Ultimately, being naked in the same house as this man was the greater of two evils. She found some loungewear tucked back in a dresser in the corner and pulled on the yoga pants and tank top. A knitted sweater and wool socks finished the ensemble. As much as she hated to admit it, Dante was right. Now that they were out of the shower, the chill of the place had started to creep in.
She turned to find him watching her. He had on a pair of lounge pants and nothing else. The new scars on his shoulder and torso stood out in the stark light of the closet. Scars from where she shot him. A couple inches to the left and she would have hit something vital and killed him.
Good.
Right?
Yes, it had to be good, because Dante was the enemy, and Rose wasn’t foolish enough or sentimental enough to become entangled with the enemy. Even if he wasn’t lying about everything between them in the past being a lie, they had no future. Rose wasn’t her sisters, who would have more freedom in who they chose to partner romantically with. She was the heir. As this mess showed, her choices had consequences that would ripple out through New York and beyond. If Dante got his way and she agreed to marry him… Coming home with his ring on her finger guaranteed war. She couldn’t do it. She wouldn’t.
She needed to find a way out of this trap and get home to do damage control. She did not need to be staring at the carved lines of her enemy’s abs and the dusting of hair across his chest. Dante had to die. That was all there was to it. It was the only hope they had of salvaging this situation and preventing a war with the Capparellis. Yes, it would undoubtedly spark a conflict with the Verducci family, but ultimately they were across the country from New York. Better to negate the threat in their backyard first and worry about the rest later.
She had to be the one to pull the trigger, too. Her reputation would have taken a huge hit with this kidnapping bullshit, and letting anyone else enact her revenge would make her look even weaker. Rose needed to save herself and eliminate Dante Verducci once and for all.
This time, she wouldn’t miss.
Chapter 9
Dante didn’t like the change that came over Rose’s expression. He’d been making headway, between the orgasm and nearly teasing her into a laugh despite herself. Not to mention her jealousy. He hadn’t expected that, but it delighted him all the same. If she cared enough to be jealous, then she cared. No matter how steep the odds, if there wasn’t a zero percent chance of him winning her over, he could work with it.
But whatever she was thinking about now had the shutters rising in her eyes again. She turned without a word and marched out of the closet. Dante bit back a curse. Ah well. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither would Rose Romanov be conquered in a day.
As tempting as it was to follow her, he had other priorities that needed attending to at the moment. He waited, listening to Rose’s footsteps move through the bedroom and down the hall. Only once he was certain she wouldn’t change her mind and return did he duck into the bathroom and retrieve the gun and clip. Dante returned to the closet and reached past his suit jackets to press the button cleverly hidden in the back of the closet. The panel gave with a quiet snick. He cast one last glance at the door and then ducked through the clothing and into the panic room.
Once he was closed in, he turned and surveyed the space. He wasn’t the overly paranoid type normally, but out here, anything could happen. This wasn’t his home territory, where the people in his world knew him on sight and knew better than to fuck with him. He didn’t have Lorenzo’s people around as potential backup should things go sideways. As a result, he’d taken precautions when he had this place built.
This room was one of them.
It was small and reinforced. Once inside and secured, nothing short of a tank could breach it. Not before reinforcements arrived. There were enough MREs and water stored to last a week or so, but he doubted it would ever come to that. No one knew this place existed except him and Matteo.
The trio of screens showed video from the cameras positioned around the exterior. Just a bunch of various woodland plants and creatures. He took a few minutes to key the motion sensor so if anything larger than a midsize animal approached, he’d get a ping on his watch. There were plenty of deer in the area, so it’d probably be a pain in the ass, but considering the circumstances, the early warning system was necessary.
Before he could devote all his time to seducing Rose back to his side, properly this time, there were tasks that needed to be completed. He considered his options and went with the easiest call first.
“You’re in trouble now, cugino.”
He nearly rolled his eyes at Matteo’s amusement. His cousin was a good leader, but the side he showed Dante was pure chaos. “Your father sent me to New York. What did he think was going to happen?”
“That the Romanov girl would annoy you and you’d snap her neck.”
The thought of a world without Rose Romanov in it sent a burst of repulsion through him. No matter what lengths she went to, how hard she fought, how much she snarled and snapped and fought, only one fact mattered. She was his. If it took a month or ten years, she’d admit it eventually. In the meantime, he would ensure no one else laid a finger on her. “She’s mine.”
Matteo snorted. “Yeah, I thought you might say something like that. My father doesn’t care. She was going to marry the Capparelli heir, so he wants her dead.”
“Then I’ll kill him before you have a chance to.”
All joking bled out of his cousin’s voice. “No. It’s not time.”
“Then you better keep him on a leash.” Dante was content to let his cousin play his deeper game, but only as long as Lorenzo didn’t try to follow through on the threat against Rose. He’d allow no one, not Lorenzo, not Dmitri Romanov, not the gods themselves to take his woman from him.
His cousin sighed. “You couldn’t have waited a few weeks for this? You’ve upset the balance. Kirill is back, and he’s threatening to ignite the conflict between our families again if you don’t return the woman immediately.”
“Lorenzo must be thrilled. He wants nothing more than to go out in a blaze of glory.”
“Not at the expense of our people and territory,” Matteo snapped. “You’ve endangered both.”
He glanced at the monitors. He respected the fuck out of his cousin. Matteo was probably the only person in this life he actually cared about. Well, Matteo and now Rose. He understood his cousin’s desire do right by their people, but Dante didn’t feel the same push. “This will be over shortly.”
“And then what? You can’t honestly think the Romanovs are going to be happy, even if you manage to convince her to see things your way.”
Frankly, he didn’t give a fuck what the Romanovs thought, but he knew better than to say as much. “Once things are settled with Rose, it will become a family affair between me and the New York Romanovs. Kirill will back off.” The man was getting old, and he was tired. Unlike Lorenzo who wanted to escalate things as the years passed, Kirill seemed to want to enjoy his last decade or so in this world with booze, women, and good food. He wouldn’t push things unless someone forced the issue.
“You don’t have much time.”