Page 50 of Dante
“There was no spider, was there?” Amo asked, turning to Leo when something clicked together in his head.
Leo shook his head. “No.”
Oh God,she cried inside her head, wishing she were swimming with the fishes alongside Max right about now, finally understanding the spider comment.I should have stayed on the fucking boat.
Covering her face with her hands, she looked at Dante through her fingers to see he hadn’t been bothered by the revelation in the slightest.
“Okay.” Amo cleared his throat, throwing a forever embarrassed Nadia a lifeline by continuing. “Go on.”
“Tonight was our last chance, so when you all stayed in your rooms and were separated, we … well … went for it,” Lila finally finished.
“Anything else, boss?” Amo asked, looking at Dante.
“Nope.”
With that, Amo flung the woman overboard.
“No!” Nadia shot up from where she sat. “She told you everything!”
“That’s why I left her lifejacket on.” Amo shrugged coldly. “She’ll live … if someone other than us comes to rescue her ass.”
Going to protest, she suddenly heard something in the distance. “Shh!” Nadia urged.
Everyone stopped moving to carefully listen.
“That’s just Lil—”
She shook her head. The noise was over Lila’s swimming and much farther in the distance.
A quiet, “Help! Aide-moi!”
Before she could even get the words out, Amo was already getting behind the wheel.
Dante pulled her to sit down beside him, holding her close as the boat took off toward the yacht. With the flames illuminating everything around it, they were able to see a body holding on to the top of floating debris, and then they saw another person beside him the closer they got. The chef and skipper were alive.
She hadn’t noticed how cold she was until that moment Dante wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
“Are you okay?” he asked, looking her over.
Nadia found herself shocked he was no longer ignoring her. “Yes, I’m fine.”
“Sorry I threw you over,” he said apologetically.
Nadia managed to chuckle, despite what had just happened. She figured she should still be mad, but it appeared, like him, she had clearly found a new perspective after what they had just gone through. “I’m sorry about your yacht.”
“Oh yeah.” Dante’s gaze went to the fire getting closer, which happened to be burning up millions of dollars’ worth. “It’s not mine.”
Her own eyes shot to his in surprise. “It’s not?”
“Nope,” he said, unbothered. “It belonged to Desmond Beck.”
FIFTEEN
THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN KANSAS CITY
Once Nadia had made it safely back to Kansas City, it was strange to be home from the moment she got off the plane. The plane ride had been nerve-racking, but she had found herself much calmer this time. On the way to Florida, it had not only been her first time flying, but she had been amongst strangers. This time, however, she felt amongst friends and was comforted in that fact.
But when it was time to land and the airplane door opened, she couldn’t help but feel the bond they had formed over the weekend was beginning to slip. It was like making a type of friend over summer vacation that you normally wouldn’t have gotten the chance to make, and when they went back to school, there was an awkward moment of goodbyes before you felt the sudden loss, both of you knowing you might not see each other until next year … if ever.
