Tied to a Boss 2 (9 page)

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ma be right behind you,” Dante told him, as he was squatting down beside the bleeding gunman.

Chapter 9

“Dominic, I’m worried!” Carmen told her husband, as she walked back and forth in front of her husband’s desk, while he sat behind it quietly drinking a glass of brandy. “We’ve been waiting for almost three hours since we got back here. Where are they?”

In Spanish, Dominic told his wife that she needed to calm down and expressed that he was waiting to hear from them just as much as she was.

“But it’s been . . .” Carmen stopped short hearing the knocking on her husband’s office door.

“Come in!” Dominic yelled out.

“Mr. Saldana, sir!” Carlos said, as he stuck his head inside the office. “Dante’s out front, sir, and he has both Natalie and Jonathan with him. Gomez is also with them, sir.”

“Thank God!” Dominic said, just as his wife took off from the office.

Dominic left his office and followed his wife. Upon reaching the front door to their home, he saw his wife and daughter embrace. Dominic shifted his eyes out to where both Dante and Gomez were talking with Carlos, while standing next to a pearl-white Porsche with an SUV parked behind it.

“Daddy, you should have seen Dante,” Natalie told her father, raising her head to look up at him. “He was really amazing when he showed up to help us.”

“Was he now?” Dominic asked, as he held his daughter. He saw Carmen walk up the walkway with her arms wrapped around Dante’s waist.

“I hear you were really amazing, Dante,” Dominic told him, holding his bodyguard’s eyes.

“I was just doing my job,” Dante replied.

Gomez then walked up and said, “Mr. Saldana, sir. I don’t know where you’ve found this guy but what I saw him do tonight was unbelievable. It’s like he just appeared out of nowhere and was…I don’t know how to explain it, sir.”

Nodding his head, Dominic looked back at Dante as Carmen laid her head on his chest and hugged him.

Dominic said to his bodyguard, “I won’t forget this, Dante. I am grateful to you for bringing my daughter back to us.”

“Just doing my job,” Dante answered again, but then added, “And just so you’re aware. We don’t just have Victor Fayman to deal with. We also have to deal with the same guy we’ve talked about before. Stevens!”

“How do you know it was Stevens?” Dominic asked, balling up his face as he stared hard at Dante.

“Come on, Natalie,” Carmen spoke up. “Let’s go and make sure Jonathan is doing alright.”

“Natalie looked back to Dante as she followed alongside her mother. She watched Dante speaking with her father, as both Carlos and Gomez stood by. Natalie then caught Dante’s eyes and smiled after receiving a quick wink of the eye he shot her before focusing back on her father.

After listening to Dante tell him about the dying gunman’s confession, Dominic spoke up once Dante had finished: “I want Stevens taken care of. I have $200,000 for you once he is dead.”

Nodding his head, Dante replied, “Just give me the information on him and I’ll take care of ‘em.”

* * *

“Natalie! Mrs. Saldana!” Jonathan said as soon as both mother and daughter walked into the sitting room. He stood up from the sofa he was relaxing on. “Is everything . . .?”

“Everything is fine, Jonathan!” Carmen told him, holding up her hand for Jonathan to relax. “Dante has taken care of everything.”

“Dante?” Jonathan repeated, staring at Carmen and then Natalie with a confused look on his face.

“I will let my daughter explain who Dante is, Jonathan,” Carmen told him, before turning to Natalie and saying, “I’ll make the call to Jonathan’s parents. I’ll leave you to talk with Jonathan.”

Nodding her head in understanding, Natalie stood watching her mother walk away before she slowly turned and faced Jonathan, as he asked, “Natalie, what the hell happened back there? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Jonathan,” Natalie replied, looking down as Jonathan took her hands into his. She looked up to meet his eyes again, saying after a moment, “Jonathan, look! There is something I need to tell you.”

“Wait!” Jonathan spoke up. “Let me go first. There’s something I need to tell you before you say anything. First, I need you to know that I love you, Natalie. After what happened tonight, I’m sure that I can’t see myself living without you and I want to ask you to marry me.”

“What?” Natalie cried in disbelief, just as Jonathan kissed her directly on the lips.

“I’ll give you two sometime alone,” Dante’s voice said, as Natalie pulled away from Jonathan and swung around to see Dante turning and walking away.

“Dante, wait!” Natalie cried, jumping up from beside Jonathan who then grabbed her hand and pulled her back down beside him.

“Natalie, did you just hear what I said? “ Jonathan asked her smiling. “I want you to marry me.”

