Fractured Freedom: A Brother’s Best Friend Second Chance Romance (Tarnished Empire)

Dante

There’s a moment when a person knows they’re in love because they find themselves wondering what can be done to make the other person happy, even if it causes their own pain.

They find themselves doing things that are completely against their own logic.

Iago probably could have fed us more information. He probably could have been an asset in one way or the other. The authorities didn’t need unnecessary clean-up either.

Yet, I found his demise necessary. I contemplated ripping him apart limb by limb in front of her. I was blind in my love for her, too furious to see any other way.

Love for her would breed that emotion in me always. It was the only thing that could rip me from my calm. It made it clear that Lilah would have been better off without me. She needed a stable person in her life, someone to comfort her and be a steady rock when life got hard.

But I could protect her.

She was my lamb. And I was her wolf.

And no one, not a single soul, would protect her better than me. And if I was going to bring her pain or torture, feast on that prey like a predator, I would do it in the best way possible because I knew her. I breathed with her, molded to her, and was within her. We were one entity, and no one was going to tear us apart.

When she passed out on that cabin floor, I had been ready to meet her in heaven or hell had we not got her vitals stable. We called in medics and doctors to check her, and her brain injury was monitored as we flew her home.

I was by her side every moment I could be. I fielded questions and answered calls. I don’t think any of the family thought to ask anything because it was technically part of a drug bust. Izzy explained our undercover work to her parents. She admitted it because she’d finally accomplished the job. Case closed. Her brothers weren’t home yet, but I saw how her parents looked at me. Her mother’s brow furrowed, and she rubbed her forehead like she wasn’t sure whether to thank me or smack me.

“Mrs. Hardy—” I started.

“Oh, don’t smooth the waters now, Dante. I’ll probably want to thank you later. I just need a minute to take it all in.” She waved off any explanation I could offer and hugged me in the hospital’s waiting room.

Izzy and Delilah’s father never said much, but he patted my arm as he walked by. “I would have killed you if you hadn’t brought them both home. I’ll let you deal with my boys now, though.”

That was all he needed to say. I saw their family structure shifting, building a fort around Delilah and making sure I couldn’t infiltrate unless they wanted me to.

Delilah’s brothers were on their way, and I’d avoided them long enough. Dom had been blowing up my phone since Izzy’s confession. Mrs. Hardy’s words traveled fast. I turned the phone on silent as texts started coming through.

This wasn’t going to be an uphill battle for me, it was going to be a war.

I was prepared for that with her brothers, though.

But I hadn’t expected Izzy to throw an additional wrench in the mix.

That night, after her parents had left, after she’d told me her brothers wouldn’t be here until tomorrow, her kiss came fast. Any other day, I would have caught it. Yet, my mind was more exhausted than it had ever been. Love will drag down anyone, and it spares no one’s anxieties. I could live through war, live through being tortured, beaten, shot at—anything.

I couldn’t live without Lilah, though.

Izzy was my partner, my friend, and someone I trusted more than most. I should have seen her feelings growing past friendship long ago, but I hadn’t been focused on that. I chose to be laser-focused on our mission, not our relationship.

I started to push her away gently, ready to let her down easy. Somehow I’d need to make her see that she was wonderful, but for me, there was only Lilah.

Delilah Hardy.

The girl who’d always had my heart.

The one whose heart beat faster now as she stared at her sister in my arms.

That look she gave me was lucid, more awake than I’d seen her in days, and full of devastation.

The words she whispered cut through my soul so fast I didn’t even think to call the nurses as I lost her again.

Her eyes closed as I rushed to her side to hold her hand, to put it against my face, to feel her touch on mine. The spark was there, but it was dimmer. It was missing her signature spirit.

I growled out for Izzy to call the nurses and the doctors, and then we stared at one another.

Her chin trembled as her eyes ping-ponged between us. “She doesn’t think she’s strong enough to be with you.”

“She is,” I ground out, even though I wasn’t so sure I was strong enough to let her. I wanted her to have everything. The beautiful home, the beautiful life filled with crossing off a million lists, and the beautiful kids she deserved.

“I know. I didn’t want to know, though. She’s it for you, then?” she whispered. “You can’t see yourself with me instead? Not after all we’ve been through?”

