Chapter 93 Dante's motive
Ryder's POV
"You're definitely going crazy if you ever think for a second that I'm going to let you marry my only daughter.” Vincent's voice continued to come through from the recording device.
"Let me?" Dante's voice went hard. "You don't have a choice, Vincent. You're going to sign a marriage contract binding Sage to me, and you're going to make sure she honors it. Because if you don't, I'll send proof of your federal cooperation to every MC from here to the Mexican border. Your brothers will hunt you down. Your kids will be killed. And there won't be any federal protection because you'll be dead before they can move you."
The sound of something hitting a desk, like Vincent had slammed his fist down. "I won't do it. I won't sign my daughter over to you like that."
"Then I'll kill her myself." Dante's voice was calm, almost pleasant. "I'll make it slow. Make you watch. And then I'll expose you anyway and watch the Steel Wolves tear apart whatever's left of your family."
There was silence on the recording for a few seconds.
"There's another option," Dante continued. "You sign the contract. You tell Sage it's for her protection, for an alliance with a powerful family. You make her believe it's a good thing. And when she marries me, I get my federal protection and you get to keep your family alive. Everyone wins."
"Except Sage." Vincent's voice was rough, broken.
"Sage gets to marry a man who will never let anything happen to her because keeping her alive keeps me protected." Dante paused. "You have three days to sign the contract, Vincent. After that, I start sending letters to your enemies. Your choice."
The recording went silent except for the sound of Vincent breathing, heavy and defeated.
Then his voice came back one more time, quieter now. "I need more time."
"You have until Friday. Don't make me come looking for an answer."
There was a few seconds of silence before the recording clicked off and the office fell into a silence so heavy I could feel it pressing against my chest.
Sage was shaking beside me, her whole body trembling with a mix of rage and grief. Jaxon stood frozen at the desk, his face pale and his jaw clenched so tight his face looked like it was moulded.
"He wanted the federal protection," I said, the words coming out hollow. "That's why he's been so desperate to marry you."
Jaxon's hands clenched into fists on the desk. "That son of a bitch has been playing us from the beginning."
"He blackmailed your dad into getting him drugs, then blackmailed him into marrying you. Since your dad's dead and can't force you to do anything, he's trying to blackmail you into honoring it." I pulled Sage against my chest and felt her hands grip my shirt like it was the only thing keeping her upright. "But we have proof now. We have his recording of Dante making the threats."
"Is it enough?" Sage looked up at me with teary eyes. "Is one recording enough to get out of choosing Dante over Diego?"
Jaxon picked up the tape recorder and turned it over in his hands. "There has to be other recordings, written documentation, something that shows the full scope of what Dante did."
"Where would we find it?" I asked, and my voice came out rougher than I intended.
Jaxon turned from the window and his expression was dark with barely controlled rage. "There has to be more somewhere in this office or this house."
Sage pulled away from me and wiped at her face with shaking hands. "This only means he forged the recording where dad accepted him after he allegedly saved his life."
"We can expose Dante for what he is," Jaxon added, moving back to the desk and starting to search through the drawers with renewed urgency. "Dad died trying to protect us from this bastard. The least we can do is make sure his death wasn't for nothing."
I was pulling books off the shelf behind Vincent's desk when Sage's phone rang, the sound cutting through the tense silence like a knife. She pulled it out of her pocket and went pale when she saw the number.
"It's Dante," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I forgot to tell you… He gave us till noon to decide.” She said to Jaxon.
Jaxon and I both stopped what we were doing and turned to look at her. She stared at the phone for another ring, then another, her thumb hovering over the screen like she couldn't decide whether to answer or let it go to voicemail.
"Answer it," Jaxon said. "Put it on speaker."
Sage took a deep breath and answered the call.
"Time's up, princess." Dante's voice came through
the speaker smooth and cold as ice. "What's your decision?”