Born in Blood Collection Volume 1 - Cora Reilly Page 0,127

looked like he was on the verge of bursting. Maybe he didn’t like that I was being so forward and practically shoving my breasts into his face. Maybe he preferred his women demure and scared of their own shadow.

Frustrated, I rolled onto my back as well. “What happened to Gaby?” If we didn’t have sex, we might as well talk. Anything was better than the awkward silence.

Dante kept his eyes closed. “What do you mean?”

“She said she’s been working for you for three years, but she’s only seventeen. Shouldn’t she be going to school?”

Dante’s eyes peeled open, cool and blue, and firmly focused on the ceiling. “Three years ago we attacked two Russian clubs as retribution. They’re making the majority of their money with human trafficking. The women in their clubs are mostly sex slaves. Women and girls who were kidnapped and then forced into prostitution. When we took over the two clubs, we had to figure out what to do with the women. We couldn’t let them run around Chicago after what they’d witnessed.”

My stomach turned. “You killed them?”

Dante didn’t even twitch. “Most of them were illegals. We sent them back into the Ukraine or Russia. The others were relocated. Those who wanted to work in our clubs, we kept.”

“So what about Gaby?”

“She was a child. The younger girls we found were sent to families, where they could work as maids or cooks.”

“Or become mistresses,” I said, because I had no doubt that some Made Men couldn’t keep their hands off a helpless girl under their roof.

Dante frowned. “Even among Made Men, pedophilia isn’t tolerated, Valentina.”

“I know, but Gaby doesn’t exactly look like a child anymore, nor do the other girls you captured, I presume.”

Dante fixed me with a hard glare. “Are you suggesting I touched Gaby?”

“She almost died from fear today when Luca moved. Maybe one of your men…”

“No,” Dante said firmly. “She hasn’t been abused in any way since she came into this house. She’s under my protection. My men know that.”

“Okay.” I believed him, and I also believed that none of his men dared to go against Dante’s direct orders. If Gaby was under his protection, she was safe. “I bet those girls would have made you a lot of money. There’s a reason why the Russians kidnap young girls. Why the qualms? It’s not like the Outfit doesn’t have its own clubs with prostitutes, and it’s not like those women can just stop working for the mob whenever they want.” I was honestly curious. Dante was a killer after all.

“The Outfit isn’t in the business of sex slaves. The women in our clubs start working for us on their own free will, and they know that they’ll be bound to us forever. We make enough money with our casinos and drugs, we don’t need sex slaves or illegal racing like the Russians and the Camorra in Las Vegas.”

“What about New York, do they deal in sex slaves?”

“No. That’s really only the Vegas Camorra. I’m not saying that there aren’t voices in the Outfit who would like to change that, but as long as I’m Capo that won’t happen.”

“That’s good,” I said.

Dante’s eyes softened for a moment, but then he turned away and extinguished the lights.

“Good night,” I whispered. I was still disappointed that Dante didn’t touch me, but at least he’d talked to me as if we were equals, not like I was a brainless woman who didn’t need to know anything about the business.

“Good night, Valentina,” Dante said into the dark. There was something in his voice I couldn’t identify, perhaps wistfulness, but I wasn’t sure.

CHAPTER SEVEN

If I’d thought last night’s chat with Dante would make him reconsider our seating arrangements during breakfast or even make him want to talk to me, I’d been horribly wrong. Like yesterday, he disappeared behind his newspaper after a quick greeting. I wasn’t in the mood to fight for his attention. I was too confused and hurt by his continued disinterest in me. I only picked at some fruit and drank a cup of coffee before I decided to excuse myself. Dante didn’t even look up from his newspaper when I walked out.

Usually I would have asked him if he wanted me to take one of his men as guard with me to Bibiana’s house, but I was too angry. I had a driver’s license. Antonio had wanted me to get one after we married, which sadly wasn’t the norm for men in our world. After I’d put