“Izzy.” I looked down at the love of my life, then back up at her sister. They were so much of the same and yet so different. “She’s the slice of good to my bad. She’s the heaven to my hell. She’s always been it. She always will be.”

Izzy looked toward the ceiling as her unshed tears threatened to pour over. “You look at her like I wish you’d look at me.”

“You and I are too much the same, Izzy. You gotta see that, right?” I sighed. “And I’ve helped you more than most men, but it hasn’t ever been there for us. The chemistry …”

She shrugged. “I don’t need chemistry. I needed someone to believe in me, and you did more than anyone in my life. Addicts normally don’t get that.”

“You will.”

“You’re so sure of it?” She tilted her head and pulled roughly on her hair, a gesture so much like her sister’s but completely different at the same time. “I’m not, but I am sure I want what you have with her. I want a man who can face anything for me, and you’ll do that for her. It kills me that you can’t do that for me.”

She curled her arms around herself then, tears overflowing. Izzy was as much a little sister to me as a real one could be, and I pulled her in for a hug to comfort her.

Nurses and doctors filed in. Vitals were taken. We straightened up to answer the questions about witnessing Lilah wake up.

Things looked better. They knew she was on her way to getting there. The brain trauma caused these bouts, and she’d be good as new soon.

I still stayed the night.

Izzy went home, and the next morning I left to fetch breakfast.

Lilah woke up while I was gone, and her brothers got to her side.

It happened fast. Dimitri stood outside her room. He, along with his other brothers, was a spitting guy image of his sisters with dark hair and hazel eyes too. Except his held a death glare filled with rage I didn’t want to meet. I lifted the breakfast bag and tried for the easy route. “Brought us all some fuel.”

He reared back and swung fast but not fast enough. I dodged his first punch before he came at me again, right hook, then left. He missed both times.

The fact that I had him in a headlock while still holding our food was a pretty good indicator that he wasn’t going to win this fight. He wriggled in my choke hold and mumbled, “You’re a fucking asshole.”

“Agreed, but let’s not do this here.”

“Oh, fuck off,” he wheezed because he couldn’t breathe. He was the youngest of the brothers. His fighting showed it.

I let him go, and he fell to his knees, gasping for air.

“I’m here just as concerned as any of you.”

“As any of us? You put both our sisters in danger. And it’s Delilah!” he shouted, disbelief in his voice. “She could have died.”

“You think I don’t know that?” I walked up to him and kneeled down, setting the breakfast food right next to him. “You think I don’t know we could have lost her?”

We started at one another a long time after that. The look in his eyes was foreign and filled with a fury I never wanted to witness again. The Hardy family had taken me in as one of their own, but now that one of their own was hurt, I was the outsider.

I’d known it was coming, but the impact still felt like a bomb blowing up in my face, the shrapnel cutting deep into the insecurities I already had.

I was the only child of an Armanelli, and I was trying to prove to a nice, upstanding family that I was good enough for their daughter. My best friend’s little sister.

I heard Dom’s voice in her room, heard her whispering back to him. I stared past Dimitri as he said, “She doesn’t want to see you.”

“What?” I growled, my whole body rebelling at the news.

“She actually winced when Dom brought you up. She said if you come here, she doesn’t want to see you. And she wants to rest. She doesn’t want anyone here.”

“She’s not thinking straight,” I told him, although I knew that wasn’t true. The woman was shutting everyone out fast and quick, ready to barricade the room so she could hurt on her own. She’d done it before, but I wouldn’t let her do it again. “Give me her physical update.”

“What for?” he sneered and sat back on the floor as he rubbed his neck. “You’re not going to come around, Dante. Go back to your job and leave our sisters out of it.”

“Look, I know you’re coming to terms with what happened but—”

Dom walked out of the room and stood over both of us. He narrowed his eyes at me and said, “I’ve come to terms with it in the last five minutes listening to my little sister recount the bullshit you put her through. You need to leave.”

“Dom—”

“Did you come to apologize to her or to us? Because we can tell her sorry for you, but you know we’re not going to accept shit from you right now. My kid sister’s in a hospital bed for God’s sake. And you and Izzy knew what the hell you were doing. You should have got her out of there that day.”

