Page 36 of Vow of Silence

“Say what you fucking said when you fired the shot!” Dion hollers.

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.” The man jerks against his restraints. “You fuckers are crazy.”

Benito holds a finger up to the guy, twitching his chin to the left as though he struggles to remain calm.

“Where were you last Friday?” Dion’s tone is calm and level, but the intonation in the words hasmeready to confess.

Each De Santis brother is as deadly as the next.

“I was at my brother’s house. With him all night.”

“For how long?” Dion appears bored.

“Until midnight.”

“And can you be sure?” Dion asks. “Is there anyone who can back up your claim?”

Benito leans down in front of the man, hands braced to his knees while he levels a steely glare with the hostage.Answer me,his malice screams.

“Pretty damn sure, asshole. You can ask him: my brother.”

With the reflexes of a panther, Benito smashes the man’s head backward again. If he keeps this up, the guy won’t be able to answer anything.

“Ask him how tall his brother is,” I interject into the macabre show before me. I didn’t see their faces, but I saw enough of their legs to know the men were the same height as one another.

“You hear her?” Dion asks.

The guy nods slowly. “He’s taller. By a foot.”

Fuck.“If he speaks the truth, he can’t be the guy.” I slump in my seat, dejected.

Now that the opportunity for closure has been taken away, I realize how much hope had slowly bloomed throughout their interrogation.

A deep rumble pierces the line, and I lift my head to find the source of the noise was Benito himself. He stands beside Dion, only his muscular chest visible in the shot. With a whip of one hand, he ushers Dion from the room.

All I hear is the crack of Benito’s knuckles while my soon-to-be brother-in-law removes us from the spectacle.

“What is he doing now?” If I could climb through the damn phone to get back behind the closed door, I would.

“He’ll find out who the guy’s brother is and make sure he tells you the truth.”

“And if he’s innocent? How will you explain what you’ve done to him?”

The camera turns to Dion’s face in time to catch his amused smile. “He’s far from innocent, Nastasya.”

“Who is he?” Lana asks, leaning in from my left.

Dion’s heated stare hits her; no trace remains of the humor he held for me. “Nobody to you.”

She removes herself from the shot, quietly shifting back to her sofa on the opposite side of the table.Girl just got told.Makes me wonder what Benito has shared with his younger brother.

“Can you tell Ben to do this again later, please? Call me?”

Dion nods, one hand massaging the back of his neck. “Sure.” A shocked moan erupts from the mafia prince’s right. He shifts his attention to the disturbance and frowns. “I better go.”

“Yeah.” Because who’d want to miss out on a little bit of torture, right?

Fuck me.Years, I’ve complained that Papa doesn’t include me in the gritty parts of the family business, and here I am privy to those of my in-laws before the marriage documents have been drafted.

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