Seducing My Father's Killer

CHAPTER2

CHAPTER 2

Summer's POV

"You're late."

I froze in the doorway of Dante's penthouse office at 6:03 AM, my heart already hammering from the sleepless night I'd spent replaying yesterday's humiliation on an endless loop.

"Traffic was" I started, but he cut me off without even looking up from his laptop.

"I don't care about excuses, Summer. I care about obedience, and you're already failing on day one."

He finally lifted his gaze and the intensity in those dark eyes made my breath catch in my throat.

"Come here."

I crossed the room on legs that felt unsteady, still furious about what he'd made me do yesterday, still feeling Viktor's hands on my body, still tasting Dante's brutal kiss.

"Closer," he commanded when I stopped a few feet from his desk.

I stepped forward and he spun his chair around, grabbing my hips and pulling me between his legs before I could react.

"Did you sleep last night?" Dante asked, studying my face with unsettling attention to detail.

"Not much," I admitted, because lying about something he could clearly see seemed pointless.

His thumb brushed the dark circle under my left eye with surprising gentleness, "Nightmares or regrets?"

Both, I thought bitterly. Nightmares about finding my father's body and regrets about selling myself to his killer.

"Just nervous about my first real day," I lied smoothly.

"Good," Dante said, his hands sliding up my thighs beneath my skirt in a way that made my pulse spike, "Nervous means you're taking this seriously. And you should be nervous, Summer, because what I'm about to show you today could get you killed if you're not careful."

My stomach dropped, "What do you mean?"

"You'll see," he murmured, standing abruptly and reaching for his jacket, "We have a meeting in Brooklyn in forty minutes and I need you to take detailed notes on everything you see and hear."

"What kind of meeting?" I asked, hating how my voice wavered slightly.

Dante's smile was dangerous, "The kind where you keep your mouth shut and your eyes open. And if anyone asks, you're my new acquisition."

"Acquisition?" I repeated, the word tasting bitter on my tongue, "Like property?"

"Exactly like property," he said, gripping my jaw hard enough to make me gasp, forcing me to meet his eyes, "Because that's what you are now, Summer. Mine. And everyone in my world needs to understand that clearly."

He released me and headed for the door, "When we walk in there, you stay within arm's reach at all times, you don't speak unless I explicitly tell you to, and you look at me like you're completely and utterly mine. Can you do that?"

I wanted to slap him and to scream that I belonged to no one.

But I'd signed the contract, and this was what getting close to him required.

"Yes," I said through gritted teeth.

The drive to Brooklyn was tense and suffocating. Dante made rapid-fire phone calls in Italian while his hand rested possessively on my thigh, occasionally squeezing hard enough to leave fingerprint bruises as some kind of twisted reminder that he was in control.

When we pulled up to an abandoned warehouse that looked like it should have been condemned decades ago, genuine fear spiked through my system.

This wasn't a business meeting.

This was something much darker.

"Remember what I said," Dante warned, turning to face me with eyes gone cold and deadly, "You're mine. Act like it convincingly or we both have problems."

Then he kissed me hard and claiming, tongue invading my mouth until I had no choice but to open for him with a gasp, and when he pulled back I was breathless and furious and hating how my traitorous body responded.

Inside the warehouse, six dangerous-looking men sat around a table literally covered in cash, guns, and what looked suspiciously like bricks of cocaine wrapped in plastic.

The moment Dante walked through the door, every single man stood like he was royalty entering his throne room.

"Gentlemen," Dante said smoothly, his hand moving to the back of my neck in an unmistakably possessive grip, "This is Summer, my new personal assistant. She's completely off limits to all of you. Touch her and die screaming. Are we clear?"

A chorus of "Yes, boss" echoed through the warehouse.

My stomach churned because I'd just walked into an actual crime syndicate meeting, and Dante Moretti wasn't just some ruthless billionaire.

He was a goddamn mafia boss.

"She's beautiful, boss," Viktor said, his scarred face splitting into something that might have been a smile, "Where'd you find this one?"

"None of your f*****g business," Dante replied sharply, pulling me down onto his lap as he took the head of the table like a king claiming his throne, "Now let's discuss our Konstantin problem before I lose my patience."

My entire body went rigid at that name.

Konstantin.

The family my father had supposedly been laundering money for before he died.

"They hit another one of our shipments last night," Viktor reported, sliding a folder across the table, "Took two million in product, killed three of our guys, and left their bodies with a very clear message carved into their chests."

"What message?" Dante asked, and I felt his hand slide possessively up my thigh under the table where no one else could see.

"They want war."

Dante's laugh was cold and cruel, "Then war is exactly what they'll get. I want every Konstantin operation in this city identified and burned to the ground by Friday. Every warehouse, every front business, every safe house, I want it all reduced to ashes."

The men around the table nodded with violent enthusiasm while I tried desperately to process what I was hearing.

Dante was planning to destroy the Konstantin family.

The same family my father had worked with.

The same family that might have answers about what really happened the night he died.

"What about Alexei Konstantin himself?" another man asked, "He's got serious protection from the Russian Bratva."

"I don't give a f**k if he's got protection from God himself," Dante snarled, and his grip on my thigh tightened painfully, "Alexei Konstantin dies screaming, and I want to be the one holding the knife when it happens. Personal. Slow. Painful."

The casual violence in his voice made me shiver involuntarily, and he felt it because his other hand came up to cup my face with shocking gentleness.

"Cold, piccola?" he murmured, loud enough for everyone to hear, and I realized this was another test.

He was watching to see if I'd break.

"No," I whispered, forcing myself to meet his dark eyes, "Just excited."

Something dangerous and approving flashed across his face, "That's my good girl."

The meeting continued for another excruciating hour, with detailed discussions of weapons shipments, territory disputes, bribed officials, and increasingly brutal plans for revenge against the Konstantins.

And through it all, Dante kept one hand on me constantly possessive touches on my thigh, my waist, my neck occasionally pulling me closer or whispering commands in Italian just to watch me shiver.

By the time we finally left, I was trembling from a combination of fear, adrenaline, and the dangerous heat that kept building between us despite everything.

In the car, Dante pulled me across the seat directly into his lap without warning.

"You did extremely well in there," he said, genuine approval in his voice, "Didn't flinch when they discussed murder, didn't run when you realized what I really am, didn't break character once."

"What are you?" I asked, even though I already knew the terrifying answer.

His smile was absolutely lethal, "I'm the devil, Summer. And you just walked willingly into hell itself."

Then he kissed me again, slower this time but somehow deeper, his hands everywhere as the driver navigated Brooklyn streets like this was completely normal.

When we finally pulled up to Moretti Tower, Dante released me with visible reluctance.

"Go home. Get some rest. Tomorrow night we have dinner with some very dangerous people and I need you looking absolutely perfect."

I stumbled out of the car on shaking legs, and as I watched him drive away I touched my swollen lips with trembling fingers.

I'd just sat through a meeting planning the complete destruction of my father's former associates.

The men who mig

ht actually know what really happened.

And the monster I'd come here to destroy was hunting them too.

Everything I thought I knew was wrong.