“It was complicated,” I said calmly and folded my arms across my chest as I stood to meet him eye to eye. Dom was as big as me and he glared at me with a rage that might have matched my training. He’d put up a good fight. “It’s not always black-and-white.”

He stared at me, assessing everything I was saying. “What wasn’t black-and-white about getting her out of danger?”

I think he knew right then that there was something more between us. I don’t think Delilah had admitted it outright, but Dom knew because we’d been best friends a long time. We knew one another well enough to recognize when one of us was chasing a girl. His gaze flicked to the breakfast bag and then back to me as I stood there quietly, not answering his question.

“You want to give me a few days before you admit the real shit? Or her a few days? Because she really doesn’t want to see you … or anyone for that matter.”

Dimitri shook his head at the ground, looking like he might cry, and Dom shook with fury. I stood there, making it worse rather than better.

I had to change the wolf in me that wanted to see her. I had to do what was right rather than indulge in a side of me they didn’t know.

“I’m giving you all until she’s home. You get me?”

Dom nodded, Dimitri sighed.

I backed away, pointing to the food. “Give her the quesito in there.”

And then I was gone.

For days, I didn’t see her, even though I knew she was awake. For days, I sent texts and made calls that went unanswered.

I told myself it was all just a lot, that we’d make things right when she got back home. I worked. Or pretended to. Paperwork had never been my thing. I did what I had to do and left the paperwork for the government and official personnel to figure out.

Izzy was the first who called the day Delilah got released. “You don’t have to call, Izzy.”

“I told her our kiss was nothing, that she saw it wrong. She thought you engaged with me when obviously you pushed me away. I told her how you feel. She’s just not really responding. And I know I don’t have to call you. Quite frankly, giving the guy I thought I might love updates on the girl he loves isn’t my idea of fun, but it’s for her. She’s got to get through this. She’s not trying right now. She’s talking herself into something terrible, Dante. I can feel her retreating, can feel my sister not moving forward but backward, and it’s freaking painful. I can’t stop it, so I’m calling you to tell you that you need to.”

“I should give her space.”

“Get your ass here. My family babies the shit out of her, and when she said she didn’t want to talk to anyone, they listened and practically barricaded the door for her. My mom is scared she’s back to college days, and honestly, she might be right. It’s that bad.”

It’d been three days. The minutes felt like hours. And then the hours felt like days.

“Has she gotten my flowers?”

“She doesn’t read the notes. She barely looks at the flowers.”

I took a deep breath. “Get ready for me to rip apart your family.”

“You’ll make it stronger, but it might hurt a little first.”

“No shit,” I muttered, but I was already heading toward my car as I hung up the phone.

“Dude, you sent a shit ton of flowers already. She doesn’t need fucking bouquets from you.” My best friend stood in the doorway, not asking me to come in or opening the door any farther.

“I’m coming in one way or another, Dom.” I ticked my head toward the door.

“You got a lot of nerve showing up here after we’ve asked you to stay away. She’s healing, and shit, I’m healing from your fuckup too. You put my kid sisters in danger, man.”

“I’ll apologize. We’ll get over it. I know it’s a lot, Dom.”

His jaw worked, and his fist closed and opened. I waited for a swing or a lunge, but he sighed and opened the door instead. “Mom, Dad. Dante’s here. Should we grill his ass some more?”

My friend crossed his arms and glared at me. Izzy and I had hidden a secret for a long time. We’d broken a lot of people’s trust.

Their dad ambled in, a big round teddy bear with his button-up flannels and worn jeans. He’d worked for a beer company most of his life and retired when the kids had all graduated. “Dante, she’s not going to want to see you. She doesn’t want to see anyone. She wants to sleep.” He rubbed his large belly, a normal gesture, though it was usually one he did with a smile.

Her mom, with her wavy dark hair, came in and wrung her hands in front of her maxi dress, just the way Lilah did. “I think she’s tired. Or I don’t know. We need her to stop all this nonsense of traveling the world after this. Can you believe she was even nursing away from home?”

“Oh, she was just bored, honey,” Mr. Hardy replied.

