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“Really? Madison baking something is almost surprising as Madison shooting you,” Dante replies with a chuckle. “I remember her mother liked to cook, bake cookies and shit after she moved in with me. Apparently, the whore house’s kitchen was too crowded for such a thing. She came from a small town in Georgia and learned to cook from her mother.”
Wow. I wonder if he’s ever told Maddie any of that. Probably not the part about her mother being a whore…
After another long moment Dante says, “If you can give me a list of things she needs I’ll get them for her as a peace offering, once she’s settled in.”
“Okay,” I agree, knowing he means if she doesn’t try to bolt again. “She knows how to drive,” I warn him. “Maybe you could let her get her license, you know, after she works off her punishment for leaving.”
“Hmm,” he mutters as if he’s about to shoot that idea down.
“The PI taught her how to drive, and it should’ve been you,” I point out. “Regular fathers teach their kids how to drive.”
“Fine,” he grumbles. “I’ll let her get a license, but she’s not driving without at least four security guards.”
At least that’s something.
Arching a single midnight eyebrow at me, Dante asks sarcastically, “Any other orders you want to give me?”
“Those were just suggestions,” I assure him. “But I do have one other request.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“Since I found Madison and brought her home safe, I want you to either make me an actual employee with days off and a salary or let me go.”
Being back home in Vegas, a captive in Dante’s house, I’ve realized that I don’t want revenge on him. I only want his respect; despite the disrespectful things I’ve done to Maddie’s body. I also want his approval and love. It’s stupid really. I thought it was lust I felt for Dante all this time, but after meeting Jordan, I realize I think of Dante as more of a father figure like Mac, something I had missed since I grew up without ever knowing my father.
“Let you go?” Dante repeats slowly, indignantly. “You’re lucky to be alive.”
“I know that, and I know I owe you a debt for the money I cost you rigging the fight. But it’s been two years...”
“And you owe me at least another three to pay back the one point five million dollars you cost me,” he replies. “While I’m grateful you found my daughter, it doesn’t absolve you of your debt to me. You’re still on thin fucking ice. I don’t give third chances. If you ever lie to me again, you’re a dead man, understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“So then why do I have this feeling that you’re not telling me something?”
Fuck.
I knew it was nearly impossible to keep shit from the mobster. So, I need to give him something. Thinking fast, I offer up a half-truth. “I met someone. In Virginia.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes. And even though we didn’t spend much time together, I still felt something I had never felt before, something I didn’t know I was capable of feeling.”
“You will still live here, under my roof, working for me,” Dante says. “But…you can still visit him if you want.”
Brows furrowed, I ask, “How did you know it was a he?”
Dante shrugs. “You prefer men, or so I had assumed.”
“I did. I do, I mean,” I quickly amend.
Before the past few days with Maddie, I preferred men. But now, it’s a fifty-fifty tossup between her and Jordan.
Maddie
“So, what else is new besides you sleeping with Vanessa’s son?” I ask Cass the next morning, once I’ve had time to settle back into my old room in the penthouse. I haven’t left my bed except to shower and occasionally eat.
“Well, Daddy and Vanessa got married not long after you left,” she says as she takes a seat on the other side of the mattress.
