Page 42 of Convenient Mafia Vows

“H-his car?” Don’t bite. If I let her get to me, she’s already won.

But still reeling from Caleb’s rejection in the dressing room, my self-esteem must be at an all-time low because I head blindly towards the door of the restroom, and instead of making my way back to the salon, I stumble past the maître d’ and straight towards the exit.

“Victoria?” I hear Caleb calling me, but I don’t stop.

I don’t even think about where I’m going until I’m outside and the chilly night air brushes my arms.

That’s when I hear a pop that sounds remarkably like a gunshot.

12

CALEB

I knewsomething was wrong when Olivia left the salon shortly after Victoria excused herself to go to the restroom. I wanted to follow her, but Don Dragonetti was trying to convince the police commissioner that the Rinse would run smoothly with an alliance between mafia families, and I couldn’t let them iron out the details without my input. This is my brother’s business they’re toying with.

Mom warned me not to let Olivia out of my sight. She even quoted the old English idiom,hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, until I reminded her that Olivia isn’t scorned, she’s simply spoiled. “All the more reason to keep Victoria safe,” she’d said.

My mom’s words are still playing out behind my eyelids when I spot Victoria bolting towards the exit. “Victoria!” I call out her name, but she either doesn’t hear me, or she doesn’t want to be with me.

Then I spot Olivia skulking near the chrome counter in the main dining area, with a twisted smile on her face.

I’m only half a dozen steps behind Victoria, but it’s enough to make me run when I hear the gunshots. My heart is hammering to get out of my chest when I find her standing just outside the restaurant. Frozen. Her back to me.

Somewhere nearby, glass shatters. Someone screams, I think it’s coming from outside. Voices behind me. Panic fills the air. And still Victoria is rooted to the spot.

I run to her, shrugging my suit jacket off my shoulders, and throwing it over her head without thinking. Survival instinct kicks in. I coax her into a crouching position and cover her with my body. Shielding her from whatever is going on.

Through my jacket, she feels as frail as a bird. Her heart is racing wildly. I scan the sidewalk and spot someone lying on the ground a few feet away, blood oozing from a shoulder wound. A man.

Don Dragonetti!

Other pedestrians are lying on the ground with their arms covering their heads. The traffic has stopped. I hear sirens in the distance; maybe they’re heading our way, maybe they’re not. It’s a regular night in New York City.

What this isn’t, is a regular night in the life of Caleb Murray.

A hand lands on my shoulder. I glance around to find Kyle kneeling beside me, his face pale in the glow of the streetlamps. The lights inside the restaurant have been dimmed. No one is moving.

“See to Don Dragonetti.” I gesture with a nod in the don’s direction. He’s motionless, but there isn’t enough blood for the shoulder wound to prove fatal.

Thank fuck.

I can’t even begin to think about what this will mean to our already tenuous relationship. If he tries to pin this on the Murrays, it will ignite the war we’ve been trying to avoid. But right now, I need to move Victoria to safety.

As Kyle crawls over to the don, I fire a message through to Terry. He’ll want to handle this one personally.

Sliding my phone back inside my pants pocket, I raise the collar of my jacket and peer underneath it at Victoria. She’s trembling violently. “It’s okay, I’m getting you out of here.”

She blinks, forcing tears to spill over her bottom lashes. “Abigail…” she whispers.

“Abigail is fine.”

She just almost got killed, and her first thought is for her niece. Her scumbag piece of shit brother doesn’t deserve these women in his life, and once this is over, I’m going to make sure he knows it.

Victoria nods. “I want to go home.”

She means home-home, but this isn’t the right time to tell her that I can’t take her home. That she’s safer with me even though I’m probably the last person she wants to be with right now.

“I’m taking you home. The car will be here any minute.” I shift my legs around her, so that I’m shielding her from the view of Don Dragonetti when I notice blood on her arm.

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