BLOOD ON THE LEDGER

004

"Tell him," Dante said to Martha, his voice dropping into a deadly, possessive tone, "that she stays with me tonight."

Martha bowed her head slightly, her pale eyes flickering toward me one last time before she turned and stepped out of the study, pulling the heavy mahogany door shut behind her.

The room fell into a heavy, suffocating silence. The air was still warm, thick with the lingering scent of cedar, rain, and the raw, electric tension from what had just happened between us on the desk.

My heart pounded against my ribs, but I didn't let my fear show. I smoothed down the silk of my robe, tying the sash firmly around my waist. Don Vincenzo didn't know I was Lyra Vance, the daughter of the couple his syndicate had executed seven years ago. He only knew that his son had brought a woman into his estate. To him, I was just a girlfriend, a potential vulnerability, or a temporary distraction.

That cover story was the only shield keeping a bullet out of my head. But a shield was only useless if you didn't know how to wield it.

I turned my head to look at Dante. He was standing near the grand desk, adjusting his cuffs, his sharp jaw set like iron. The dark, hungry predator from moments ago was gone, replaced once again by the cold heir of the Valerius empire.

Then it occurred to my thoughts to use my power of seduction as a woman to get answers from him.

"You're going to take me to his compound, aren't you?" I asked, keeping my voice steady and clear.

Dante met my gaze, his dark eyes unblinking. "My father doesn't ask questions twice, Lyra. If I refuse to bring you to dinner tomorrow night, he will assume you are important enough to me which he considers a distraction and he will order your elimination immediately. Coming with me is the only way to keep you safe."

"Then I need to know what I'm walking into," I said, stepping closer to him until I was back in his space. "I won't play the clueless girlfriend if I'm walking into a house of killers. If I'm going to survive your father, I need the truth from you right now."

Dante let out a low, dark breath. "I told you, some truths will get you killed"

"I don't care!" I cut him off, stepping right up against his chest and tilting my head back to glare into his eyes. "You said you didn't know about my parents' hit when it happened. You said you were seventeen. But your family's name is on that paper, Dante! How do I know you aren't just using me to cover up your own past?"

Dante’s eyes flared with a dangerous, dark heat. Before I could take another breath, his large hand shot out, wrapping gently but firmly around the back of my neck. He pulled me flush against his hard body, bending his head down until his lips brushed against mine.

"You want to know if I'm lying to you?" he growled softly, his thumb resting against the pulse point throbbing wildly in my throat. "Look at me, Lyra. Look into my eyes and tell me if you see a man who would hurt you."

The intense heat radiating off his body flooded my senses. My breath hitched in my throat as his thumb traced the line of my jawline, sending a wave of electric shivers straight down my spine. The sheer contradiction of him was dizzying, he was dangerous, a mafian prince, yet the way he held me felt like the only anchor I had in this dark world.

I didn't back down. I wrapped my arms around his waistline, pulling him closer until there wasn't a single inch of space between us.

"Then prove it," I whispered against his mouth, using every ounce of my womanhood, every drop of the magnetic pull between us as a weapon. "Show me you're innocent."

Dante’s control snapped.

He didn't answer with words. He grabbed my waist, lifted me onto the edge of the mahogany desk, and parted my legs with his knee. His mouth slammed down on mine in a fierce, breathless, possessive kiss that stole every drop of air from my lungs.

It was fast, raw, and completely uncontrollable. I wrapped my legs around his hips, pulling him tight against my core as his hands slid beneath my silk robe, gripping my bare waist. A sharp gasp escaped my throat into his mouth as his fingers dug into my skin, driving a wave of intense, forbidden pleasure straight through my veins.

I kissed him back with a desperate, wild hunger, tangling my fingers in his dark hair, using the raw friction of our bodies to push him to his limits. In the middle of the madness, as his hands gripped my thighs and his mouth trailed burning kisses down my neck, I pulled back just enough to look into his dark, chaotic eyes.

"Tell me, Dante," I said, my breath heavy, my heart pounding wildly against his chest. "Did you have anything to do with my parents' death? Swear it to me."

Dante froze, his chest heaving as he stared down at me, his dark eyes burning with raw, unadulterated intensity. He didn't break eye contact for a single second.

"On my mother's grave," Dante whispered, his voice deep, rough, and entirely sincere. "I had no part in what happened to your parents. I didn't know Arthur Vance's name until three years ago when I found the archived ledger. The moment I realized my father ordered that hit, I started searching for you to protect you from the same fate."

The absolute honesty in his voice shattered the last wall of doubt in my mind. He wasn't the killer. He was the shield.

Before I could say another word, Dante pulled me back into him, claiming my lips in another searing, passionate collision that left both of us breathless and trembling against the dark wood of the desk.

When the storm finally settled, Dante helped me adjust my robe, his hands resting gently on my waist for a quiet moment. The intense heat between us hadn't vanished, but the air felt clearer, bound by a dangerous, unstated trust.

"My father's compound is heavily guarded," Dante said softly, stepping back to give me space, though his dark gaze remained fixed on me. "Tomorrow night, you play the role of my woman. Stay close to me, don't speak unless spoken to, and let me handle Don Vincenzo."

"I can handle myself," I replied, standing tall and meeting his gaze without flinching. "I'm not a victim, Dante. I survived Victoria for seven years. I can survive your father for one dinner."

A faint, rare smile touched the corner of his lips, a mixture of dark pride and quiet fascination. "I know you can, Lyra."

He turned toward his desk, pulling a small silver key from his pocket. He unlocked a hidden bottom drawer beneath the safe and pulled out a thick, leather bound book, the syndicate’s master financial ledger from seven years ago.

"Before we step into my father's house tomorrow, there is one more thing you need to know," Dante said, his tone turning cold and serious as he laid the book open under the desk lamp.

I stepped beside him, leaning in close to look at the yellowed page. My eyes scanned past my parents' names and the half-million-dollar payout ordered by Don Vincenzo.

"Look at the entry below the hit order," Dante instructed, pointing a long finger at a line of dark ink dated two days after the fatal crash.

My eyes narrowed as I read the line. It was a secondary payment, a massive offshore transfer made right after the execution was completed. But instead of a full name, the recipient was listed only by a pair of initials.

My breath caught in my throat as I stared at the two letters stamped into the leather page: V.C.

"Victoria Cross," I whispered, my blood turning to ice. "She didn't just take me in... she took a payout from your father."

"Victoria was paid off to keep you isolated and broke so you would never investigate your parents' past," Dante confirmed, his jaw tightening into a lethal line. "She was part of the plan from the beginning."

A cold, sharp anger settled deep in my chest. Victoria hadn't been a fake savior; she had been an accomplice to my parents' murder.

"She will pay for this," I said quietly, my voice ringing with an iron resolve.

"She will," Dante agreed. "But right now, we have a bigger problem."

He flipped the page of the ledger to an entry stamped at the very bottom of a recent transaction dated just three days ago.

Below the old record sat a new transfer of funds, authorized directly from Don Vincenzo’s private account to an unknown contact inside the city.

Beside the payout was a single, terrifying note handwritten in cold black ink:

LOCATE ARTHUR VANCE’S DAUGHTER. TERMINATE ON SIGHT.

My heart stopped beating. My eyes flew to Dante's face as the truth crashed over me.

Don Vincenzo didn't know I was standing in his son's house right now. But he knew I was alive, and he had already ordered my execution.

Dante looked at me, his dark eyes dead serious as he closed the ledger. "Tomorrow night, you walk into his house as my girlfriend. And if he finds out who you really are before we leave... Neither of us is walking out alive.”