The Bastard's Betrayal (Scandalous Scions 1)

Easy enough when Lorenzo was giving him exactly what he wanted. He pushed to his feet. “Sure. I’ll be on the next flight out to New York.”

Lorenzo flinched and tried to cover it up with bluster. “Good. Go.”

Dante went. He was still chewing on all the new information when he walked into his bedroom and found his cousin sitting on his bed. No one looking at the two of them would mistake them for anything other than family. They shared the trademark Verducci blond hair and strong jawline, though life hadn’t run rampant over their bodies the way it had over Lorenzo’s.

Dante shut the door and leaned against it. “Move up your timetable. He’s a liability.”

“Is he the liability?” Matteo stood with a frown. “You’ve got your head spun all the way around with this bi—this chick. The old man’s nuts, but he’s not wrong that a Romanov-Capparelli alliance is bad news.”

Dante shrugged. The Romanov-Capparelli alliance was a nonissue from where he stood. If anything, Rose’s little sister marrying that bastard Romeo was a benefit. It cleared the path for him. “We have bigger problems.”

Matteo tried to stare him down but finally gave up and dropped back onto the bed. “The Russian Romanovs.”

“Si. You think they’re going to start fucking with the families stateside without trying to smash us beneath their boot? You know better.”

“Even if I did, that just proves that I need you here instead of in New York.”

“Matteo.” He waited for his cousin to look over. “I’m going—I was always going—and it’s not to kill my woman’s little sister.”

“When you talk like that, it sounds like you’re saying goodbye.”

He gave Matteo a long look. “Make your move and do it soon. If he fucks up my chances with Rose, I’ll raze this fucking territory to the ground.”

His cousin lifted his hands and dropped them. “She’s just a woman, cugino. We’re family.”

Family. The very idea was laughable. Family hadn’t saved his mother from being tossed out the moment she stepped out of line. It hadn’t stopped Lorenzo from threatening Dante with the same fate so many times, the threat finally lost its teeth. Family wasn’t worth the blood spilled to claim it.

His cousin wasn’t the same, though. He owned Matteo at least some explanation even if he didn’t fully understand his connection with Rose. Dante’s life would be significantly easier if he’d chosen literally any other person to pursue. It didn’t matter. He didn’t want to pursue anyone but her. She felt the connection, too. She wouldn’t have melted beneath his touch if she didn’t. She definitely would have killed him in that parking lot. “She’s mine.” As complicated and as simple as that.

“Fuck, Dante, but you don’t make things easy, do you?”

“Never.” He dropped onto the bed next to Matteo. “I know what they say about me.”

“Who?”

“Everyone.” He shrugged. “I’m a liability, and you know it. There’s a reason Lorenzo up and decided we needed to fuck with the Capparellis after decades of mostly ignoring each other. There’s a reason he sent me after the New York Romanovs in particular. It’s not because he wanted me to succeed.”

Matteo clenched his jaw. “You don’t know that.”

Yeah, he actually did. Dante wasn’t one to take an order without question, especially from his uncle. He’d done his own research before agreeing to the task and decided to go for his own reasons. “A junkyard dog is all well and good, until it bites the hand that feeds it. Lorenzo afraid of me.” Dante glanced at his cousin. “Our men are afraid of me.”

“Yeah, because you’re nuts and violent and don’t care about the hierarchy.”

His cousin joked, but they both knew it was truth. “Exactly.” He nodded. “That’s not going to change. Take care of the old man and cut me loose.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I am.” He cared about his cousin, but he didn’t really give a fuck about the petty rivalries and ground wars they constantly engaged in. They were a side effect of the things Dante actually wanted to do, but he didn’t have that core-deep belief in them that Matteo did. If he hadn’t met Rose, maybe he’d have been content to coast along playing the part of his cousin’s junkyard dog the same way he’d played the part for his uncle. It was too late to go back. He had met her, had recognized her on a fundamental level that went beyond knowing.

Rose was his, and he’d do whatever it took to ensure she chose him.

Matteo stared at him a long time and finally sighed. “You won’t be dissuaded.”

“No.”

“You don’t even know if she wants you. If she doesn’t kill you, her family will.”

“Può essere.” He shrugged. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

“You’re out of your damn mind.”

“She says the same thing.”

Matteo shook his head. “I can move my timeline up, but it won’t be immediate. I need a week to get things into place. You can’t do anything to raise suspicion in the meantime.”