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Revenge

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Chapter 29: Revenge (Anastasia's POV)

I didn't know what was going on, I didn't understand anything anymore. After what happened over dinner with my parents, I was barely in control of my own body, and the only thing I knew with certainty was that I didn't want to go home. 

Going home meant sleeping alone, and sleeping alone after spending my entire night thinking about the past and what had happened to Francesca meant the nightmares would start again. 

I was afraid. I was a coward, too fucking scared to be left alone with my own thoughts, so I ran to the only place, the only person I could think of. Dante. 

But that night, I hadn't gone to him looking for sex. Even though that was our deal; whatever this was between us, it was strictly physical. Somehow, I found myself simply looking for... him. 

A part of me just wanted someone to talk to. It wasn't until I was at his apartment that I realized he couldn't be that person because Dante didn't know a thing about me, and I didn't know a thing about him. I started to wonder if I was really that sure of what I wanted from him because I was starting to believe maybe I wanted more than just physical. 

If you were to ask me, I would never admit it out loud, but when Dante had disappeared without a word a year ago, a fraction of me was a little grateful because I was starting to want more from him. I started craving a part of him he wouldn't be willing to give me. I

t was the biggest factor holding me back from him this time around too, and I dreaded the moment I would feel that again. 

But that moment is here now. 

It felt like I was standing right where I was a year ago, feeling more than I wanted to, craving him more than I wanted to, and not knowing what to do. The question had been haunting me, possessing my mind completely until it was deprived of its capability to think straight. 

Was I falling for Dante Rossi? Again? 

Dante cutting me off and going underground saved me from myself, and I never had to answer that question, but this time around, he was right in front of me. I had no choice but to face the music. 

I wanted Dante beyond the physical aspect of it. I wanted his mind, his heart, I wanted to know who Dante Rossi really was. It always felt like I could never really have him the way I wished, so I stayed and settled for the pieces of him I could have, the parts of him that he was willing to show me, to give me. 

But now... it felt like they weren't enough. I needed more, I needed him. 

"Anastasia?" 

Inhaling sharply, I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to face Dante. "Hmm?" I asked, feeling lost in the crowd and in our conversation. 

Tonight couldn't have come at a worse time. We'd taken the weekend away from our killer, trying to delay the inevitable, and we'd managed to buy three more days. Then the invitations arrived last night, and we knew it would be terrible tonight. 

Stealing the spotlight, ruining their plans... I bet the killer was furious, enraged at the obstacle we'd thrown their way. We still had fucking nothing. Buying more time brought no victories. I feared that we'd angered the killer for no reason, and... the victim would take the brunt of it. 

Dante and I came prepared to see the worst tonight. We knew he or she was killing for revenge tonight. 

His eyes held mine for several beats, a storm of emotions swirling in them. He stared at me with a puzzled, confused look in his eyes. 

"What?" I asked quietly. 

Releasing a breath, he turned to scan the room once. "Fuck it," he mumbled, taking my hand in a haste and pulling me aside and past the scarlet red curtains concealing the corners of the room. I was confused, but I didn't argue as he steered me away from the crowd, undoing one of the curtains. 

As it fell forward, hiding us from the crowd completely, he pushed me against the wall and let out a jagged breath. "Where are you tonight?" he asked. 

"What do you mean?" I replied dumbly. 

"You're not here," he answered, "your head is somewhere else entirely. You're not focused, you've been zoned out all night, and every time I've asked you a question, I've had to repeat myself at least three times to get your undivided attention. Talk to me. What's going on in your head?" 

So much. Too much. 

Everything that took place at my parents' home, my feelings for Dante, the goddamn case... everything was overwhelming me. 

"Nothing," I lied, "I'm just nervous about tonight." 

He paused for a second. "Your mind has been all over the place since that dinner with your parents. You're leaving me no choice but to ask you what really happened." 

Ask. 

I wanted so desperately for him to ask, to push me for answers. I wanted him to fight his way past the walls I forged between us because I was too afraid to do it first. I was so eager to know more about him but too anxious to ask questions because I didn't want to risk him walking away again. 

But when he was asking me, all I did was shake my head. "You won't get it. It's just... a family matter." 

He shifted his weight and brought his hands up on the wall, caging me in. "Try me, Anastasia." 

I suppressed a sigh. "Does it really matter? Do you really care? Or are you just asking because I'm distracted at work, and it's pissing you off?" 

