The new safehouse is a far cry from the last one, a low concrete bunker in an industrial quarter redolent of diesel fumes and decay. The walls are drab, the air dank, and the only illumination comes from flickering fluorescents that buzz like dying insects. I am sitting at a scratched metal table, wearing my black sweater dirtied by the warehouse fight, my hands still tingling from the knife I tossed. The memory of the cry of the cartel thug, the way he folds under my fist, lingers like a bad taste. I’m not unfamiliar with violence — growing up a Rossi required learning how to fight just as soon as I could walk — but tonight was different. Tonight I mean battle, fought for Dante Moretti, but my ears are heavy with that truth, a betrayal to everything that I am.
On the opposite side of the room, Dante is silhouetted against the dirty window, whispering softly into Marco’s ear. His black shirt is torn at the shoulder, red blood crusting the edge, but he's working all easy, coiled power and control. Marco’s scar twitches as he nods, his eyes flickering over to me with that same suspicious look that I’m beginning to loathe. They’re plotting to hit the cartel’s shipment, and I’m the key — the Rossi who knows the docks, knows the routes, knows the shadows my father taught me to use. But Matteo’s Chari-tec signature on that ledger page is seared in my mind, a splinter I can’t ignore. Was my uncle the traitor? Did he turn us over to the Morettis, to the cartel? The words choke me, but I try to keep my face blank, my spine straight. Dante’s watching, always watching, and I refuse to give him the satisfaction of seeing me melt.
He is done with Marco and crosses the room, his footfalls clanging on concrete. He lowers himself into the chair across from me, his gray eyes pinned to mine, keen enough to pierce right through me. “You did good back there,” he says in low, almost grudging tones. “Most would’ve frozen.”
I lean back on my seat, crossing my arms in order to cover my hands shaking. “Don’t act so surprised, Moretti. I was raised for this.”
The corners of his lips twitch, not quite a smile, more like he’s sizing me up. “Raised to fight, maybe. Not to trust.” He pushes a glass of water across the table; it’s curiously tender for a man who recently shot a cartel thug in the face without so much as a blink. “Drink. You’re shaking.”
I direct a scowl his way but accept the glass, the cool liquid soothing the dryness of my throat. “I’m not shaking,” I lie, setting it down harder than I need to. “And don’t pretend you care. You have to have me alive, so just let me know.”
He leans in, elbows on the table, his smell, cedar wood, leather and something, but something I find horribly horribly attractive and male, invading my space. “You’re wrong, Isabella. I need you sharp. They’re moving a shipment tomorrow night, and you’re the only person who knows those docks well enough to get us in clean.”
I arch an eyebrow, my voice hard. “And what’s to stop me walking out that door and letting you deal with the cartel alone?”
But he doesn’t blink and his eyes cloud over, a storm rising behind them. “You won’t. Not when I’m giving you what you’d begged for for ten years.” He stops, letting the sentence settle in the room. “The truth about your parents. Who ordered the hit. Who pulled the trigger. Help me to take down the cartel, and you get every name, every detail.”
My heart stumbles, and I take cold to my face. Answers. The one thing I’ve pursued since I was fourteen, crouched in a closet as bullets shattered my family’s mansion walls. My father’s blood on the marble floor, my mother’s lifeless hand straining toward me — I’ve carried those images like a brand, informing every decision, every battle. Dante is offering me a key to that nightmare — but at what price? “It’s like doing a dance on the edge of a razor blade, trusting him.
“What’s the catch?” I inquire, my voice surprisingly calm given the whirlwind in my head. “It’s not like you’re the charitable sort.”
He kneels back, the intensity of his look unwavering with mine. “No catch. Just a deal. You give me the docks, what you know, your fire. I give you the truth—and an opportunity to restore the Rossi name. The cartel’s after you, us both, Isabella. Together, we can stop them. Alone, we’re dead.”
I laugh, sharp and bitter. “You think I’d trust you? After what your family did? You’re a Moretti. Your father—”
“My father is dead,” he interrupts, his voice like a blade. “And I’m not him. You want to hate me, fine. But it will not bring your parents back. It’s not going to save your sister or your cousin, or what’s left of your legacy.”
The reference to Elena and Nico lands like a punch. They are the only family not buried or betrayed. Luca’s face swims into my brain, his easy smile just a veneer of lies. Matteo’s signature looms larger, a ghost I can’t shake. Dante is right — I am running out of options. The cartels are closing in, and my family is not strong enough to fight on their own. But to ally with the devil who destroyed us? It’s a line I never thought I’d cross.
“Show me,” I say, my voice a slow drawl, daring him. “Prove you’re not playing me. Give me something now or I’m out.”
He looks me over, the muscles in his jaw tense, as if he’s assessing the risk. Then he grabs into his coat and withdraws a folded slip of paper, another page from the ledger, an older page, yellowed. He pushes it toward me across the table. “This was in my father’s records. Found it last week.”
I opened it, feeling my hands firm, despite the storm in my chest. It’s a written contract, dated a decade earlier, for a deal between the Morettis and Rossis—some joint venture at the dock, between my father and… Matteo. Not Dante’s father. The terms are clear: Profit sharing and passage sharing. But a handwritten note in the margin, scrawled by Matteo, says: Adjust terms. Morettis take 70%. Rossi trust must be broken.
I inhale deeply, fury pumping through my veins. Matteo didn’t just betray us, he organized it, long before the bullets started flying. I glance up and Dante’s eyes meet mine. “This does not exonerate your family,” I snap back, my voice quivering. “Your father still called for the hit.”
There’s something that flits across Dante’s eyes — guilt, perhaps, or regret. “Maybe. Maybe not. That’s what we’ll find out. But you have to promise, Isabella. No half-measures. You’re in, or you’re out.”
The room seems to have shrunk, the air grown denser. I am standing at a crossroads, my past on one side, my future the other. If I don’t do this, I lose the answers I’ve bled for. But if I stick around, I may only get burned." And with that, I run away from the man who has the power to free me, protect me, punish me… Dante Moretti. The cartel’s shadow is dark, and Matteo’s betrayal runs much deeper than I thought. Now I’m not just fighting for revenge — I’m fighting to stay alive.
“I’m all in,” I say, the words like ash in my mouth. “But screw me over, Dante, and I’ll bury you in it.”
His mouth twists into a predator’s smile, one that sends a shiver sliding down my spine. “I’d be disappointed if you weren’t going to try.”
Marco kicks the door open, his face stern. “Boss, we’ve got a problem. The Cartel’s hitting our east side warehouse. They knew our backup routes.”
Dante’s face hardens, his hand reaching for his gun. “Someone’s leaking.” His gaze flicks to me, not accusatory but seeking.
“Don’t look at me,” I say sharply, rising. “I’ve been right here with you.”
He says he nods, but doubt remains. “We move now. Isabella, you’re with me. Marco, call the crew.”
I snatch the ledger page and jam it into my sweater. It’s a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, a step toward the truth. We go toward the door, and Dante’s hand briefly brushes my arm and I feel an amazing burn. I pull away, my heart racing. I’m in his world now, his game, but I’m not his. Not yet. I’m Isabella Rossi, and this is how I stood against war and refused to become a victim, and leveraged beauty and fury, and worked and mourned, and learned and danced with the devil until the devil begged for mercy, until I could burn him down.
