Claimed By The Don

Chapter Two

**ALESSANDRO**

The cathedral smelled like dust and forgotten prayers. I sat in the last pew, hands clasped to stop them from shaking. Sending those texts had been stupid. Reckless. Exactly the kind of thing that got people killed in my family.

But I couldn't let this happen without at least trying.

Footsteps echoed through the empty space. I didn't turn around, just waited as Dante Moretti slid into the pew beside me. Even in the darkness, I could feel the hatred radiating off him like heat.

"You have five minutes before I assume this is a trap," he said.

"It's not." I finally looked at him. Up close, he was devastating. Sharp jaw, dark eyes that promised violence, lips pressed into a hard line. Nothing like the boy in the file photos Vittorio had shown me. That Dante had been softer, younger. This one had been forged in fire. "I needed to talk to you before tomorrow. Before we're surrounded by people pretending this is normal."

"Nothing about this is normal."

"No." I leaned back against the wooden pew. "Marco's using you. My father's using me. We're both just pieces on their chessboard."

Dante's laugh was bitter. "You think I don't know that? The difference is, I want to be used. Your family murdered mine. I'll play whatever role gets me close enough to make you all pay."

The words should have scared me. Instead, they just made me tired.

"I wasn't there," I said quietly. "The night it happened. I was in Florence."

"But you came back. You stayed." His voice dropped to something dangerous. "That makes you complicit."

"I tried to leave. Nico broke three of my ribs and gave me a choice: stay and live, or run and die." I pulled up the back of my shirt, just enough to show the edge of scarred skin. "This is what family loyalty looks like in the Santoro house."

Dante's hand shot out, gripping my wrist hard enough to bruise. "Don't. Don't you dare try to make me feel sorry for you."

"I'm not." I met his eyes, refusing to look away. "I'm telling you the truth. I know what my family did. I know they're monsters. And I know you're going to use this marriage to destroy them."

He released my wrist slowly. "Then why are you here?"

"Because I want to help you."

The silence stretched between us, heavy and charged. Dante stared at me like I'd grown a second head.

"You expect me to believe that?"

"I've been funneling money to victims' families for three years. Including yours." I pulled out my phone, showed him the transfer records. "Your aunt Lucia. The bakery on Seventh. I've been paying her rent, covering her medical bills. She doesn't know it's me."

Dante grabbed the phone, scanning the records. I watched his face shift from suspicion to shock to something harder to name.

"Why?"

"Because I couldn't save them, but I could try to make things right for who was left." I took the phone back. "I'm not asking for forgiveness. I'm offering you an alliance. You want to bring down my family? I'll give you everything you need."

"In exchange for what?"

"Take me with you when you leave." The words came out rushed, desperate. "After it's done. I don't care where. I just need to be far away from them."

Dante stood abruptly, pacing in front of the altar. "This is insane. You're setting up your own family."

"They're not my family. They're my prison." I stood too, closing the distance between us. "Vittorio's dying. When he's gone, Nico takes over. And Nico won't let me breathe, let alone live. This marriage is my only chance at an exit strategy."

"So you want to use me just like everyone else."

"Yes." I didn't see the point in lying. "But at least I'm honest about it. And at least we both get what we want."

Dante turned to face me fully. We were close now, close enough that I could see the gold flecks in his dark eyes, close enough to feel the tension crackling between us like a live wire.

"If you're lying," he said softly, "if this is some elaborate trap, I will kill you slowly."

"I know."

"And even if you're telling the truth, even if you help me, I still hate you. I hate everything you represent."

"I know that too."

His hand came up, fingers wrapping around my throat. Not squeezing, just resting there. A threat and a promise. My pulse hammered against his palm.

"Why do you look at me like that?" he whispered.

"Like what?"

"Like you want me to hurt you."

I swallowed hard, feeling his fingers shift against my skin. "Maybe I do. Maybe I've been hurting for so long I don't know what else feels like."

Something flickered in Dante's eyes. Surprise, maybe. Or recognition. His thumb traced the line of my jaw, and I couldn't stop the shiver that ran through me.

"This is a bad idea," he said, but he didn't move away.

"Everything about this is a bad idea." I reached up slowly, covering his hand with mine. "But we're doing it anyway."

For a moment, we just stood there. The enemy's son and the orphaned avenger, caught in a web neither of us had spun. Then Dante's other hand fisted in my shirt, yanking me closer.

"If we do this," he growled, "if we actually go through with this marriage, there are rules."

"What rules?"

"In public, we play the perfect couple. In private, we plan. We gather evidence, we find weaknesses, and we prepare to burn it all down." His grip tightened. "And you tell me everything. Every secret, every operation, every dirty deal. No holding back."

"Agreed."

"And if I find out you're betraying me….."

"You'll kill me. You've mentioned that." I couldn't help the small smile. "Anything else?"

His eyes dropped to my mouth. "We'll have to make it convincing. The marriage. They'll expect us to act like we want each other."

"That won't be hard."

The words slipped out before I could stop them. Dante's eyes snapped back to mine, dark and dangerous.

"What did you say?"

My heart was racing now, but I didn't take it back. "You heard me."

He stared at me for a long moment, something heated and complicated crossing his face. Then he released me abruptly, stepping back.

"Tomorrow night. Dinner at Sofia's. We'll make the arrangements." He headed for the door, then paused. "And Alessandro? Don't contact me again unless it's an emergency. They're watching both of us."

"Wait." I caught up to him at the cathedral entrance. "I need to know. When this is over, when you've destroyed my family, are you going to kill me too?"

Dante looked at me with those burning eyes, and for the first time, I saw something other than hatred there. Something almost like curiosity.

"Ask me again in three weeks," he said. "After the wedding night.”