Page 48 of Skating Towards Danger

They’re part of books, not real, right?

“Shit, Rocco, I can’t shake them, I-I, the kids….”

“No, don’t give up, do you hear me? Don’t you dare fucking give up….”

“Paige!” Dante snaps, grabbing my cheek. His eyes race between mine, and he curses, “Shit,” as I slowly shut down.

“Roman, the Cartel just tried to shoot Paige,” Dante says as he stands on the ice, bends, and quickly picks me up and throws me over his shoulder.

Romans's voice echoes around us as he curses, “Fuck, get to your car. I’ll send you back up, and be fucking careful!”

Be careful, men, Cartel, what?

“Daddy….”

“Rose no….”

My father’s voice echoes in my head as visions of my momma smashing into the roof, killing her hits me as Dante replies, “Just fucking hurry, Roman, Paige has gone into shock.”

I hear more cursing before the memories swallow me whole, and suddenly, I want to end it all as everything swarms me.

The money left, the bangs, the car flipping.

Who in the hell was my father?

Chapter 19

Dante

I quickly run outside of the arena looking around knowing that fucker most likely wasn’t alone and I know I only got him in the stomach, my main focus being Paige meaning he may have called for backup.

“Momma…,” Paige rasps repeatedly in pain as she hangs over my shoulder, her breathing shallow and my anger towards Rocco intensifies because this could have been avoided!

“You can’t fucking tell her it’ll set her back!”Rocco screams at me before he grabs his gun and holds it to my head completely fucking himself over knowing you don’t point your gun at your Don’s second let alone his blood brother, but I don’t flinch. Instead, I cross my arms over my chest and raise a brow while Roman comes and stands next to me.

I asked Rocco and Tyra to meet me at my parent's house because he needed to be updated on what was going on. He’s been in the dark, and to be honest, he hasn’t even contacted me to see how Paige is doing.

He thought everything would be alright, but it was not. The Cartel wants her dead, Dad confirmed that after we informed them that Paige was married to a Italian Second.

Tyra is currently sobbing on the chair while her husband holds a gun to my head.

“You don’t get to make that decision any longer, Rocco,” I state firmly, “She’s an adult and has a bounty on her head. They’re trying to bullshit that Peter accepted their offer despite us having proof he didn’t, they don’t even want her hand in marriage anymore, they want her dead for her father’s apparent disrespect.”

Rocco scoffs, “It’s not disrespect, and besides, it’s Houlis who can’t let go. His son Jose is happily married and doesn’t even want to take over from his father. Last I checked, he tried to kill him and got banished. We can handle Houlis, and Paige can stay in the dark like her father wanted.”

“She needs to know, even if we can kill Houlis, she has to be told,” I remind calmly, and Rocco’s face reddens until I say, “She’s my wife, Rocco,” and he stills, his arm dropping in shock as Tyra gasps.

A wife can’t go into the mafia world without knowing about it and he is well aware of that. There will be times I come home covered in blood, either my own or an enemies.

Roman continues from me, “The only way for them to leave her alone was to marry her to Dante, my second. He didn’t even hesitate. He signed the paperwork and got her to sign it, and we sent the notification to Houlis, but she’s still in danger, and she needs to know the truth. He’ll want revenge, and you know we can’t do fuck all until he starts something first. Our allianceswill stand by us if he commits an act of treason which we all know he will because he’s pissed that Peter, and then I, declined what he wanted, but he has to act first.”

Rocco holds his gun up to me again and growls, “You married my fucking niece without her blessing? What, you thought you’d fuck her, take advantage of her knowing her past believing she was easy when all I asked was you to watch her?! She’s fucking unstable, Dante and you’ve used her mental health against her, fucking assaulted her basically!”

My demon pulls at me as everyone freezes at Rocco’s accusation.

He knows me, he watched me grow up, and he has just accused me of basically raping his niece.

Mother fucker…

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