He nodded at Giorgio, and suddenly the beast was looming over me. Pain cracked through my skull when his meaty hand collided with my cheek. I reeled, black flickering over my vision as a hundred bees stung my face. My eyes watered, blurring the room. Giana’s arms were around me, holding me upright when the world tilted.
In the heartbeat of dizziness, a terrible snarl ripped through the study, followed by a booming thud. I blinked hard, desperate to assess my surroundings and avoid the worst of the next blow.
But the hit didn’t come. Through my watery vision, I saw Dante holding Giorgio up by his neck as though he weighed nothing, pinning him against the bookcase with one huge hand wrapped around the guard’s throat. Shock punched me at the sudden violence, taking my breath away. Dante’s beautiful features were twisted into something almost feral.
“Dante!” Father barked, a thread of fear in his voice.
The younger man didn’t heed the warning. His full lips peeled back from his teeth as he lowered his face closer to Giorgio’s purple features.
“No one touches what’s mine,” he snarled at the man who’d been my tormentor for years.
My stomach dropped to the floor, and my head spun. I couldn’t fully take in the implications of his furious words.
“That’s enough,” Father insisted, the command hitching slightly.
“Apologize,” Dante hissed in Giorgio’s rapidly darkening face. My assailant twisted and struggled for air.
“I’m…sorry,” he gasped out when Dante loosened his grip a fraction to allow him space to suck in a tiny breath.
“Don’t look at me when you say it,” Dante said, his voice going cold and more tightly controlled, some of the primal ferocity ebbing away. “Look at her.”
Giorgio’s eyes rolled with fear, but he managed to direct them at me. “I’m sorry,” he forced out, tears streaming down his face.
Dante dropped him like garbage, stepped away, and straightened his suit. The snarl had melted, and he was coolly composed once again, as though he hadn’t just nearly strangled a man to death.
“I accept your alliance,” he told my father. “But I’m marrying Elenora, not Giana.”
As my mind spun, Father’s eyes narrowed, bristling at the challenge. “She’s my youngest. Giana should be married first.”
Dante met him head-on. “It’s Elenora, or the deal is off. She will be my wife, or I walk away right now.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Father shot back. “You want this too badly. You’ve been working toward it your entire life.”
Dante’s head tipped back, his lip curling with contempt. “I can take control without your help, old man. I’m offering you a seat at the table. All I ask in exchange is your daughter, a price you were already willing to pay.”
My fingernails cut into my palms, and I bit the inside of my cheek as I trapped defiant words behind my pursed lips. I wanted to rail at him that I wasn’t an object to be traded any more than my sister was. But I could see the cold determination in Dante’s glittering eyes. He would take what he wanted, one way or another. He would step over my father’s dead body to seize control of the organization. And then, he could claim anything he desired. Including my sister.
I wouldn’t let him have her. This monster of a man wouldn’t touch Giana. For some reason, he preferred me at the moment, and I wouldn’t give him a chance to change his mind.
“I’ll do it,” I forced out through gritted teeth.
“Nora, no!” Giana exclaimed, her hand suddenly a vise around my clenched fist.
I shook her off and squared my shoulders, facing Dante with defiance and determination. If this beast of a man was going to marry one of us, it would be me.
Sparks danced in the depths of his deep green eyes, and his lips curled at the corners, that amused expression once again gracing his painfully handsome face. I suppressed a shudder and kept him locked in my stare.
“I will marry you,” I said, the oath ashes on my tongue.
The words were surreal, as though they were issued from someone else’s lips. But Dante’s intense gaze kept me riveted, rooted in this awful reality so that I felt every aching beat of my racing heart as it hammered against my ribs.
Two thick fingers curled beneath my chin, gently turning my face so that he could inspect my stinging cheek. His dark brows drew low over his eyes, and angry lines appeared around his mouth.
“No one else will touch you ever again, little bird,” he promised, his voice a low rumble. He spoke as though it was a reassurance, not a horrific claim over my future, my forever.
“Girls, leave us,” Father snapped. “Dante and I have a lot to discuss.”
Giana’s small hand wrapped around mine, tugging me away from the predator who held my chin with such shocking gentleness. He’d just strangled Giorgio with the same long fingers that now caressed my face.