Page 20 of Brutal Vows

That is a scenario that makes more sense. Charity could have easily paid off a security guard to delete her exit footage. I’m betting that whoever remotely tried to erase the second video had no idea that Charity was using the wedding as a shroud to cover her running away. In a way, Evaline’s mother is the reason we even searched for deleted data in the first place. We might not have found the second corruption if it wasn’t for her amateur attempt to make herself disappear.

I pull up the second video and press play. It’s distorted, the footage a little too grainy, but with how much corruption had to be pieced back together, it is the best we are going to get.

“We had a deal,” the man in the video states, his voice sounding robotic from the audio distortion. His back is turned, so I don’t recognize him, but Kenzo does.

“Santiago,” he growls.

“We did,” a feminine voice confirms, but it is too hard to ascertain who it might be with the distortion. The female’s back is turned also, and with how short she appears to be, the only thing the camera is catching clearly is her dark hair which is being held together by some kind of pin. “But you failed three years ago and now the deal has changed.”

“What do you want me to do with her, then?” he asks.

“Use her however you see fit.” The woman laughs. “Let your men have every inch of her and then ship her backpiece by piece to her husband. Just like I did with his father.”

The air in the room feels heavy, almost suffocating, as I shift my gaze to my best friend. Kenzo stands rigid, his eyes glued to the flickering screen, disbelief etched across his face. His jaw is set so tightly it looks like it might shatter. Memories are flooding back—memories of those harrowing days following his father’s murder. He is no doubt remembering the gut-wrenching sorrow that visited him relentlessly, as fragments of his father’s body appeared on his doorstep like haunting specters. Back then, he was so young, grappling with a world that had suddenly become unrecognizable.

Wewere so young then.

Boys who were barely men.

“If he ever finds out what we did” Santiago stammers.

“He never will,” the woman assures him. “The only thing he will ever know is what he is told. I’ve constructed a world around him that will never fall.”

Santiago nods his head.

“Just be sure your men don’t get caught,” the woman continues. “And make sure you cover your tracks. If he’s anything like his father, he will go to the ends of the earth to find the one he loves.”

Santiago tilts his head.

The woman waves her hand dismissively. “Let’s just say that Evaline will meet the same fate as the woman my late husband was supposed to marry.”

“Shit,” I growl as the video cuts out. “I’m sorry, brother. The footage is too damaged to get the rest of it.”

Kenzo doesn’t move. He’s still staring at the television screen, a blank expression pasted on his face. It unnerves me. Out of the three of us, he’s always been the calm one,but this—this should make him angry. Volatile. We never discovered who was behind the attack that killed his and Adrian’s father.

All of us were reeling when it happened. I’d been on my way to Italy to see my father when everything happened. In the span of a day, all three of us lost the men who built us. We also lost their empires. Kenzo and Adrian to the sharks who had been waiting to tear them apart and me—my uncle took everything away from me.

“Let me see if I can clear the audio up,” I tell him as I start typing away on the laptop again. “Maybe we can identify the woman by voice.”

I don’t miss the way Gia and Vanya share a knowing glance. Neither does Kenzo.

“What?” he snaps at them. “What do you know that you aren’t sharing?”

There he is. The monster simmering just beneath the cooling surface. A monster that thirsts for vengeance. And he will get it. I’ll make sure he does.

“Easy, brother,” Adrian growls at him, stepping between Kenzo and his wife. “Don’t speak to my wife like that.”

Kenzo takes a step back, holding his hands up in a gesture of peace.

“If you know something,” he says gently, “please share.”

Gia’s throat bobs and peers at me hesitantly, but she uncurls from herself and shifts her gaze to Kenzo. “The comb, in the woman’s hair.” She turns back to Vanya, who nods her head in encouragement. “We’ve seen it before.”

“Where?” Kenzo asks, his tone even softer than before. I know what he is doing. He is treating her like a frightened kitten, one who is ready to bolt. And damn if it doesn’t punch me in the gut to see her that way. It shouldn’t, but it does.

“In Evaline’s hair,” she whispers. “She was wearing it when she left to meet your mother.”

The three of us exchange glances.

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