Chapter 301: We Will Take Eve

"He’s just a man," Luca said, but there was a note of respect in his voice that suggested he partially disagreed with his own statement. "Just a man who’s better trained than anyone else we’ve ever encountered."

"He’s more than that." Dante opened his eyes, looked at his second-in-command. "And if we’re going to beat him, we need to understand what we’re dealing with. We need to understand that he’s not just going to let this go. He’s going to hunt us."

"I know," Luca said simply.

"We need to move fast. We need to hit him before he’s ready." Dante tried to sit up, gasped as pain lanced through his ribs, fell back against the table. "No. No, this isn’t right. We need to go. We need to move now while he thinks we’re weak."

"You can’t move," Luca said flatly. "You’re injured. Your leg won’t support your weight. You’d be a liability in any kind of combat situation."

"Then we don’t engage in combat," Dante said, his mind already working through scenarios. "We’re going to do something different. Something he won’t expect."

"What?"

Dante was silent for a long moment, thinking. Processing. Understanding the game in a way that only came from playing it for decades.

"We go after what he loves," Dante said finally. "We take Eve. We use her as leverage. We make him choose between his empire and his woman."

Luca’s expression didn’t change, but something flickered in his eyes. "That’s extremely dangerous. Taking his woman means he stops playing by the rules. Means he becomes even more unpredictable."

"I know," Dante said. "That’s exactly what I want. I want him so focused on Eve that he makes mistakes. I want him so desperate to get her back that he walks into a trap."

"And if he doesn’t?" Luca asked quietly. "If he just burns everything to get her back and doesn’t care about the cost?"

"Then we kill her," Dante said coldly. "And make him watch."

Luca studied him for a long moment. "You’re thinking emotionally now. That’s not like you."

"I’m thinking strategically," Dante corrected. "Dimitri is driven by his need to protect Eve. If we remove her, if we make her our leverage, we control him. It’s that simple."

"It’s not simple," Luca said, "Taking her means we need a plan for extraction. We need to know where she is, how she’s protected, what the security protocols are. We need intel."

"We have intel," Dante said. "Jennifer gave us everything we needed about the penthouse security. We know the layout. We know the guards. We know the rotation schedules."

"That was before today," Luca said. "Before Dimitri realized we had someone inside his operations. He’s upgraded security by now. Changed protocols. Moved resources. We’d be walking into something we don’t understand."

"Then we get better intel," Dante said. "We find out what he’s done. We adjust. We adapt."

Luca nodded slowly, but there was something in his expression that suggested doubt. Doubt that Dante couldn’t afford right now.

"There’s something else," Luca said quietly.

"What?"

"Isabella." Luca watched Dante’s face carefully. "We need to talk about Isabella."

Dante felt heat flood through him at the mere mention of her name. "What about her?"

"She’s in Italy. She’s under her father’s supervision. And she’s probably not going to be easy to access right now." Luca’s voice was careful, measured. "Taking her out of Rome without drawing attention from the Russo family would be nearly impossible."

"Then we leave her in Rome," Dante said sharply. "For now. We focus on Dimitri. We focus on Eve. We can deal with Isabella once we’ve broken him."

But even as he said the words, Dante felt something tighten in his chest.

Isabella.

The woman who tasted like desperation and obsession. The woman who’d spent six months letting him use her body to work out his rage. The woman whose pussy clenched around him while she moaned another man’s name.

The woman who was completely his.

Except she wasn’t. Because she was also his weakness. Because thinking about her was distracting him from the task at hand. Because wanting her made him make mistakes.

"Boss," Luca said, his voice cutting through Dante’s spiraling thoughts. "We need to be strategic about this. We need to..."

"Get me the phone," Dante said abruptly. "The encrypted one. I need to contact Rome."

"Dante...."

"Get it, Luca. Now."

Luca retrieved the phone without further argument. He’d learned a long time ago that arguing with Dante when he had that tone in his voice was pointless. Luca would prepare contingencies, would have backup plans ready, would make sure that whatever Dante decided wouldn’t destroy them completely.

But he wouldn’t argue.

Dante dialed the number from memory. It rang twice before someone answered.

"Yes?" The voice was guarded. Professional. Prepared for the call.

"Bring Isabella to a secure location," Dante said without preamble. "Somewhere her father can’t find her. Somewhere we control. I want her ready to move within 24 hours."

"Boss, that’s going to be complicated. The Russo family has resources...."

"I don’t care," Dante said flatly. "Make it happen. You have 24 hours. After that, if she’s not secured, you’re dead. Do you understand me?"

"Understood. I’ll arrange everything."

Dante hung up.

"That was risky," Luca said quietly. "Tipping your hand like that. The Russos will know something is happening."

"Let them know," Dante said. "I want Lorenzo to understand that his daughter is mine now. I want him to understand that he can’t protect her. That no one can protect her from me."

Dante closed his eyes, and Luca watched him carefully.

The obsession was growing. Luca could see it happening in real time. Isabella had started as a tool, as leverage, as a way to gather intelligence and hurt Dimitri.

But somewhere along the way, she’d become something else.

She’d become an obsession.

And obsessions were dangerous. Obsessions made men make mistakes. Obsessions got people killed.

Luca had seen it before. Dante had been fixated on revenge against Dimitri since Salvatore died. But this thing with Isabella, this was different. This was something that was taking root deep in Dante’s psyche.

If Luca wasn’t careful, if he didn’t manage this properly, the obsession with Isabella was going to be what destroyed Dante.

"We need to move," Dante said, opening his eyes. "Not today. Not tomorrow. But soon. Within a week. I want everything in place. I want Eve secured. I want Isabella secured. And I want Dimitri broken."

"And if we can’t do all three things in a week?" Luca asked.

"Then we prioritize," Dante said. "We take Eve first. That forces Dimitri out into the open. That forces him to make mistakes. And then, once we have him where we want him, we bring in Isabella. We make him watch while I remind her who she really belongs to."

Luca felt something cold move through him.

This wasn’t just revenge anymore.

This was obsession wrapped around revenge, tangled with possession, driven by something dark and consuming that was going to end in blood.