Chapter 6 Don’t act cheap with me.

Dante's POV

I'd planned to check on Elena at the hospital. After all, she got hurt because of me.

But when I arrived, they told me she'd already checked herself out.

Whatever. I'd arranged for the RH blood transfusion anyway. If she didn't care about her own body, I sure as hell had no obligation to.

But I didn't expect to run into her here again. She looked shaken and utterly upset.

So I let all her rude behavior slide for now.

Though she was the only woman who'd ever had the guts to kick me in the balls, and the only one I'd given my card to twice without getting a single call back.

But it was fine. One day I'd teach her a lesson right in my bed—crying while she swallowed my cock like the obedient thing she was.

Elena drove off. She seemed to have some urgent business again.

Maybe that's why she rushed out of the hospital despite her poor health?

Never mind that. I'd been heading to one of Solis Horizon Group to check operations.

Then I got word that Julian wasn't there—someone told me the nephew supposedly running the place was at a pet shop, being some woman's dog.

Julian. My sister's only son, that brainless waste of space.

I wouldn't tolerate anyone dragging the Solis name through the mud. Not when generations of my family had built that reputation with their own blood.

That's why I came here.

I pushed open the door. The stench of animals hit me immediately.

Arturo followed as I walked straight to Julian's food bowl and stopped.

He looked up. The moment he saw my face, every drop of color drained from his.

He started to stand, but the woman holding his leash yanked hard, slamming him back down to the floor.

I watched him grovel on all fours, twisting back to look at her with pathetic, pleading eyes. "Baby, come on, this is my uncle..."

The woman's eyes flashed with something sharp and calculating before she plastered on a smile and approached me. "Uncle, I'm—"

"Get the fuck away from me."

She flinched, dropping the leash and stepping back.

But those eyes still gleamed with ambition—the same look I'd seen in every woman who tried to climb into my bed.

Was this the woman my sister personally picked out as his fiancée?

I really questioned my sister's taste and judgment. If she didn't carry the Solis surname, she would've gotten herself killed from stupidity ages ago.

"Uncle...no, Don." Julian's voice shook.

He tried to stand again, but I stepped on his spine, grinding him back down like the dead dog he was.

Pathetic. If my sister hadn't confirmed he was her biological son, I'd question whether he had any Solis blood in him at all.

"Take him away."

I glanced at Arturo. He grabbed Julian by the collar around his neck like he was fishing a drowned rat out of a gutter.

The woman's tentative voice drifted over. "Uncle, should I come too?"

"Sure. If you're in a hurry to meet God."

I watched her legs buckle from fear, grabbing onto a display rack to keep from collapsing.

Not every woman had Elena's spine.

Arturo hauled Julian up and dragged him toward the alley. Julian thrashed like a gutted fish, but his strength was nothing against Arturo's grip.

"Don, please, not here..." he whimpered.

Arturo slammed him against the damp brick wall. I drove my fist into his stupid face.

The crack of bone echoed in the narrow space.

"You turned yourself into a bitch in heat over some whore?" I leaned in close, voice low. "I could smell the desperation on you from the street, Julian. That's your fiancée?"

"No, not Elena..." He spat blood, his swollen lips barely forming words. "She's boring. No fun. She doesn't understand me... so I've been fooling around with Sabrina."

Elena.

The name stuck in my head like a thorn.

So she was that upset all because of Julian? This trash was her fiancé?

Damn him.

I grabbed his hair and forced him to look at me. "You'd better go to her and get on your knees and apologize. And if you don't, I'll cut off your balls and feed them to real dogs."

"Don... why should I apologize to that bitch? I'm a Solis—"

I kicked his knee before he could finish. He crumpled like garbage next to the trash pile.

"Get in the car. I'm making sure you do this myself."

I turned and walked out. Arturo dragged Julian behind me like the dog he was.

"To the office," I told the driver, then closed my eyes in the backseat.

But all I could see was Elena—those bloodshot eyes that somehow still burned bright.

She really knew how to pick them from the trash heap.

The thought was absurd, but it made something itch under my skin.

When I walked into the glass tower, the 28th floor was eerily quiet.

A few administrative staff bowed their heads as I passed, not daring to look up.

I stopped outside Elena's office door—frosted glass, her silhouette visible inside.

I'd seen Elena in countless forms, but watching her through the office window now—sharply tailored suit skirt, her soft hair neatly coiled to expose the clean line of her neck—I had to admit she looked utterly different.

Would've been better if she'd taken off that silk scarf and shown my mark.

Her voice cut through the glass, clear and precise. "Tell opposing counsel that if they keep playing games with this clause, we're filing for an injunction Monday morning at nine sharp. I don't care whose connections they have. I'm taking this case to the ground."

This wasn't the voice she used with me.

No trembling, no hesitation, no cracks to exploit. Every syllable was surgical.

I wanted both—the whore and the sharp lawyer.

My phone buzzed. Encrypted number.

I shoved Julian forward. He stumbled into the office.

"Apologize. Properly. Unless you want me to cut off your balls and feed them to strays."

I turned and headed downstairs, answering the call.

"Don, Leo's betrayal wasn't random." The voice on the other end was steady, efficient. "There's more than just the Aguilar family involved, but we haven't identified the real player yet. We recovered the data from the USB—mostly patents and sales records from the public-facing companies, mainly the ones Julian was managing."

I stopped at the stairwell landing. "And the spa?"

"Still has value. Their guy died there yesterday. They'll make another move today for sure. I can post someone—"

"No."

Elena's face flashed in my mind. She'd walked right into that spa last time.

What if she goes back?

I saved her—she's mine. If she's going to die, it'll be by my hand.

"I'll handle it myself," I said. "I want to see who's pulling the strings."

I headed for the exit.

"I'm going there now."