VICIOUS DEVOTION

CHAPTER SIX : The Alliance

The Palace – Serafina's Private Study

2:00 AM

The assassin's body had been disposed of. The alley had been cleaned. And Dante Viscardi was sitting in her private study like he owned the place.

Serafina watched him from across the room. He'd changed clothes—somehow, impossibly, he'd had a spare suit waiting in the shadows. The blood was gone. The violence was gone. He looked like a young CEO, not a killer who'd snapped a man's neck an hour ago.

And I kissed him, she thought. I kissed the monster. And I liked it.

"Stop staring," he said without looking up. He was examining the books on her shelf. "You're making me self-conscious."

"You don't have a self-conscious bone in your body."

He turned, a slow smile spreading across his face. "True. But I like when you look at me. It makes me feel..." He paused, searching for the word. "Seen."

She crossed her arms. "You're impossible."

"And yet, here you are. Alone with me. At two in the morning. After kissing me in an alley." He stepped closer. "I think you like the impossible, Angel."

She didn't back away. She was done backing away.

"Tell me everything," she said. "No more lies. No more games. I want the truth."

He tilted his head. "That's a dangerous request."

"I'm a dangerous woman."

His smile softened. "Yes. Yes, you are."

---

He sat on the edge of her desk, crossing his ankles like he had all the time in the world.

"The Viscardi family has controlled the underworld in this region for three generations," he began. "My grandfather started it. My father expanded it. And I—" He paused. "I inherited it when I was seventeen. My father was killed in a deal gone wrong. I've been running the empire ever since."

Serafina's eyes widened. "Seventeen? You were a child."

"I was a survivor." His voice was flat. "I had to be. The moment my father died, every rival in the region came for me. I killed my first man at eighteen. My tenth at nineteen. By twenty, I was untouchable."

She should have been horrified. Instead, she felt something else. Something dangerously close to admiration.

"How did you survive?" she asked softly.

He met her eyes. "I told myself I had something to live for. Someone to protect."

"Who?"

"You." He said it simply. Like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

She blinked. "I didn't even know you existed."

"I know." He stood, moving toward her. "I saw you for the first time two years ago. You were visiting an orphanage in the Lower Ward. A little girl had lost her parents. She was crying, and you—" He stopped, his voice rough. "You sat with her for hours. Held her hand. Told her she was loved. And I thought: That's the woman I want to spend my life with. That's the woman I'd die for."

Serafina's throat tightened. "Dante..."

"I'm not finished." He reached her, standing close enough to touch. "I've been watching you for two years. Not in a creepy, stalker way—"

"Actually, it's exactly creepy."

He laughed. "Okay, maybe a little. But I never tried to hurt you. I never tried to control you. I just—" He reached up, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay. That you were safe. That no one was hurting you."

"And the assassination attempt? The 'accident' in the alley?"

He winced. "That was... extreme. I admit that. But I needed to get close to you. I needed you to see me. To touch me. To—" He swallowed. "To let me in."

She stared at him. "You took a knife to your own ribs. For me."

"I'd take a bullet for you." His eyes blazed. "I'd take a thousand bullets. I'd walk through fire. I'd burn this entire city to the ground if it meant keeping you safe. That's not obsession, Serafina. That's love."

---

She didn't speak for a long moment.

Then, slowly, she reached up and touched his face. His skin was warm beneath her fingers. His eyes fluttered closed at her touch.

"You're insane," she whispered.

"Completely."

"You're reckless."

"Absolutely."

"You're going to get us both killed."

He opened his eyes. "Probably."

"And I—" She stopped. Took a breath. "I can't do this alone anymore."

He blinked. "What?"

"I've been fighting alone since my father died," she said. "The council. The nobles. The assassins. Everyone wants something from me. Everyone wants to control me. And I'm so tired, Dante. I'm so tired of being alone."

His hands came up, cupping her face. His thumbs stroked her cheekbones.

"You're not alone anymore," he said. "You have me. For as long as you want me. Forever, if you'll have me."

"A mafia prince," she said, a broken laugh escaping her. "I'm allying myself with a mafia prince."

"Technically, I'm a king," he corrected. "But I'll accept prince if you're the queen."

She laughed again—real this time. "You're impossible."

"I know." He leaned in, his forehead against hers. "But you love me anyway."

She pulled back, meeting his eyes. "I haven't said that."

"You didn't have to." His smile was soft. Devastating. "I know. I've known since you knelt in the gravel for me."

---

Serafina took a breath. A long, steadying breath.

Then she stepped back and extended her hand.

"Alright. An alliance."

Dante raised an eyebrow. "An alliance?"

"You have information I need. Access to the underworld. Resources I don't have. And"—she paused—"you're the only person in this city who's never tried to use me."

"I've only tried to love you," he said. "But I can see how that might feel the same."

She almost smiled. "Can you help me destroy the council?"

His eyes sharpened. "That's what you want?"

"I want to protect my people. My kingdom. And the council is corrupt. They're bleeding my country dry. They've been plotting against me since my father died." Her voice hardened. "I want them gone. All of them."

Dante studied her for a long moment. Then he took her hand—not to shake it. To hold it.

"Then we'll destroy them together," he said. "Every single one. And when they're gone—" He lifted her hand to his lips. "—I'll put a ring on your finger. And we'll rule this kingdom side by side."

"That's a bold assumption."

"I'm a bold man."

She pulled her hand back, but she was smiling. "You're insufferable."

"You love it."

"I tolerate it."

His grin was blinding. "Close enough."

---

They spent the next three hours planning.

Dante had files on every council member—dossiers, financial records, evidence of corruption, affairs, secrets buried deep. He'd been collecting them for years. For her.

She looked at the mountain of proof on her desk and realized: He really did love me. He built this entire empire of information just to hand it to me.

"Why didn't you approach me sooner?" she asked. "If you had all this—"

"I wanted you to come to me," he said. "I wanted you to choose me. Not because you needed me. But because you wanted me."

"And now?"

He looked at her, his dark eyes burning. "Now I'm yours. Whatever you need. Whenever you need it. I'm yours, Serafina. Completely. Irrevocably. Forever."

She should have been scared. She should have been cautious.

Instead, she leaned across the desk and kissed him.

"This is insane," she whispered against his lips.

"The best things are."

"I'm putting my life in your hands."

"I'll protect it with mine."

"I'm trusting you."

His voice dropped. "I know. And I will never, ever let you regret it."