Shaking her head, Natalie pulled her hands away from Jonathan and said, “Jonathan, I’m sorry. I can’t marry you. I’m interested in someone else. And to be truthful with you, I think it’s best if we stop seeing each other. I’m sorry!”

Jumping up from beside Jonathan, Natalie ran off to look for Dante, leaving Jonathan staring after her with a hurt and confused expression on his face.

* * *

At his new place standing out back next to the pool, Dante stood listening to the line ringing as he returned Vanessa’s call.

“Hello!”

“Nessa! This Dante.”

“Hey, big bruh! What’s up?”

“Nothing really. You hit me up earlier. What’s up?”

“I was calling from Angela’s house. She been waiting for you to call. She keep saying she wants to talk to you about something.”

“What she say it’s about?”

“Something about what you and her talked about before you left. What’s going on with you, though? How you like it there?”

Hearing his name from back inside the house, Dante started walking into the guesthouse. He told Vanessa to hold on as he stepped inside the patio’s back entrance door, just as Natalie came rushing at him.

“Dante, I need to talk to you,” Natalie told him in a rush, stopping in front of him and staring at him.

“Natalie, what’s up? What’s happened?”

“It’s not that, Dante. I need to talk to you about something personal between me and you.”

“What?” Dante said confused. “What you talking about, Natalie?”

“Dante, I know we only just met but I want us to get to know each other. I’m attracted to you and really want us to give things a chance between us.”

“Whoa!” Dante said surprised. “Natalie, I work for your father and . . .”

“Dante, listen!” Natalie cut him off. “I don’t care who you work for, whether it be my father or the governor. I want what I want, and it’s you I want. Are you going to give me what I want?”

Dante watched Natalie walk away without waiting for a response. She didn’t even look back at him as she walked out the front door. Dante shook his head as he walked back outside onto the patio.

“Shit just keeps getting crazy,” Dante said to himself. Then he remembered he was still on the phone with Vanessa. “Nessa! You still there?”

“Mhm!” Vanessa answered, “I’m still here. And I see you still got the girl’s going crazy even in Arizona.”

“It ain’t even like that.”

“Who was that?”

“That was the daughter of the dude I work for.”

“She sounded like she was serious just now, Dante. What’s wrong with her?”

“Didn’t I just tell ya she’s the daughter of the nigga I work for, Vanessa?” Dante asked. “How that looks, me kicking it with this dude’s daughter?’

“What’s wrong with it?” Vanessa asked. “From what I just heard that girl tell you, you’re her man whether you know it or not.”

“Whatever!” Dante said. “Go head and give Angela my number.”

“Alright,” Vanessa answered. “You should see D.J., Dante. You know his ass walking a little now and stay his ass in something. Mya just as bad, but she talking a lot better than D.J. is.”

Smiling at the mention of his kids, Dante heard himself asking about Alinna.

“Alinna is doing Alinna, Dante,” Vanessa told him

Understanding fully what Vanessa was telling him, Dante changed the conversation by announcing, “Dre and Tony T should be there soon.”

“They should be here sometime tomorrow.”

“Make sure Dre hit me up when he touch down and make sure you get Angela my number to call me, alright?”

“I got it, big bruh!” Vanessa answered. “I love you, Dante! Be safe out there, alright?”

“You too, Vanessa. I love you, too, lil sis!”

Chapter 10

Dante heard his cell phone go off as he stood outside the front of the mansion beside his Benz, waiting for both Carmen and Natalie to come out so they could leave for the fundraising event Natalie had mentioned three days before. He pulled out the phone and was surprised to see Angela was on the other end.

“You finally got around to calling me, huh?” Dante asked, answering the call from Angela.

“It almost sounds like you miss me, Dante.”

“You would like that, wouldn’t you?”

“I would love to see you, Papi,” she told him. “I miss you, Dante!”

“Yeah, I miss you too, Angela. But what’s up? You said you needed to talk to me about something,” Dante questioned, as he looked back at the front door. Hearing it open, he saw Carmen and then Natalie walk out the door of the mansion.

Unable to help but notice how different Carmen looked in jeans and dressed more laid back, Dante shifted his eyes over at Natalie.

“Damn!” Dante said without thinking. Natalie’s body was 5’3”, slim but curvy, and 34C-24-34. She was wearing fitted jeans that hugged her curves perfectly and a Dolce and Gabbana shirt that showed the full print and outline of her perky 34C breasts.

Dante!”

Hearing his name and remembering Angela was on the phone, Dante opened the back door to the Benz as Carmen walked up smiling at him. “Yeah, Angela, I’m here!”

