The USB & Jealousy
1708 Words
The door exploded inward.
Wood and metal splinters flew. Smoke filled the room. Dante shoved Adriana down and rolled, firing blind.
Gunfire lit up the darkness. Muzzle flashes. Shouts in Italian.
Dante’s arm came around her waist like steel. He dragged her across the floor behind the bed as bullets tore through the mattress above them.
“Stay down,” he growled. His breath was hot against her ear. “Don’t move. Don’t breathe. Don’t die.”
Adriana couldn’t breathe anyway. Her heart was in her throat. She clutched his shirt with both hands like he was the only solid thing in the world.
Dante emptied his magazine. Click. He cursed and dropped it, pulling a second gun from his ankle holster. Who kept a gun there?
The shooting stopped. Footsteps. Three men moved into the room. Shadows with guns.
“Boss,” one voice said. Accent Russian. “We’re here for the girl. Hand her over. Don’t make this messy.”
Dante laughed. Once. No humor. “You’re in my house, Vanko. Nothing you do here is clean.”
More gunfire. Dante returned it, one-handed, while his other arm locked around Adriana’s waist. He was moving with her, rolling, dragging her toward the back wall.
Adriana’s fingers found something under the bed. Cold metal. A second gun. Dante’s spare.
“Can you shoot?” Dante asked without looking at her. He fired again.
Adriana racked the slide like her brother taught her years ago. “Yes.”
Dante’s lips curved. He didn’t smile, but something in his eyes shifted. Approval. Pride. “Good girl. Aim for center mass. Don’t hesitate.”
A man rounded the bed. Adriana fired. Once. Twice. He dropped.
Dante glanced at her. One second. That was all. Then he was back to firing, back to killing, back to being the devil.
When the last man fell, silence hit like a wave.
Dante stood slowly, pulling her up with him. He checked her face, her hands, her body with quick, possessive touches.
“You’re bleeding,” he said. His thumb wiped something from her cheek. Blood. Not hers. Someone else’s.
“I’m fine,” she whispered. Her hands were shaking. “Did we—”
“We survived,” Dante cut her off. He kicked the bodies aside like they were trash. “For now.” He crossed to the door and locked it again. New door. New locks. He didn’t trust anything.
Adriana stared at the USB drive on the floor. The one Dante smashed under his boot. It was in pieces now. Useless.
“What was on it?” she asked.
Dante crouched and picked up the largest shard. He turned it over in his fingers. “Photos. Videos. Proof.” He crushed it in his fist until it cut his palm. “Your father has been selling you since you were sixteen, Adriana. Not just to me. To everyone.”
Her stomach dropped. “What?”
“Marriage contracts. Photos. He had a buyer list.” Dante stood and went to the safe. He punched in 0417 again. Inside: the file, the gun, Matteo’s watch. He pulled out the file and threw it at her feet. “Open it.”
Adriana’s hands shook as she flipped it open.
Photos. Dozens of them. Her at 16, 17, 18. At parties she didn’t remember. In dresses she’d never worn. Sleeping. Smiling.
And documents. _Bids. Offers. Price lists._
Her name next to numbers. 5 million. 10 million. 50 million.
Her father had auctioned her off piece by piece.
Adriana dropped the file. She couldn’t breathe. “No. He wouldn’t—”
“He would,” Dante said. He crouched in front of her and forced her chin up. Made her look at him. “That’s why Matteo died, Adriana. He found out. Tried to stop it. Your father chose money over his son.”
Tears burned her eyes. She slapped Dante’s hand away. “You’re lying. You killed Matteo!”
“I ordered the hit,” Dante said. No flinch. No guilt. “Because Matteo was going to kill your father. And I needed your father alive long enough to collect the debt. Matteo was collateral damage.” His voice was cold. Clinical. “I’m a monster, Adriana. Don’t make me something I’m not.”
Adriana scrambled away from him, back hitting the wall. “I hate you.”
“I know,” Dante said. He stood and went to the mini fridge. He pulled out water and set it beside her without looking at her. “Hate me all you want. Just don’t leave me.”
The way he said it wasn’t a command. It was something worse. It was truth.
A knock at the door. One rap. Then two. Code.
Dante’s whole body went still. He looked at the door. Then at her.
“Don’t move,” he said. He picked up his gun again.
The door opened. Not kicked in. Opened with a key.
