Chapter 6:Lines that Blur
978 Words
The message remained on the screen, like a sore that is not healed.
She’s not the target. You are.
Dante lowered the telephone gradually. The room seemed smaller, narrower, as though the walls had joined their ears.
Sienna did not say anything immediately. She looked instead at his face, how his jaw set, how he straightened his shoulders, how he did not seem surprised.
“You knew,” she said.
“I suspected,” Dante replied. “Now I’m certain.”
She crossed her arms, embracing herself. So being married to me did not endanger me. It put you in front of it.”
“Yes.”
That is not what you said on the altar.
His eyes lifted to hers. I told what would make you obedient at the altar.
Her chest tightened. “And now?”
Now, he said, as he came into closer distance, I am what keeps you alive.
She didn’t move back. She should have. She knew that. However her body remained where it was, pegged by something she did not want to name.
“Why me?” she asked softly. Why not conceal me away out in the distance?
Dante said, because they would still come. And that I should cause you to be weak by hiding you.
She scoffed. “You don’t even know me.”
A beat.
“I know you didn’t break,” he said. “I know you didn’t beg. And I know you stood before men who frighten whole cities and never dropped your eyes.
His voice dropped. “That matters.”
There was a movement in her breast. Dangerous. Warm.
She turned back, and headed toward the window. The estate was being lit up by security lights outside. My mother desires me to mistrust you.
“Yes.”
And you are letting me come anywhere near to do harm.
“Yes.”
She faced him again. “You trust me?”
Dante hesitated.
Just a fraction. But she saw it.
I hope, I said, you despise to have the reins of you more than you do me.
She laughed quietly. That was the happiest thing anybody had said to me to-day.
Footsteps were sounding in the corridor. Dante extended his hand towards her, and pulled her succinctly and yet forcefully along.
“Stay quiet,” he murmured.
A man entered. One of the inner circle. His gaze was too brief: to Sienna, and then past.
We have lost one of the roads, he said. “No breach. No alarms.”
Dante’s gaze sharpened. “Which one?”
The man named it.
Sienna knew it without knowing why she knew--her stomach fell, her pulse rose.
That is the road through the port, she told me.
The man swiveled round to her, angerily blazing. “This doesn’t concern—”
“It concerns me,” she cut in. My father company used to service that route.
Silence hit the room.
Dante looked at her sharply. “Say that again.”
She swallowed. That was our way before he lost all.
The man shifted. “That’s irrelevant.”
“No,” Dante said. “It’s not.”
The man’s jaw tightened. “Capo, with respect—”
“Leave,” Dante ordered.
The door shut hard behind him.
Sienna exhaled slowly. “You think it’s connected.”
I believe, Dante, that your family was not as distant as you wanted it to be mine.
Her voice trembled. You mean my father was not just a gambler.
I am saying, Dante answered, some one made use of him long before he got out of control.
The burden of it came against her. Lies stacked on lies. Facts under contracts and blood.
She rubbed her arms. Dante noticed.
He moved and put his jacket around her without even thinking.
The fabric was warm.
She froze.
So now this is a part of the contract? she questioned.
“No,” he said quietly. “This is instinct.”
Her breath caught.
Both of them stood still a little. The air between them could be described as electricity. His hand was hovering about her shoulder, not in touch--but very close to that of her.
You are a dangerous person, she said.
“So are you.”
A phone buzzed again.
Dante withdrew interrupting the moment. He looked at the screen, and then became rigid.
“What?” Sienna asked.
He reached over and turned the phone over to her.
A photo filled the screen.
Her father.
Tied to a chair.
Alive.
Her heart slammed. “That’s today.”
“Yes.”
And that place--that is one of your hideouts, too.
Dante’s expression darkened.
They do not test me any more, he said. “They’re testing you.”
Sienna raised her head, terror struggling with determination. “Then let’s fail their test.”
He met her gaze. A terrible glint was shown between them.
“Pack a bag,” he said. “You’re coming with me.”
“Where?”
“To retrieve your father.”
“And if it’s a trap?”
“It is.”
She nodded. “Good.”
Dante paused. “You trust me that much?”
She hesitated. Then: “I trust you more than her.”
That response was more severe than an oath.
They moved fast. Hallways blurred. Doors opened and shut. As they entered the night, Dante bended over.
“Stay close,” he murmured. “No matter what you see.”
Sienna nodded.
However, when the car was driving off, her phone buzzed in her hand.
One message.
From her mother.
Go with him and he will not see the night.
Sienna’s breath hitched.
She was gazing at Dante--lost, calm, blind.
And this time round, after the first time since the wedding, her heart had chosen and her mind could not take back her choice.
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