“Are you busy?”

“Naw! I’m listening to you,” Dante answered, looking back to Natalie as she moved up behind him to the passenger front door.

Shaking his head as he closed the back door behind Carmen, Dante turned to see Natalie was already inside the car. He walked around to the driver side.

“I hear you, Angela,” Dante said again. As he was closing the driver’s door, he heard Angela calling out to him again.

“Dante, what are you doing?” Angela asked him sounding somewhat upset.

“Angela! Just talk, all right! I’m listening to you.”

Sucking her teeth, Angela said, “Anyways, do you remember when we last spoke about Captain Whitehead’s son that was with the D.E.A.?”

“I’m listening.”

“Well, I just found out from the Chief of Police that the D.E.A. has been on the case for a little more than almost a month from the week you left.”

“What all you have on this guy?”

“I have enough.”

“Hold on, Angela,” Dante told her. He then looked from the road to the rear view mirror asking, “Carmen, do you or Dominic have a fax machine?”

“Of course, Dante,” Carmen answered. “Would you like the fax number?”

“If it’s okay?” Dante replied.

Dante listened as Carmen gave him the number, which he then relayed to Angela, explaining that he wanted her to fax the information to him about who the undercover D.E.A. guy was.

“It’ll take me a little while to get everything and fax it to you, but once I get it, I’ll send it all to you,” Angela told Dante.

Thanking Angela, Dante asked her to call him back later explaining that he was in the middle of something.

“Who was that?” Natalie asked as soon as he hung up.

“A friend of mine from back home in Miami,” Dante told Natalie. “She’s a captain for the Miami-Dade Police Department.”

“Is that the same captain you’ve told me about, Dante?” Carmen spoke up from the back seat.

Meeting Carmen’s eyes for a moment, Dante refocused on the road again before saying, “Yeah! She’s the same captain.”

“Well, anyways,” Natalie said, as she reached over taking Dante’s right hand from the steering wheel in her left hand and intertwining their fingers. She then placed their hands in her lap and continued, “My best friend is going to be at the event today and she wants to meet my new boyfriend.”

Cutting his eyes first to Natalie who was smiling at him, Dante shifted his eyes to the rearview mirror to find Carmen staring out the back seat window while showing a small smile on her lip.

* * *

Once they arrived at the banquet hall, they left the Benz with a valet. Dante allowed Natalie to hold his hand as he kept his eyes on Carmen while she smiled and spoke to other guests who were arriving.

Dante followed the women into the building where an even larger group stood. He was surprised to see them all playing fair and various competitive games. Dante followed Carmen as she fell in with a group of women, only for Natalie to pull him back over beside her and say, “Momma is fine, Dante. If she needs you, you will know.”

Dante looked back at where Carmen was and saw that she was laughing and enjoying time with her group of women. Dante then allowed Natalie to lead him off further into the huge room while still making sure he could keep an eye on Carmen.

Two minutes later, Natalie released Dante’s hand. He watched as she rushed over to hug a dark-skinned, Spanish female. Dante turned his attention back across the floor, spotting Carmen talking with a middle-aged white man.

“Dante!”

Looking back around after hearing his name, he met both Natalie and the female as they walked up to him smiling.

“Dante, this is my best friend, Mari Elysse.”

“It’s good to meet you, Mari,” Dante said, as he shook her hand.

“Natalie, he is too gorgeous. I’m going to scream at how sexy he is. I’m jealous,” Mari spit at Natalie in Spanish. But then in perfect English she said to Dante, “It’s good meeting you, too, Dante. Natalie has not stopped telling me about you since the two of you met.”

Smiling a smirk-like smile, Dante spoke in near perfect Spanish, “I’ve heard some about you as well, but I hope to get to know more about you…and thanks for the complement. You’re really cute yourself.”

With her mouth wide open in shock and embarrassment, Mari turned to a laughing Natalie and said, “Why didn’t you tell me he could understand and speak Spanish, Natalie?”

“I didn’t realize that you would try to talk about him in Spanish!” Natalie said. She continued laughing as she stepped beside Dante and wrapped her arms around his waist.

Rolling her eyes at Natalie, Mari looked back to Dante and said, “Dante, I’m asking you this now. Would you mind signing up for the all-male bidding that the women are having here? There are going to be at least 25 men that the women will have to choose from. They will be bidding on which man they want to dance with and have one kiss with.”

“Is this for the fundraiser?” Dante asked.

Nodding her head yes, Mari asked again, “So will you do it, Dante?”

“Sure, I’ll help out,” Dante answered, receiving a smile from Mari just before she said that she would be right back.