“She shouldn’t be bored. She should be going back to medical school, for God’s sake. And if she had been, she wouldn’t ever have had this happen.”

“Not true, Mom.” Izzy walked in and bit into an apple as she plopped down on their leather sofa by the TV. She clicked the remote and shrugged at me while she lifted a brow. “Dante and I sort of threw her into the mix.”

“That one’s on you, Izzy,” I grumbled, not really wanting to take all the responsibility.

“How chivalrous of you,” she shot back.

Dom didn’t find any of our jokes funny, though. He stared at us both like we were enemies, menaces, monsters. “Want to explain exactly what the hell you’re both doing for the government, anyway?”

“Confidential,” we both said in unison.

Or so we wanted it to be, until another knock landed on the door. Dom had left it open, so I could already see the visitor. When I turned, my eyes bugged out, and I almost shut the door in his face.

“Surprise.” Cade quirked his head and smiled a fucking shark smile at me. It was calculating and intended to cause havoc. “News from the underground. Seems like our job isn’t quite done. Iago’s boss is Albanian, and he just went missing. So he’s probably plotting against us, and that means we need to plot faster than him.”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I growled.

Izzy jumped up and told her parents that maybe they could go get us some lemonade while Dom stepped up to my side and said, “Who the fuck are you?”

“I’m Cade Armanelli, brother to Bastian Armanelli and cousin to Dante Armanelli, the man standing next to you.”

“What in the actual fuck, Cade?” I murmured.

Dom’s stare widened, his muscles bunched, and his head cranked slowly my way. “What did he just say?”

“Dom …” I started, “take a breath.”

“You better not feed me that bullshit, Dante. What did he just say?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. It was all going to come out anyway. “You heard what he said.”

Izzy and her mother were walking back in with a tray of drinks, and their father was just taking a seat in his recliner when Dom cranked his arm back and punched me square in the face.

I probably could have ducked, but I figured I deserved maybe one, two good ones.

“Dom!” Izzy dropped the tray. Her mom screamed, Mr. Hardy started to chuckle, and Cade laughed his ass off.

I rubbed my jaw and bent over. “Damn. Your right hook still don’t play. Dimitri didn’t even connect.”

“Dimitri swung at you?” Izzy asked, disbelief in her tone.

“I’m calling Dex and Declan. They’re going to hit your ass too,” Dom grumbled, turning to look for his phone.

I rubbed my jaw. “I’ll give you that one, Dom. No one else gets any more.”

“You’ll give me that one? You fucking lied to me about your name! You brought my sister into the mob with you!”

“Now, Dominic, lower your voice. They have their reasons for hiding their name.” Mrs. Hardy set her tray of drinks down on the dining room table to the right of the living room and bent to help Izzy clean up the glass she’d broken.

“Mom, you knew?” Izzy whispered.

“Of course I knew. Dante’s mother and I are best friends.”

“Oh my God.” Izzy scoffed. “You would know and not tell us.”

“You didn’t tell me about being sober and working undercover as an addict, Izzy,” her mom threw back, her brow furrowed like she was hurt by it all.

Jesus, this was a clusterfuck.

Mr. Hardy leaned over to grab the remote like nothing going on was a surprise. “Darcy, Izzy can make her own choices. She’s a grown woman.”

“Don’t involve yourself in our mother-daughter relationship,” Mrs. Hardy threw back, but she had a small smile on her face. She looked back at her daughter. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Izzy nodded but didn’t really meet anyone’s eye.

Cade’s laughter trailed off as he took in the situation. “We should go, Dante.”

That’s when Izzy’s head shot up. “Dante? I’m part of this too.”

“No. You’re done with this.” Suddenly Cade’s voice was firm as he and Izzy stared at each other.

“Izzy, you’re not going anywhere with them,” snarled Dom. “And they’re leaving our house. We don’t need the damn mob here.”

Cade cracked his neck once as he stared at my best friend. “I’m not the mob, Dominic Joseph Hardy. I’m a businessman. Dante”—he glared at Izzy—“and only Dante, get back to Chicago soon.”

With that, Cade walked out, and Izzy scoffed before stomping off.

“You can go right now,” Dom spat.

