Page 16 of Brutal Vows

“She’s Faro Nardoni’s daughter,” I tell them. They both are taken aback at that statement.

“How did you end up with Nardoni’s daughter?” Adrian asks bewildered. “Isn’t he still in Italy?” His face turns thunderous. “Did you fucking go to Italy without us?”

Of course, he’d be upset thinking I did something that irresponsible. Returning to Italy would be a death sentence for me. There is a hit out on me should I ever step foot in the country of my birth. The place my family called home for generations. It is suicide to return.

“No,” I assure them, guilt piercing my chest when twinrelief spreads across their faces. “I happened upon her while I was searching for another. Her brother.”

“Faro Nardoni doesn’t have a son,” Kenzo states, confused.

“He’s illegitimate from what I’ve gathered.”

“And why were you looking for him?” Adrian raises a brow in question.

I huff out a breath as I face the men I call family. The ones who have stood by my side since were young boys in school. I can’t lie to them. It already pierces my heart knowing I’ve kept this much from them when I know I should have shared the incident when it happened. But I couldn’t because I didn’t want to ruin what they were gaining.

Adrian finally found the woman of his dreams—his secret pen-pal—and Kenzo has had enough on his shoulders without me adding to it, especially after finding Evaline. It isn’t something I’ve wanted to bother them with, but I can see I was wrong from the disappointment on their faces as I replay the assassination attempt.

“You should have told us when it happened.” Kenzo shakes his head angrily. “We would have been there.”

“I know,” I admit with a small nod of my head. “I didn’t want to bother you with something that I could easily handle.”

“An attempt on one is an attempt on all,” Adrian reminds me. “We aren’t our fathers. They worked together but stood apart. That isn’t who we are. We stand together on this, no matter how far apart we may be.”

He’s right, and I know that. I knew it the moment the bullet pierced the plaster next my head, and I know it now. But still, a part of me doesn’t want to drag them down a road that only leads down one path. The path to war.

“We’re in this together,” Adrian reminds me harshly. “It doesn’t seem much like a coincidence that Elio was able to get away with Gia Nardoni so easily without some kind of debt.”

That is exactly what I’ve been thinking as well. Elio owes someone, and whoever it is wants me dead.

“Did she tell you where her brother is?” Kenzo asks. I shake my head.

“I’m not even sure she knows where he is,” I admit with a shrug, relaxing one knee over the other. “The cabin I found her in was severely remote. The power was cut, and the phone line was dead. She was half-starved and bordering on hypothermic when I found her. Gia was expecting him to come back relatively soon, but he didn’t.”

Adrian growls. “Fucking chicken shit ran and left his sister to die in that cabin?” If there is one thing that ticks Adrian’s psycho box, it is something like this. He has a sister of his own and, to him, it is a brother’s duty and honor to protect her. He would never have left his sister to rot away in a cabin while he ran and hid. That isn’t who he is.

“Who cut the power?” Kenzo asks. I shake my head.

“Not sure,” I tell him honestly, shifting in my seat when I see the driver approaching our drop-off point. “It wasn’t the brother. Not unless he snuck back, cut it, then left.”

“Why rescue her from Nardoni if he was just going to leave her to die?” Kenzo’s question mirrors Dario’s. Mycapoand he think a lot alike. “Unless whoever hired him did it.”

No one has time to contemplate what that means because we’ve arrived at our destination. Whoever tried to kill Gia isn’t my concern. She isn’t family like these men are, and if you aren’t family, you are nothing.

That doesn’t stop me from wondering what I’m not seeing. I’ve always been able to visualize the bigger picture,but nothing makes sense. Not like it should and that, more than anything, puts me on edge.

I can’t afford not to see five steps ahead. My father didn’t and look where he is.

Dead.

Ten

The womenaround me are being polite. Too polite. I know it is because they are unsure of what to say but also, I’ve gathered that only Vanya, the one married to Adrian Volkov, is familiar with how the mafia operates. The other one, Evaline, is still learning, and her friend Lizzie is strung so tight she is ready to bolt at any given second.

Vitali had all but dragged me out of bed this morning, stuffed me in someone else’s clothes, and dragged me downstairs to sit with the three ladies while he went to chase some kind of lead. I didn’t ask. Not because I am not curious, but because I don’t want to draw his attention to me if I don’t have to.

Not that my sudden demureness didn’t stop him from cuffing one of my hands to a chair in the sitting room.

Every now and then I lean in my chair to grab a few things from the massive charcuterie board the Nakamura’s chef has laid out on the table. I’m still not feeling well enough to eat a full meal, but the ability to graze helps. So does the company. My father never let me have friends he didn’t approve of. The ones he did allow could never beconsidered friends. They were vultures. Spies. All seeking the favor of theDon’s favorite Capo.

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