Chapter 160

LORENZO’S P.O.V.

As soon as the officers left, Isabella turned to me with her hands crossed over her chest. “You have got to be kidding me, right? Why would you do that to him? He already hates us, what the hell were you thinking?”

“He set the fire to the forest,” I said simply and she rolled her eyes. It was clear she didn’t believe me. I knew it was more of a worry on her end, she didn’t want me to go back to jail. She was never going to admit it but she was scared for me. “Did you know that he was working with Benito? They had been communicating for months.”

Her eyes widened in shock. I could tell I was winning her over but it still wasn’t enough for her. “That doesn’t mean that he is responsible for the fire. He was probably just trying to use Benito to get to you. He has a vendetta against you and you are feeding into it.”

“Isabella,” I clicked my tongue. “Why don’t you want to believe what is right in front of you?”

“There isn’t enough proof. This isn’t admissible in the court of law.”

I dropped my lips to her ear relishing in the way she shivered against me. I didn’t care that anyone else was in the room, I placed my hands around her waist. “It is a good thing that I am judge, jury and executioner here, isn’t it?”

Before she could respond, her phone rang. I pulled away from her watching the way she fumbled with her pockets. She was horny, I could tell. Pregnancy made it worse for her and I had fun watching her squirm every other second. She looked annoyed as she fished out the phone but that annoyance quickly turned into confusion when she saw the caller ID. She put it on speaker.

“What do you want, Dante?” she asked and I stilled. I wasn’t sure where I stood with Dante. He had been a great help in the past but he only looked out for himself. It was unclear where he stood most times.

“Are you there with your husband?” he asked in a teasing tone. “I want to talk to him.”

“You have his number.”

“He wouldn’t pick up my call and you know it.”

Isabella turned to me in a silent question and I nodded. I wanted to hear what he had to say. He couldn’t be as bad as the officers I had to deal with in the past few days. If anything, he was an upgrade.

“What is it?” I asked and I could almost feel him smiling through the phone. He was silent for a minute and I scoffed. “You’re wasting my time. I don’t have all day.”

“How do you always manage to piss off the entire police force?” he asked in amusement. “Have you also ever asked yourself why Peter is always put back on your case despite his misbehavior? He should have been thrown off by now.”

My brows furrowed in confusion. This was private news, not even the media had gotten their hands on it and for good reason to. I did everything remotely possible to make sure that it stayed out of the public’s eyes. I didn’t want people snooping into my business any more than they needed to.

“How do you know about all of this?”

“Like I have said a thousand times before, Lorenzo, I have eyes and ears everywhere.” He drawled. “I have come to collect on my favor owed for the business I did for you a while back. I promise that it isn’t anything too much for you to handle.”

“What do you want?” I asked slowly bracing myself for the worst but his next words shocked me to my core.

“I want to help you take down Peter and his little team of people.”

I paused and glanced over at Isabella to be sure I had heard correctly but judging by her expression, I did. “That is a stupid thing to waste your favor on. You could have asked me for anything and I would have given it to you.”

“I already have everything that I could possibly need. I have everything that I want as well. I want to take down the fucking commissioner and that slimy dog Peter.”

“The commissioner is on my side.”

“So you think,” was his sly response. “What do you say, Lorenzo? I don’t usually work with people but I would be willing to make an exception this one time. Let us take him down together. There are some constraints that I cannot bypass but you can.”

I thought about it for a second. It was a blind deal, one that could potentially bite me in the ass but if the commissioner truly was defecting, then I needed all the help I could get. “Fine, but I don’t trust you, Dante, not one bit.”

“You don’t have to.”

He hung up before i could say another word and I handed the phone back to Isabella. The events of the phone call still felt like a fever dream. I couldn’t believe that Dante would waste his one favor on something so stupid but maybe that was the point. He had something bigger at play, something under his belt that he was trying to hide. I knew Dante well despite not knowing him at all. This was part of a greater scheme.

I turned to my family that was staring at me with various expressions on their faces ranging from confusion to shock and cleared my throat.

“Dante will be sending things soon,” I announced. He hadn’t said as much but it was how he operated. We were going to get a file soon with things we didn’t even know about. “Matteo, be ready to receive it. If this is going to end how I think it is, we need to be prepared.”

“Explain to me why we are trusting Dante again?” Mac asked and I turned to him with a raised brow.

“You introduced him to us or have you forgotten?” I shot back and he pursed his lips. “If you didn’t trust him then why did you bring him into our lives? The way I see it, this is your fault so you are on damage control.”

He exclaimed and opened his mouth to protest but I cut him off.

“I have no intentions of listening to you whine, Madoc. You want to be useful, right? So be fucking useful. Keep an eye on my wife and my son. I am trusting you with this task - keep her safe like your fucking life depends on it.”

I could tell he was still pissed about the entire thing with Dante but he nodded. “No harm will come to her, you can count on that.”