Chapter 1 - The Blood on the Asphalt
Rain beat mercilessly against the hood of the idling SUVs, the heavy drops mixing with the metallic smell of gasoline and hot iron hanging in the mountain air. Below us, deep in the ravine, a muffled explosion boomed as Dante’s car finally struck the bottom, sending a fleeting plume of orange flame into the foggy night.
The circle of armed men held their breath. Dozens of gun barrels glistened under the headlights, all focused squarely on my chest. I was kneeling in the mud, my waitress apron soaked in black earth and Dante Moretti’s blood. My knees trembled violently, my hands raw and scraped down to the quick from grabbing him through the shattered glass.
Dante’s grip on my wrist was ironclad, cold despite the feverish warmth of his blood spilling onto my sleeves. His gray eyes, sharp as polished steel, pinned me in place.
"Speak," Dante commanded softly, the rain washing red rivulets down his sharp jawline. "How did a girl from Bellini’s know my car wouldn't stop on the mountain?"
"I heard her," I choked out, my voice cracking against the wind. I tried to pull back, but his fingers tightened, anchoring me to the wet pavement. "In the back corner of the restaurant... behind the velvet curtain. She was talking to a man with a gold ring on his pinky."
Dante’s gaze didn't soften, but his dark brows pulled together slightly. "Who?"
"Your wife," I sobbed, the shock finally tearing through my defense mechanisms. "Vanessa. She said... she said by midnight, she’d be a grieving widow. She said the brakes were cut just enough to fail on the incline."
A heavy silence descended upon the mountain road. The guards surrounding us didn't move, but I felt a collective shift in their posture—a sudden, lethal tension.
A large man in a tailored trench coat stepped forward, pushing past two armed guards. His face was weathered, scarred across the left temple, and his eyes burned with fierce loyalty as he looked at the fallen boss.
"Boss," the man said, kneeling beside Dante. "We need to move you. The paramedics are ten minutes out, but we should use our own doctors."
"Marco," Dante grunted, allowing the man to help him shift his weight, though he never released my wrist. "Vanessa is at the estate?"
"She returned an hour ago," Marco replied quietly, his eyes flickering toward me with deep suspicion. "She told the household staff you were staying late at the harbor office."
Dante let out a low, humorless breath that sounded like dry leaves scraping across stone. He looked back at me, studying my tear-streaked face, the cheap Bellini's uniform torn at the shoulders, and the muddy shoes I’d bought on sale at a discount store three weeks ago.
"You ran down a mountain for a man you don't know," Dante murmured, his voice dropping so low only I could hear over the storm. "Why?"
"Because nobody deserves to die in the dark," I whispered, shivering uncontrollably as the adrenaline began to drain from my veins, leaving behind bone-deep exhaustion. "And... and I couldn't just keep wiping tables while somebody got murdered."
Dante stared at me for a long moment. Then, slowly, his grip on my wrist unclasped. He reached up, his blood-stained fingers brushing a wet strand of brown hair from my eye.
"Marco," Dante ordered, standing up with painful slowness as Marco supported his side. "Bring her."
"Boss?" Marco hesitated, looking at my mud-covered frame. "She's a witness. We don't know if she's part of—"
"If she were part of it, she would have let the tree snap," Dante snapped, his authority cutting through the thunder like a blade. "She comes to the manor. She stays in the west wing. Treat her injuries, wrap her hands, and place two men outside her door."
"Am I... am I your prisoner?" I gasped, trying to push myself up from the mud, but my legs buckled beneath me.
May you like
Dante looked down at me as two guards stepped in to catch my arms, their hold firm but not rough.
"No, Cara," Dante said, speaking my name for the first time, having picked it up from the name tag pinned to my torn apron. "You're the only living person in this city I can trust right now. Which makes you the most dangerous woman in my world."