He held my gaze. "Maybe I do." 

I hoped I masked the surprise that surged through me well enough. "Why would you?" I asked hesitantly. "That's not part of our deal. This... is just physical. Isn't it?" 

Both of us fell silent for what felt like an eternity but must have been a minute, maybe two. 

I could hear my heart pounding, and feel the blood rushing in my veins. My pulse was racing as I waited for an answer. 

I know what he's going to say. Why am I hoping for something more? 

Then he stepped closer, his chest brushed against mine, and he lifted a hand to my chin, his knuckles brushing my skin as he tipped my chin up and leaned in. 

And my heart stopped entirely. 

"What if I want more?" he whispered, his lips brushing against mine. 

Nothing, and I mean nothing, could have prepared me for that. I wasn't sure what it was about him, but Dante was the first and only person in this world that made me want to open up. Maybe it was because he never asked questions, or maybe it was because he was a mystery to me too. It made me feel like we were the same. 

Maybe the darkness in me recognized the darkness in him. 

The past three days, I felt so torn, so haunted by everything. My past was looming over me like a dark cloud, waiting to storm down and drown me in those memories. If it wasn't for Dante, I would have been a mess this week. Each morning, he was dragging me to work, each night, he was coming home with me, and every day inside the office, he kept me grounded and focused. 

The longer I spent with him, the harder it was for me to understand how I was ever okay with not having him. How did it take me so long to fall for him? How the fuck have I survived so long without him? Because having as much of him as I did now, I could never go back, I could only crave more. 

My breath hitched as he pulled away without kissing me. "What are you saying, Mr Rossi?" I asked shakily. This wasn't the right place or the right time, but with complete abandonment and ignorance, we both stayed there. 

Before I could hear his answer, a loud bang echoed from the staircase in the corner. In the background, I could hear an announcer preparing the audience for the reveal of tonight's grand painting. 

Knowing it would be safer to stay with the crowd, I took Dante's hand and returned to the main hall just as the cloth was tugged off the painting. A series of familiar gasps and screams washed over the room upon the reveal. 

The graphic and disgustingly violent painting made me sick, showcasing a woman's brutal murder with her being strapped down to a chair, stripped, and knife wounds on every inch of her naked body, the knives still impaled in her. It was similar to the very first murder, only more cruel. 

I had no doubt in my mind the victim would be Adeline Vaughn, tonight's host, despite being missing for the past week and three days. 

"She's in the basement, isn't she?" I mumbled as the crowd rushed out. After all the other murders, people knew better than to linger and witness a mutilated body. With the body the painting depicted... It even made me uneasy. "That's the noise we just heard," I whispered. I glanced towards the corner we'd just been in when Dante's hold on me tightened. 

"I don't think we should go look," he said. "This time, it's worse." 

The murders were always gruesome, but they had never been so vulgar and heinous before. This was personal. It was just what I was afraid of. We'd hit a nerve on our killer, and it only triggered them more. 

A sigh of frustration and defeat escaped me as I scanned the room, watching people race for the exit. As Dante's phone buzzed, he turned around to answer it, and precisely then, I found him. 

We'd circled the room several times tonight, I was even alone at some points, but I didn't see Ethan in the crowd. He didn't approach me. I thought he wasn't here. I was starting to think he was simply a stranger since we had no leads on him, nothing that painted him as our suspect. 

He stood in the opposite corner of the room, leaning against the pillar, watching the crowd, and then turning to me as if he felt my gaze on him. Although his face remained blank, he seemed to be bubbling with anger from within. He didn't look too happy to see me that night. 

My instincts screamed at me to stay put at Dante's side, and for once, I listened to them and watched him leave. 

Something about him was odd, and I'd be damned if I didn't get to the bottom of it.

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Chapter 29

If you saw the typo in the last chapter where I said "kill" instead of kiss"... No, you didn't. That never happened, okay 💀💀

Also, I've been getting a lot of questions about my uni plans, so I'm just going to put it out there. 

I'm going to Sydney, Australia, and I'll be doing an English major (is anyone surprised 💀) with my second major in criminology!!

Literally taking criminology only so I can write more sexy serial killers like Ethan lmao

but yeah

Also, someone pls recommend me some good Asian dramas. K-dramas, J-dramas, C-dramas, idc, just anything!! I feel like I've watched all of them, and I need a good watch rn

anyways

next ch: secrets