“Knock it off, Dom,” Mrs. Hardy chastised. “You two can’t bicker when your sister is sick in there. I’m worried something is wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong other than that she’s mad at me.” As I said it, her door opened.

The commotion must have brought her out to us.

And it died with her standing there. We all stared at Delilah Hardy. She looked like she’d lost weight in the baggy sweatshirt that basically swallowed her up. The bright colors she’d worn in Puerto Rico were gone, replaced by plain white, and her socks were long and black, coming up her calves.

She looked gorgeous. But closed off.

Her hazel eyes didn’t hold much emotion at all, like she was tired of everything.

“That’s not what shut her down,” Dom sneered because he didn’t get it. He didn’t get that Delilah and I were more than friends. “She’s traumatized from being held at gunpoint. You were the reason she was in danger, whether you wanted to be or not. You endangered my baby sisters and—”

“I’m not mad about that, Dom,” Delilah said loud and clear. The entire room looked her way because, according to Izzy, she hadn’t said a word for days. “Dante’s right. I’m mad at him.”

“Of course you are,” Dom croaked. His eyes ping-ponged between us. “You should be mad at him for what he put you through.”

She cleared her throat, but I stopped her. “She’s mad because she thinks I kissed Izzy. That wasn’t what that was, Lilah. You know I wouldn’t let another woman’s mouth on my lips willingly. Not when you’re the girl I love.”

Mr. Hardy muted the television for this one.

Not that he had to. The sound faded away as I looked into my girl’s eyes—hazel sparkling under wet tears. Her chin trembled, and her hands shook. “If you love me, then you’ll know what I’m about to say is the truth.” She took a deep breath. “I think you should try to date Izzy.”

Izzy guffawed and tried to cut her off.

Lilah held up her hand and kept going. “Or someone else. Anyone but me. I can’t be with you.”

“Damn right,” Dom bellowed and then he shoved me. I glared at him but stepped back.

Lilah’s mom tried to jump in. “Oh goodness, Dom. Don’t fight! And, Delilah. You need rest, and then we can look at colleges. This is for the best—”

“Enough.” My voice cut through all the bullshit because that’s what this was. “Enough.”

Even Dom jumped when I said it that time.

“I’m only going to say this once because it’s not in my nature to repeat myself. I’m an Armanelli. I’ve named your daughter my Untouchable. What that means is no one will harm her or disrespect her unless they want to deal with the wrath of my whole family. It means I take care of her now. It means you all respect our wishes. Respectfully, Mrs. Hardy, she’s not going back to school unless she decides that’s what she wants.”

Her mother didn’t even argue. She was smiling at me like I was going to make her dreams come true. Mrs. Hardy wasn’t a dumb woman. She knew I would give her the grandbabies she’d always wanted. I only had to convince her daughter that it would be happening.

Dom’s face had turned red, and his fists were getting ready to swing again. “You can’t come in here and demand—”

“I love you, man. I love you like you’re my only brother, but I’ve already put a man in a bucket of acid for harming your sister.”

His eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

“It’ll take some getting used to. You can start digesting the information now.” I shrugged and continued, “But if you think because she’s your baby sister I’m going to let you keep her from me, you got another thing coming.”

“You were my best friend.”

“I still am your best friend. You’re just going to have to get used to me being your brother-in-law too.”

“None of this is happening!” Delilah screeched. Her hands flew out beside her, and she stomped up to me to point in my face. “You don’t get to make these decisions, and I don’t want to be with you. I can’t fathom being with you! I want you out of this house this instant. You need to leave.”

“Little Lamb,” I murmured as I set down the flowers on the table near the couch and took my time looking around the family room. “You’re right. I do need to leave.”

With that, I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder. Dom stepped forward as Delilah yelled.

“You come near me, I promise you’ll regret it. And you know I’m good on my word.” We stared each other down. “You need to trust me. I’m your best friend.”

He pulled at his hair and sighed. “Nothing is fixed. And I won’t forgive your ass for a long time.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Delilah said over my shoulder. “You’re letting him kidnap me.”

Mr. Hardy turned the TV back on. “Hardly kidnapping when you know you want to go.”

With that, I took her to my car.