Page 40 of Pain and Pleasure

I move my head slowly and he squeezes my fingers before he releases them so that he can walk back to the door. I take another look at the security monitors and already feel uncomfortable by his absence.

"Wait. I want to go with you," I say, and he pauses so that he can turn and look at me.

"No," is all he says, and it makes me frown.

"Why? I have as much security right now as the president. Are you going to kill him or something?" I ask and he stands there in silence for a few moments, eyeing me up and down.

"There will be no blood on any of our hands tonight, at least not here, but that doesn't mean that it will be an easy meeting, mi ciela." He sighs and looks at me for a while, almost as if he's debating his own words.

I stand and walk to him, my hands going to his chest as he pets my hair.

"You can't just use me as bait and then keep me out of the loop when something bites," I say.

"Who said I'd keep you out of the loop?" he questions me, eyes narrowing. I almost laugh at him.

"Your history of communication with me says, Dante. You forget that this ismyfather. I deserve to know what trap he tried to lure me into. And I deserve to hear it from the man he sent to lure me." I pull my hands away from his chest and wait for his response.

He stares at me for a long while, the silence stretching across my empty office. I hold his gaze until he sighs an exhausted sounding sigh. It is then that I know I've won this small battle and it makes me go up on my toes to kiss his cheek. He lets out a small rumble and grabs my face as I pull back.

"But as soon as I say it's time for you to go, then you leave. Do you hear me?" he says, his eyebrows furrowed and eyes narrowed at me.

I nod slowly and he curses under his breath before grabbing my hands to take me out of the room and to the elevator, Benjamin trailing behind us. The ride down to the main floor is quiet, but as soon as the doors slide open, we're assaulted with loud music and flashing lights. Dante leads me through the crowd and towards the boardroom that I met the staff in earlier today.

He opens the door and ushers me inside leaving Benjamin to guard the outside of the door when he closes it. I look over to the conference table and see Sergio and a guard standing behind the man, who is strapped to the chair, a gag covering his mouth. There are four guards lining the wall by the door and another two by the windows. It makes me wonder just how many men Dante has on his security team.

Dante leads me further into the room but keeps me at least a ten-foot distance from the man at the table. As we get closer, I notice Sergio is holding a gun to the back of the man's head. He eyes me angrily, his face red behind the gag. I sit casually next to Dante and try to appear as impassive and not intimidated, definitely not scared. If this man is sent by my father, then I will show him no such emotion. Dante sits next to me and crosses his legs, leaning back in his chair casually. I noticed that he does this with many people, but especially people that he has authority over or tries to have authority over. It's his way of showing that no threat is actually a threat to him.

"Tonight, you've trespassed on my property. Back at home we'd have your fingers cut off within seconds. I'm doing you a service right now, a service that you are not worthy of. But I think we both know you're not here for bloodshed," he says to the man, fixing his watch as he leans forward, forearms pressed to the wooden conference table.

"I will allow my men to ungag you, but there will be no screams or any noise other than a fucking answer as to why you're in my club tonight. Got it?"he demands, and the man nods.

Sergio keeps the gun pressed to his head as one of the guards pulls the gag away from the man's face. He starts to take heaving gasps of air, drool spilling from his mouth and onto the table. They must have had it on pretty tight. I sit up straight and knot my hands on my lap, trying to calm my bouncing leg.

"Who sent you?" Dante asks.

The man looks up at him and wipes the drool off on his shoulder. His eyes are bloodshot, and he looks about my mother's age. He looks over at me and Dante lets out a low growl, tapping the table to bring the man's attention away from me and back to him. He smiles slowly at Dante and raises his shoulders as if to say he doesn't know. Dante flicks a finger at Sergio and the cock of his gun sounds across the rooms, making the man's eyes widen to saucers.

"Juan Carlos!" the man shouts, obviously not ready to have his brains splattered across the table. I can't say I'm ready for that either.

Dante leans forward even more and eyes the man down, power radiating off his body in big intimidating waves. It feels like a lifetime ago that he used this approach on me, but even when he did, I found it arousing. Because even then I knew he wouldn't blow my brains out like he would for this man here.

"Good. I think we all know why he's sent you, or rather who he's sent you for. My next question is what does he want with her?" The man's eyes travel to me once more.

I stare him down, but jump when I suddenly hear a loud bang on the table and see Dante standing up abruptly, banging his fist down once more.

"Don't you fucking look at her! Eyes on me," he snaps and the man brings his widened eyes back to Dante.

"What does he want with her?" he snarls.

I feel chills racing down my spine as silence stretches through the room. The man is quiet and sweating profusely. He must not have been working for my father very long, because he's easily intimidated and willing to rat him out as soon as a gun is pressed to him.

"You have five seconds. I have no issue seeing your skull splintered open in my boardroom, the walls are soundproof anyway," Dante says casually.

I see Sergio press the gun deeper against his head and it has him crying out.

"He wants her dead!" he cries, and even though I knew this was the answer my stomach still drops.

I swallow audibly and Dante looks over at me briefly before turning his attention back to the man sweating all over his conference table. I try to remain calm, but the tension is spreading across my body like a wildfire. I feel sweat pooling in my hairline, and I know I probably look pale.

---