Chapter 2 The Heir with a Temper
709 Words
Dante’s POV
I f*****g failed.
The red F bleeds across the top of my exam like a goddamn scarlet letter. My fingers crush the paper into a fist before anyone else can see, but I know the whispers are already starting.
Dante Moretti. Golden boy of Valencia University. Star pitcher. Mafia heir.
Failing.
If I can’t pass this class, I don’t pitch. If I don’t pitch, I don’t get drafted. No draft, no escape. And then what’s left for me?
My father’s world.
The Moretti empire isn’t a family business. It’s a f*****g kingdom built on debts and blood. If baseball slips away, I inherit all of it,every dirty deal, every body in the ground. And the truth is, sometimes I feel the darkness pulling already.
Professor Graves keeps droning on, but I don’t hear him. My blood pounds in my ears, a steady reminder of everything I stand to lose.
Movement catches my eye.
Back row. The girl who never talks.
Her eyes are wide, lips parted, staring down at her exam like it’s a winning lottery ticket. I catch a flash of her grade,an A.
Of course.
Little Miss Nobody aced the exam I just tanked.
Seraphina Vega. Sera. That’s her name. I’ve seen it on the attendance sheet, heard the professor call it once or twice. I never paid her attention before. She’s too quiet. Too careful. She slips through campus like she’s trying to disappear.
But now she’s glowing. That A has lit her up from the inside, and for the first time, I really look at her.
Dark hair spilling over her shoulders. Green eyes that widen when she realises I’m watching. And when our gazes lock, something slams into me hard enough to steal my breath.
She looks away too fast, but it doesn’t matter. I saw enough.
She has what I need.
And I don’t lose.
The second class ends, and I move. Students scatter around me, chatter filling the air, but all I see is her. She shoves her exam into her bag like she’s hiding contraband, trying to slip out before I can reach her.
Not a chance.
I cut her off, planting my hand on her desk. “Hey.”
She startles, looking up at me like a deer caught in headlights. Up close, she’s even prettier. Soft mouth, stubborn chin, eyes that want to defy me even as they shake.
“You got the A,” I say, my voice flat.
She swallows, gripping her pen like a weapon. “Yeah. I guess so.”
I study her. Small. Nervous. But not stupid. No, she’s sharp. Sharp enough to do what I couldn’t. Sharp enough to save me.
“You’re smart.”
It comes out like an accusation, and her brows shoot up. “Or maybe I just studied.”
That mouth. That tone.
Nobody talks to me like that.
I lean in, close enough to see her pulse jump in her throat. “You’re going to help me.”
She blinks. “What?”
“You’re going to tutor me,” I tell her, like it’s already written in stone. “I need a passing grade. You can get me there.”
Her lips twitch. Then she laughs—a quick, nervous sound, but a laugh all the same. “Yeah, no. Not happening.”
My jaw tightens. Nobody tells me no. Not professors. Not girls. Not even my father.
I drop my voice lower, soft but dangerous. “Everyone has a price, Sera.”
Her eyes flare. And f**k, I like the way my name sounds in her silence, like she wants to spit it back at me but can’t.
“Then find someone else,” she says, sharper now. “I’m not for sale.”
Heat curls low in my gut. Defiance looks good on her.
For a moment, I say nothing. Just let the tension stretch between us. Students push past, filing out of the lecture hall, but it feels like we’re alone.
Then I smirk. Slow. Dark. A promise.
“We’ll see.”
I leave her there, cheeks flushed, chest heaving. But inside, my mind is already working.
I need her.
And whether she likes it or not,
I’m going to have her.
- Writer
