Page 22 of Danica's Revenge

The guard hadn't been able to defend Elena by himself, outnumbered.They'd taken her.I still don't know who did it or why.Nobody has ever owned up to the act.I suspect it was the Riccis, but I can’t prove it.

It had taken too long to find her.By the time I did, I could no longer save her.They'd left her butchered on the cold floor, naked, bleeding out over the concrete in some abandoned building, her beautiful face desecrated by ugly cuts and bruises.That had been the first time I'd cried since my mother died.Elena’s body was cold, lifeless as I picked her up, blood smeared across my shirt, my hands.I'd cried into her messy hair.Cried for the life we could’ve had, the life that was lost.Only Emilio had seen me fall apart.But we'd never spoken about it again.

I kiss the ruby on the ring adorning my right hand.Sweet dear Elena.She was just 31 when they took her from me.

I finish my coffee and check my phone again.Still nothing.I try to call him again but it just rings.My text remains unread as well.You fucker.What have you gotten yourself mixed up in now?

I’m still contemplating my next move when I hear a gunshot outside.It’s muffled but unmistakable.

What the fuck?

I open the desk drawer and fish out my gun.I try to check that it’s loaded but I’m struggling to focus.My head feels fuzzy, dazed.Get it together, Dante!

Outside, there is a huge commotion.I hear Emilio shouting something in Italian but I don’t catch any of it.More gunshots.

I don’t know what’s going on.

Moments later my door bursts open, an army of masked gunmen filling up my office.

I lift my gun but I’m too slow.I fire a shot but not before they do.It hits me in my shoulder, I think.I drop the gun.

I try to count them but my mind can’t count today.Maybe eight of them, maybe more.The shouting is unmistakably Italian but I don’t recognize any of the voices.

They grab me from behind the desk.I try to struggle but it’s no use, my limbs feel heavy.I can't stop the blow that lands on my jaw, delivered by the back of a pistol.I can’t stop the kicking.

It all feels hazy, like a bad dream.Even the pain from the shot in my arm is just a dull ache.

Where is Emilio?My last thought before it all goes dark.

?

Chapter fourteen

Liars

It’sbeentwonightssince they took Dante.

Two tormented sleepless nights without mytesoro, my treasure.

I hold my coffee with both hands but can’t bring myself to drink it.I’m in the library downstairs, staring out over the lawns.I feel desperate, lost, exhausted, and a million other feelings I don’t have the name or energy for.Above all, I am sick with worry.

This is the longest Dante and I have ever been apart since we met.I don’t know what to do with myself, I feel so useless.Emilio and Luca have been out all day, speaking to some of the family’s informants, hoping to find something, anything, about who took Dante or why.They didn’t want me to come with though—You’ll just be in the way, Danica.As always.

I try to keep my mind from the worst-case scenario but it’s difficult.Dante has a lot of enemies, enemies capable of things I cannot even fathom.He has shielded me from the horrors of the business as much as he could, but who was there to protect him?

I can’t stay in our room.It feels so empty.What if he never comes back?I wish I could stop asking myself that.

Another thing taken from me.You can’t have nice things, Danica, why even bother?My inner voice has never been kind.As ugly inside as I am out—or at least that’s how I used to see myself.That’s what everyone made me believe.My father, my brothers, that fuck-head ex who I gave up my studies for—my life for —only to be kicked to the curb when he found someone he deemed “better.”

But not Dante.In his eyes, I am always beautiful.He believes it so much that I almost started believing it too.I want to be who he sees me as, always.I am better with him…no,forhim.A god like Dante Fera deserves a Queen worthy of worship.

But I am a useless Queen.I can’t do anything to bring my Knight back.I want to cry but I have no more tears left.I’m all cried out.I came to hide out in the library, hoping to find some escape, some peace but all I find is a Dante-sized hole.

“You ever going to drink that coffee?”

A familiar voice pulls me back to the high-ceilinged room stacked top-to-bottom with beautiful books,Beauty and the Beaststyle.

“Any news?”I ask hopefully, turning to Luca.

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