Page 61 of Beautiful Sinner

Matteo

“We need to kill Connor,” I tell Dante when we head into his home office. I give Nadia a nod on the way past and she smiles in return, though it’s tense. She’s just as nervous about this war as the rest of us are.

“Of course we need to kill Connor,” Dante says, settling back in his seat. I remain standing. Nothing can calm me right now, knowing that Julia is days away from being married to Connor. Fucking Connor.

“No. I mean soon.”

“Are you ok, Matteo? You seem… frantic. You’re usually the calm one.”

I run my hand over my head. “Listen, I have some intel. I know that Connor and Julia are getting married this weekend. We need to kill him before then to stop that from happening. If Viktor marries his sister off to Connor, then he has guaranteed access to the Irish mob. They could best us.”

“You’re right. That isn’t good but I thought their wedding was happening later this month, not this weekend.”

“It got bumped up to this weekend.”

“How did you find out?”

“Uh… my contact.”

Dante frowns. “You have a contact that works closely with Viktor or Connor? Why have I never heard of this before? Last I checked, you didn’t have any contacts within Viktor’s circle.”

“It doesn’t matter how I know. What matters is that we kill Connor before then.”

“Fine. But do you know where he is? Where he lives?”

“No,” I admit.

“There you go.” Dante falls silent, pondering something as he steeples his fingers together. “Unless…”

“Unless?”

“Unless we attack the wedding.”

Panic squeezes my chest. “The wedding?”

“We could attack the wedding. We’ll know for sure that Connor is getting married that day. We attack the wedding. Kill Connor. Kill Viktor. It’s perfect. They won’t be expecting us.”

“But you don’t even know where they’re getting married or when.”

“But you do. I’m sure your contact told you when and where, so tell me.”

“I… I’m not sure I want to.”

Dante stares at me for a long moment. “Why the fuck would you not want to?”

“Innocent people could be killed.”

“So? We’ve accidently killed innocents before. You helped me kidnaped Nadia years ago.”

“But I never shot any people that day. But if you want to kill Connor and Viktor, then the best way is to go in guns a blazing. Which means innocent people will die.”

He leans forward on his desk, looking at me with intense eyes that scare most people. They’ve never scared me before… untilright now. “Why this sudden worry about what will happen? Viktor and Connor are the enemy. Everyone associated with Viktor is the enemy.”

“What about Inessa, Viktor’s wife?”

“So? What about her?”

“She’s friends with Elena, who last I checked, was married to Aiden, one of your closest allies. She won’t appreciate her friend dying because of your reckless behavior.”

---