Page 34 of Vow of Silence

I don’t want to give her the credit, but she is right. She has the power to destroy the fragile remains of my relationship with Papa, yet she chose to remain quiet even when our bond dissipated in the fallout.

“Why did you stay quiet?” I lean back and fold my arms.

She shrugs, gaze averted. “I didn’t see the point in tattling. You were hurt enough; I didn’t need to do it again.”

My phone vibrates on the table between us. Lana’s gaze darts to the device.

“Who is it?” I don’t have the stamina to deal with Papa right now.

She sighs and lifts her eyes to mine. “Can I have a fucking code name for the guy if you’re going to get all primal every time that I say his real one?”

I ignore her request and dive for the device. Why would he phone? It’s physically impossible for us to hold a conversation. “Hello?”

“Nastasya.” Surely, lacking a tongue would make his words harsher than that? “It’s Dion.” Well, there you go.You’re such a dick, Stas.“Benito’s a little…” He makes a frustrated sigh. “He’s in the middle of something, but he wanted to get a message to you.”

“Okay?” I meet Lana’s curious stare. “He could have typed it out like he has so far.”

Dion chuckles. “Uh, yeah. No. His hands are, should we say, a little unclean right now?”

“Right.” I drag the word out.

“Anyway. I’ll send you a friend request from him in a moment. Can you accept it so that he can video call you?”

“Why?” My brow knits. “Has something happened?”

“Uh, sort of.” For a senior member of the De Santis family, Dion sounds like an awkward teen right now. It makes mewonder what the hell they’re up to. “Check your notifications, okay?”

“Sure.”

He disconnects, and I open the social app to see the new red circle awaiting my attention. I tamp down my excitement at being able to scour the private parts of Benito’s life and accept the immediate Messenger call.

“What’s happening?” Lana whispers, shifting closer.

“I don’t know.” I move the phone so that I’m framed in the screen properly and squint at the dark image from their end. “What are you doing?”

The image shakes as Dion talks. “Give me a second. I need to head back inside.”

The grainy tones tell me he walks on concrete. But where? Lana moves closer to my left. In any normal situation, the invasion of my privacy would irritate the hell out of me. But right now, I value her input on what she sees.

“Here we go.” The sound of a heavy door opening scratches through the speaker. “Say hi, lover boy,” Dion teases Benito.

A thrill courses through me at the visage of my fiancé’s broad frame, his back to the camera. He wears a form-fitting black T-shirt, his honed and defined body on beautiful display. A coy smile plays on his full lips; his head turned slightly to show his strong profile.

“Still hot,” Lana mutters.

I thrust an elbow into her upper arm.

“Ow!”

“So, big bro and I were doing an errand this morning when we came across something you might be interested in.” Dion switches the camera to his face. “Benito wants you to take a look and let him know if anything seems familiar, okay?” The De Santis boys definitely all share one thing: good genes.

“Take a look at what?”

Even Lana sighs beside me.

“Not what.” Dion hooks an eyebrow before switching the camera again. “Who.”

“Woah.” Lana leans back, eyes wide, as the new image becomes clear.

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