Stolen: Dante’s Vow by Natasha Knight
Dante
My brother and I haven’t fought like this in years. By the time we slow down, Cristiano’s office is a mess of shattered glass, a laptop in two pieces, a crack in the window where my head collided with the glass. It’s that that stops us.
“Tell me is that it?” I ask finally. Because what the fuck? “You’re worried David’s genes got into me and I —“
“Fuck. Christ! No! Never! Just… fuck!” Cristiano steps back and slams his fist into the wall instead of my face.
I feel the slow trail of blood along my temple and when he looks at me, he shakes his head, takes a tissue from his desk, and holds it against the cut.
“No, brother. That’s not what I think. What I ever thought,” he says.
I nod, taking the tissue as I turn to look out at the sea.
After the rain last night, the day is overcast, the water a deep charcoal. I run my hand through my hair, remember what she’d said about monsters. Remember what I’d said when I’d still had some fucking self-control. Am I that? Am I no better?
“But fuck, Dante. What did you think you were doing?”
“It’s not like you think.”
“Then how is it?” he asks.
I turn to him. He’s worried. I see it behind the fury in his eyes. Hear it in his voice. “Explain to me how it is.”
Fuck.
I look away from my brother to watch Noah and Mara from the window. Cristiano comes to stand beside me. I’m not sure he understands this thing with Mara yet. I’m not sure I do. It’s too strange. Too fated.
“She’s easy with him,” I say. “Different than she is with me or most men as far as I’ve seen.”
“He’s not threatening to her.”
“All men are threatening to her.”
“Not him. She must remember something about him from when she was little.”
Noah wraps his hand around hers and they stop to talk. A tightness builds in my gut at the sight of it.
“Relax,” Cristiano says, hand on my shoulder. We watch them silently.
“I’m taking her back tomorrow.”
“You sure that’s a good idea?”
“I think bringing her here was a bad one. And she won’t stay here without me. I don’t think she can, and I won’t risk her going up to those cliffs again. I can’t.”
Cristiano nods. “Lenore will be upset.”
“I’ll talk to her. She’ll understand. It’s better for Mara. And once everything is sorted, once Felix is dead, things will be different. She can start to heal. I don’t think she can do that until he’s gone because she isn’t convinced he won’t get to her.”
“Dante,” Cristiano says, and I turn to find him studying me. I grit my teeth and wait as I take in the look in his eyes. See how he’s processing, understanding what I can’t quite say. Because what I want to do is keep her. But it’s the worst fucking idea I’ve ever had.
My brother puts a hand on my shoulder. It’s a gesture of understanding. Of acceptance. And in this moment, I find myself so grateful, so fucking grateful he didn’t die the night of the massacre. So grateful he survived David.
“Take Noah with you,” he says.
“Why?”
“She trusts him. And I trust him.”
“And Scarlett?”
“I’ll talk to Scarlett. He’s not a boy anymore. She needs to let him go.”
“He’s trained?”
“Trained but untested. And young but determined. He hates Felix as much as we do. And I know he wants Mara safe.”
The pair turn and walk back into the house. I look at them. Both young. Somehow still innocent in their own way.
“She’d be better off with him,” I say, I don’t know why.
Cristiano studies me. “I don’t think so. Maybe before I’d have said yes, but no. Not anymore. No matter what, her brain works a certain way now. And as little as I like the idea of you bedding her, I can see she needs you. You saved her life. More than once and in more ways than one. She can lean on you. You’re solid. She looks to you when she’s unsure. She needs a man who’s not afraid to make her face her demons. Noah is not that man. Not yet anyway.”
“So, what you’re saying is she needs an asshole.”
“Exactly,” he says with a grin and pats my back. “And you fit the bill.”
“Fuck you,” I say in jest but as I watch them out there, there’s a part of me that still wonders if she wouldn’t be better off with Noah. Or someone like him. If I shouldn’t walk away now even though I’m not sure I can.