Page 47 of Sacred Vow

“You’re assuming Vinny’s still has it and they haven’t tossed it in the ocean,” I said, outwardly calm while inside, I couldn’t help wondering if my brother’s corpse was at the bottom of the ocean with it.

“I’m not assuming anything. But it’s a lead and I’m looking into it. Now here’s Vittoria’s trail.”

The red dots disappeared, replaced by blue ones, and even before Simon brought Vinny’s trail back, I could see hers ended where his had stalled before moving off east. “What’s out there? An Airport?” I asked.

“No. That’s the first thing I checked for.” Simon brought up a satellite image of the area, mostly open fields with a few structures and highways chopping up the landscape. “I’m looking into who owns what as we speak and if any of it has changed hands recently.”

“Or not so recently,” I added. “The location wasn’t an impulse. They had moles in our house, they had gunmen and drivers, they had their own vehicles, they had a very limited window of attack. That means they had a staging point. Someplace relatively close, but isolated.” I tapped one of the boxy buildings on-screen, then another and another. “Find out who owns these. Calogerà is behind this. Start with his subsidiaries and shell companies.”

“Already on it,” Simon promised, typing away.

Massimo entered the war room. I turned to him at once. “Did you find out anything?”

He nodded. “Carlo showed up to the beach where the girls were. He swam out from the point so no one on land saw him, except Gia, and Vittoria, of course. Gia says it didn’t look like Vittoria was expecting him, but they talked for a few minutes and then he swam away. All Vittoria would tell her was that Carlo was there to help her. And then later, told her it was for her own safety that she didn’t know her plan as she knew we would question her friend group.”

Everything clicked. No wonder Carlo had let Vittoria do whatever she wanted… and make sure I was there to find out, knowing I’d punish her for it. He’d been gaining her trust, making me the villain, even to the point of taking a swing at Massimo when he’d been fired, knowing he’d be badly beaten but left alive out of respect for all his years of service. He’d want to be wearing bruises when he offered my wife a lifeline to freedom.

Vittoria was in the hands of the enemy… Every moment that I sat here, she was in their grip. I wanted to believe that Calogerà wouldn’t harm his own daughter, but I wouldn’t bet her life on it.

Leaving Simon to work his magic, I entered the cold room to get information the old-fashioned way.

I could see our prisoner had been shot, and my guys had worked him over some, but they’d been careful not to do any permanent damage and his bullet wounds had been treated by Gaetano, and only because I wished him alive, for now.

Cazzo! It was Donatello. Was anyone loyal? I nodded at the two soldiers standing guard to leave us.

“How do you wish to die, Donatello?”

He was pale beneath the bruises, but still defiant.

“Whatever. I’m dying anyway.”

“Yes, you are. But let me be more specific.” I bent over him and despite his bravado, he shrank back, and turned even paler. “Do you want to die as a whole man? Do you want your pregnant girlfriend to bury you with honor, believing you died protecting the family? Hm?” I opened my mouth in a feral grin. “Or should we bring her here, and make her share your execution? When we take an arm off you, we take an arm off her. We take a leg off you, we take a leg off her. We slice open your belly —“

His desperate face broke. “You wouldn’t kill an innocent!”

He was right. I wasn’t about to tell him that.

“The sins of the father are carried by the sons. Are you going to die a sinner, Donatello? Or are you going to confess and let your woman bury you with honor?”

He moaned and thrashed in his chair, cursing me.

“So you want her to die,” I said mildly. “All right, but don’t say I didn’t give you a choice. I did and you chose to kill her, and your unborn baby, and for what, your loyalty to those traitorous fucks?”

His shoulder sagged. “They left me behind. I guess I owe them shit, and I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now anyway.”

“Santo Calogerà,” I said. “And his son.”

Donatello spat blood and laughed bitterly. “This has been years in the making. Santo always meant to offer you the docks, then raid the shipments until your allies broke faith with you. Once you became a liability to the council, he could kill you and your brothers without retaliation, and the new Don would give him back his docks to broker a new peace.”

“Don Carlo, I presume. Tell me, what have I done to make him, and you, betray me like this?”

“You’re weak,” Donatello spat. “Your father was a great man, but I’ll be damned if I stand by and let his empire fall into the hands of a bunch of queers and fry-cooks! And the pussy-whipped boy who tolerates them!”

“And Vittoria? How does she fit in the plan?”

“A pawn. Nothing more. He couldn’t just give you the docks and you wouldn’t make an offer for them, so he had to get them to you somehow. As a wedding present, ha. I imagine she knows the truth now, eh, cazzone! I can just see that snotty bitch—“

Before he could utter another word, I punched him in the mouth.