Free Inferno's Kiss by Monica Burns Page B

a Sicari. It was why the Order had a strict rule that Sicari were to travel in pairs while in the city. Cleopatra had deliberately broken that edict. In the distance, he heard the sound of a siren. It might not be headed this way, but it was best not to wait and find out.
    “Cornelia, there’s a mess here,” he murmured into the surveillance mike he wore. “Our guest ran into more than just Angotti’s bodyguards. Have Vincenzo and Lucius clean it up before company arrives.”
    “Yes, Tribune.” Despite the quiet respect in the woman’s voice, he could still hear the question.
    “Our guest executed him before I arrived.” He could almost see his Praefect ’s expression of disappointment at his words. Frustration swept through him. “We’ll find a way to get her out, Cornelia. I gave you my word.”
    “What is meant to be, will be, Tribune. But I appreciate your efforts.”
    Cornelia’s quiet, serene response was typical. The woman had completed the Novem Conformavi at the age of twenty and was able to control her emotions unlike any Sicari Lord he’d ever met. Not even Marcus possessed her mastery of emotions. It was why Dante had always questioned Marcus’s decision to make him Tribune.
    Cornelia’s steely control would have made her the better choice to lead the Sicari Lord’s guild. Although she would have been the Absconditus ’s first female leader in the recorded history of the Sicari Lords. Her decisions would be logical because of her superior ability to set aside personal sentiment. He, on the other hand, struggled on a daily basis to keep his emotions in check. Like the frustration he was experiencing now.
    “Our guest is injured. Bring the car around.”
    “Vincenzo and Lucius are on their way. I’ll meet you at the Via Pomi alleyway entrance.”
    He didn’t reply, knowing Cornelia would do as she said. Instead, he turned back to the woman who’d unknowingly cost him more time and trouble. Cleopatra was no longer on the ground, and it took him a moment to find her. She’d tried to hide herself in the darkest section of the building’s shadows, where she stood watching him.
    Even from where he was standing, he could see it was an effort for her to remain on her feet. Just the way she pressed her body into the building’s wall for support said her legs could give way at any moment. She had the look of a cornered animal, and from the tension rolling off of her, she was ready to go down fighting. A blistering onslaught of jumbled thoughts and emotions slammed into him as he studied her.
    He stiffened as he fought not to put her thoughts into some form of coherency. It was forbidden to read the minds of other Sicari without permission, but at the moment, he was finding it damned difficult to close himself off to her. The powerful way her tension wrapped itself around him to burrow deep into his body startled him.
    He’d never experienced anything like it. Even more surprising was how difficult the sensation was to ignore. With great concentration, he pushed it aside until it was just a small vibration against his skin, but the effort it took to bury the tactile pressure of her emotions unsettled him.
    Slowly approaching where she stood pressed against the wall of the alley, Dante frowned at his inability to see her shadowed features. It would help if he could at least read her expression. He didn’t have to read her thoughts, because her feelings were strong enough to give him an idea of what she might be thinking. With each step that closed the distance between them, her emotional state was a razor scraping along his senses.
    She was afraid, and he didn’t like it that she was scared of him. He dismissed the thought. There were only about two feet between them when he saw her slide downward an inch or two. Without a second thought, he stretched out his hand to help keep her upright against the wall. In the next instant, her blade was digging its way across the back of his gloved