“Let go of me!” Bella hissed, jerking her wrist. Dante’s grip only tightened as he pulled her down the cracked concrete steps into the humid night.

“Relax,” he said, flashing a grin like this was a date. “You’ll ruin the whole hostage vibe if you keep fighting.”

“Hostage?” Her heels scraped the pavement. “You can’t just ”

“Sweetheart,” Dante cut her off smoothly, “I can do anything I want. That’s the perk of being me.”

She stumbled as he yanked her around a corner. His men were already piling into black SUVs, weapons glinting under the streetlights. The smell of gasoline and iron hung thick in the air.

Tattoo Neck the soldier from before held the door open. “Boss, Alvarez boys are sighted near Ninth. They look like they’re patrolling.”

“Patrolling,” Dante repeated, shoving Bella into the backseat before sliding in beside her. “Cute word for ‘itching to shoot someone.’”

Bella’s pulse hammered. “You can’t take me to them.”

“That’s the idea,” he said lightly, tapping the back of the driver’s seat. “Move.”

The SUV roared to life.

Bella twisted toward him, eyes blazing. “Dante, listen to me. Mateo didn’t order anything this is a setup. You’re walking into ”

“A trap?” His grin widened. “Good. I love traps.”

“You’re insane!”

He leaned back, stretching one arm lazily along the seat behind her shoulders, like they were just cruising for ice cream instead of driving straight into a street war. “Insane gets the job done. You’ll see.”

She shoved his arm away. “This isn’t a joke ”

“Everything’s a joke,” he interrupted, his eyes glittering as he leaned close enough that she caught the faintest whiff of smoke and cologne. “That’s why people keep underestimating me.”

Her mouth opened, but the car lurched to a stop.

Tattoo Neck twisted from the front seat. “Boss. Alvarez convoy up ahead.”

Dante smiled, sharp and wolfish. “Perfect.”

Bella pressed herself against the door. “Dante, please. Don’t do this. Let me talk to them first.”

“Oh no, sweetheart,” he murmured, already reaching for his gun. “Tonight, you’re not the nun in white. You’re the devil’s bargain.”

Engines growled across the street like caged animals. Black sedans idled nose to nose with the Marinos’ SUVs, headlights spilling white fire onto cracked asphalt.

Dante leaned forward, casual as if they’d pulled up to valet parking. “Ah. Big brother himself.”

Bella’s heart stopped. “Don’t ”

He pushed his door open. Warm night air spilled in, carrying the tang of exhaust and the faint metallic bite of gun oil.

“Stay here,” he told her, stepping out like a king meeting his rival court.

“No, wait ” Bella scrambled, but Tattoo Neck shoved her shoulder lightly.

“Sit still, princess. This ain’t your stage.”

Her palms pressed against the window as she watched Dante stroll into the street. His white shirt gleamed under the glow, crisp and arrogant, like he hadn’t just been dodging bullets less than an hour ago.

Mateo Alvarez stood across from him, flanked by two men with shotguns resting casual against their shoulders. His suit jacket hung open, his tie loose, like he’d been dragged here straight from a boardroom or maybe from some darker room Bella didn’t want to imagine.

But his eyes. His eyes were fire.

“You’ve lost your mind, Marino,” Mateo called, his voice cutting through the night.

“Probably,” Dante said cheerfully. “But at least I didn’t order an ambush on myself. That’d be stupid, even for me.”

Mateo’s jaw flexed. “You think I’d risk my sister’s life?”

“Oh, so it wasn’t you?” Dante’s smirk widened. “Then which one of your dogs forgot the leash?”

Bella shoved the door open, ignoring the curse from Tattoo Neck, and stumbled into the humid air. “Stop it! Both of you!”

Mateo’s eyes snapped to her. “Bella.”

His voice cracked. Not with weakness, but with something else something hard, something dangerous.

“Get away from him.”

Her chest heaved. “Mateo, listen ”

“No.” He raised a hand. One of his men stepped forward, gun glinting in the headlights. “You’ve been with him too long already.”

“Excuse me?” Dante tilted his head, amused. “Too long? She was on her knees praying in my club when your boys started shooting. Not exactly quality sister time.”

