Page 51 of Promised Vows

He jammed the gun harder into my flesh. “The Morettis have waited three years for you and we’re not waiting any longer.”

Waited? “What are you talking about?”

He grunted. “Your father promised you to a Moretti. We were uniting the two families with that union. Then your brother stepped in. We don’t take kindly to people going back on their word. We’re simply taking what’s ours.”

I couldn’t control the tremors racing through my body. “Ari will find me.”

“No. No, he won’t. Even if he does, we’ve got an army waiting.” He jabbed the gun harder into my back.

“He’s on his way.”

“Which means we need to be on ours.” His hand found my hair and fisted it. “We’ll take the back way.”

If I didn’t do something, Ari would never know what happened. “I’ll scream.”

“And I’ll kill five people and still drag you out of here.”

I was beginning to shake uncontrollably. “You wouldn’t.”

His lips pressed against my ear. “You see that little blonde girl over there playing with her baby doll? I’ll kill her first if you make so much as a sound.”

The malice in his voice was enough to convince me he wasn’t bluffing. “Okay. Okay. I’ll go.”

He let out a sick laugh. “That’s what I thought. Come on. You’ve got an appointment with a priest.”

“You can’t make me agree to this.”

“You’d be surprised what drugs can do.” He yanked on my hair so hard, strands fell to the floor.

Drugged? I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, but I couldn’t stop the instant automatic response to fight back. I wouldn’t be drugged. I wouldn’t.

Lorenzo took the gun from my side and pressed it against the back of my head. “I won’t hesitate to pull this trigger.”

I’d rather be dead than marry you. The thought raced through my mind. Another one quickly followed: Ari needs me. He needed something to indicate I’d been taken forcibly. I slowly dragged my hand down my side and over to the clip on my strap. As Lorenzo knocked open the back door, I pretended to stumble, hoping it would hide that I had unclipped it and let it slide to the floor right by the bathroom. If nothing else, Ari would know I was here and that someone had taken me out the back. He'd at least have a place to start.

If I made it out of this, I was never, ever keeping anything from him again. Not because I needed his permission, but because I wanted him to know. Because I…because I loved him.

The thought swam in my head and the feeling pressed against my lungs. Somewhere between that cab ride and this moment, my soul had sealed itself to Ari Kalantzis. His smile. His laugh. The way he spoke to me. The way he looked at me. The way he held me, and especially the way he kissed me.

I wanted to pledge my heart and life to him. I wanted him.

Chapter Twenty-Three

ARI

I'd arrived within seconds of getting off the phone with Anna, but I guess that'd been plenty of time for her to go missing. Her purse had been lying near the back door.

When I stepped outside into the alleyway, I found out why the two men I'd assigned to watch her weren't answering my calls. They'd each taken a single bullet and were facedown, dead.

I crouched next to one of the bodies, examining the precise shot placement. Professional hit. My jaw clenched as I scanned the alley, looking for anything out of place. That's when I spotted it -— a small, shiny object near a dumpster.

My heart raced as I cautiously approached. It was a cufflink, ornate and clearly expensive. My mind raced through possibilities. Michael? One of the Morettis? If they had her…

As I pocketed the cufflink, a soft snore caught my attention. Half-hidden behind the dumpster was a homeless man, curled up in a ratty sleeping bag. How had he slept through a kidnapping?

"Hey," I growled, nudging the sleeping bag with my foot. "Wake up."

The bundle of rags stirred, and a grizzled face emerged, bloodshot eyes blinking in confusion. "Wha...? Listen, mister, I ain't done nothin'..."

---