The Fighter and His Tiger (Unexpected Love #1)

41. Friday Week Sixteen (the deal.)

41. Friday Week Sixteen (the deal.)

Dante handed me my gin and tonic before motioning to Eli with a subtle tilt of his head, "so Ryker is how you are mixed up in all this?"

Taking a slow sip off my drink, I nodded, "yeah, but he doesn't want me this involved so it's not all on him."

"Ah, yes," Dante nodded, "of course, Vincent's interest in you plays a large role, si?"

My eyes narrowed at him in suspicion, "how do you know about that?"

Dante's chuckle was low and gravelly, "I am the one who organised for you to come here, bellissima. I am Dante Donatelli and my brother, Cristiano, leads the organisation you asked for help."

One of my sculpted brows rose, "organisation?" I condescended.

Carelessly, he shrugged, "call it what you will, you came to us for help, bellissima."

"Hmm, I suppose we did," another sip of my drink, "and how are you going to help us?"

A ringed hand motioned back over to where Eli was sat with the Vittoria and I took notice of how they were now joined by Cayd, Raven and another suited man who looked strikingly similar to Dante.

"My brother and your friends will focus on Mikael whereas you and I," he motioned between us, "will focus on Vincent. It is clever, you know? The way you have considered taking out the underboss."

I shrugged, "he's a vital part of it all and also just a general asshole."

Dante laughed, "yes, I have met this 'asshole' a few times and I agree with you there."

His accent didn't suit the double 's' sound well and I chuckled at the funny pronunciation of the word before getting straight into it, "so what are we going to do?"

Taking a slow step back, Dante motioned back over to others, "we should go, bellissima, my brother doesn't like it when I am late to business."

I nodded at him, "just give me a sec."

My gaze followed him as he sauntered across the club and sat down on one of the plush black sofas with the others. This entire experience was surreal and I motioned to the bartender so I could order a shot of something strong. The drink left a short trail of liquid heat in my throat and I savoured the feeling as I shook off my growing nerves. Sliding off my barstool, I clasped my cold drink in my hand, ignoring the icy chill, and made my way over to where they were all sat.

One by one, each of their eyes turned to look at me and Dante's brother peered at me with keen interest swirling in his brown eyes, "nice of you to join us, Miss Cole."

I took a seat next to Raven and opposite Dante. Naturally, as I sat, one of my legs crossed over the other and I met Dante's stare; delighting in how I knew that his attention on me would be driving Eli mad.

My gaze flickered back over to Cristiano, "'Reillyn,' is fine."

He gave a short nod but his blank facial expression never changed. He had an icy wall built high and I doubted there was much that could break it. He shared his younger brother's handsome good looks, only lacking the mischievous glint in his eye which Dante wore so proudly.

"Bellissima," I looked back at Dante as he addressed me, "we were just discussing how hard it has been to pinpoint Vincent this week."

"You've been tracking him?" I questioned

"Si," he nodded, "since you asked us for help on Monday. Problem is, the stronzo doesn't settle in one place."

"I've seen him around Mikael's house a lot, he stays there often," Raven inputted

Dante nodded, "but Mikael's house is a fortress, no? There is no way to get in there."

"But if we did manage to get in there, surely we could just take Mikael out?" Cayd asked.

Brown hair fell onto his forehead as Dante shook his head, "taking out Mikael doesn't take out the whole organisation, it doesn't work like that. That's why Vincent is key, we need to get to him so we can track their shipments, take away their money and so their power."

I noted that the entire time they spoke, the cold gaze of Cristiano remained settled on me and Eli and Vittoria remained silent on the two-seater sofa to the right of all of us.

My gaze met Cristiano's and he rose a challenging eyebrow at me, silently daring me to say something. Of their own accord, my eyes narrowed at him, "set up a meeting with Vincent."

Vittoria spoke for the first time, she also had the stupid sexy Italian accent that her brothers had. She gave me a patronising look, "Vincent's not stupid, he won't just meet with someone."

Meeting her stare was easy, holding back my glare was not, "He'll meet - with me," I spoke through gritted teeth as Eli's hand rested casually on her thigh; the glint of his rings taunting me.

"I don't see why he wouldn't want to, bellissima," Dante said with a wink.

I smiled back at him and noted how Eli leant forward, resting his elbows on his knees so he could glare in our general direction. I pretended not to notice but I did see how his movement forward resulted in his wandering hand having to be peeled away.

"No," Eli grunted out, "that won't work."

"Oh, for God's sake, Ryker," Raven exclaimed suddenly, "we all know that it would, you're just being protective again."

Eli's glare sharpened but his focus remained purely on Dante who was looking back at him with a small but knowing smile on his face, "she will be safe, Ryker, we will make sure of it."

"Payment," Cristiano drawled, "we need to discuss payment."

Cayd removed the backpack from his shoulders and passed it across the table to Dante, "this is the amount we agreed."

Dante's fingers flicked deftly through the bag as he counted the money and when he deemed it the correct amount, the bag was zipped up and passed off to someone else.

Then Dante's stare turned cheeky and he looked at me, then Eli, then me again, "actually, that was the agreed amount for Mikael. Now that we are involving Vincent and of course Reillyn's safety, the cost had increased."

Because his gaze was focused solely on me as he spoke, I took charge here. Uncrossing my legs, I leant forward more than I needed to, making a show of it before speaking in a hushed whisper, "what do we owe you?"

Dante smirked, "three dates, bellissima," he sat back in his chair as though he was proud of himself, "three dates with you."

The shock on my face was blatantly obvious, I'm sure. We had been flirting but I didn't know that stemmed into actual interest on his part. But before I could contemplate it too much, the sound of a palm hitting the glass table between us all echoed loudly.

"She is not doing that," Eli growled

Noticing the aggression on Eli's face but knowing these were the wrong people to pick a fight with, I steeled Eli with a hard glare, "that is not your call to make, Ryker."

He growled, "you aren't doing it, Reillyn."

"Watch me," I dared before turning to Dante and giving him a firm nod, "you have a deal."

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I am going to try and update again for you guys this weekend but I am just so stresseddddddddd 😭

I am going to start putting motivational quotes on each chapter because I am trying to be more positive and happy within myself.

SOoooo, quote for this chapter:

"You're never gonna find a rainbow if you are looking down" - Charlie Chaplin

Thank you for reading, beautiful people!

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