“Shut your mouth,” Mateo snapped.

“Or what?” Dante spread his arms. “You’ll shoot me? Go ahead. I’ll even stand still.”

Mateo’s fingers twitched on his holster. Bella could feel the ground slipping away under her feet.

“Mateo, please!” she shouted. “Someone is setting this up! They want you two to kill each other.”

Neither man looked at her. Their gazes locked across the space between headlights, hot as gunpowder.

Dante finally chuckled. “Tell you what. Since you’re so sure you didn’t try to kill me… prove it.”

Mateo’s voice dropped like a hammer. “How?”

Dante’s grin widened. He hooked a thumb toward Bella. “Trade.”

Her blood iced. “What?”

“Give me one of your men in exchange for her,” Dante said smoothly. “Neutral ground. You get your sister safe, I get a guarantee you’re not pulling strings behind my back. Everybody walks away happy.”

Mateo’s jaw tightened. “She’s not a bargaining chip.”

Dante shrugged. “Everything’s a bargaining chip. Even blood.”

“Dante!” Bella hissed. “I’m standing right here.”

He didn’t look at her. He just smiled at Mateo, daring, taunting.

Mateo’s hand slid fully onto his gun. His men tensed. Marino soldiers mirrored the motion.

The street became a held breath.

The street was a crucible of headlights, shadows, and guns. Every man on both sides was coiled tight, waiting for the spark.

Bella’s voice cracked the silence. “Put the guns down! Both of you!”

Neither brother nor enemy moved.

Mateo’s stare cut through Dante. “You think I’d hand over my blood to a Marino? You must really be begging to die.”

Dante smirked, rolling his shoulders loose. “Not begging. Negotiating.”

“Negotiating?” Bella snapped, throwing her arms wide. “You’ve got me standing here like a prize pig at auction, and you’re calling it negotiating?”

That got him to look at her. Just for a heartbeat, his smirk softened into something else something unreadable. Then it was gone.

“Don’t undersell yourself, sweetheart,” Dante said smoothly. “You’re worth more than a pig. At least a thoroughbred racehorse.”

Tattoo Neck snorted. “More legs on the pig, though.”

Even the Alvarez men glanced at each other, half confused by the absurdity.

“Stop joking!” Bella yelled. “This isn’t funny!”

“Exactly,” Mateo said. “Enough games, Marino. Step back.”

But Dante didn’t step back. He stepped forward. Just one easy stride, boots crunching glass.

His grin widened as Mateo’s hand gripped tighter on the gun. “Careful, Alvarez. Your trigger finger’s twitching. You shoot me, maybe I fall. Maybe I don’t. But either way, the girl’s standing closer to me than you. Guess who gets caught in the middle?”

Bella’s chest heaved. “You’re both out of your minds.”

Her brother’s eyes finally flicked toward her. His voice was lower now, urgent, almost pleading. “Bella. Get away from him.”

Her throat locked. She couldn’t move.

Because Dante’s hand had drifted, lazy as sin, to the small of her back. Not gripping, not pushing. Just… there. Possessive. Claiming. And she hated how her skin burned under it.

Mateo saw it. His jaw tightened like stone.

“Marino,” he said, voice dropping to steel. “Take your hands off her.”

Dante leaned closer to Bella, lips brushing the edge of her hair. His whisper was only for her: “Tell me, bella. Should I let you go?”

Her heart slammed against her ribs. “Don’t ”

“Or maybe,” Dante continued softly, “you don’t want me to.”

The sound of safeties clicking off cracked the moment. Alvarez soldiers raising their weapons. Marino soldiers matching them.

One spark away from war.

Bella’s scream tore out before she could stop it. “Stop! You’ll kill each other!”

The night had narrowed to the width of the street.

Two men. Two empires. And her.

Bella’s voice cracked through the tension, ragged from screaming. “Don’t you see? This is exactly what they want you two tearing each other apart!”

“Then he should put the gun down,” Dante said, easy as a bartender taking an order.

Mateo’s voice was a growl. “Not until you take your hands off my sister.”

Dante’s palm pressed firmer against her lower back, deliberate now. “You hear that? He doesn’t care about you. Just his ego. Typical big brother move.”

