CHAPTER THREE

Dante

IF LIVING WITH the Italian Mafia was Hell.

Being forced to attend Eagle Elite University — was the seventh circle.

My purgatory.

My punishment for being born in the right family at the wrong time.

When I’d first moved to Chicago to train with the five families, when I made the promise to my dead father Luca Nicolasi that I’d try — that I’d see how I fit in this world, I never imagined it would hurt so damn much.

Or that it would feed my hate beyond recognition, blinding me to the person I saw in my own reflection.

The Dante Nicolasi that got off the plane six months ago was gone.

And a part of me hated them for that, hated them for squashing that final piece of innocence I’d held on to with a deathlike grip.

Every one of the bosses were brutal, each of them with their own expertise and dealings, each of them with their own shiny houses, shiny wives, cars, and money.

They owned the world.

And the world knew it.

I stared down at the iron gates.

Eagle Elite University.

Owned by the Abandonatos.

Run by.

No one.

That was the catch.

Italian royalty no longer needed to attend the school. The only reason for it in the beginning had been to gain intel on other families and now that all the families were playing nice, it wasn’t necessary.

Until I showed up.

Until it was very apparent that since the five families had withdrawn themselves from the school — that new people were forced to rise up, to lead.

It didn’t matter that the money was still coming from the same place.

What mattered was that the presence.

The figurehead.

Was gone.

The Elect, or so they were called — were gone.

And that left.

Me.

Fuck.

I ran my hands through my hair, blood still caked my knuckles. I was showing up on the first day of school looking like I’d literally been run over by a truck.

Maybe that was why Chase had been so relentless.

He wanted people to know I was a scary son of a bitch.

He wanted people to know that even though I was blood — they wouldn’t hesitate in killing me.

Beating me.

Shooting at me.

I was fucking limping by the time I made it through the second iron gate. It slammed behind me with such finality that I almost puked.

Prison.

I was in prison.

My life was not my own.

It never was.

The chess master had moved his piece.

“Remember,” Chase said before he landed another blow to my left cheek. “Peace is always more dangerous than war.”

I dodged his punch and side-stepped him, bringing my elbow down on his back as he collapsed onto the cement floor. “Nice shot.”

“Thanks.” I kicked him in the ribs.

He grabbed my leg and tripped me against the concrete, then pulled me to my side, trapping me in an arm bar. “In war you know your enemy.”

I jerked against him.

“In peace.” He released me before my arm snapped out of its socket. “You know absolute shit.” He stood and offered me his hand. “It could be a teacher, a hot girl, a friend, the janitor for shit’s sake.” I grabbed the outstretched towel. “And in my experience, it’s usually all of the above, the ones closest to you are the ones that you need to worry about, so when people ask to be your friend, you offer to gut them — when a teacher gives you an odd look you stare him back down, you answer to no one, got it?”

“Got it,” I snapped.

“And Dante?”

“What?” Blood poured from my nose from his sucker punch as my eyes started to water, a burning sensation pulsed between my eyes… “Son of a bitch!”

“Always watch your back.” He grinned.

My nose still ached every time I tried to take a soothing breath.

The guys joked that I was too good looking — that it would do me good to get roughed up a bit.

“Show no weakness,” I mumbled to myself as I forced my body to walk in a normal slow cadence that didn’t reveal a hint of a limp. I held my head high.

My gait slow, steady.

As I made it past the final gate and looked up at the sign.

“Welcome new students!”

“I’m going to set that sign on fire,” I muttered under my breath.

“Get in line,” a deep voice said behind me.

I rolled my eyes and turned. “Still creepy as always, Sergio.”

He held out his hand. I hesitated than shook it. I hated him for taking my sister from me, for making her his wife, for making the perfect family.

For getting her pregnant.

For making life in the mafia look normal when it took my father away from me before I ever really knew him.

When it made me into the monster I always knew I was.

“Did you need something?” My voice was on edge just like my body.

Sergio gave me a cruel smile that didn’t reach his eyes, his gaze swept over me once, twice before he held out a backpack. “You forgot your lunch.”

I rolled my eyes. “Let me guess, peanut butter and jelly?” I jerked the black backpack away from him and glared.

He smirked. “Thought you were allergic to peanut butter.”

“Exactly.”

His smile fell as he stepped toward me. “If I wanted you dead — you’d be dead.”

“So far, best first day of school… ever,” I said in a mocking tone. “Will that be all… Dad? Or did you need something else?”

It pissed him off when I commented on his age.

Even though he was thirty and the rest of the guys were in their mid-twenties, it still made his eyes flash like he wanted to pick a fight.

But that was the thing about Sergio; he only used his fists when he had to. No, his warfare took place either on a computer or with his mind games.

“Just make sure you actually go to class.”

“I can’t believe this,” I grumbled. “Anything else?”

He glanced over my head then back at me. “Make sure she stays out of trouble too.”

And there it was.

Seventh circle of hell? Check.

Sergio Abandonato asking me to do the impossible. Double check.

“No!” I barked. “Trust me she can take care of herself.”

He glared. “Just because her physical wounds have healed doesn’t mean—”

“It doesn’t mean what? That she’s all better now?” I refused to turn around, to see her pretty eyes and the sway of her hips. “We know nothing about her except Frank decided to save her and now she’s living with us. You were stupid enough to invite the enemy in the gates, so don’t ask me to watch out for your damn mistake!”

His eyes widened and then he let out a low chuckle. “I’d be impressed if I wasn’t so irritated that you just shoved me in the chest.” His nostrils flared. “Twice.”

I hadn’t even realized I’d done it.

“We keep our enemies close.” He shrugged. “And since I can’t find out anything about her save the fact that the Petrov family raped and abused her beyond recognition—” My chest burned. “—she stays.”

“Fine,” I snapped. “But I’m not going to hold her hand.”

“Something you need to get off your chest?” His smile was cruel. “Because if a girl half your size is really that intimidating…”

“Hilarious. Don’t you have somewhere to be? A person to torture? Maim? Kill? Lives to destroy? Puppies to kick?”

He snorted. “Your job is to get an education and show everyone in this damn university that the families are united, strong, watching every move — prove to those who hold the power that we only let them take it back for a few years. Think you can do that without getting into detention on the first day, sport?”

“Did you just call me, sport?” My jaw popped, my body pulsed with the need to punch him in his smug face and reach for the gun I knew was strapped to his back barely hidden by the black leather jacket he was wearing.

“Good talk.” He patted me on the back. “Oh, and your sister wants you to come to dinner tonight.”

“Tell her I have homework.”

“Tell her yourself.” He put his sunglasses back on and started walking away. “See you at seven!”

I growled in response just as a few laughing students walked by me, only to immediately do a double take and start whispering.

Not only did I glare at each one of them, slowly making sure they knew from the way I stared that I’d not only measured them but found them wanting, but I pulled a knife out of my pocket, flicked it out letting the sunlight catch it, then shoved it in my backpack, all before sending one last look over my shoulder that said, yeah I’d stab you first, ask questions later.

“Let the games begin,” I mumbled when they hurried off and all immediately began texting on their phones.