Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30098 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30098 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 150(@200wpm)___ 120(@250wpm)___ 100(@300wpm)
“You’ve thought about our deal.”
“I’m going to make it work, and when I do, you’ll have your freedom and I’ll have mine.”
Dante didn’t move and Aria continued to force herself to look at him. It wasn’t easy. All she wanted to do was run, get the evidence, and put as much distance between them as possible.
It wasn’t like Dante had been cruel to her. He’d not done anything other than fulfill his duties to what was expected of him.
“And I think if I have a shot at being able to find … the evidence, I think it’s only fair that we put duty off the table,” Aria said. She didn’t even know where she was finding this backbone to make demands. This wasn’t her. She’d never asked for anything in her life.
Her parents had always told her she had a responsibility, and her only duty was to fulfill her husband. This was breaking everything she had ever known, but she just couldn’t bring herself to live like this. Not anymore.
Dante smirked. “And you really think you’re capable of getting me what I need, whereas trained professionals have failed?”
“I’m Phillip Lewis’s daughter, Dante. I have access to things no one else does.” It has also helped that she had been invisible for a long time. Her parents’ disappointment with how she looked had helped with that. She had learned to stay in the shadows and never draw attention.
Dante couldn’t seem to remove the smirk from his face, which she found equally insulting and scary.
“Aria, I would love to agree to your terms, but as it is, I’ve got my father as well as the whole Pesci family looking my way. Every time I’ve been given an assignment, I’ve completed it without fail. I am expected to further the Gallo line. The only way to do that is to fuck. Until you can hand me that evidence, you will continue to submit to your duty. Am I understood?” he asked.
She wanted to argue with him, but how could she?
Dante’s reputation far exceeded him. Everyone knew of the youngest man to take his first kill. He’d joined the family at a young age, and from what she knew, he’d been preparing to take over from his father as capo just as long. He was a man known for action.
They’d been married long enough now that she should be on the verge of giving birth. That hadn’t happened. Now, she had no choice.
Aria didn’t know when she would be able to make it to her father’s place, and until then, she would have to submit to her duty. There was no way she was going to incur Dante’s wrath.
He’d never raised a hand to her. She knew other wives were not so lucky. He’d not even embarrassed her the way her sister’s husband did her. She had been lucky.
There was no other choice for her. She could only hope she didn’t end up pregnant while waiting for her chance to escape. That would be a disaster.
****
Dante stared out across the city, looking at the many different buildings. The streets were filled with people bustling around, going about their business. His thoughts kept drifting to his wife, which was rather unusual.
She had submitted to her duty and he’d spilled his seed in her an extra four times over the weekend. He decided to give her the reprieve today, seeing as it was Monday, and well, he did have a business meeting with his father.
“So what you’re saying is, you’ve failed,” his father said.
“I wasn’t able to locate—”
Bang!
The sound of a gun exploding didn’t even surprise Dante. Another man, this time an amateur, had failed to acquire what they wanted. Amateur locators were more liable than properly trained professionals. They couldn’t allow their latest man to be taken and questioned, and someone would have been curious about why one week he was working for the Lewises and the next, he wasn’t. Killing him was the only way.
The only problem was, this had made a mess.
Dante glanced over at his father, who was already picking up his phone and making the arrangements to have everything cleaned up. Seconds later, cleaners entered his father’s office. No one would even bat an eye at what they saw, but then they were all paid to look the other way.
“Please tell me you have good news for me,” his father said.
“I haven’t killed anyone today that I wasn’t supposed to.”
“I don’t appreciate jokes, Dante. If we cannot figure a way of getting that evidence, then the least you can do is stop embarrassing me with not filling that woman with your child.”
This was the first time in a long while that Dante Gallo Sr. was close to losing his shit. He’d seen his father get angry, and normally when that happened, he did kill. What didn’t help this situation was the fact they couldn’t kill Phillip. With Phillip being the bastard son of The Boss, even though he’d never earn the title of Boss or Capo, he was still protected. He’d managed to earn the respect of his father, and that was rare.