Page 23 of Brutal Vows

“You don’t know, or you don’t want to tell us?” Kenzo asks from where he is perched on a stool near the bar. “Make that distinction very quickly or else we might think of other methods to gain that information. They won’t be as pleasant as Vitali’s belt, trust me.”

“I already told Vitali,” I pressed, unable to keep the bitterness out of my voice. “If I knew where Elio was, I wouldn’t have been in that fucking cabin starving and freezing to death. He was supposed to be back in a week. He never showed.”

Vitali scoffs. “He was never going to come back for you, Gia,” he sneers. “Your brother would have known thattaking me on as a target would result in his death, not mine. He left you there. Like a coward.”

Tears spring to my eyes at his cruel words. He doesn’t know. Doesn’t understand. If Elio took a contracted hit on Vitali, it meant he was forced to.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I sniff, refusing to let the asshole see me cry. Vitali shakes his head dismissively.

“And you do?” he asks angrily. “How long did you know Elio before he left you? A month? Two? Did you ever ask him why he decided torescueyou from your father?” He mockingly puts up air quotes when he says the word rescue. “The power in your cabin had been purposely cut, Gia. It didn’t just get shut off. Someone knew you were there and wanted you to die in that cabin, alone.”

I shake my head, my face hot with disbelief, as his words, sharp and indifferent, slice through the air between us. His expression remains unchanged, eyes cold and unyielding. No, he wouldn’t do that. Elio came for me because we are family. My eyes sting, the tears pushing harder to escape the bars I’m holding them behind.

“If no one else knew you were there, Gia,” Vitali continues coldly. “It means that it had to be Elio. We barely managed to find that godforsaken piece of land, I doubt anyone else did.”

“You’re lying,” I hiccup. Damn, there go the tears. “He wouldn’t do that to me. Why would he seek me out and then kill me? Why would he risk everything and then abandon me? It doesn’t make any sense. You’re just trying to get me to hate him so that I feel some sense of loyalty to you. It won’t work, Vitali De Luca. Your family may have betrayed you, but that doesn’t mean mine did.”

Vitali snorts, crossing his arms against his chest, andstares down at me as if I am the dirt beneath his shoe. “At least my father never tried to sell me to gain favor.”

That stings more than it should.

A lot more.

“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Adrian interrupts with a growl. He turns his attention back to me. “You are going to tell us everything, Gia. You may not know where your brother is, but you know something. Faro is your father. Salvatore’ssottocapo. Don’t pretend like you’ve never overhead information you shouldn’t have.”

Information you shouldn’t have.

That is the problem. Growing up, I heard many things that could have gotten me killed. Then my father learned about my newfound skillset.

“Look—” Licking my bottom lip uncomfortably, I then bite into the soft flesh to the point of pain as I attempt to figure out what to tell them. How to tell them? There is a lump lodged in my throat that I can’t swallow. My hands are clammy, and I wipe the sweat off on my leggings, nervously running them up and down my thighs. Taking a deep breath to settle my anxiety, I lift my gaze to Vitali. “They call youil traditore del sangue.”

Vitali flinches at the name. Kenzo and Adrian narrow their eyes in confusion.

“It meansblood traitor,” Vitali explains, his face pale beneath his Italian coloring. His friends’ expressions darken.

“What the fuck?” Kenzo curses. “The only blood traitor is that fucker Salvatore and those who willingly followed him after he stuck a knife in your father’s back.”

That can’t be right. Everyone knows that Vitali killed his own father to become Don, murdering several of theupper echelon. My father told me the story. Said he barely escaped with his life. I’ve seen the scars from the bombing.

“Not everyone knows what my father was planning.” Vitali shakes his head, rubbing his temples in frustration. “Everyone who knew about Salvatore’s treachery was killed in the bombing. You can spin whatever story you like when you’re the only one left alive.”

“Your mother and sister are still alive,” Adrian hisses. “They know.”

This is a can of worms that should probably stay closed. In fact, I’m almost positive that it would be better left untouched. At the best of times, I’ve never been known for my restraint. And this is definitely one of those times.

“Your mother is one of the reasons so many of your father’s men follow Salvatore,” I blurt out. Three pairs of eyes are back to focusing on me.

Vitali’s face darkens like a thundercloud on a stormy day.

“What did you just say?” The color drains from my face, and I stare at him wide-eyed in fear at the outright vitriol his tone conveys.

“Vitali,” Kenzo warns, but there isn’t any true heat behind it because if his friend chooses to hurt me, he won’t stand in the way. Their allegiance is to Vitali, not me. I’m alone in the lion’s den without any allies. The way it has always been.

“When your father was killed, she was the one who told everyone what happened,” I rush to tell him. “She spread the story of how you stabbed him in the back due to jealousy. How he planned to turn the throne over to Salvatore because he didn’t think you were ready.”

“That’s bullshit,” Adrian spits out. “Everyone knowsthat Salvatore has always been salty over the fact that his brother was given the reins over the mafia.”

Swallowing hard, I shrug, unsure of the family dynamics of the past. I was barely seven years old when everything happened, and my world was turned upside down. My mother died that day, in the bombing that took out Aurelio De Luca’s top men. Any love I might have experienced growing up died that day with her.

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