Page 29 of His Vicious Vow
But I did. Not because I was worried about me, I was worried about her. In Chicago no one dared to say a word to her because she only attended la familia gatherings and no one wanted to say anything to piss off Carlo. Once she was in Vegas we would be attending parties for state and local government. The crowd in those events were cutthroat and bitchy on a scale harder than the mafia. I didn’t want anyone there hurting Carina—if they did I would have to kill them, that could get messy real fast.
A call comes through, it’s Tony. “Yeah?”
“She couldn’t tell me anything. It went through some sophisticated shit even Valdez wasn’t able to backtrack through to find them.” He’s apologetic.
“What do you think Carlo would say to me taking Carina back to Vegas with me Saturday night until the wedding? I want her with me where I can protect her—just in case.” The words are out before I know it…I swear I was going to ask him something else.
The asshole chuckles. “If Carlo knows how badly you really want her, you might end up giving up more than you planned moneywise. There’s no good reason he’ll accept. He’ll take it as an insult you think he can’t protect her. And it doesn’t matter if everyone and their mother knows she’s not a virgin. Sheets will be presented, whether the blood on them is hers or not won’t be up for debate. He wants his daughters to have the kind of wedding that represents his status and nothing else will do.”
I shake my head. Now that I’ve met her five hundred thousand is nothing, Carina is worth so much more. His mention of a big wedding reminds me she probably had dreams of her wedding. With how much she loved dressing up and playing pretend there is no doubt she knows everything she wants down to the table settings. “Fine.” I mutter.
This time he laughs so loud if I were in front of him, I’d deck him. “Do you not trust Valdez to keep her safe? He mentioned you hired three men to be at her side.”
Sighing, I give in. “I do trust Valdez. There’s just less stress if she’s where I can see her. Watching her through cameras isn’t the same.”
“Worry about yourself more. I took care of the hitter but there’s already the word out that whoever hired the last hitter is looking for another one to take the job. Dominic wants me to talk you into having Valdez keep an eye on you too.”
“While I appreciate the thought my men will only see it as me not trusting in them. It’s not how I want to start off with them.” It doesn’t matter how things were before, shit changes fast when power comes into play.
“I’ll let him know. Stay in the hotel today. We’ll see you tomorrow night.”
Hanging up, I resent the fuck out of being told to sit in the hotel. Especially if the hitter is out of the picture. However there’s no guarantee there isn’t a new one already. The only place I want to be is with Carina and no way in hell am I going to do that unless there’s no question she’s safe. Fuck.
CHAPTER 11
Carina
Saturday I’m up at almost noon. I brush my teeth, wash my face, eat then a half hour later I’m back in bed rereading a manga filled with soul reapers and fights to the death—my normal manga of dreamy men is not appealing today. I stay in bed until my mom knocks on my door around six.
I wrap myself in the gorgeous flowy silk kimono style robe, I got while shopping yesterday. “What?” I mutter as I open my door.
“Are you in bed? You need to get ready for Celia’s engagement party tonight.” My mother’s eyes are wide. “You only have an hour!”
The urge to argue I’m not going is there but it isn’t about me or my mom or Carlo, it’s for Celia. So I mutter “I’ll be ready.” before closing the door on her.
Going through the clothes, I think of the dress Celia picked for today. I don’t want my dress to clash with hers. Hers is a gorgeous lace dress that some women would wear as a wedding dress. I decide to go with a jade green silk wrap dress. Velvet green ballet slippers match it perfectly. Tossing everything on the bed, I go into the bathroom to wash my face again and brush my teeth.
My mom is pacing the living room. “Are you going to be ready?”
“I said, I’ll be ready.” I roll my eyes.
Done in the bathroom, as I’m about to go into my room again my mom stops me. “Go light on the makeup. Your father doesn’t want you embarrassing him or Sandro.”
I don’t acknowledge her instruction and slam the door closed on her. It takes ten minutes to get dressed. I sit down at my vanity, turning on my flat iron before I spray the heat protectant on my hair. My hair takes almost twenty minutes. Done, I consider my makeup. I decide not to fight back. There’s no way I’m escaping this if I keep fighting them head on.
It's another twenty minutes for me to be happy with my makeup. Odd how much makeup it takes to look like I hardly used any. I grab blotting powder, my lipstick, and jam it into my wristlet. Going into my other hiding spot, I grab my almost comically small back up burner cell phone and tuck it into my wristlet.
It’s two minutes after seven. I push away from the vanity, slip on my shoes, and with a last check in the mirror shrug before leaving my room.
“You look beautiful.” She opens her arms for a hug.
I ignore her and keep walking. I’m in the car with my seatbelt fastened before she opens the car door.
All the way there she doesn’t say a word. Once we’re out of the car I’m surprised to see Milos get out of the car behind us. I stop to wait to see Celia. “Carina? What are you doing? Come on, Sandro is waiting.”
“I’m waiting for Celia.” I mutter.
She sighs heavily but doesn’t say anything, just stays right by my side. I’m not proud of the way I’m clinging to Celia once she’s out of the car. Her hug is tight. I wish I could beg her to let me escape with her.