Unbridled Temptress (18+) (COMPLETE)

14 | Timing is Essential | |

"I think you're being hasty."

"No one asked you to think Dante."

Dante's jaw clenched and he cringed when he heard the other man's voice come through the phone. He balled his fists at his side and took a deep breath.

"Listen to him, Gio." Dante could tell that was Giovanni's assassin lover, who he called Satar.

"We should strike now while Piero is out in the open!" Giovanni boomed.

"That would be unwise. He's volatile we've seen proof with Don Man--."

"That vermin was a backstabbing rat. He deserved what he got. In fact, he got off easy. You do remember that he tried to kill me too, right? He was Piero's partner in the crime."

Dante stopped pacing for a moment. "That's even worse. Piero considered him a friend and--"

"The man doesn't have friends!"

He could feel the rage growing inside him. He'd felt that a lot lately. Every emotion always ended up bubbling up eventually as anger. Bridgette refusing to talk about Turner, refusing to give him any indication where she stood with him. Nothing solid anyway. He wanted to take her sexual compliance as a sure sign that she still wanted him after the whole thing was over. There was a verbal ping pong on the other end of the phone between Giovanni and another mail voice that Dante thought was one of the thieves that stole Faust. It would be a pain beyond any he'd had yet to endure if he had to constantly see Bridgette but not be able to touch her. Watch her fall in love with someone else, watch her marry the man, watch the man have a hand in raising his son. No! They were his. He never had anything that truly belonged to him. He didn't even consider the house he lived in his because it all stemmed from Giovanni's charity and grace. Everything he had it was because of Giovanni even Bridgette and therefore his son. He wasn't sure what that meant it was all jumbled in his head.

"What do you need me for then?" Dante interrupted the raised voices the back of his head starting to throb.

There was a long silence. There had to be at least four people on their end and it was all dead air. "What kind of question is that Dante?" Dante could hear Giovanni's frustration.

"I am supposed to be your eyes and ears yet you do not heed my warnings. You do not respect my judgement. You don't even allow me to finish what I have to say. So, I'm asking the only kind of questions that my feeble mind can conceive." His voice was calm measured, something he practiced for a long while and mastered. "What do you need me for? If you have it all figured out. If you have all the answers. What do you need from me?" Dante exhaled feeling, for the first time in a long while, relief.

"Power feels good doesn't it? Is it rubbing off on you?"

"Gio?"

"No Satar. He's going to hear this. You know damn well I need you."

Dante raised an eyebrow. "No, Giovanni, I don't know."

More silence. "Now, I have a question of my own. Do you want it?"

"What?" Dante crossed his arms.

"The seat, the power, my life, everything I worked hard for?"

Dante exhaled pinching the bridge of his nose. "I don't envy your life Giovanni Bianchi." The man's name came out harsher than he wanted. "Perhaps when we were children. You had everything and I had nothing save for your friendship. I love and respect you like a brother. However, I don't feel the same respect from you. That's why I'm asking."

Another long stint of silence.

Giovanni cleared his throat. "You are right." He let out an audible exhale. "I am being impatient. I-I don't know how to depend on someone else." He released an awkward laugh. "I-I'm losing it out here. I need to get back."