Chapter 28—Dante

As the walls crumbled the bullets started to fly.

My head was spinning and my ears were ringing. Blood ran down Maria’s nose, but she was alright just disorientated.

I was still so furious I couldn’t look at her properly.

She had a name and never shared it with me. She saw me suffer and never once said she suspected this guy.

I got up to go, to help the others.

“Stay in here.” I told her.

“Dante wait–”

“I don’t want to hear it Maria. Of all the shit you’ve done to me to screw with my mind, this was the worst. You had a name. It doesn’t matter what you thought you should have told me. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I was trying to protect you. I couldn’t lose you too. I didn’t know.” Tears spilled from her eyes, mingling with the blood that stained her skin, but I didn’t care .

She reached for me, but I just turned and walked away.

By the time I got outside most of our guys were standing. There were bodies all over the front lawn. A mix of some of our guys and Antonella grunts.

Fuck!

Fuck this shit! I was ready to explode in rage. The man sent a fucking bomb to my house. A bomb, a grenade.

This was far from over and Barabbas had another thing coming if he thought I’d be cowering in the corner like a little bitch.

Claudius and the guys came around from the corner of the house.

“The squads on it.” Claudius stated.

I just looked to him, my hands trembling.

“Hey man,” Gio began. “Cool off okay.”

“Cool off!” I couldn’t believe he could tell me that.

Cool off? I was mad as all hell, ready to breathe fire.

I whirled around and marched up the stairs to the bedroom where I found the open treasure box.

Maria had taken out all manner of pictures and shit from the box that was on the bed.

Alex went over to the computer and whistled.

“Holy fuck!” He cried and started tapping away at the keyboard.

I went over to join him, looking at the files. They all looked shady as fuck, there was absolutely enough to run Elliot Granger into the ground. Liaising with terrorists, rigging votes, and hiding evidence. This was all shit Christina had found.

It grieved me that she was mixed up with a man like that.

Jesus Lord.

“Maria knew it was him.” I said more to myself than anybody.

Claudius looked at me. “Dante, I’m going to tell you something you don’t want to hear.”

“What? What are you going to say?”

I was real interested to hear it.

“She was right. She was fucking right.”

My mouth dropped. “Are you kidding me?”

“Nah, I’m not. The doll said she didn’t know and you knew as much as her that Christina was seeing different people. She just chose not to tell you about one of the guys, because fucking hell Dante he is dangerous. I knew of Elliot Granger and knew he was just as bad as Barabbas if not worse. He’s government Dante. He was above us then and he’s above us now.”

“Would you have done what she did? Hold back information?”

“Dante, I’m not her, and there are few people like me. But honest to God, I would have done exactly the same as she did, because she’s acting now that she’s certain it’s him. We didn’t find out, we didn’t find shit and we weren’t going to. The names we got were like picking shit out of a hat and hoping for the best.”

Part of me wanted to hear him out, but the other part wondered why she couldn’t have just told me what she saw back then. She had still left it out.

No matter her reasons she had left something out and Elliot turned out to be the guy.

I just couldn’t believe that we could have been so close and she didn’t think she could tell me.

“So what now? I’m just supposed to accept that he’s above us. Accept Barabbas message. The man sent a bomb to my house intending to kill my girl and my child. I can’t just accept it.” I balled my fists.

My girl and my child …

But they weren’t really mine. They felt like mine and I could believe it until it killed me, but it still wouldn’t be true.

Claudius surprised me by smiling. “Your girl and your child, when you cool off remember you said that. As for the other part of your question, I never back down and no one comes for me or mine unless I send for them.” He sneered.

“Me neither,” Gio added.

“What he said.” Alex jumped in. “Come with a bomb and I’ll catch it, throwing it back. Blood for blood man. Some of our men are on the lawn and there could have been even more lives at stake.”

Claudius smiled wider. “Blood for blood. They don’t scare me bro. Not one fucking bit. I think however, since this is your fight I’m gonna pass the torch just for tonight. What should we do boss?”

I stared at him wondering if he was serious.

Me? Boss?

I’d taken orders for so long that it was strange being in charge.

I rested a hand on his shoulder showing my thanks.

He nodded.

“These people like to keep secrets. The mother fucker killed Christina so she wouldn’t talk. I think we should show the world what he was up to. Spread out all of the dirty laundry and hang it high. Then we find the fucker and kill his ass. Him and the little fucker who threw the bomb in my house.”

Claudius smiled wide. “And how will we be going about this plan boss?”

Now it was my turn to smile. I remembered something Christina had said once about the news. I didn’t watch it, hated it and thought it was full of inciteful stories.

Tonight the people of Chicago would be in for a real treat when they found out what the governor of Illinois had gotten up to over the years.

“Evening news always sucked. Time to spruce it up don’t you think?”

Gio laughed. “My what a tale to tell. I’ll get the squad on location hunting, tell them we want the governor.”

“Let’s do this.”

Gio was the first to go out the door, next was Alex then Claudius.

I follow behind them, once downstairs I stopped when I saw Maria holding Flynn.

Donny and Saul were with them.

When she saw me she rushed up to me.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“This doesn’t concern you.” I answered unable to keep the rage out of my voice.

“Please tell me, you’re going after him aren’t you?”

“Maria, I don’t want to talk to you right now. I can barely look at you.” I didn’t care that I sounded like a complete asshole or that she looked at me like I was breaking her heart, my heart was broken.

It was broken and I couldn’t see past all the pieces.

“I love you.” She told me and another tear rolled down her cheek.

This girl, this woman had mystified me my whole life. I would never dream of a reality where I’d gotten the girl I wanted and she just told me she loved me after all this time. She was with Luc, because like Gio said he was the fucking Porsche and I was the Volkswagen. The Alpha and the beta.

She’d actually gotten married and chose the worst guy possible.

All that time and I was there, always there.

Always there, but not good enough for her. Now suddenly I was.

I shook my head at her.

Claudius was wrong.

My girl and my child ... I didn’t have anything of the sort.

I turned and walked away.

I didn’t miss the crude stair Claudius gave me as I walked past him.

I went out to the garage and grabbed my old bike. My good old trusty Harley that had been modified so many times I didn’t know exactly what to call it.

It was just fitting to use it tonight.

I needed something that could take a fucking beating, because I was out for blood.

Elliot Granger’s blood.