“Shut. Your. Mouth.” Mateo’s hand twitched. The gun was almost fully raised.

Bella shoved at Dante’s chest, desperate. “Stop pushing him! You want a war?”

Dante only laughed low, dangerous, maddening. “War’s the only language men like him understand.”

“I understand enough,” Mateo shot back. “Like how you’ve dragged my sister into your mess.”

“She walked in on her own,” Dante countered smoothly. “Church girl in a den of sin. You tell me who’s playing with fire.”

Bella’s stomach lurched. “I’m not ”

“Oh, but you are.” Dante’s lips brushed her ear, and the words slid over her skin like smoke. “And admit it… part of you likes it.”

Her breath caught. Heat shot down her spine, shame tangled with fury. She shoved harder against him. “You’re disgusting.”

He grinned wider, eyes locked on Mateo. “She doesn’t mean that.”

“Dante!” she spat.

But the damage was done. Mateo’s face darkened, rage sparking off him like struck matches. His gun came up, steady and lethal.

“Let her go,” Mateo said, voice deadly calm, “or I’ll end you right here.”

Around them, safeties clicked, barrels shifted. Alvarez men aiming. Marino men aiming back. A street trembling on the edge of hell.

Bella’s pulse hammered in her ears. “Stop it! All of you!”

And still neither man blinked.

Dante leaned closer to her, whispering one last poisoned choice. “Say the word, bella. Tell me you want to stay. And I’ll make sure he doesn’t fire.”

“Say it,” Dante murmured, his lips brushing so close to Bella’s ear she flinched. “One word, bella. Stay or go.”

Her throat locked.

Mateo’s eyes burned across the headlights. “Don’t listen to him. Move to me, Bella.”

Dante’s hand slid lower on her back, steady, territorial. “Move to him, and you’ll never walk again. Not after they start shooting.”

“I swear to God ” Mateo’s voice cracked sharp, but his grip on the gun was steady. “Let her walk, Marino. Or I’ll pull the trigger.”

Bella snapped. “Both of you, stop using me like like some shield!”

“Not a shield,” Dante corrected smoothly. “A crown jewel.”

“Christ,” Mateo spat.

The Alvarez men tensed, guns ready. One shifted his stance, the faint scrape of leather on pavement loud in the silence. Marino soldiers mirrored them instantly. A single twitch would unleash chaos.

Bella’s lungs burned. Every heartbeat was a countdown.

And then she did the only thing she could think of.

She tore herself free.

Shoving Dante’s chest with all her strength, she stumbled forward, right into the no man’s land of blinding headlights between the two families.

“Stop it!” she screamed, spinning on them both. Her voice echoed off brick and steel. “If you want to kill each other, you’ll have to shoot through me!”

Both lines faltered. Even hardened soldiers froze at the sight of a woman, small and furious, arms flung wide between empires.

Mateo’s jaw worked, fury tangled with shock. “Bella ”

“Don’t you dare, Mateo!” Her voice cracked. “Don’t you dare make me watch you become like them!”

“Like me?” Dante drawled from behind her, amusement dripping in every syllable. “Careful, bella. You’re starting to sound like you care what happens to me.”

She whipped on him, finger stabbing the air. “Shut. Up.”

For the first time all night, Dante’s grin faltered. Just a flicker. Enough to show he wasn’t immune.

Mateo lowered his gun a fraction. “Bella, get out of the street. Now.”

“No,” she said, fierce. “Not until you both back down.”

Silence.

Engines idled. Guns hovered. A hundred men waiting for orders.

And then Dante started to laugh. Not loud, but low, curling into the night like smoke.

“You’ve got steel in you, bella. I like it.” His smile sharpened. “But you just put yourself in checkmate.”

Mateo’s eyes narrowed. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means,” Dante said, stepping forward into the light, “I can’t shoot you now… but I can take her. And you can’t fire without hitting your own blood.”

He spread his arms, walking straight toward Bella. Soldiers bristled, but no one dared move.

“Dante don’t!” she warned, backing a step.

“Oh, I will.” His grin was wicked. “Because if you’re brave enough to stand between kings… then you don’t belong in the pews anymore.”