Page 27 of Anti-Heroes in Love Duet

I pursed my lips around the sour lemon taste of his words. “Well, if that’s all, USA, I’ll leave you to the rest of your business.”

When I turned on my heel to leave, he chuckled lightly. “Sit down, Elena. I promise to behave professionally. Can you blame a man for being intrigued when he sees a ghost from his childhood?”

I ignored him, continuing on toward the door. It wouldn’t jeopardize the case, and I was tired of men and their games. I felt as if I’d been a pawn in them all my life, first with Seamus then with Daniel and now Dante. I had enough to deal with. I didn’t need Dennis assuming control of any aspect of my life, even if it was only for a ten-minute meeting.

“Please, forgive me,” he called out as I wrapped my hand around the doorknob. “I would like to know Ms. Lombardi, the lawyer. Only a fourth-year associate, but it seems you’ve already made quite the name for yourself in criminal court.”

I hesitated. His thread hooked through the eyelet of my pride stuck into the pincushion of my heart.

“Assistant US Attorney Jerome Hansen almost refused to take the Arnold Becker case when he found out you were representing him,” he continued, laying into the flattery.

Unfortunately, it worked.

I spun on my red-heeled shoe and arched a brow at him. “I have time to take a seat if you want to continue praising me.”

Dennis laughed, his features even more pleasing crinkled in amusement. “Then sit, please. Tell me how you found out WDH had unfairly terminated him. Our private investigator wasn’t able to figure that one out.”

I leveled him with a coy glance. “That is between our company PI, Ricardo Stavos, and me.”

He sighed, and even though I hadn’t dated anyone but Daniel in years, I recognized the hint of flirtation there. “A woman with secrets.”

“A woman with integrity,” I corrected.

“Good to know the apple fell far from the tree.” I pursed my lips at another comment about my father, but Dennis held his hands up in mock surrender. “You’re really not curious to hear childhood misadventures about your father?”

“No. Nothing you say can humanize a man I know to be a monster.”

He seemed shocked by my bluntness. “He was always a bit of a rascal… but I didn’t know he’d gone down such a dark path.”

“Don’t be surprised if you’re making a case against him one day if he ever ends up back Stateside.” I’d had nightmares about such a thing happening and thanked my lucky stars I’d had the presence to take Mama’s name years ago so that I wouldn’t be linked to him. “And for the record, I would prefer people not know I was related to him.”

“Of course.” Dennis gave me a calculating look. “Look, I’ll get straight to the point so we can move on to better topics of conversation. If your client is willing to turn on any of the other families, we can offer a tempting plea deal. Reduced sentence time in a mid-level penitentiary.”

Without my permission, a little laugh escaped me. The idea of a man like Dante Salvatore, so assured of his own magnificence and the sanctity of his criminal brotherhood, would no sooner turn on his own mother than on another capo.

I didn’t have to voice that for Dennis to read my refusal.

“You’re obligated to take it to your client,” he reminded me somewhat insultingly. “It could mean the difference in dying behind bars and getting out before he’s an old man.”

“This isn’t the first time you’ve offered,” I said. Even though I wasn’t certain, I had no doubt he’d relayed the same thing to Yara before the indictment. “It probably won’t be the last. You don’t care about one man. You want the entire operation.”

He smiled charmingly. “What man wouldn’t?”

“Careers are made on these cases,” I agreed, but there was an edge to my voice.

It could have been competition, my desire to beat anyone in court because I was possessive of that arena. But a tiny voice told me it could have been a misplaced sense of loyalty too. Even though Dante was a criminal, a man who deserved to go to prison, I suddenly found myself incapable of wishing him inside a cage for the rest of his life, even if I wasn’t on this case.

He was too…vital to contain. For the same reason I avoided going to the zoo, I wanted to avoid the sight of Dante trapped in a steel box.

“Or broken,” Dennis added, and I knew he’d read my tone correctly.

One of us would win, and one of us would lose.

Dennis needed the win to fill the sails of his political campaign.

I needed the win so I could get out from under the shadow of my family, their accomplishments and pitfalls, and stand strong in the limelight as my own person.

It would come down to who was the more desperate of the two, I knew, because it always did. I’d grown up in Naples where children fought with their fists in the sandbox because they’d seen their own parents do it in the streets, so I knew all about winning at any cost.