Page 44 of Sacred Vow

“I can’t repeat it in polite company but basically, to screw off!”

A gruff chuckle from Tony and a beaming smile from Vinny.

After a delicious lunch, Tony excused himself, kissing Isabella and telling Vinny to behave himself. I left too, saying I had some things to do, and beelined back to my room to listen for my burner phone to ring.

Not five minutes later, it went off. Taking a deep breath, I answered the call.

“I’ve changed my mind. I’m staying.” Silence stretched across the line. Carlo’s breathing changed.

“That’s unfortunate,” he said quietly. A long breath hissed through the line. “Don’t make up your mind until you have all the information. There are things you don’t know, Vittoria. Things I’ve learned about Romeo. You may change your mind once you know what kind of man he really is.”

That was unexpected. “What kind of things?”

He responded with images of Romeo getting blowjobs and lap dances, photo after photo, so many different women. I scrolled over them in rapid succession, dizzy and sick to my stomach. Surely these couldn’t be current, but I looked at the time stamps and they were all taken since we’d been married.

Son of a bitch.

My stomach dropped.

This changed everything.

Or at least it should have.

The problem was that despite the photos, despite the proof sitting in my hands, my heart still wanted to hear Romeo’s side of the story.

When Leo and Carlo arrived at my door, I repeated myself, even after the full glossies were pulled from the manilla envelope. “I get it, and I thank you. And maybe I’m an idiot, but I’m not leaving before I give Romeo a chance to explain.” A rogue tear escaped and tracked down my cheek. I barely had time to take a step backward before Carlo lunged. A cloth was shoved over my nose and mouth and then nothing.

Chapter Fifteen

Romeo

Six hours of discussing shipping and transportation had left me ready to put a bullet through the conference table. During the meeting, a message came through from Fausto regarding The Ghost who called himself Ardo, the one whose identity had remained unknown since we beat the name out of the soldier we’d captured, who in turn almost killed half my family.

The ghost had been a thorn in my ass since the agreement with Santo Calogerà. His absence from today’s meetings was a blatant insult to the so-called peace created by our families’ union. I didn’t trust that man and agreed with my brother that he was up to something.

The moment we were outdoors, we returned Fausto’s call.

“Hey. What do you have?”

“I followed through with Tony and followed the numbers, which led me into the security feeds. Some footage had been erased. It’s not great, but I do have a partial image of the one they call the Ghost.”

An image appeared on my phone.

“It can’t be,” I heard myself say. “What the hell?”

“What?” Massimo peered over my shoulder. The image was partial, but there was no mistaking the face. It was Leo.

“You vetted him,” I said.

“Carlo vetted him,” Massimo said, already pulling out his phone. “Fausto, check on the family. We’ve got a lead on our mole problem and it’s Vittoria’s new head of security. Find the old one, too– Leo. He knows our estate. They might be working together and if that’s the case, who knows how many of our men aren’t loyal.”

“On it.”

He hung up. I texted my wife.

Nothing came back.

Dio Santo!