A man stepped in. Tall. Blonde. Blue eyes. He wore a suit like Dante’s but his smile was warm. Friendly. The opposite of Dante’s cold.
“Boss,” the man said. He saw Adriana and his smile widened. “You didn’t tell me the bride was this beautiful.”
He took a step toward her.
Dante moved faster than thought. He was between them in one second, gun aimed at the man’s chest.
“Don’t look at her,” Dante said. Voice low. Deadly. “Don’t speak to her. Don’t breathe in her direction, Luca.”
The man—Luca—put his hands up. Still smiling, but his eyes went sharp. “Relax, Dante. I’m just here to deliver the package.” He held up a phone. “Your father wants to make a deal.”
Dante didn’t lower the gun. “Luca, if you look at my wife again, I’ll put a bullet in your eye. We clear?”
“Crystal,” Luca said. But his eyes flicked to Adriana anyway. Quick. Appraising.
Dante fired. The bullet hit the wall an inch from Luca’s head. Plaster rained down.
Luca didn’t flinch. “Point taken.”
Dante lowered the gun but didn’t put it away. “What does Antonio want?”
“He wants the USB back,” Luca said. He tossed the phone to Dante. “He says he has more photos. More videos. He’ll release them to the press unless you hand Adriana over.”
Dante caught the phone. He looked at the screen. Then he looked at Adriana.
For a second, she saw it. Uncertainty. Rage. Something raw and broken.
He handed her the phone. “He wants to talk to you.”
Adriana took it with shaking hands. Put it to her ear. “Dad?”
Antonio’s voice came through, slurred and desperate. “Adriana, baby girl. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“You sold me,” she whispered. “You auctioned me off.”
“Business, Adriana. It was business. But I can fix this. Come home. I’ll give Dante his money back. You don’t have to marry him.”
Dante’s hand came down on her shoulder. Heavy. Claiming. His fingers dug in just enough to remind her.
Adriana met his eyes. “You told me he killed Matteo.”
“I did,” Dante said. He didn’t look away. “But he’s still your father. Choice is yours, Adriana. Go back to him. Or stay with me.”
The line was quiet. Then Antonio spoke again. “Choose family, baby. Choose me.”
Adriana closed her eyes. When she opened them, Dante was still watching her. Waiting. No pressure. Just... waiting.
She put the phone down. “I choose me,” she said. “I’m not going back to him.”
Dante’s grip on her shoulder tightened. Not painful. Possessive. Satisfied.
“Good girl,” he murmured. Then he looked at Luca. “Tell Antonio the deal is off. Tell him if he releases one photo, one video, I’ll send him his daughter’s body parts one at a time.”
Luca swallowed. “He won’t like that.”
“I don’t care what he likes,” Dante said. He pulled Adriana up and tucked her behind him. “He should’ve thought of that before he sold his daughter.”
Luca backed toward the door. “You’re making enemies, Dante.”
“I was born an enemy,” Dante said. He fired one last shot into the ceiling. Plaster rained down on Luca. “Now get out before I change my mind about your eye.”
Luca left. The door locked behind him.
Silence again. Just Dante and Adriana and the bodies on the floor.
Dante turned to her slowly. His eyes were dark. Intense.
“You chose me,” he said. Like he couldn’t believe it.
Adriana nodded. She was still shaking. “I did. But not for you. For me. Because I’m done being sold.”
Dante stepped closer. He cupped her face with both hands. His thumbs brushed her cheeks, wiping tears she didn’t realize she’d shed.
“You’re mine now,” he said. Not a question. A fact. “Not because of the contract. Because you chose. And I don’t let go of what chooses me.”
He kissed her forehead. Then her temple. Then her cheek. Each touch was slow. Deliberate. Claiming.
When his lips hovered over hers, Adriana closed her eyes.
But before he could kiss her, her phone buzzed. The one she thought was gone. The one Dante threw out the car window.
It was on the table. Whole. Unbroken.
Text from Unknown Number: _Nice try, Dante. But she belongs to me. See you at the wedding reception. Bring her alive. - V_
V. Vittorio. The rival Don.
Dante saw it too. His whole body went rigid.
He crushed the phone in his fist.
“Change of plans,” he said. Voice like ice. “We leave. Now. Because the only person who touches you, Adriana, is me.”
He pulled her toward the hidden exit as sirens wailed in the distance.
Behind them, the lights flickered once. Then a camera in the corner blinked red.
They were still being watched.
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- Writer
