ANGER TO COURAGE

DANTE'S POV

I hear my phone ringing and pick it up immediately when I realize it's Liam.

"Dante, She's not here! She's not fucking here Dante! What do I do? They took her! They left a note." Liam's voice comes on inaudibly but I'm unable to make out his sentences anyways. My heart falls to my stomach. I fall down to my chair and run my hands in my hair.

"Leave that place right now and get over here." I order, trying to keep myself as calm as possible. After about an hour, Liam is back with Headshot. His eyes are red, his shirt is unbuttoned and his hair is disheveled in a way that I completely understand.

"The note." I take it from Headshot and it doesn't say anything that refers to a number, or a ransom or even a negotiation.

All it says is: 'Stay hidden all you want. We will take everyone you love away from you and then we will find you and kill you.'

Liam looks to me eagerly, waiting for me to say something, anything but what exactly the fuck can I say right now? They took his girlfriend and they'll probably put her through the same fate as Adeline We fucked up. We fucked up really bad and I can't help but feel that guilt creeping up my back again.

I can't help but feel like this entire night was my fault.

"You weren't followed?" I ask Headshot.

"No." He answers with difficulty.

"Good." I say.

"Is that all you're fucking going to say?! They took her Dante! They took Naomi!" Liam yells at me and grabs the collar of my shirt aggressively. The other men pull him away from and he aggressively shrugs them off.

"You're no good to Naomi if the people that have her find you too! if we want to find her then all of us need to be fucking safe!" I never like raising my voice. I never like losing control but right now Liam is broken and I can't be emotional with him. I have to be the strong one here because crying and losing my mind like he is won't get things done.

"Where did they take her Dante?" Liam starts crying. "Where the fuck is she!?"

"You know where she is." I state. I don't want to say it. I don't want to utter the words, but they're either going to use Naomi as a way to get to us, or they're going to take her to erotica. Given the state of the note they left behind, I don't think they want a negotiation. These people ant war and they're not afraid to say it.

They know about me now and they know about Liam too. They were able to find Naomi so easily but I guess it's because she wasn't really hiding.

"We never should have gone tonight." Liam says glaring straight at me and I know that look in his eyes all too well. He's looking for someone to blame and I'm the easy option

"We never should have been in that fucking club tonight!" Liam screams and launches for me.

"Yo! Chill man!" Shadow and Head shot hold Liam in place.

"We all voted to going there okay? This isn't Dante's fault. He didn't force us to go. We all agreed to and I'll have you remember Dante fucking asked you to stay! You're a well renowned lawyer man! It's not that hard for people to find out information about you f they wanted. What happened tonight is fucking heartbreaking but let's not go around throwing blame. We think of a solution!" Headshot says and pushes Liam behind a few steps.

Liam falls to the floor and cries. He screams and thrashes and yells out profanities until he has his fill and then he just lays there on the floor, breathing heavily.

"If they took her to where Adeline is, then maybe that's a good thing. They'll be together when we get them out." Headshot says.

"We need to accelerate things Dante." Liam finally stands up, a dark look in his eyes. "We need to raid that fucking place and burn it to the ground. We need to make them pay Dante. We need to get them back."

"We will." I state. "They haven't won Liam. Not yet. Not while we're still breathing and not while we still have Adrian and the meeting with Veronica."

"You do know that the meeting could be a trap, right?" Shadow says with a contemplative look on his face.

"What do you mean?" Liam asks.

"I mean they're obviously on to us. You said Adrian is this very important investor to them and you raided his house. They have reason to believe you kidnapped him. So, we have to prepare for the worst when this meeting happens."

"You're right. Veronica might be trapping us." I pace around the room. I stand in front of a table and in a fit of rage, I flip it and throw all its contents to the floor. This is annoying. This is annoying and I don't know what to do to make it better.

I wish I had kept Liam out of all this in the first place. He should have just let me handle this alone. Now because of me, et another life is ruined and I don't know what to do about it.

I'm so confused. I thought this club was going to be a clue, some kind of breakthrough but I messed that up and I put everyone in danger. I hate this. I hate all of this. I need it to stop goddamn it.

"What do I do?" I whisper.

"Not you…" Liam says, still teary eyed and breathing heavily. I can see the pain and anger in his eyes. I can see and tell that he wants revenge. I can see his fear and I relate so much to it.

"'What do we do?' is the right question." Liam says walking towards me. He places a hand on my shoulder and wipes the tears falling from his eyes.

"We work together. We find them. We get revenge. We kill everyone." He says strongly, but I can still hear a sob in his voice. He's not trying to hide his pain. He's embracing it. Maybe that's a good thing. His anger and pain will give him the courage he needs to do what needs to be done.