Chapter 6
710 Words
Arielle / Dante / Unknown
Arielle
The city blurred past the windows, lights streaking like my thoughts couldn’t slow down long enough to land.
Dante drove with one hand on the wheel, the other resting between us like a warning line I wasn’t supposed to cross—but somehow already had. His jaw was tight, eyes locked on the road like he was daring the night to test him again.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?” I asked quietly.
“Safe place.”
“You keep saying that.”
“That’s because it keeps being true.”
I huffed a humorless laugh. “Your idea of safe includes people breaking into houses and guns being pulled.”
He glanced at me then, something heavy sitting behind his eyes. “My idea of safe is you breathing.”
That shut me up.
I folded my hands in my lap, trying to stop them from shaking. I’d seen blood tonight. Real blood. Not TV, not rumors—reality smeared across knuckles that had protected me.
“You weren’t scared,” I said.
He was silent.
“You were angry.”
His grip tightened on the wheel. “Fear wastes time.”
“And anger?”
“Gets things done.”
The car slowed as we pulled into an underground garage beneath a sleek building I’d never noticed before. Private. Quiet. Too quiet.
He cut the engine and turned to me fully.
“This place doesn’t exist,” he said. “No records. No names attached.”
“Like me,” I muttered.
His gaze softened despite himself. “Not like you.”
We rode the elevator up in silence, tension thick enough to taste. When the doors opened, the apartment was minimalist—dark floors, glass walls, the city sprawled beneath us like it was at his mercy.
“Stay here,” he said. “I’ll check the perimeter.”
I watched him disappear down the hallway, heart doing something traitorous when the door closed behind him.
I wasn’t just scared anymore.
I was tethered.
Dante
I locked the door behind me and leaned against it for half a second longer than necessary.
I hadn’t planned for tonight to go sideways. I definitely hadn’t planned for Arielle to see any of it.
The call came as I was checking the security feeds.
“Cross,” the voice said. Same one from earlier. Amused. Persistent.
“You should’ve stayed out of it,” I replied coldly.
“She looks just like her mother,” the man continued. “Did you know that? Soft eyes. Same stubborn mouth.”
My blood went ice-cold.
“You say her name again,” I warned, “and this conversation ends permanently.”
A chuckle. “You’re already too late.”
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone, jaw clenched.
They were moving faster than I expected.
I turned and found Arielle standing at the edge of the hallway, arms wrapped around herself.
“You’re lying to me,” she said.
I didn’t deny it.
“You’re protecting me from something bigger than a break-in.”
“Yes.”
“Does it involve my father?”
I hesitated.
That was my mistake.
Her eyes filled—not with tears, but resolve. “I deserve to know.”
I stepped closer. “What you deserve is time.”
“I don’t have time,” she shot back. “Neither do you.”
She was right.
And that terrified me more than any threat ever could.
Unknown
The girl moved exactly where we thought she would.
Cross was predictable when it came to assets.
“She’s the key,” I said into the phone. “He won’t sacrifice her.”
A pause.
Then approval.
“Good,” the voice replied. “Let him believe he’s in control.”
I smiled.
Because men like Dante Cross always underestimated one thing—
What someone would do when love became leverage.
Arielle
I stood in the middle of his apartment, the truth settling into my bones.
Whatever Dante Cross was hiding…
It wasn’t just his war anymore.
It was mine.
And something told me there was no version of this story where I walked away untouched.
- Writer
