Page 6 of His Vicious Vow
He really did take his responsibility seriously. Why the fuck am I bristling at the idea of another man watching over her? I get to a picture—holy fuck, she is not a girl. The picture is her in cosplay as Sailor Moon. My cock goes hard at how short her skirt is. She is very much a woman. “In what other way has he cared for her?”
“He’s a frequent buyer in her online store commissioning art work from her, there’s also purchases he’s had set up for various items already in her store. Over the last four years he’s spent so she has no need for money. He makes sure when she travels, which she does a lot of, she never goes alone. We are her shadow. I have a man on a flight back to Chicago with her right now. There was a bit of a mess we have to clean up for her. Milos thinks it’s hilarious. Considering it’s messy as fuck, I’m not as amused.” Valdez is annoyed.
Valdez is never annoyed. There’s rarely a need for him to be. When it came to the clean up on the shootout Valdez handled it without a change in tone of voice. “What mess?” I’m trying to look through her file while he’s talking. She sure as fuck likes going to those conventions and dressing up.
“She went out to New York to visit her boyfriend, or ex-boyfriend. A guy she’s been dating for a few months. The fucker was trying to record them having sex. She saw the camera and beat the shit out of him with his own laptop.” An exhale of air is almost a laugh.
Everything in me goes tight at the idea of another man putting his hands on her. Of her needing to protect herself, even if I’m impressed she beat the shit out of him herself.
“The mess came when he managed to call his neighbor to save his ass. With the neighbor in the mix we couldn’t get to the guy and shut him down. He’s screaming he wants to press charges. Since she’s on a plane back to Chicago right now, we might be able to keep the cops from her but I can’t be sure. On any day of the week I have no less than four contacts I can make use of within the NYC police department high enough for this to go away—three of them are at some high-level conference and aren’t answering phones and the fourth is handling the other three’s workload.”
I have two guys myself in New York. “Where in New York?”
“Brooklyn.”
“Call Jim Buford.” I give him Jim’s number. “He’s a captain in one of the precincts there. His father is deputy mayor. Tell him she’s my fiancée and to make this disappear. Not the guy though, I’ll take care of him. Have him sent back to Vegas. When Jim asks for what he wants, the answer is yes to whatever it is. Shoot me a text of what he wants so I have it.”
“Will do. Anything else?”
“Keep someone on her. I’ll pick up her bills from today forward. I also want to know everything Milos spent on her down to the penny. I will be paying him back today.” It’s unacceptable another man took care of her. If it were her father it would have been fine—it should have been Carlo.
“Yes, sir.”
I hang up and bring up her file again. My fiancée, an anime loving, manga binge reading brat with too much eyeliner, and anger in her eyes is on her way home from spending the last three days with her boyfriend, ex-boyfriend.
Great, fucking great.
CHAPTER 3
Sandro
Tony is waiting for me when I land. He nods at the plane. “It’s a little bigger than the last one.”
I shrug. “It’s an 8000, it gets us everywhere quicker. Time is money. The last one was riddled with bullets. Thankfully, Valdez was willing to purchase it for use in training.”
Getting into the back of the Escalade Tony preferred. I hand him the file I’ve read every inch of. “You could have warned me about her.”
He opens it and flicks through it. The fucker chuckles. “Carina is not to be understood from a file. She is a beautiful, sweet young woman. She’s also her father’s daughter, as ruthless as he is and willing to go for the jugular if pushed. Carlo begged her for five years to talk to him before he finally gave up. He fucked up by telling her to shut up, no one wanted to hear what she had to say. She hasn’t talked to him since he said it—she was five years old.”
Great, she holds grudges too. “She’s also had several boyfriends. Does Carlo know about them and how she really is?”
A shoulder lifts. “With Carlo there’s no telling. He goes out of his way to hide not only what he knows but his true intent. Don’t tell me you aren’t happy with a woman who doesn’t need to be taught what to do.”
I don’t like the sound of what Carlo might be hiding. “Considering how many women I’ve fucked I’m not a hypocrite. It isn’t about the men she’s been with. I want to know what he’s thinking forcing her on me. Why?”
“I’ve had the conversation multiple times with Luca, marriage makes you boring and shows you’re stable. If you’ll remember Luca married when he took over Vegas. It was an order from his grandfather that his mother hid as an urging. Alliances are important. The reason Carlo sent Gianni out to Vegas was he wasn’t happy he didn’t have an inside line to everything happening. He might still try and send you someone from Chicago with you when you leave.”
“I have Gaetano, he’s what I need. The guy is a machine, he eats, lives, and breathes for us. He also doesn’t flinch from killing. There isn’t anyone else I want at my back.” I want Gaetano. Anyone else would hinder, not help.
My phone goes off with a text. It’s Valdez, the issue with the ex is settled and he’s on his way back to Vegas. Jim Buford’s ask was what I expected, a week stay at no cost and some chips for him to play with while he stayed with us. I thank him and send a text to Gaetano telling him the guy was on his way and to get him into a kill room.
“The girl is indeed ruthless. She beat the shit out of her recent boyfriend. But not smart enough to stay the fuck away from a guy more than ten years older than her. It was clear as glass he only wanted sex from her.”
He chuckles. “We all make mistakes when we’re young and dumb. None of her mistakes had long-term consequences.”
“That we know of. The file on her didn’t start until she was eighteen and Milos started keeping an eye on her.” My mind is full of possible things unhidden. What if she had to have an abortion? What if someone hit her or mentally abused her? All of those things had costs she might still be dealing with.
We pull up to Carlo’s house. “I’ll leave you here. I’m to retrieve Carina from her home. Her plane has landed and she should be there soon.”