Page 75 of Twisted Vows

“Your turn, worthlessfiga.Get up here,” Seppi calls to Emma.

She starts forward. I tighten my hand in hers.

“Not you,mio fratello,” he demands.

Katherine grimaces as he flexes his hand around her throat.

“Didn’t you notice, Seppi?” I call out loud enough for everyone to hear. “We’re a package deal now.” I twist my wrist, highlighting the matching wedding rings on our interlocked fingers as I continue, “Plus, you and I have unfinished business. We wouldn’t want your meatheads down here to see you lose faceagain, would we?”

Angering him may not be the wisest decision, but mentioning the last time I saw him—when I denounced him and walked away despite his attempt to keep me—is the only sure way to goad him into stringing me along.

“Stai zitto! Cuff his wrists behind his back and gag him. If he fights, slap his woman. Bring them both on board.” When the man closest to me hesitates, Seppi demands he move faster with an angry, “Sbrigati!” before tugging Katherine deeper into the plane.

I release my wife’s hand and move my wrists to the small of my back, but the glare I send my supposed captor has him shaking in his knockoffs. He’s one of the few I didn’t slaughter seven years ago, and apparently my massacre left a lasting impression on him.

Terrance, Seppi’s most feared soldier and consigliere, punches the goon and mutters about worthless worms as he slaps the cuffs on me. With merciless hands, he tightens the metal until my fingers tingle from lack of circulation, but I ignore the pain and focus on my wife. With her body angled toward the staircase, Emma looks between the plane door and me as Terrance produces two handkerchiefs and shoves one into my mouth before tying the second over the first and around the back of my head.

I shift my weight, blocking him from moving closer to Emma. He pulls the hammer back on his gun and presses the muzzle at the base of my skull.

“You heard him,puttana. Get up there. Now,” he snarls.

The flash of fear and fury in Emma’s eyes as she starts toward the stairs fills me with pride.

Her hands shake when she first grabs the railing, but by the time she reaches the top of the staircase, she no longer trembles. On her heels the entire way, I duck through the door and stand hunched so close her warmth seeps into my front, the ceiling too low for me to rise to my full height. Terrance’s muzzle digs into my lower back.

Seppi holds Katherine hostage in the cockpit doorway, just out of Emma’s reach.

“Mio fratellogets the chair of honor by the table. Buckle him in,cagna.”

Emma leads me through the posh seating area to the designated chair. Everything in the plane screams of wealth, butI wouldn’t touch a single dirty cent from my brother’s filthy hands.

I lower myself onto the seat. Emma leans over me as she reaches for the three-point seatbelt. The tendrils of escaped hair from her ponytail fall forward and brush my chest and shoulders. As she extends the belt, she tucks her fingers into the breast pocket of her scrubs and pulls out a hairpin.

She meets my stare. I give a tiny nod. Her lips tremble as she offers me a hint of a smile.

As she fumbles with the buckle, she sneaks a hand behind my back. I pinch the hairpin between my fingers and wait until she pulls her hand away before I set to work. By the time she snaps the buckle, I already have the hairpin in the keyhole, and when she stands and turns to face Seppi, Terrance grabs the door handle.

The men on the ground realize they’re being abandoned.

I hide the telltale snick of my cuffs unlocking under their shouting and the heavy thud of the door closing. With a disgusting grin, Terrance tucks his gun into his belt at the small of his back and strides down the center of the plane toward Emma.

“Don’t touch her yet,” Seppi says seconds before Terrance’s fingers wrap around her arm.

Defiance flashes in his eyes, but Terrance curls his extended hand into a fist and sneers as he obeys his don. He comforts himself by eye-fucking Emma before sitting in the chair opposite the table from me.

I’ll gut him for looking at my woman, but Seppi is too far away for me to act now. He’ll hurt Katherine if I’m too rash.

“You’re lucky,stronzo. These are the best seats on the plane. Front row for what’s sure to be my favorite show,” Terrance says as he taps the tabletop.

Icy fury burns through me. I glare at him and bite down on my gag, vowing to tear him limb from limb for his crude suggestion.

They will not touch my wife or my sister-in-law.

Seppi chuckles and pushes Katherine down the aisle. He keeps his muzzle pointed at the back of her head but clearly enjoys watching her stumble her way toward us without his hands on her. Emma vibrates with tension but doesn’t move.

“I guess letting you walk away so many years ago wasn’t such a bad thing,mio fratello,” Seppi says.

I scoff. He didn’t let me go. I left a trail of dead bodies on my way out the door. His eyes flash with fury.

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