Page 1 of His Vicious Vow

CHAPTER 1

Sandro

The tears in her eyes gut me. “I’m sorry. I saw how much you liked her but…”

I hug her tight. “She’s nothing to me. Don’t worry about her. You never have to see her again. I’m sorry she even got close enough to hurt you. You are beautiful. Don’t listen to catty bitches like her.”

My phone goes off. It’s Luca’s ringtone. Bianca knows his ringtone as well as mine. Pulling away, she wipes her eyes. “I’m okay.”

I answer. “Yeah?”

“Augusto Reyes is in the wind. Valdez has no idea where he is.”

Shit. I fucking knew it. “I think you should send Bella to Chicago now. Especially with her pregnant. If she knows Augusto is in the wind it will stress her out.” And while she’s close to him he doesn’t think straight.

Silence for too damn long. “If I send her, she’ll be even more stressed. This could all be for nothing. Take up security a notch.”

Fucking hell. As badly as I want to argue, I don’t dare. If he were thinking clearly he would have thought of sending her away himself. But he’s not. “I’ll handle it.”

He ends the call and I fight not to throw my phone across the room. Luca isn’t thinking straight. He’s going to get us and his woman killed.

“Sandro? Is everything okay?” Bianca’s eyes are wide.

Her fear is a body blow. I promised my mother I would always take care of her and protect her from this life. “Everything is fine. I need to get to work. Are you good?”

She nods. “I’m sorry I bothered you.”

“You didn’t bother me. I needed to know. You’ll never see Lauren again. If you could do me a favor and round up her stuff, I’ll have it sent to her.”

Her dimple peeking out at me unfurls the knot in my chest. “I’ll have it done before I go to bed.”

The moment the door is closed behind her, I drop my smile. I’m at my desk and get into the cameras. I make a call.

Gaetano answers on the first ring. “Yeah, boss.”

“Shit is about to hit the fan with Augusto Reyes. I want all security stepped up. No one goes anywhere alone. Everyone wears their bulletproof suits—it’s an order not an option.” The bulletproof suits are thicker and not everyone liked wearing them in the heat of Vegas. “Two more men per delivery. Security in this property is on yellow and security on Luca’s property goes to red.”

“I will handle it boss.”

Ending the call, my eyes move over the cameras in my property. I tap into the ones for Luca’s property. I’m satisfied by the way everyone goes on alert within minutes.

Unease is high at the idea of going up against Augusto Reyes again. The guy is a fucking psycho who’s killed four of his own sons. He is a sick fuck who got off on the pain of everyone around him. Luca was sure his plan for Augusto’s son Mundo to off him was as good as done. I want to believe it but if he hadn’t offed the psycho himself by now why would he do it when we asked him?

I can’t let go of the fear Augusto indoctrinated Mundo too completely for Mundo to cross the line of killing his father. Whether it’s a cartel, Italian mafia, Russian mafia, all of this is built and maintained by raising those of us already in it that their head of the family, and their father was a god—the only god that mattered. They didn’t pray to anyone but the family. Because no one was going to take care of them and protect them but the family.

Luca was adamant the Latin American cartels were different, family was even more of a thing to them. It was the reason Augusto had so many kids, he was making his own army and controlling through fear. Very soon we’ll find out if he’s right.

My phone goes off with a text, it’s Lauren wondering if she should come by tonight. Anger flares through me. I call her.

“Don’t come by tonight or any fucking night. It’s over. I can’t believe you thought you could say that shit to my sister. I’ve told you how sensitive she is about her weight. It was fucking cruel.”

“What are you talking about? Sandro, I would never say anything about anyone’s weight let alone your sister’s. I’m not an idiot. I have no desire to end up dead because I made your sister cry.” She sounds shocked.

I shake my head and hang up. She wasn’t worth arguing with. But something she said tugs at my memory. I would never kill a woman for hurting my sister but I would make them regret hurting her. Lauren told me she had lost a lot of weight. She was worried I’d freak out over her scars from her surgery to deal with the loose skin from her weight loss.

It didn’t make sense she would insult another woman for being heavier. Lauren was still a larger than the beauty standard at a size twelve. I preferred women with a little weight to them with how big I was, I was always worried about hurting a woman in bed and I just liked how a soft body felt against mine. I thought she was different. It was the only reason I introduced her to my sister. I wondered if maybe Lauren could be longer than a few weeks thing.

Fuck it, there was no figuring out women. They didn’t make any sense.