, take her arms again. Squeeze. “He didn’t. And you did wake up and we got to you in time. You’re safe. No more what-ifs.”
“I’m not safe! Don’t you get it? I will never be safe again!”
I give her a shake. I can’t help it. “You’re tired. Overtired. And stressed—”
“I’m stressed because you brought me here!”
“I brought you home!”
“This isn’t my home. I don’t have a home!”
“Fuck, Mara.” I take a breath in, count to ten. I shift my gaze over her head. I need to be patient. I know that. “You need to fucking help me out here. I’m doing the best I can.”
“The best you can?” She snorts. “You wouldn’t abandon me here if you were doing your best!”
“I’m not abandoning you.”
“You promised you’d take care of me. You promised you wouldn’t let anyone hurt me again.”
“And I won’t.”
“You said I’d be safe with you!”
Fuck. “Cristiano will protect you.”
“I don’t want Cristiano. I want you!”
Her anguish hits me harder than a kick to the chest.
“If you’re dead, you won’t be able to keep your promise,” she finally says, losing a little steam.
I look down at her, feel her small hands against my chest. “I’m not going to die. I’m going to keep my promise to you.”
“Don’t you think you’ve used up your lives?”
“What?”
She turns pitiful eyes to mine. “Please take me with you. I want to be with you.”
“I’m no good for you, sweetheart.”
“You don’t get it. You’re the only one I can be with. Don’t you want me?”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I run a hand through my hair, turn away momentarily, then back to her. “What we did, what happened between us, I shouldn’t have let that happen. That’s my fault, not yours. I took advantage—”
“You didn’t.”
“I want you to have a life, Mara. I want you to be happy.”
“Just not with you.”
I sigh. “Not with me. That can’t be.”
“Do you have someone else?”
“What?”
She searches my face then lets her head drop. “Never mind. Nothing. I’m tired. You’re right.”
“Mara.”
She sits on the edge of the bed, rubs her face. She won’t look at me, but I can tell something has shifted for her. Like something else has broken. And this one’s on me.
“Hey,” I say, crouching down, taking her wrists, and pulling her hands away from her face. I don’t know what I want to say. What I should say. My feelings for her, they’re strange, wrong. Mara was a part of my life from the moment she was born. Lenore took over her care almost immediately after her birth. We don’t know who her father is, and her mother had died before she’d turned one. She’s always been a part of my family, too. And I love her.
But that love, those feelings for my sister’s best friend, for the girl stolen when she was too young to even start her life, have changed. And none of it makes sense, not to me. Not right now.
All I know, all I can focus on, is that she is safest here.
Without me.
My life is forfeit. And she deserves a good man who will love her without adding any more baggage. Not some monster. Because she was right when she told me only monsters enjoy the feel of blood on their hands. I do. I like the kill. And going after Felix is, in a way, exhilarating. That rage I feel, it’s what makes my heart keep ticking.
And I won’t let her waste the life that she has just gotten back on someone like me.
“I’m tired,” she says again before I can say anything, so I nod, pausing once more before rising to my feet. Not sure this is where I should leave it. Not sure I shouldn’t explain to her. Make her understand that I have to let her go because I do want her. God, how I want her.
And it’s more than that. I feel more than that.
But I can’t have her. So much has been stolen from her already. I won’t steal a love I don’t deserve.