Page 53 of Sacred Vow

Leo smirked. “No, but you don’t have my sister either, so I guess we’re even.”

He stepped closer to kick my gun away, and I lunged, wrapping an arm around his neck and pressing down hard on his wind pipe. Leo dropped his weapon to fight me but the safety was off and he got out a shot before he dropped it.

Bang! The world collided as we fell to the ground.

“Let’s finish this, Vitale.” The shot had ricocheted off the sheet metal beside us and torn through Leo’s shoulder.

Rolling on top of him, I pressed my thumb into the bullet wound, immobilizing his arm while punching him with my free hand.

I’d learned a long time ago that hate was a hard thing to kill. Determination even harder, and the man beneath me had both. He was completely unhinged. Crazy didn’t begin to describe what I saw in those black eyes.

He reached up a hand and squeezed my throat, compressing my wind pipe. He was strong and we were evenly matched. I moved my thumb from the hole in his shoulder to pry his fingers off my throat.

Using the distraction, Leo surged his body, dislodging me onto the damp grass. He crawled for the gun, but I threw myself on top of him. Gripping his head between my hands, I twisted sharply and felt his neck break.

“That’s for my wife, you son of a bitch!” I picked up the gun and shot him in the head. “And that one’s for my brother.” I was about to shoot him again when Massimo ran into view with two of our soldiers.

“Are you okay, boss?”

I handed him the gun. “Never better. I'll live. Where's Vinny?”

“On his way to the house. Tano can look him over when he gets there, but Vinny says he’s fine, other than a beat-down.”

“Vinny would say that after being beheaded.”

“True, but Gio says it too and I’m inclined to believe him.”

That was a relief.

“Glad this piece of shit is dead.” He toed the dead body. “What about Santo?”

“Mateo and Paulo have him for now. We’ll let the council know what’s happened here and who’s really been behind the disruption to their shipments.”

Simo holstered his gun. “So that’s it then. It’s over.”

“Unless some low-level minchione decides to take a run for the throne. But once the old man’s dead, Vittoria legally inherits everything. I will ask the council to allow me to merge what is hers with mine, effectively creating ours. And I can’t see any reason why they wouldn’t.”

Paulo and Matteo came around the corner with Santo sequestered between them. “Head home to your wife, boss, we got this.”

Simo looked at me for the final decision before nodding his head.

“Put the bodies in the slaughterhouse and burn it all to the ground. I want no trace of Calogerà left. Then take our soldiers and clean out the vipers’ nest. They can work for us or die.”

I patted Simo on the shoulder as I passed to get into the car. “Good work, fratello.” Simo would put Santo in his trunk and then into a cozy cell back at chez Vitale. I left the battlefield desperate to get home to my regina. For the first time in my thirty-seven years, I intended to tell another person exactly how much they meant to me.

Chapter Eighteen

Vittoria

Tano kept threatening to tie me to the bed if I didn’t sit still. The skin on my feet was torn raw, and despite the bandages and painkillers he’d given me, I was able to pace while waiting for word from Romeo.

Waking up in that horrible place had been an eye-opener for me. Being his wife was the only thing that had saved me in the end, while being the daughter of Santo Calogerà had almost killed me. I shuddered, picturing my brother’s level of crazy in his almost reptilian eyes and the darkness in his words rivaled Hell itself. How could Romeo’s darkness feel so different? So necessary? Not long after our paths collided in his office, the day where I became familiar with the darkness that lurked inside of him, I’d pined for him, and his knowing touch, his hungry gaze. It was the start of my plan to get his attention. “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”

That seemed like years ago now but the desire for those things had only multiplied. He came for me, he was willing to die for me.

“Principessa.”

I’d been so lost in my thoughts, I hadn’t heard him enter.