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Desmond adjusted his cuffs lazily. "So what now?"
Dante's fingers twitched, itching to reach for his gun. Again, that would be a foul move. Even if Desmond was not permitted to kill him, he doubted he wouldn't do so if he just attacked like that.
"You tell me," he said instead. "How did you manage to fool Sasha?"
"Fool her?" Desmond asked, raising an eyebrow at such an accusation.
"Don't act like you're so smart that I wouldn't find out," Dante warned. "And you better tell me the truth."
"You are one to make threats?" Desmond said with a slight frown now. Dante could see he was already outnumbered, and yet he spoke with such audacity.
Desmond was tempted to open fire just to cut out Dante's smugness. Dante was about to reply when he was interrupted by a loud bang.
Desmond whipped around in shock as one of his men let out a strangled cry and crumbled to the ground. "What the..." he began to ask when another shot rang out and the other man fell too.
Desmond couldn't make sense of what was happening. Dante hadn't even pulled out a gun, so he wasn't the one shooting, which meant that this was an ambush.
He took out his gun and aimed it at Dante himself. "Call your men off!"
"You're the one who threatened me in the first place," Dante said with a shrug.
"I did no such thing," Desmond countered. "I thought we were here to talk. Those men did nothing wrong."
"Don't play innocent with me, Desmond," Dante said, spitting out his name like it was poison. He was glad his men had taken the hint and eliminated the additional threats. In a battle between him and Desmond, things were level, and he actually had a chance of winning.
"I can bet you anything that we are surrounded," Dante said, crossing his arms across his chest. "You have two options: you either come quietly, or you come badly injured."
"So you're not going to kill me?" Desmond asked, his eyes darting around at the surrounding eucalyptus trees.
"Oh no," Dante replied. "Not until you tell me the exact reason why you betrayed Sasha."
Desmond had a shocked look on his face, which didn't make sense to Dante. Then slowly, he lowered his gun.
"Betray Sasha? More like she stood me up!"
Dante didn't have to think hard before realizing what was actually going on here. This was a misunderstanding, and somehow, contrary to what he thought, Desmond had not told Gregor about their meeting—he hadn't brought him here to take him down.
"So you were followed," Dante stated.
"Who would follow me and why?" Desmond demanded, his hands clenching into fists. "All afternoon, I had waited for Sasha's signal so that I could come in, but it never came. And now you're here casting accusations!"
"Gregor stormed in my meeting with Sasha," Dante explained, quickly moving towards his car. "Something doesn't add up here. Apparently, he followed you."
"Dammit," Desmond said. "Where is she?"
Dante's jaw tightened. "Let's not talk about that. I left Gregor injured, but there's no way to know if he called reinforcements to take you down. He could still be following you—your car could be bugged, and trust me, there's no way he's going to let you go like that."
"And you're expecting me to just follow you in your car?" Desmond sneered.
"You don't exactly have a choice, my friend," Dante said pleasantly. He held open the back seat door. "Either you come with me, or you let Gregor follow you to whatever hiding place you have and end you."
"Fine," Desmond snapped, taking quick strides to him.
The moment Desmond stepped into the car, Dante started it and began driving in the opposite direction. If Gregor was actually following Desmond, he would know the route he was heading to and would be waiting, just like Dante's men were.
Dante quickly dialed Vito's number. "Shadow us from the back," he said.
"Okay, boss," Vito replied immediately.
"And where are you taking me?" Desmond demanded as Dante increased the speed. He was very uncomfortable being at the mercy of this man.
"Somewhere we can talk without interruption and where you can prove your loyalties to me," Dante replied simply.