Chapter 13

Dante POV

Never leave a dangerous threat breathing when he knows where your greatest vulnerabilities sleep at night. That is the first rule of corporate warfare my father beat into my skull. You eliminate the problem before the problem finds a way to strike back.

Sitting in my dark car parked down the street, I watched Roman storm off her porch. He yanked the heavy front door shut behind him with a deafening crash. His heavy boots stomped down the stone steps as he descended into the freezing night.

He marched down the winding driveway with his chest puffed out in false victory. The coward just spent twenty minutes terrorizing a fragile girl behind closed doors. I gripped the leather steering wheel until the thick material groaned under the severe pressure.

My blood burned with a consuming, white hot fire. I wanted to step out of the vehicle and cross the dark street. I wanted to break his neck on the pristine asphalt and end his miserable existence.

But a dead body in front of her estate would bring the police straight to Sienna. My father would use the chaos to execute his hostile takeover without my interference. I had to let the pathetic champion walk to his truck and drive away in one piece.

Roman revved his engine and sped down the quiet suburban street. His bright red tail lights faded into the pitch black darkness. I let out a harsh breath and leaned my head back against the seat.

The streetlamp above my car flickered and died, plunging the street into complete shadow. The cold wind howled against the tinted windows of my vehicle. The temperature dropped closer to zero, but the heater inside the cabin kept the air warm and breathable.

I rested my forehead against the steering wheel and closed my eyes for a brief second. My entire life was a continuous series of violent commands from a ruthless dictator. Vincenzo never asked for my opinion on the lives we ruined to build his massive wealth.

My glowing laptop screen bathed the dark cabin in a cold blue light. The decryption software was still running a massive brute force attack on her secure servers. The green progress bar crawled forward at an agonizing pace.

Every percentage gained felt like a dagger plunging straight into my chest. I was breaching her digital sanctuary while Roman shattered her physical one. We were both just monsters tearing her apart for our own selfish gain.

My father trained me to view human collateral as a simple business expense. He taught me to find the softest target and exploit the weakness for maximum profit. Sienna was supposed to be nothing more than a stepping stone to a massive corporate empire.

But staring at her terrified eyes in the arena changed the entire equation. She did not look at me like a wealthy target or a corporate prize. She looked at me like a sanctuary from the freezing rain.

Roman went inside that massive house to deliver a vicious ultimatum. I saw the absolute terror in her eyes at the arena when he cornered her in the bleachers. He held something massive over her head to keep her trapped in his web.

He demanded my hockey playbook in exchange for her continued safety. He needed to know my offensive strategies and my defensive weaknesses to protect his fragile ego. Sienna would approach me tomorrow morning on campus to steal my secrets.

She would hate herself for doing it. The guilt would crush her fragile spirit into a million jagged pieces. I could not let her suffer under that immense emotional weight.

She survived two years with a narcissistic abuser. She endured his violent temper and his constant manipulation to protect her sick father. She possessed an inner strength that humbled my entire existence.

She did not deserve to be caught in the crossfire between two arrogant men. Roman wanted to break her spirit to feed his massive ego. Vincenzo wanted to break her bank accounts to feed his endless greed.

I refused to let either of them win this twisted psychological war. I would become the absolute shield she needed against both of their toxic worlds. If Roman wanted my secrets, I would hand him a loaded weapon disguised as a gift.

I would give Sienna the exact bait she needed to satisfy his demands. I closed the laptop with a sharp snap. The car plunged back into total darkness.

My mind raced through the tactical possibilities of feeding him bad information. I needed to build a complete set of offensive and defensive hockey plays. The strategies had to look flawless and devastating on paper.

But they would contain deliberate, fatal flaws designed to leave his entire team exposed on the ice. If Roman followed the fake playbook, he would skate his men straight into a brick wall. He would humiliate himself in front of the entire university.

Sienna would remain safe from his wrath because she delivered the prize he requested. I reached onto the passenger seat and grabbed my encrypted phone. The screen lit up with three new angry messages from my father.

I swiped past his threats and opened my secure contact list. Vincenzo expected me to steal her corporate legacy tonight. I chose to protect her fragile heart instead.

My fingers hovered over the keypad as I formulated the perfect plan. I needed someone brilliant and discreet to forge the documents. Luca was my right-hand man and the best tactical mind I knew back home.

He understood sports strategy and corporate espionage better than anyone alive. I stared up at her dark bedroom window one last time. I promised to destroy the monsters haunting her life, and I always keep my promises.

I started the engine and pulled away from the curb. The sleek car vanished into the freezing night. I called my fixer back home to create a flawless fake playbook overnight.