Page 42 of His Vicious Vow
I’m curious. “What do you want for killing him?”
He shrugs. “Nothing. I killed him as much for me as anyone. Although I would like my offer out to not only the Outfit but to the Italian mafia as well. If the answer is no, I’m fine with it. In the next few months, I’m making changes. There will be no more trafficking, no more brothels, no more using women as shields and killing them once we get what we want. My brothers will be ordered to marry. I want to clean up our image and appear legitimate instead of the barely better than animals of Augusto’s time. If there are women within the Outfit and Italian mafia willing to marry my brothers, I would pay well and it would be profitable all the way around.”
I consider it. “I will let them know.”
“I hear you have a sister….”
I shake my head. “She is not up for consideration. Bianca will marry a civilian and have nothing to do with this life.”
Another shrug. “All right. And you’ll continue to keep traffickers and cargo out of Vegas?”
“Yes. If you can continue to give a heads up it would be appreciated. Regardless, we have ears and eyes in the sky to help keep anything coming through here or women being taken.” Since traffickers weren’t able to get cargo through Vegas, they moved to kidnapping women, especially women from out of town.
“Good, if I hear anything, I’ll give you a call.” He takes out his wallet and offers me a card. “My number if you want to reach out.” With a nod, he walks away.
Once the door is closed behind him, I look to Gaetano. “That seem too easy to you too?”
Gaetano nods. “I also think it is that easy. Guillermo was Augusto in more ways than Mundo would have wanted even if Guillermo hadn’t hired the hitter. If you’ll remember a few years ago there were rumors Guillermo was pissed Mundo would take over. If we heard those rumors, Mundo heard them.”
I consider his argument. It makes sense. Augusto was in a rage when Bella escaped his plans to marry her off to Manuel Rodriguez of the Rodriguez cartel. Because we didn’t work with the Reyes cartel, many in Vegas also dropped them in favor of the Rodriguez cartel. Augusto hoped to create a link with the Rodriguez cartel by marrying his daughter to the deadly enforcer Manuel. Although Manuel was third to his father and brother, the man is someone anyone with intelligence would want as an ally.
When Mundo helped Bella escaped on the back of a truck we stopped, Luca had no idea who she was, he simply fell for her at first sight. I remember thinking he was nuts. He wasn’t.
“Sandro? You good?” Gaetano is studying me with a frown.
Annoyed with myself I nod. “Yeah, just thinking of Luca and how I need to check in on him. I’m heading up to bed.”
Gaetano walks me to the elevator, him going down and me going up.
My mind is spinning, I can admit it now: The second I laid eyes on Carina everything changed. The plan for a pleasant but boring marriage. What I thought I knew about…love. Even thinking the word is odd yet there is no other for the intense emotion the mere thought of Carina causes within me.
Since my mother’s death, love or even happiness is not an emotion I allowed myself for anyone other than Bianca and only because she needed it—to deny her would be cruel. To deny myself felt right. I did not deserve it, not when I was the cause of so much death and destruction, of my mother, of this world.
I fought against what I felt for Carina. I did not deserve it, or her. Yet she needed love even more than Bianca did after receiving so little of it over the years. Denying it would only hurt her. The last thing in this world I will do is hurt her. If she wanted her own room, her own house, anything she wanted I would give her to see her smile, to hear her say my name.
Now that I’m able to admit it to myself I wish like hell I fought harder to bring Carina with me to Vegas. I’m not worried for myself, only her. Putting myself between her and a bullet is a given. Raised it’s the life I would lead, la familia before me, my Don, everything, a bullet does not scare me. The idea of dying for someone else never bothered me, I did it for Luca at nineteen without hesitation. For Carina it’s because I can’t imagine what my life would be like without her in it, therefore I would not attempt to try.
How the fuck did it happen? Three days, I wasn’t even able to see her one of those days. Before I met her, I called her a girl—would have paid up to three million not to marry in order to find someone of my own choosing. Only for me to consider killing Carlo for daring to try and take her from me.
When he said I didn’t have to marry Carina, the visceral reaction seething through me scared the fuck out of me. If I hadn’t been holding Carina I would have put my hands around his neck and squeezed for daring to say the words. There is nothing in this world I wouldn’t do to keep her. And if I couldn’t…better this world never discovers what I will do.
I am not ashamed of tying her to me by breeding her. The little fool needs a reason to let go and let me in, our child will give her a reason.
This time when I fall asleep it’s to dream of little girls with their mother’s green eyes and mischievous grin.
Good dreams that made waking up to a call from Carlo telling me Carina escaped frustrating as fuck.
* * *
Carina
The days pass with me locked in the room. My mom tries to talk to me about what happened with Sandro but I refuse. I’m a little surprised by how easy it is for me to get out to go to the doctor. She doesn’t even question me. I’m driven by a guard and another guard goes in with me, sitting next to the door.
I’m told with what I came for to pee in a cup in the restroom in the hallway and leave it in the cubby hole. Done, I walk out to find the nurse waiting for me.
Inside the room, the nurse takes my blood pressure and temperature. “Okay, birth control. Do you have anything in mind? I see you did the pill three years ago and we refilled it twice, nothing since.”
“Because I wasn’t good about remembering it. I also hated the way it messed with my hormones. I’m thinking the shot or implant. Something I don’t have to worry about.”