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Such a silly woman, Dante thought. A thank you indeed. He never thanked anyone, and besides, like he said, he was paying for this. He was about to say as much when the doors swung open and he spun on his heels.

Sasha sat up straighter, her smirk vanishing as she stared at the man who walked in leisurely like he owned the place. Gregor Balenko, underboss of Caius Petrova.

Gregor didn't look at either of the two occupants. Instead, his eyes went immediately to the stack of burning paper on the floor, and he smiled. They were sure going to pay for that.

"Gregor," Dante said, speaking out his name like poison. Three men followed him in, and the door was shut by the last one.

"It's good to see you again, Dante," Gregor said. He extended his hand, but Dante didn't take it. "What?" Gregor asked. "Are we not on favorable terms?"

"How did you get here?" Dante asked. His hands were itching to reach for his gun, but he knew that any sudden movement and they would shoot him. Damn the fact that he was outnumbered.

"Well, your little snitch didn't only help you, you know." He jutted his head at Sasha, and Dante shot her a glare.

"I swear I didn't tell him anything," she said immediately, rising with a frantic look in her eyes. "Balenko darling, if you wanted a private meeting, you should have sent flowers."

Gregor chuckled. "Oh, I did." He reached behind him and his hand came back with a gun, which he pointed at her. "You were just too busy trying to fuck over the boss to notice."

A lot of things were not adding up in this scenario. If Sasha was the one who told Gregor where to find them, why would he want to shoot her now? And why hadn't he shot them already? Dante wondered.

Despite the thoughts going on in his mind, when he spoke, his voice was still calm and steady. "You should be careful where you point that," he said smoothly.

Gregor scoffed. "You are in no position to talk, Dante. I could end this whole war right now."

Something in the way he said it so wistfully, like something he could not actually do, made everything click. "You can't kill me, can you?" Dante asked.

A shadow fell across Gregor's face before he could mask it with a smile again. "Don't give yourself that hope."

"But it's true," Dante replied. "Caius wants me alive, doesn't he?

Gregor had to give it to him. "You're such a smart man. Too bad your little whore isn't as valuable."

Anger flared through Sasha's body, and despite the gun he kept trained on her, she snapped, "Bringing myself low enough to have a conversation with you doesn't make me a whore, Gregor. And if you kill me, trust me, you won't have just Dante to deal with."

"Of course not," Gregor replied. "But killing you will be so worth it. Your little escapade with Desmond did not go unnoticed. But too bad you won't live to see it happen." Then just as suddenly as it came, his smile vanished. "Take her outside, make it messy," he motioned to his men.

The words had barely left his mouth when Dante flipped the table and Sasha crashed to the ground. Using the table as a shield now, Dante grabbed his gun.

There was a scream from beside him as gunshots rang out aimed at him. Two of the men had grabbed Sasha, and the last one was the one shooting. Balenko just stood off to the side watching the scene unfold.

Dante cursed. He couldn't save Sasha and himself at the same time, not in this kind of scenario. But he couldn't just let them take her away either.

Apparently, he shouldn't have worried because she let out another scream and pierced the neck of one of the men holding her with a fork that she had picked up. The other had his foot stepped on with her heels, causing him to cry out in pain.

Just as the one she had stabbed crumpled to his knees clutching his throat, she elbowed the other one and grabbed his gun, shooting him point blank. Dante fired at the second man and he stopped moving too.

A bullet whizzed past Dante's ear, distracting him from Sasha as he turned to face the other opponent. He shot at him, but the man dived to the other side of the room so fast that Dante had to stop to blink.

Balenko cursed and in one swift motion, he was at Sasha's side. She trained her gun on him, but he grabbed her and shoved his gun under her chin. Everyone froze.