Page 33 of Vices and Vows
When my eyes start to droop, I take my bowl to the kitchen and place it in the sink before heading to the bathroom to brush my teeth and pee. Once I’ve washed my hands, I turn the lights off and climb into bed. I’m out in minutes, oblivious to the world, dreaming about Petra waking up and pointing at me, begging me to save her. It takes forever to escape the clutches of my nightmare,which is why it takes me longer than normal to realize something isn’t right.
My eyes pop open the second I sense that I’m not alone, ready to reach for the gun on my bedside table, when the weight of a body presses me into the mattress and a large, calloused hand covers my mouth.
Lips whisper against my ear, making me shiver when I recognize the voice.Vice Moretti.
“You look like a doll when you sleep.”
My heart races out of control as I try to hold my panic at bay. There is a saying about jumping from the frying pan into a fire that I never truly understood until now. I breathe him in, his expensive aftershave mingling with the metallic tang of blood and the acrid smell of burning.
Burning?
When I don’t fight him, he takes his hand from my mouth.
“You set fire to the factory?”
“After my crew came, and we found a dead kid in Dano’s trunk, yeah. I couldn’t let the cops investigate. I’ll use the insurance payout to build another one if needed. But right now, I’m happy with it being nothing more than a pile of fucking ash.”
“I get it, trust me.”
His weight shifts as his nose brushes my cheek. “Why’d you come?”
“I told you why.”
“I don’t buy it. You wanted me to change my mind about marrying you, right?”
I laugh. I can’t help it.
“I’m not naïve enough to think I have any influenceover you or anyone else. It was a long shot anyway. And truthfully, I don’t know if I’d be any safer with you than I would be with Aldo.”
“That’s a lie. If I were like Aldo, I would have bent you over when you visited me in prison and fucked you until you bled, guards be damned.”
“I never said you were like Aldo. You’re a different kind of trouble altogether. But something tells me you won’t hurt me.”
Because he’s right in what he’s saying. If he wanted to, he could have hurt me when we were locked in that room alone. I might have training, but Vice has height and sheer muscle working for him. I would’ve fought back, but I doubt I would’ve won.
“Don’t be so sure,bambola. I like the taste of fear. Nothing makes me harder than someone crying. And you better believe I’ll make use of those tears if given a chance. I might not be Aldo, but I’m far from a good guy.”
“A good guy wouldn’t last a second in our world.”
He doesn’t say anything to that because he knows I’m right.
“I owe you a debt. And I don’t like owing people.”
“I didn’t save your life so that you’d owe me anything. I saved you to keep my conscience clean. I do some questionable shit, so I have to balance the scales somehow.”
“And you think saving the devil will help?” He laughs—a dark, erotic sound that makes my nipples hard.
“I never claimed to be a saint, Vice. You’re forgetting I wasn’t raised to be the perfect Mafia wife who sipped from the Stepford Kool-Aid. I was raised to be a lowly guard. Good enough to protect the princess but not worthy of a husband until now. I was so fucking grateful, but I guess the joke is on me now.”
“I’ll marry you,” he says quietly, shocking me. I frown at him before trying to shove him away, but the fucker doesn’t move.
“I don’t need your pity.”
“If you want to escape, you’ll have to leave that pride of yours behind. I’ll make you do things you’ll hate yourself for.”
“Then why the fuck would I agree to this?”
“Because once we’re married, I won’t let anyone else touch you. You have no idea what kind of man I am, Nova, but you will. I’m warning you now, though: once those papers are signed, you’re mine. I won’t let you walk away. I’ll kill you before I ever let another man take my place.”