Chapter 3
Dante Cazador pointed his gun at the unmoving figure on the ground.
He was in a very bad mood, and he was tempted to just shoot the piece of shit who dared to play a trick on him.
Whoever was pulling this must be an amateur or a newbie in town. No sane person would dare to pull this shit on him.
He cocked his gun and expected the person to jump up and start blabbing some apology, but the fool on the floor only stayed put.
Wow, must be an idiot who was done with life already.
His finger was already on the trigger when a second look made him pause.
Even in the total darkness of the moonless night, his sharp, trained eyes could see the body very well.
He already knew that it was a lady or a man disguised as one.
What made him pause was the fact that the person’s legs were bare from the thigh downward.
If he didn’t kill her, he was sure she would die from hypothermia soon.
Something was not adding up.
He signalled to his consigliere and the latter quickly put on the headlights of the car.
Dante’s brow twitched when he saw the blood already soaking the asphalt.
It was oozing from the lady’s head.
Good riddance. He was annoyed that he had not been able to get an answer out of the twit first.
He turned to leave, but he saw her in his mind’s eye.
He knew what she would have said in this case.
“Shit,” he swore as he tucked his gin in his waistband and bent down to scoop the girl up.
As he carried her, another image flashed into his mind.
An image of him carrying someone else just like this.
He had been too late then.
“Call Rafael to meet us at home right now!” he said tersely as he carried her to the car.
He got in beside her without looking at her face. He closed his eyes as memories tormented him.
“Boss, should I check first? She might be a ruse after all. We can send her to the hospital too.”
“Angelo?”
“Yes, boss.”
“What did I order you to do?”
“I am calling him, sir,” Angelo Costa quickly dialled the doctor’s number and gave him instructions.
Dante shut himself in his office as soon as they got back to the estate.
He barely paid attention to the doctor, who was waiting at the entrance with his team.
He already knew Angelo would see to it that the thin girl was taken care of.
There was nothing special in the fact that he wanted to bring her home.
She needed medical care. He could provide it for her at his place.
Not that he cared much about what happened to idiots who go running into the streets without looking anyway.
The fact that they hadn’t put on the headlights did not matter, she should have been more careful.
He didn’t want any extra fawning on him if he took her to the hospital.
The estate was better. If she dies, her body could be disposed of without question. If she managed to survive and was innocent, she would be blindfolded when leaving.
And if she happened to be a spy like Angelo had suspected, then he would kill her himself.
Dante poured another generous hand of scotch into his tumbler and saluted the radiant woman with the beaming smile smiling at him above the mantle.
He downed the drink in one gulp and poured another.
“Isabella,” he murmured as the scotch burned down his throat.
He wallowed in his memories for a while before turning his mind back to business.
Some bastard had decided to tail him today.
Whoever it was, was the reason why they had taken the route they took and switched off the headlights just to catch the asshole unawares.
Whoever it was must have thought he was easy prey because he didn’t take his men with him that day.
It was supposed to be Isabella’s birthday, and he had chosen to celebrate that every year instead of remembering her death or how she died.
Most heads would roll soon, he vowed. He must not have made enough statements if anyone thought they could toy with him with such child’s play.
By the time he was done with the eighth shot, he was more than eager to discover that the girl was truly a ruse.
He would personally send her head as a lesson to whoever sent her. Then he would make them all pay.
Tainting Isabella’s day with such nonsense was unacceptable.
A knock sounded at the door, and he knew who it was.
“Come,” he simply said.
Angelo entered with a strange look on his face.
“What?” Dante asked impatiently.
“The girl we brought…”
“What about her?” Dante asked testily when he stopped talking. “If she is dead, just handle her body. I don’t want to deal with any family.”
“No, it is not that. Rafael said she would be out of danger soon.”
Dante raised his eyebrows in question.
Angelo looked uncomfortable for a moment before clearing his throat. Then he moved closer to ask; “I was just wondering if you looked at her face?”
Dante was fast losing his patience. Was everyone around him going mad? He wondered in annoyance.
“If you have too much time on your hands, use it to look into the bastard who tailed us tonight. Find him, make him talk and make him pay.”
“Yes, boss,” Angelo responded and turned to leave.
He was almost at the door before he turned back. “Boss, I think…”
“Don’t come back if you don’t have a result for me,” Dante said in a formidable tone that Angelo knew too well.
“Yes, sir,” he said and left immediately.
One of the men manning the door pulled the door close.
Dante sighed in sudden weariness.
He didn’t bother to go up to his bedroom despite how tired he was.
He soon fell into a fitful sleep at his desk, dreaming about gunshots, fire and a woman with emerald-green eyes.
