Page 11 of Beautiful Vows

“You claim Cade, Rafe, or Lia poisoned Leonardo’s cigar? Why not anyone else?” he asks and pauses, shaking his head. "I didn't come here for this." His free hand lifts to his face, he pinches the bridge of his nose as he listens. “Why are you adamant it's Lia Bailey?”

He paces up and down as he listens.

He turns his face to me, not that he can see me like I can see him. But there is a flicker of uneasiness in his gaze. One I’ve seen before. Normally only on men who are about to die.

“Okay. Before I can act on that, I’ll need proof.” His eyes narrow as he listens again. A shiver runs down my spine, causing my back to tense up. “But I don’t work for you.”

Like a heavy storm cloud looming, the tension in the air thickens. “Look, I’ll find out more about Lia, but she's Dominic de Luca’s stepdaughter, and that makes it very difficult. You don’t understand what you’re asking me to do.”

Knowing that Lia is closer to danger than ever before rattles my nerves.

He listens again before he laughs menacingly into his cell. “And like I told you, I don’t work for you.”

With a smirk, he stares at his phone and ends the call.

I was planning to swiftly end his life with a single, decisive slash of my knife across his thick neck. But it’s quicker to put a bullet through his brain.

With the silencer firmly screwed onto my gun, I shuffle with military precision along the damp grass.

Taking a deep breath, I kneel and wait in the shadows for the perfect moment to strike. The target's breathing is steady and even as small puffs of warm air billow from his mouth into the cold air.

He sings to himself, totally unaware of the looming end to his miserable life.

My heart pounds as I shuffle closer again, closing the distance between us with stealth like precision. Then I rise from my knees and within seconds, I press the cold steel of the silenced gun firmly against the back of his head. “Tell me who killed Leonardo Bianchi?” I ask.

Not wanting to ask direct questions about what I overheard. But the only person to die from poisoning lately was Leonardo Bianchi.

He doesn't even twitch at the unexpected contact. “Fuck you.”

I cluck my tongue against his ear. "You should tell me what I ask, otherwise I might as well pull the trigger right now. Or we can make a deal and you can leave Australia and go back to your family in Italy," I whisper harshly into his ear, keeping my voice steady and my will unshaken.

He chuckles, the sound wicked and meant to be unnerving, but I’m the one holding the fucking gun.

“You want to kill something that is mine? And I’ll do the same in return for you. I’ve already killed the two men in New York who were looking for my wife, and another in Italy. No hard feelings. You’d be the same. I have to protect what is mine.”

He grumbles in Italian.

“And while in Italy, someone kindly let me know you’re married. I’ve researched you, Genero Costa. I know where your secret wife lives, your two teenage boys, your eight-year-old daughter. The family you’ve successfully hidden from everyone … but me.”

“Figlio di puttana,” he mutters, but his eyes flicker with concern.

“Is that your worst?” I chuckle. “Tell me who you took the call from and I’ll spare your family,” I hiss into his ear.

“Fottiti!” he yells.

"To Hell you go." I pull the trigger. The gun discharges into his temple, blowing his brain matter from the hole the bullet exited onto the floor.

A puff of smoke fills the air as the hitman crumples to the ground, lifeless.

I grab his cell, scrutinize my surroundings, before soundlessly exiting the grounds as Eduardo’s men run to the sound.

Chapter 4

Antonio

The video plays, illuminating the dimly lit room, and as the images flicker to life, my heart shatters into a million pieces all over again. There she is—my beloved, her face radiant with love, her voice a bittersweet melody that’s permanently wrapped around my soul.

Glancing a hesitant look at Aurelia as she stares at the screen. She suddenly looks so small and sad.

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