Page 4 of The Vendetti Soldier

Me:Headed to the city.

Matteo:Thank fuck. Bring back something for Violet.

He may be cold and closed off to others, but Matteo completely spoils his wife. I’ve never seen him love someone the way he does her, and the fact she keeps pushing out his bambinos only solidifies her place at the top of his favorites list.

“We have to get out of here before he realizes I was lying.”

Santino shakes his head, laughing. “You’re brave, fratello. If Matty catches us before we can get out of here, it’s your ass.”

With a glare, I gesture to his panel door leading to the secret tunnel our grandfather had built in when he expanded the house. “Lead the way out of here. We still have to get to the garage unnoticed and get off the property without triggering any alerts. Hope you feel like shopping.”

He huffs but does as I say, pressing the wall in a specific spot so the panel pops out. Then he ducks inside, and I hurry to follow. “None of us is getting married today,” he mutters, and for the first time since the panic clutched at my chest, I smile.

Chapter 2

I just wanna be around you… Next to you, on top of you, underneath you, on my hands & knees in front of you. - posted love notes

Santino

I’m hungover. Not onlydid Luc want to go shopping once we made it off the Estate and doctored the video footage of us driving out of there like a bat out of hell, but there was glass after glass of champagne being poured. I should’ve known once he stepped into a few of those high-end boutique-type shops that we’d be ending the night drunk off our asses and spending too much money. I groan as I make my way into the kitchen, needing a gallon of coffee. It appears we ended up at the apartment in the city. I don’t remember getting here, so it’s a good thing we didn’t try to make it home sooner.

“Morning,” mio fratello greets and pours me a cup of strong black coffee.

“Cazzo,” I grumble, the light making my head pound worse. Taking the cup from him, I add five spoons of the organic pure cane sugar and say, “Grazie.” I love a rich, sweet black coffee, though I only allow myself to indulge in one cup a day. Mio fratelli are too high-strung as it is; they don’t need me adding hyped up on caffeine to their toxic midst. Bad enough they already say I’ve become an asshole since Cris’ ex died. They believe I was foolishly in love with her, but they’re wrong. Sure, I had a soft spot for the woman, but it wasn’t what had me stuck in my head with her death. Rather, it was me beating myself up over the fact I missed the signs we were hurting our younger fratello with our trysts. Now, I don’t look twice at his wife, Arianna, even though she’s hot. I don’t want him getting the wrong idea, that I’d ever fuck his moglie and hurt him on purpose.

“My head, bro. It’s splitting. How did we end up here?”

He grins, looking like a million bucks even though I saw him drink more than I did. “You don’t remember leaving the shops?”

I shake my head and have to momentarily clench my eyes closed to get everything in front of me to stop swimming.

“Here, take these.” I don’t ask what they are, just toss them back and pray they work quickly. “The owner and the personal shopper ofLa Fringewho were helping us with the clothes last night traded off sucking us dry. Once you came down both theirthroats, you decided you wanted to sleep, so the owner had her driver drop us off here. She wanted to come up, but you told her no and that you had your eye on someone else.”

“I said all that?” Cristo, I’ve always been sensitive to bubbly alcohol; it’s why I typically avoid it. “I’m blaming you for this wretched hangover from hell.”

He chuckles, unperturbed. “Better than having to walk down the aisle today.”

Rolling my eyes, I scoff. “It won’t be like that for us; you’re being dramatic. The woman we saw could be for Valentino; he’s probably next anyhow.”

“Dramatic, am I?”

We literally had to trick Violet, Matteo’s moglie, because she had no idea she’d been betrothed. My other sisters-in-law knew they were getting married ahead of time and had a brief moment to plan before the actual ceremonies. I don’t expect my and Luciano’s weddings to be any different; they’ll be swift and probably catch us off guard.

“Cazzo,” I swear again as my cell rings and Matteo’s name pops up. I show mio fratello with a glare. “You did this. I’m blaming you and your shopping.”

I answer with a pained sigh, “Matty.”

“Are you with Luciano? Why isn’t he answering his phone? I checked the tracker, and it shows you two are together.”

Lifting my hand, I flip Luc off. The ass is ignoring our oldest fratello, and in the end, it’ll only make things worse. He laughs, rinsing his cup out before putting it in the dishwasher. The maid only stops by once a week here unless we request more, so we have to somewhat clean up after ourselves. “He’s here and is fine. We drank too much, so we stayed in the city.”

“As long as you are both safe. I need you to come home; something has happened.”

“We’ll leave immediately.”

“See you soon,” he says and hangs up.

I glare at mio fratello again. “If he’s pissed when we get home, you’re dealing with him, not me. He said something has happened. Any guesses?”

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