Chapter 6

"Oh God, wrong room. I'm so sorry!"

She spun around fast.

"Wait." Dante's voice stopped her cold.

She turned slowly. He crossed to her, completely unbothered, and wiped the corner of her lip with his thumb.

"Next time knock." His eyes held hers a second too long.

She nodded and walked out fast.

Dante turned back to me. We moved inside and dropped onto the bed, breathless.

His hands moved across my body with a gentleness that made my eyes sting. He whispered things to me that I couldn't quite hear but felt anyway and afterward, we just lay there talking about nothing and everything.

He told me about traveling and places he'd lived. He told me about the things that scared him. He didn't tell me much, but what he did tell me felt real. Honest.

"What happens after tonight?" I asked him as the sun started coming up.

"What do you want to happen?" he asked back.

"I don't know. I feel like I'm missing something. Like there's a piece of the puzzle I can't see."

"There is," he said. "But you're not ready to see it yet. So for now, just stay with me. Let me show you something different."

The next morning, he took me out.

He took me to breakfast at a fancy restaurant where the waiters knew his name. They took me shopping on a street I'd never been to, filled with stores I could never afford. He bought me a dress without asking, just handed it to the cashier like it was nothing.

"Why are you doing this?" I asked him as we walked through the downtown area.

"Because you deserve nice things," he said simply. "Because watching you smile is worth it."

We were walking past a coffee shop when I heard someone scream my name.

"Sienna?"

I turned and saw her immediately. Ashley. My old friend from high school. She was standing in front of the coffee shop with shopping bags in her hands, and her face was bright red.

"Oh my god, is that really you?" she said, rushing toward me.

For a second, I was happy to see her, but then I saw the look on her face change. Her eyes scan the dress I was wearing. The designer bags Dante had bought me. The way I looked now compared to the last time she'd seen me.

"Wow," she said, and her voice wasn't friendly anymore. "You look different. You look... rich."

"Ashley," I said carefully. "It's been a while."

"It has," she said, stepping closer.

"You know, it's funny. My sister went to college, and she said someone stole her laptop from the dorm and then my mom said someone broke into her car and took some expensive jewelry, that was when I started getting messages from people we went to school with saying their stuff went missing too."

My blood went cold.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about how right after you moved to the city, all these things started disappearing from people we knew. Luxury items, expensive things and now look at you." She gestured at my outfit. "Designer everything. How exactly did you afford all this, Sienna?"

"You're being crazy," I said, but my voice was shaking.

"Am I?" She pulled out her phone. "Because I've been thinking about this for a while now and I'm pretty sure you stole from my sister. I'm pretty sure you broke into my mom's car and you stole from at least five other people I know."

Dante put his hand on the small of my back, and I could feel the tension radiating off him.

"I think you should go," he said to Ashley, his voice cold in a way I'd never heard before.

"And who the fuck are you?" Ashley asked.

"Someone who knows that you're making accusations you can't prove," he said quietly. "And someone who knows that if you keep talking, you're going to regret it."

Ashley looked between us, and I could see the fear creep into her expression.

"I don't know what's going on with you, Sienna, but you're not the girl I knew in high school," she said, backing away. "And whatever you're doing now, it's not good. Be careful."

She left, and Dante pulled me into a nearby alley, away from the street.

"Did you steal those things?" he asked, his voice hard.

"No," I said immediately. "I would never. I don't know what she's talking about."

He studied my face for a long moment, and I could see him trying to decide if he believed me.

"Someone's been using your identity," he said finally. "Or someone's been framing you. Either way, this is a problem."

"What do you mean a problem? What's going on?"

"It means," he said, "that you're in more danger than you realize and it means that what I told you last night about staying with me, about trusting me... you need to listen to that very carefully now."

He pulled out his phone and made a call.

"It's me," he said to whoever answered. "We have a situation. She's been compromised. No, not by choice. Someone's setting her up. I need you to handle it quietly. Yes, tonight. No, I don't care what it takes."

He hung up and looked at me.

"What was that?" I asked.

"That was me protecting you," he said. "But I need you to understand something. Protecting you is going to require you to trust me completely and to do exactly what I tell you to do. Can you do that?"

"I don't understand what's happening."

"I know," he said. "But you will. Very soon. Things are going to start moving very fast, and when they do, I need you to remember this moment. I need you to remember that I'm trying to help you."

A text came through on my phone from the auction house.

"Your next appointment has been scheduled. Tomorrow night. Client: Rowan. He's very eager to meet you."

I showed Dante the message, and his expression went darker than I'd ever seen it.

"Fuck," he said under his breath.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Everything," he said. "Everything is wrong and it's starting sooner than I thought."