Page 181 of Anti-Heroes in Love Duet
“This world of ours,lottatrica mia. I wouldn’t love you so much as I do if you weren’t capable of withstanding the savagery.”
I watched as my words starched her spine and made her eyes flash. It was only the truth, but it reminded me how little praise she’d received in her life.
“Marco will be okay,” she declared as if she had some say in the matter.
It made me smile despite myself. “If anyone could conjure that out of the universe by sheer will power, it would be you.”
“I hate that we can’t be there for them,” she murmured, her eyes sheened with wet even though I knew she wouldn’t let herself cry.
“Bambi was there. Apparently, she and Marco have been having an affair for a while. She wasn’t hurt, but it’s a mess with his wife.”
Her face spasmed with something like horror.
“What?” I asked, foreboding rolling through me.
“I…” she sucked in a deep breath. “Bambi came to me a few times in New York. She said she was having troubles with a boyfriend who was getting rough with her. She said she worried about her safety and Aurora’s. Even when I pressed, she wouldn’t tell me who the man was but now…”
“Marco,” I breathed out as her words sucker punched me in the gut. “No, there’s no way he would hurt a woman. You know him, too.”
She bit her red lip. “I know. I honestly never got those vibes from him. But how else are we supposed to connect the dots? If he kept his affair with Bambi secret from you is it so unlikely he would be the kind of man who would beat his partner?”
“Or become a mole,” I muttered darkly, bitterness on the back of my tongue as the piece of my heart that had belonged to Marco burned up to ash.
We were quiet for a long moment, standing under the awning of greenery and sugar-sweet lemons with the knife of betrayal running through both our backs.
“We have to get back,” Elena said suddenly, clutching at my forearms, nails digging deep. “Marco could have compromised everyone. What if they took him out because they’d gotten enough from him and now they’re going for everyone else?”
“They won’t just take out every person in the Camorra,” I assured her, though my heart had turned to lead, poisoned, a dead weight in my chest cavity. “They’ll go for our businesses first and if there is anyone in the way, they’ll take those men out. Addie is still recovering, he’ll be careful. Chen and Jacopo are smart.”
“And Bambi? Aurora? I don’t feel comfortable not being there to comfort them,” she admitted. “We haven’t known each other long, but Bambi trusts me. If I could talk to her, maybe she would tell me something. Maybe Marco told her what was going on.”
“I doubt it. If he was the mole, the shit went deep and he wouldnotjeopardize himself by confessing to a woman that close to you. There’s a chance I’m wrong.Cazzo, more than a chance.” I raked my hands through my hair then punched a massive lemon off a limb, the fruit bursting at the impact.
Elena calmly picked a piece of rind out of her hair before collecting my heavy fists in her hands. “I don’t want to leave you, but should I go back? I could help.”
“You’ve known these people for four months and you’d go back for them.” I ran my thumbs over her cheekbones as I shook my head incredulously. “This from a woman who is convinced she is a villain.”
“I’m a terrible person. I’m not afraid to admit I’ve done some terrible things,” she said, as if I didn’t understand.
But I did.
I understood that anytime someone attempted to offer her comfort or praise, she shied away. She tried to poison it with the alchemy of her self-hate.
Anger crashed into my chest like a sixteen-wheeler. If I knew who or what had caused her to feel that way about herself, I would hunt it down and rip it into pieces with my bare hands before lighting that shit on fire.
“They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but so is goodness,” I told her, folding her into my arms, her slightness fitted perfectly to my broad chest, her head tucked beneath my chin. “By my definition, there is no one braver or worthier of love and admiration than you.”
“Are you trying to make me cry?” she demanded, shoving away from me as if she was irritated.
But I caught the pleased glow in her cheeks, the curl of that poppy red mouth.
“Never,” I swore. “And there will never be a time where I want to be parted from you so get the idea of going to New York alone out of your head. You belong by my side.”
She glared at me under a raised brow and fisted her hands on her hips. “Because I’m a woman and you’re a man?”
“Because you’re Elena and I’m Dante,” I corrected. “I belong at your side just the same.”
“Then tell me the plan,” she demanded, even going as far as to stomp her wedged heel into the ground, releasing a burst of tangy citrus into the air. “And don’t tell me not to worry my pretty little head about it.”
