I was just opening my mouth to scream or question him when Cosima came sweeping into the room, her eyes focused on the medical kit in her hands.
“Cazzo, Dante, I don’t know why you don’t just –“
“Cosima,” the man named Dante practically purred, in a voice like none I had ever heard, thick and pulsating with sexual allure. “We have a visitor.”
I was looking right at her when those golden eyes shot to me and widened. Her mouth formed a perfect ‘O’ of horror and she dropped the tin box to the counter with a loud clang.
“What are you doing here?”
“Um, I live here. What is a man doing in our kitchen with a bleeding wound?”
Dante adjusted in the chair, leaning back as if he wasn’t clutching what I was sure was a bullet wound.
“I,” Cosima sighed loudly and pushed her hair back with both hands. “I need you to leave. Right now.”
I looked between her and Dante, whose eyebrow was raised at her in curiosity.
“Are you kidding me right now? I’m not leaving you here like this!” I said.
“You are.” Her voice was aflame with surety. “You are going to go out for the afternoon and enjoy the city, think about your show and see friends. You will not say anything about this to anyone and I will text you when you can return to the apartment.”
“Cosima,” I started to yell, but her posture changed, arms crossed under her breasts and eyebrows drawn so low over her eyes I could only see dark pits of determination.
Dante stared at me impassively but the moment his eyes flicked to my sister they burned like hot coals. He seemed proud of her for showing me the door and not the least bit distressed that I had walked in on him or, more importantly, that blood was seeping through the towel and the firm press of his fingers, coating them a lacquered red.
“Cosima,” I tried again, my voice softer because I knew I would leave like she wanted me to.
She shook her head firmly but brushed her hand feather light down my cheek as she moved forward to tend to Dante.
“Go.”
I backed away slowly but they didn’t notice or care. Cosima was bent over her wounded soldier whispering passionately in Italian while he closed his eyes and hissed with pain. They were a striking pair and under other normal circumstances, I would have loved to stick around to get to know him better, to see what kind of relationship they had.
Instead, I tip toed quietly to the front door, slipping past them without trouble, but I froze with my hand on the knob when I spotted the unfamiliar keys tossed on the small hallway table.
Beside them rested a small, strangely innocuous looking black gun.
“Excuse me.”
I turned around to see Dante looming over me, so tall that I had to crane my neck back uncomfortably to meet his black eyes. A shiver started at my ankles and coated every inch of my skin. He brought to mind the men I had known in Naples, the kind of men who took what they wanted regardless of the cost. They were the same ones Cosima had run away from when she left home.
Dante was a Mafia man.
“Uh, yes?” I asked, finally.
A smirk sliced the right side of his lips and gave his beautiful face an almost manic charisma. I held my breath as he stepped closer and slowly leaned towards me. I closed my eyes when his breath fanned across my face, although I wasn’t sure what I was thinking in doing so.
His dark chuckle alerted me to the cool air now brushing my front and I peeked through one eye to see him standing at a respectable distance again, this time with the gun in his large hand. I let out a sound somewhere between a yip and sigh. His grin stretched wider.
“Shouldn’t leave this laying about now, should I?”
I frowned at his accent; somehow, I hadn’t placed it before. “You’re British.”
A snarl tangled his features for just a second before he stared calmly at me. “And you are Giselle, the beloved sister of my Cosima. She wouldn’t like it if she knew we were talking but, please, let me just say,” his blatantly sexy smile punched me in the gut with reluctant desire, “it is an absolute pleasure to finally meet you.”
“I’ve never heard of you,” I said as I moved closer to the door and twisted the knob.
Dante continued to smile at me. I had never seen a man with so many different kinds of smiles.