Page 57 of Vow of Silence

She stiffens beneath my touch, ducking her head to level our gazes. “You told me you didn’t know who it was.” She recalls that night like I do—I see it in the terror lurking behind her bright eyes. “You made me leave and said you’d follow. But you didn’t.”

We were young. Stupid. Hiding our forbidden love inside the walls of our families’ safe houses. It worked—for a while. Until my uncle arrived in the one place he wasn’t supposed to be.

Ignazio had told Papa he needed to head out of town. The motherfucker lied.

“Who was it, Benito?”

And all because of one detail.

Your father.

Uncle Naz met up with the enemy. He conducted a secret meeting with my father’s biggest rival.

Stas’s firm fingers on my jaw snap me out of my rage-clouded reveries. She jerks my head around before asking throatily, “Are you sure?”

I nod. My immature curiosity was the very thing that got me where I am today. I roll my lips together and then delete everything on the screen to relay the final act.

I told you something I shouldn’t have. And you told your father.

I hesitate and roll my jaw side-to-side.Fuck.I hate dragging this shit out into the light.

That Naz would never be the don.

My nostrils flare.

I betrayed the family by sharing secrets, Stas.

I can’t get my thumb to shift to the next letter. My skin burns with the need to explode, to propel all this fucking hate and anger inside of me out.

I don’t need to say another word.

“Hedid it to you, didn’t he?” Nastasya’s grip on my face becomes urgent. She shakes my head in her hold, forcing me to look at her.

I relent, hating that my weakness shows.

Mafia men don’t cry.

“Did your uncle cut out your fucking tongue, Benito?” Her words are slow and deliberate. “To punish you?” She implores me with wide eyes.

I blink twice, triggering the first drop to fall. A nod. My teeth are so tight together that it hurts.Fuck,I want to kill him.Ineedto.

Her fingers comb through my hair, her gaze urgent as it darts across my face. She swipes the tear from my jaw and then crushes me to her chest, arms wrapped tight around my head as though I’m some precious treasure that needs defending. Perhaps to her, I am?

“And you pushed me away so he wouldn’t know I was there too.”

I nod in her hold.I can’t even. I can’t picture that. A guttural groan breaks the silence between us. If Ignazio had touched her, hurt her.Fuck.He still could.

“I’m fine, Ben.” She peels me from her safety, gaze searching mine. “I’m okay. You don’t need to think about it.”

She almost fucking died because of our family…again. She isnotokay.

A heavy sigh leaves her lips, and she glances away before muttering, “I want to kill that motherfucker.”

You and me both, baby girl.

I retrieve the phone from where it lies against my thigh and type out the last words I care to say about it all.

Do you want to practice on these assholes that shot Caroline?

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