Page 16 of Promised Vows

Narrowing his eyes, Gabriele replied, “No, but I had my suspicions.”

“He’s bringing little girls into the port.” Dimitris dropped the information on Gabriele.

He looked at my brother. “Little girls?”

“That’s right.”

“I knew Benoit was into that stuff, but I had no idea Marco was in bed with him.” He rattled off a few sentences in Italian and smoothly went back to English. “I don’t think most of the family knows, but they will as soon as I can call a meeting.”

All well and good, if they actually cared. “What do you think the family’s going to do?” I asked.

Gabriele worked his jaw and winced as the doctor stitched up his leg. “They’ll either see it my way, or they won’t leave the meeting.” A shake-up was coming to the Moretti family. I couldn’t say I didn’t like that idea.

“You want help?” Lucas asked.

Gabriele looked at my brother. “Help?”

“Benoit and Marco are working together. Benoit killed our little sister and dad. We’ve been too weak to go after him, but if we work together, maybe we can bury both of them.”

Gabriele’s eyebrows furrowed as they held each other’s gazes. “Killed your little sister?”

“I don’t know if he knew she was ours. She was already buried when we found out it was Benoit. One of his girls, a recruiter, had told her how pretty she was and that they wanted her to audition for a movie. Gianna lied and told us she was spending the night at a friend’s house. When Mom didn’t hear from her the next day, she sent us to look for her. While we were gone, cops showed up to inform us that she’d been found dumped by a pier. She’d died of an overdose, and there were signs of excessive lower-extremity trauma. She was thirteen.”

“Ain’t you marrying his daughter? Ain’t that tomorrow?” He narrowed his eyes as he spoke.

“I think they’re playing me.”

Wait, Lucas thought that and he was still going through with it? How was I supposed to protect the idiot when he did things like that?

Gabriele cleared his throat. “It’s a messed-up family. I was at a fundraiser for the mayor years ago and looked around the place. Claire couldn’t have been more than seven, and I saw him slap her so hard she dropped to the ground. He just walked away.”

Thea looked at Lucas. “I told you.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. If Claire was seven when Gabriele witnessed that, it was more than a decade ago. Unless Gabriele was playing us too, he had no reason to lie about that. That plus Thea’s insistence that something wasn’t right between them… Fine. I’d give Claire a chance.

“So we have a deal?” Lucas asked.

“Accordo.” Deal. He spat on his hand and thrust it out to Lucas. “Morettis and Kalantzis are united until we settle this.”

My brother followed suit and shook his hand. “Deal.”

Gabriele pulled his hand back and crossed his arms over his chest. “We need to be smart about this, Kalantzis. Marco has pull in the Morettis, and until I can call the family, we need to watch our backs.”

How were our families united if Marco had pull? Perhaps, Gabriele meant that once the other Morettis knew what Marco was up to, they’d all fall in line and work with us.

“By now, he’s got word that it was your family who saved my life. He’ll be coming for blood. You okay, or do you need help?”

“I’m marrying Claire tomorrow at St. Andrews. I don’t think Benoit will cheap out on security. He’s got a face to keep for the public.”

Unless that was the plan, to make it seem things were secure when they weren’t, but I didn’t want to disrespect my brother in front of the Italians.

Gabriele glanced at his phone for a moment before he attempted to push off the couch. The guys helped him up. “Rocco’s got Annalisa safe and with her mother. They’re surrounded by security. He’s coming to pick me up and take me to her.”

He shook Lucas’s hand again.

To tell the truth, I was unsure about all of it. First, Benoit’s daughter seeks Lucas out, and then Franklin. Next thing is Lorenzo, now Gabriele seemingly going to war with his brother.

What was going on? With the wedding tomorrow, it seemed like we were in a holding pattern. If we played our hand too soon, Benoit would catch on. If we played it too late, we could all be dead.

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