"If you wonât tell me, then I have no business here." Freya snorted and turned around. "Felix, letâs go."
"Isnât your business protecting me? Where are you running off to?" Dante asked with an amused look.
"Weâll do that in secret, like weâre supposed to." She replied without so much as glancing back.
Felix stood between the two of them, his head turning from one to the other, clearly unsure whose side he was meant to be on.
"Do you really think I jumped off a bridge just to mess with you?" Dante said, a chuckle slipping out.
Those words made Freya stop dead in her tracks.
She didnât want to admit it, but he had a point. No one with a working brain would throw themselves off a bridge over a sick joke. Whatever this was, he had gone to a ridiculous length to make it happen.
"...So whatâs the real reason?" Freya turned back around, her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed with suspicion.
Felix looked to Dante as well, waiting for the answer.
Dante held their gazes for a moment, and the easy grin on his face slowly faded into something serious.
"Get in the car." He said, walking past them toward the door. "This isnât the kind of thing you talk about standing in the open."
***
The three of them sat inside the car. Dante behind the wheel, Felix in the passenger seat, and Freya in the back.
Dante started the engine and pulled off the bridge without saying a word.
âBefore I get into the matter, I should sort out my own thoughts first.â He kept his eyes on the road while his mind went somewhere else entirely.
In the original plot, the first person Ryan wanted revenge on after coming back was a guy named Marcus.
Marcus Devereux.
He was the one who pushed Ryan off a cliff.
And honestly, he had a pretty damn valid reason for doing it.
Ryan, Dante, and Marcus all met in college and became close friends, but Ryan ruined that friendship by stealing Marcusâs girlfriend.
The two of them played him like an idiot for more than a year before he found out.
âClassic protagonist behaviour,â Dante thought, his grip tightening on the wheel.
âSteal your friendâs girl, act like nothing happened, and somehow still end up as the hero of the story.â
When Marcus finally found out, he lost his mind.
First, his girlfriend mysteriously disappeared.
Then Ryan conveniently "fell" off a cliff during the college tour.
Dante shook his head internally. âAt least Iâm honest about being a villain.â
"Are you going to tell us what this is about, or are we just going for a drive?" Freyaâs voice cut in from the back seat.
"Patience." Dante replied without looking back.
Freya clicked her tongue but didnât push it.
Naturally, Marcus wasnât some random psycho who got lucky covering his tracks.
He was the sole heir of the Devereux family, the richest and most influential family in Tempest Bay and one of the most powerful in the world.
After getting rid of Ryan, Marcus heard that Ryan had a crush on Emma and immediately set his sights on her.
âFucking bastard. If he still wanted more revenge, why didnât he jump off the cliff with him and have a fight down there?â
âBoth of them treated Dante like he was invisible. They knew he had feelings for Emma. One was parading her around the entire college like she belonged to him, and the other went after her just to return the favour. Nobody gave a shit about what Dante thought.â
After Ryan died and his body mysteriously vanished, the Devereux family and Raven Group were at each otherâs throats.
Raven Group was Natashaâs organisation and the second most powerful in Tempest Bay.
At least in the eyes of the public.
As for why she didnât take revenge? She knew firsthand how ridiculous her sonâs luck was and believed he would return someday.
With her son gone, Natasha kept a much tighter watch on her students and assigned secret guards to all of them.
So when Marcus couldnât get so much as a glance from Emma and couldnât lay a finger on her either, he turned into... a simp.
âDid he use up all of his braincells getting rid of Ryan?â Dante was speechless.
He couldnât figure out how someone went from a cold-blooded killer to a braindead simp.
And when Ryan finally came back three years later, Marcus lost his marbles again and speedran the collapse of the entire Devereux family.
Dante didnât feel a single bit of pity for Marcus.
Instead, he couldnât wait to kill him.
Because he was the one who handed Emma to Ryan on a silver platter. He kidnapped her and fed her aphrodisiacs so he could have his way with her. Ryan knew about the whole thing and kept it from Dante.
Ryan waited for the drug to take effect before stepping in, pretended he was "forced" by Emma, and then blamed everything on her.
The original Dante used that as an excuse to bury what was left of his feelings for her.
But even after everything, Emma never once loved Ryan. He didnât care because she was just another trophy to be collected, broken or not.
Thinking about all of it made Danteâs blood boil. His grip on the wheel tightened until his knuckles turned white.
âMarcus and Ryan, I will kill you both with my own hands!â He vowed in his heart.
Felix and Freya flinched at the same time.
A wave of killing intent had leaked out of him without him realizing.
Their bodies tensed on instinct, but when they realized the killing intent came from Dante, shock replaced caution.
At the same time, whatever doubts they still had about this whole thing disappeared.
Dante noticed his slip, but he didnât bother hiding it.
After collecting his thoughts, he looked at them with a cold expression.
"You know about Crimson Hollow, right?"
___________
MGâs note: bear with these slow updates for this month. I plan to go premium by this monthâs end and... you can expect a better release rate and a
mass release
:D