Page 78 of Broken Vows

Gigi blinks at me. “It’s similar to the tracker he tried to implant under my skin.”

The cut on her inner arm has healed, but it’s left a nasty scar, over an inch long and ugly. The fucker who sliced her open wasn’t doing plastic surgery, that’s for sure. Another reminder of what Franco did to her. Every cell in my body riots as adrenaline rushes through my blood. I feel like I’m going to flip. I drop my hand to her thigh, and it steadies me.

The driver swerves again and takes the off ramp, and Tony leans back and looks through the rear window to see whether we’ve ditched our tail. We take another turn and then about five others, and finally, we’re in a quieter residential street. I glance around. Front and back. We’re alone.

“Pull over,” I say, and the driver parks the car in an open slot between a car and someone’s driveway.

“What now?” Gigi asks.

“We wait.”

I stare out of the black-out window to the houses lining the street. This isn’t the place for a shootout, and I’m not plucking at our razor-fine truce with the local police force. The SUV’s dashcams would have caught the number plates, though the best way to get info is through Vincenzo. Franco is working with someone local, and it isn’t Benedict’s fake gun-for-hire outfit.

“Where is Vincenzo now?” Gigi asks.

I close my eyes for a second. The last thing I want is his blood on my hands tonight. I had other plans. “Luca would have cornered him after we left, pretending to be me, and making as if to cut a deal with him. Bait and switch. We did it all the time when we were younger.”

“Oh, God. Steph, are you going to… I mean…”

“Kill him? Not tonight. Well, that depends on how much he shares.”

“Okay.”

“Keep it to yourself. You can’t tell Carla.”

With a nod, she turns into my chest, and I hold her close. She’s quietly crying but not fighting me. She knows how this ends, and that I don’t have a choice either. Given what he’s done to her, she probably wants him dead, too.

I’ve no idea how long we sit there in the dark, but when Dominic’s team cruises up to us in anotherIl ConsiglioSUV, I know we’ve shed our assailants for tonight.

“You good to go home, boss?” my driver asks.

“I’m not risking it.” Who knows what Franco has on us now and who he has on his team. If anybody marked me as a Scalera tonight, the best place to keep Gigi safe is Matteo’s apartment. Plus, Gigi would want to be with Carla after tonight. “We’ll go to Matteo’s place.”

40

STEPHANO

By the time we walk into Matteo’s apartment, my brothers are all here, sitting in the lounge. Guns are all over the coffee table, and the boys are drinking some fine-ass whiskey. Fuckers. As if shit didn’t almost go down tonight.

“Quite an afterparty you’re having here.”

“Yep. We started without you,” Matteo says as he gives us the once-over.

Tasha already has Gigi by the hand and leads her upstairs. Carla stands by the second-floor railing, wide-eyed. We’ve all agreed that the less the women know, the better.

“Fuck,” I mutter as I indicate we should move to Matteo’s office. As we make our way, I squeeze Luca’s shoulder. “Thanks for that. I owe you.”

“All good. Any time.”

Yeah. That’s been us for ages.All good. Any time.Luca isn’t half as fucked-up as I am. He never woke up at night when noises came from our parents’ bedroom and investigated, but for years, he’s looked out for me.

Once the office door closes behind us, I strip off my jacket and tie, then ditch the holster and my gun. Matteo hands me a whiskey, and I turn to my brothers.

“Who the fuck was in on it?”

“We have four guys locked up, Steph,” Dominic says. “We ran the plates from your dash and rear cams. Vincenzo bought friends in the new Ukrainian faction that’s trying to set up shop here. Bratva wannabees.”

“Nice. Bet they didn’t know who they’re fucking with.” I take a deep sip of whiskey. We all smirk, but it was a close call.

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