Page 5 of The Boss
Rage and a fierce protectiveness rose in him at that. He wanted to remind her she was his youngest sister and that he’d always be the one protecting her, not the other way around. He wanted to tell Cade to get off his platform and let him tear the city open. But the look Cade gave, one man to another, wasn’t born of ownership but of a careful, carved-out responsibility. The Chief hadn’t always been this man. He’d been hammered into it by blood and decisions neither Leif nor Elise had experienced. There was a steadiness there he trusted even while he bristled againstit.
He bowed his head once and eased the roar in his chest down to a growl. “Morning. I’ll meet you at Titus’s. But if she’s walking the streets like a ghost, I’ll find a way tonight.”
Cade answered without looking at him, “We’ll find her together. Not alone.”
There was nothing more to say then. Elise followed Leif to the foyer and watched him leave, the robe slipping from her shoulder and exposing the pale curve of her collarbone. Leif wanted to reach out and touch that shoulder, to press some human proof into the night, but his hand felt foreign.
He drove away with the brand burning like a secondsun.
LEIF DIDN’Tsleep. The highway was a smear of sodium lights as he drove back toward the city, stopping at a corner bar, alate-night eatery, any place that kept people awake and talking.
He wanted faces, the sound of names on strangers’ tongues, the small chance that in the city’s hum someone would mention a woman in emerald. But every time he closed his eyes, the memory reverted to the small things: the way Mary’s breath had been warm against his ear, the angle of her neck, the leisurely slide of silken skin between his fingers.
He couldn’t pry her from his mind because the Brand had made the thought intensely vivid. Like every detail seared into his body and refusing to fade, like every breath of hers still lingered on his skin, every sigh etched into him. His body tightened at the memory, the hunger sharp, the need brutal. It was carnal, relentless, an ache that made him hard and aching for her in the silence of the night.
When the bar finally emptied into quiet, Leif shoved back from his stool and stalked into the humid dawn. He wasn’t done. The Alabaster still pulsed in his head, the last place he’d seen her, the ground where she’d slipped through his fingers. He drove there with the sky paling around him, determined to retrace every step, every shadow, until he found some trace ofher.
By dawn, he’d scoured the Alabaster Club’s guest list twice and watched the security feeds as best he could. The club’s manager, aman with a face like a ledger, shrugged off questions and smiled like he’d swallowed an insult. “No one named Mary registered tonight,” he said. “Do you want us to comb the staff?”
Leif moved on. He pieced together whispers from bartenders and servers. Avalet recited a memory of a woman in green who had instructed them to park in the corner. Abartender hummed a tune and said a woman had asked for a glass of wine. Nothing that would prove anything. Like a ghost with little footprints of smoke.
He arrived at the Dante estate an hour later. The grounds smelled of dew and something older—wet earth, cut grass, the faint hint of woodsmoke from a distant neighbor. He was exposed and raw as he walked up the stone steps, the world quiet as if it were listening.
Inside, Titus’s entryway was a bowl of history. Portraits lined the walls, men and women with names Leif recognized only from books, their faces stern as gravestones. Inside his conference room, the long mahogany table caught the light, astrip of gold along its length.
Cade stood at the head, like a fulcrum to everything. Beside him, Elise waited, her face backlit, hair like a pale halo. Zane sat with a knuckle to his mouth, eyes narrowed. Titus was already by the window, his back straight as a spear.
“Show them,” Cade said.
Leif set the back of his hand on the table. The lion stared up, black as sin. It felt unwieldy and vulnerable to have something so private and cosmic flattened and seen by others. The Brand was like an accusation and a confession all atonce.
Titus’s voice was the first to cut through. “This can’t be. There aren’t any other Dante women in the city, and the Brand isn’t given to non-Dantes.”
“I didn’t ask for it,” Leif said. He held their eyes in turn, the heat of their attention like a physical force. “I slept with a woman. Iwoke Branded.”
Zane’s laugh had no humor. “You slept with a woman and woke up a Dante. Convenient fairy tale.”
Elise’s hand found his under the table, squeezing. Her touch was a tether.
“She called herself Mary,” Leif said. “I don’t have proof. Idon’t know if that’s her name. But when I look at this, Iknow I wasn’t mistaken.”
Silence sat on them then, thick and wrong.
Titus rubbed his chin. “There are only two logical possibilities. Either the woman you slept with is a Dante that hasn’t checked in with our branch of family, or you’re a Dante. And since you’re a Severin, we’ll assume it’s her. If this becomes public, everything changes. Enemies will smell it. Allies will question. Bloodlines matter in ways you can’t imagine.”
Leif wanted to stand and shout that there was only one fact that mattered to him: he’d been marked. He wanted to tell them he’d walk the earth until he found her. But the room’s gravity sagged hisroar.
Titus lifted a hand, cutting through the rising tension. “We keep this locked down. No leaks. No one hears about a Dante Brand appearing on a Severin until we know what it means.” His eyes moved around the table with authority. “Zane, pull every frame of security footage from the Alabaster.”
Leif shook his head. “I already did that. Went through it twice. She’s gone.”
Titus’s gaze sharpened. “Then you do it again, Zane. Every angle, every frame. She’s not a ghost. We’ll find something. Cade, dig into guest lists and staff records. I’ll lean on my hospital contacts for blood and lineage records. Elise, stay close to your brother. Keep him safe.”
Elise’s chin lifted, her voice steady but full of resolve. “He won’t face this alone. Not ever.”
Zane’s fingers drummed. “If this is some plant, we need to find who planted it. If it’s blood, we find the line it came from.”
Leif’s mouth tasted of iron. “Or I find the woman.”
