Page 3 of Brutal Vows

Two

This isn’thow it was supposed to go. This girl, whoever the hell she is, is not the one I came for. Frustration and anger roll through me. It took weeks of searching just to find this hell-hole of an address after searching fruitlessly through several others, and it has yielded the same results.

Elio Agostini isn’t fucking here.

In his place is a waif of a girl who appears as if a gentle wind could blow her over. Even with the waning light of the sun hidden behind the clouds, I don’t miss the hollowness of her cheeks and the dark circles beneath her lashes. It amazes me, peering down at her now, that she managed to put up such a fight. Who is she to Elio and why is she here in this godforsaken part of Montana?

“Boss.” My gaze shifts from the unconscious girl lying on the cold ground at my feet to Dario, my second in command, who is currently trudging toward me through a thick layer of snow.

“Did you find anything?”

Dario shakes his head. Disappointment washes through me. Elio Agostini is a dead man walking, and he knows it.His failed assassination attempt put a target on his back. It’s why he’s running, hiding in the shadows of the underground no doubt. He would know that once I discovered his name I would pursue him with everything I have. You don’t try to murder the Don of the American Mafia and expect to live long if you fail.

“Nothing about where Elio could be hiding.” He blows out a long breath, the temperature cold enough that I can see it. His gaze wanders to the girl before settling back on me. “She might know where he is, though.”

A sneer of disgust paints my lips as I stare at the girl askance. If she was important to Elio, he wouldn’t have left her here to starve.

“I doubt his little girlfriend here knows anything.” I shake my head. “She is clearly strung out and barely able to function.”

“Not his girlfriend,” Dario rebuts, handing me a small stack of papers. It is some kind of blood test results from a genealogy lab in Italy.

“This can’t be accurate,” I hiss as I thumb through several of the reports, all of them testing his DNA against a small group of people. Some of the names I recognize. Especially the last one where it shows a fraternal match of ninety-nine percent.

“It is,” mysottocapoconfirms. “Elio Agostini is the eldest son of Faro Nardoni.” His eyes dart back to the unconscious girl. “And that is Faro’s only daughter, Gia.”

This information should be a golden ticket to find Elio, but it unsettles me more than anything else. Not only is Faro Nardonisottocapoto my traitorous uncle in Italy, but it also means that he is the one behind the target on my back and the girl is most likely the reason Elio was willing to take a shot at one of the most powerful men in the country.

“That fuckingtesta di cazzo,” I snarl, shoving the papers into Dario’s chest before bending down to pick up the girl. Her lips are beginning to turn blue, her fair skin pebbled in goosebumps as shivers rack her body. I don’t need this right now. My plan had been to leave her out here to die in the cold, but that was before I knew how valuable she could be. I’ll force her to get clean from whatever drug she is on, have my staff nurse her back to health, and then she’ll tell me everything I need to know about Faro and Elio, or I’ll make sure her death will be far more painful than simple hypothermia.

“Call ahead to the airstrip and let them know we are coming.”

Taking his phone out of his pocket, Dario asks, “For home?”

Fuck. Another thing I hadn’t thought of. I can’t just take her home at the moment. I need to get to New Orleans. It’s bad enough I missed Kenzo’s wedding for this. I don’t want to miss out on the meeting as well. We aren’t often able to all be together in one place. When we formed the brotherhood after the death of our fathers, we made a rule that we wouldn’t become a target like they had.

“No,” I tell him, holding the shivering girl close to my chest, sharing what little body heat I possess with her. She’s a tiny thing, barely pushing five feet, but there is a fire in her eyes that intrigues me. From the state of everything, it doesn’t appear as if she’s been surviving out here on her own all that well. “We’ll go to New Orleans as planned. Have Kenzo’s doctor and an addiction specialist on standby for when we arrive.”

“I don’t think she’s on drugs, boss,” Dario pipes up as we make our way toward the SUV.

“Sure as hell looks like it to me,” I snort. “I’ve seen hookers in better condition.”

Dario shakes his head as he pulls open the back door to the Escalade we arrived in, waiting for me to set the girl down on the back seat before continuing. “The power to the cabin was cut. It didn’t just go out because the bill didn’t get paid.”

“Why would someone cut the power and just leave her?” Taking off my jacket, I lay it over her shivering form. It isn’t much, but once we get the warm air circulating, it should help her warm back up.

“Because they knew Elio most likely wasn’t coming back?” Dario shrugged. “I mean, she’s out here in the middle of nowhere without any way to get to the nearest town in this snow. There isn’t a neighbor for miles. I’m also guessing that whoever cut the power also arranged for the food delivery to never come. The pantries are bare and from the looks of her, they’ve been that way for a while.”

This girl was targeted. “Whoever did all that wanted her death to appear natural. Like she died out here surviving.”

Dario nods in agreement as we drag ourselves out of the cold and into the front seats. “Faro Nardoni has never claimed a male heir,” he points out. Turning the key, the engine starts up easily, and I quickly adjust the temperature for the backseat. “Hell, I barely remember him having a daughter.”

He doesn’t remember, but I do. It was so long ago that it might as well have been another lifetime. Back when my father was alive. The memory is hazy, but I do remember Faro’s wife holding Gia in her arms when she was no more than two or three. A scared little toddler with pigtails and too many frills. It was the year I turned thirteen. Ourparents were planning an engagement between us. An idea that disgusted me then as much as it does now. She was nothing more than a baby and I was just a kid.

Not that it mattered what plans were made. Four short years later, he betrayed my father, stabbing him in the back like Brutus did to Caesar. My Uncle Salvatore’s betrayal changed everything for me—and the men I call brothers. A cascade of events left the three of us without our fathers, their empires crumbling beneath the weight of their deaths.

Together, we built something new. Something better.

The Sovereign Brotherhood.

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