Page 69 of Dangerous Promises

Anton's too elated to notice he's still standing in the midst of his old enemies. But Freddie doesn't. With his arms folded and his eyes narrowed at me, he waits. If I make one wrong movetowards Dimitri DeMarco, who is fuckingalive,he will be right there to stop me.

"Fighting over this right now isn't smart. Your brother needs you."

I shouldn't be surprised that Anton melts. Forgetting about truces, fights and death promises, Anton rushes up the stairs into the house, and Isla smirks at me before following him. Making me wonder if I'm as easy to manipulate as Anton just was.

As we head further into the house, Freddie hands me a shirt and a jacket, silently warning me again with a hand on my shoulder as I put them on. I shrug him off. Irritated at the suggestion. I am the one concerned with the truce right now.

I don't plan on taking another family member away from Sage.

Well. I don't plan on letting us lose this truce and advantage from Chet. Yes. That's what it is. All I know is that Isla is here next to me, warning me to be careful with her eyes, whilst for some reason we follow the DeMarco family through this.

As we approach the suite, my skin tingles. This is the room that Freddie was antsy to cover up. They've been hiding Dimitri in here a very long time.

The door gets pushed open, the room bigger than I expected. This must've been the primary suite, much larger than all the other rooms with floor to ceiling windows at the opposite side that overlook an expanse of the property. The room is dispersed with old wooden furniture, and in the middle is an extravagant canopy bed.

And in that bed, is a confused, droopy, but definitely alive, Dimitri DeMarco.

My body immediately tenses at the scale and resources it would've taken to cover something like this up. There is no way my brother knew aboutthis. He thought himself clever, strategicand ahead of the crowd. But there's no indication that my brother had any idea he hadn't finished the job. He thought he killed Dimitri DeMarco.

"Brother," Dimitri says, coughing as he sits up and is fed water by a nurse.

Fuck. It hits me now that I am actually looking at the patriarch of the DeMarco family. I don't think I've ever seen him up close in person. Anton may have warmed to me, enough to let Isla calm him and not stop us following them in here, but Dimitri has not. I am more than an enemy in his home now.

Isla gives me a side eye like she cannot believe that they weren't full of shit and that Dimitri is actually, clearly, obviously alive.

Our advantage against Chet dwindles in front of my eyes.

"Dim," Anton says, coming to sit gently at his side and hold his brother's hand in a death grip. "You're alive."

"Don't feel it," Dimitri says, his rough voice coming to the forefront.

"Well you're lucky to be," Freddie says, moving forward to give Dimitri a pat on his shoulder as he smiles wide and genuine.

"What the fuck happened?" Dimitri asks.

"You nearly got killed is what happened," Anton says. "What do you remember?"

"Nothing. I remember waking up and heading into that meeting, and the perimeter alarm going off, and then nothing."

"That's normal," the nurse butts in to say. "His memory from the day may never return, but in some cases that is a blessing."

"What did happen?" Dimitri asks.

"Raid on the estate," Anton answers, a swallow in his throat. Since he now knows it was my brother who orchestrated the attack and his niece who planned everything to go to shit. "They got the jump on you."

"Fuck," Dimitri says. "I've had better days. I think we'll need to-"

Dimitri's eyes focus and finally they land on mine, watching him from the opposite side of the room. His posture stiffens, expression turning hard. He has a multitude of scars on his face that are too worn to be from the latest incident, and in summary, he looks like a scary motherfucker.

Even in this state, being out of action for over a year, he still looks menacing. I can't imagine what he looks like when he's well. I never had the pleasure of meeting the head of the DeMarco empire before any of this. There was no reason for us to cross paths. Thus my surprise when he immediately recognizes me.

"Brother," Dimitri says, voice choking on a swallow as his eyes laser into me. "Wanna tell me why there's a Rushkoff in my room?"

Anton frowns and turns swiftly to look at me, like he's only just remembered the full story, and that both Isla and I are here with them, watching this unfold.

He's making himself look incredibly dumb and lost with all of his contradicting actions in the fifteen minutes we've known Dimitri is alive. At least he's still smart enough to know there's nothing he can say to explain this. Unless he wants to explain it all. Which I imagine he doesn't.

"It's a long story," Anton cringes.