A Promise of Torment (A Violent Agenda)

VIOLA

Dante is where I left him, outside in the parking lot waiting for me to fuck things up and come to my rescue. I yank open the car door and slide into the seat of his brown Mustang before slamming the door shut.

“What did this car ever do to you?” he says nonchalantly.

“It’s brown,” I say in a flat response.

He shakes his head. “How did it go with Kato?”

“He’s in. He thinks he knows where she is but can’t get to her. He’s not telling us until he’s safely away, but he’s agreed to keep Rebecca’s family safe from Adrien while we take him out.” I look at Dante with a little more intensity. “He’s afraid you’ll kill him after we get Rebecca back,” I say.

“He’s right to be cautious.”

“And someone knew we were here,” I add, looking over at Dante to judge his reaction. My skirt has ridden up, so I purposely leave it and rest one hand on the hilt of my knife which is strapped to my thigh. If this is another one of Adrien’s tests, then I’ve failed massively, and Dante is not someone I should be trapped in a car with.

Dante’s gaze sweeps over my legs straight to the blade. He doesn’t even blink at seeing my silk panties. I reckon he’s dead inside. Someone damaged him as a kid, because there’s no heat whatsoever in the way he looks at me.

“Are you planning on using that here?” he says after a pause.

He’s got a point. We’re in public outside the main entrance of the casino, parked up where the valets and bell boys for the casino pass by often. They keep giving his shitty car looks of distaste. I don’t blame them. I wholeheartedly agree this car is an eyesore. Still, it works both ways. Here I’m visible. Safe.

“Not unless I have to,” I say sweetly. “Now, where were we?” I say, mimicking Kato’s words from earlier. “How did Adrien know we were here?”

Dante sighs. “You think I told him?”

“Who else,” I snap. If only Kato’s guy hadn’t butchered him, I could have tortured the truth out of the fucker. When I said the same to Kato, he just laughed and said it didn’t matter. It matters. I can’t work like this—in the dark.

“It wasn’t me.” Dante shrugs, like it’s no big deal. It does make more sense than some elaborate mind game that my father and Dante are fucking me over with.

“Then who else? Why would one of Adrien’s men be here? Don't you think it’s a coincidence?”

“No. Adrien’s men usually come here to play cards.” He looks me dead in the eyes. “V, you need to trust that I wouldn’t do anything to hurt Rebecca.”

He is right about that. The monster does have a heart.

I breathe out, letting the tension ease off in my body. I keep expecting someone to fuck me over. Why? I was never this paranoid before.Or this alone with no one to really trust.

Maybe that’s why I miss the boys?

“Maybe you should sit the next one out? I can talk to Griffin.”

I rub the back of my neck while I refocus on that task at hand, and what Dante is saying to me. “No, I’m fine. I’m just jumping at shadows.”

He narrows his eyes but gives a nod. Jumping at shadows is our code word for having an off day. That’s all this is—an off day. I don’t need Lorcan or Dino, or even Jude for that matter. I need no one.

“You know, I could ask you the same questions about lover boy showing up?” Dante says.

Lover boy? Ah, he means Lorcan showing up in the casino.

I scowl. “You saw him then.”

“Please tell me you didn’t invite him here. I thought you were done with all that.”

Dante’s chastisement grates me more than I care to admit. Ever since I’ve been back, he’s done nothing but make me feel stupid for ‘shacking up with a bunch of teenage boys’ in the first place.

“I didn’t invite him here,” I say, as a loud-as-fuck, canary yellow McLaren screams into the courtyard in front of the casino. A valet gets out and hands the keys to a drunk guy with a giggling blonde in tow, as they stumble out of the front entrance. “Speak of the Devil,” I mumble.

Lorcan, shit-faced and oblivious, heads to the driver seat. He’s going to drink and drive. I draw the line at watching him do that. The fucker can burn a thousand ways but he’s not wrapping himself around a tree for the second time.