“So, you’re interested in kissing someone else, Dante?” Natalie asked, as she shifted and stepped in front of him.

Looking down to meet Natalie’s eyes, Dante said, “I only agreed because I was helping your friend out.”

“Well, I’m not worried,” Natalie told him, as she reached up and wrapped her arms loosely behind his neck. “I will definitely be making sure no woman gets what belongs to me.”

“Ummm…excuse me, you two!” Carmen said as she walked up, smiling at both her daughter and Dante.

“Everything alright, Carmen?” Dante asked, giving her his full attention.

“Everything is fine, Dante,” she told him, smiling at how handsome he was. “Actually, I only wanted to ask you a favor.”

“Whatever you need,” Dante told her.

Explaining to Dante that there was a best bodyguard competition that was going on outside in the back, Carmen asked Dante if he minded competing for the fundraiser as a favor for her.

              Nodding his head yes, Dante gave a small smirk and answered, “Sure, Carmen. Anything you want.”

* * *

Natalie followed her mother and Dante outside to the backgrounds of the banquet facility. She saw an area covered in padded blue mats surrounded by a big boxing ring with white ropes. There were two muscular men fighting in the center.

“I’ll be right back, Natalie, honey!” Carmen told her daughter, as she led Dante off. “I’m just going to go get Dante signed in.”

Catching Dante’s quickly wink at her, Natalie found herself smiling.

“What are you doing out here, Natalie?” Mari asked. “Where Dante?”

“My mom is getting him signed up to complete in the bodyguard competition,” Natalie responded, as she stood watching the competition that was going on at the moment.

“Natalie, are you serious?” Mari asked, staring at her friend. “Your mother is really going to sign your bodyguard and boyfriend up to fight?”

Smiling as she looked over at Mari, Natalie calmly said, “Relax, Mari. Dante is . . .”

“Natalie!” Jonathan said, as he walked up next to her and received both girls attention.

“Jonathan, what are you doing here?” Natalie asked in surprise, turning to face him.

“You don’t remember? You invited me!” he told her, only to look up and see Carmen Saldana walking up. “Mrs. Saldana. How are you?”

“Jonathan,” Carmen replied. “What are you doing here? Are your parents here also?”

“No, ma’am,” he answered. “Actually Natalie invited me to come.”

Looking at her daughter in surprise, Carmen kept her comment to herself. She then handed over Dante’s black-leather jacket and his shoulder holster and said, “Dante wants you to watch his things, Natalie.”

“Hi, Mrs. Saldana!” Mari said, smiling at her best friend’s mother.

“Hello, Mari!” Carmen replied. “Where are your parents?”

“My father is inside with some business friends, and my mother should be out here somewhere,” Mari told Carmen, as she looked around for her mother.

“Ummm…Natalie,” Jonathan said, lightly touching the side of her arm to get her attention, “can I talk to you for a moment, please?”

“Jonathan, if you want to talk to me, you can talk to me here and now. I’m waiting to see my boyfriend compete in this competition,” Natalie told him bluntly, as she turned to stare at Jonathan.

Staring at Natalie a moment while speechless after hearing that her boyfriend was actually with her, Jonathan found his voice and asked, “You’re really here with your…this new guy you’re seeing?”

Natalie felt someone touch her shoulder. She turned around to see that it was her mother, who nodded her head towards the competition.

She turned around to see what her mother was motioning at. Women began whistling and calling our flirtatiously. Natalie broke out in a smile when she saw Dante walk out onto the blue mats in his black metallic Gucci jeans and a white Calvin Klein wife beater shirt that hugged his muscular upper chest. Even his hard six-pack stomach was easily visible.

Jonathan stared at the guy who he remembered from the other night after he and Natalie were shot at. He saw the smile on her face and asked, “You mean this is the guy you’re seeing now, Natalie?”

Carmen looked at Natalie and then at Jonathan’s facial expression. She looked back at her daughter who was caught up in watching Dante.

Carmen turned her focus back onto Dante as well. She was just in time to see him swiftly dodge and weave a combination that his opponent threw at him. In response, Dante threw and landed two solid body blows to the other fighter’s mid-section, dropping him to a knee, with one hand holding his stomach and the other hand laid out flat on the ground.

“Jesus!” Mari said in both shock and surprise, as she stood watching the fighter shaking his hands that he no longer wanted to fight. “Did you guys see how fast Dante moved?”

Smiling even harder, Natalie continued staring at Dante, just as he turned and looked directly at her, winking with a smirk on his face.