Page 50 of Brutal Vows

Even if our marriage isn’t about love—I’ll be damned if he’ll lay his hands on me after fucking another chick. One thing I won’t tolerate is being made a fool of. And if Vitaly De Luca thinks he can marry me, fuck me, and then sleep around with other women, then he hasn’t seen exactly what I am capable of yet.

But he will.

Twenty-Eight

“So, everything is in place?”Liam inquires, his gaze fixed on me as I pace back and forth across the dimly lit office at his exclusive club.

I nod, the smooth warmth of the whisky rolling over my tongue as I take a sip from the glass clutched in my hand.

“We’ve secured two jets,” I confirm, my voice steady, “both discreetly listed under an international tour group.”

“Good,” he responds, his eyes narrowing slightly as he picks up his sleek phone from the polished mahogany desk. The screen glows briefly as he glances at the display, his fingers deftly tapping out a message before he sets it back down with a soft thud. “Matthias’s father, Andrei, has arranged for an additional fifty men from Russia. They’ll be arriving ahead of us, strategically dispersing throughout the city to keep watch. That should ease things if anything goes awry.”

I nod again, a silent agreement passing between us as the dim light casts long shadows across the room.

“Have you informed Gia about the news clipping and the bloody sheets you sent to her father?” he asks, his voicecarrying a note of curiosity, the question hanging in the air like a specter.

“Not yet.”

“It’s something you might want to consider telling her,” he warns me. “She might not take too kindly to it if she finds out from someone else.”

“She’ll understand,” I assure him. “Giving of the bedsheets is a tradition among the families.”

Liam scoffs with disgust. “What antiquated bullshit.”

“It is what it is.” I shrug, taking another drink.

“Has Fino made contact?”

A devilish smile curves my lips, sinister delight simmering beneath the surface. “This morning after I left the hotel.”

“What’d he say?”

“The bastard was furious.” I down the remaining amber liquid in my glass, savoring the burn as it slides down my throat, and set the empty glass on the polished bar table to my right. “Told me I had to pay what he is owed for her, or it would be war.”

“What did you say to that?”

“Nothing. I just laughed and told him he wouldn’t be seeing a dime of money. I reminded him that he couldn’t afford a war with me, especially since he had to try and sell his own daughter to pay his debts to Salvatore.”

Liam relaxes his elbows on his mahogany desk, groaning as he drags a weary hand down his face, the weight of our conversation settling upon him.

“I’m going to enjoy watching you kill that man.”

“Not as much as I am going to enjoy doing it,” I assure him with a smile, a promise of retribution gleaming in my eyes.

“Does Gia know the plans her father had for her?”

I nod a subtle acknowledgment. “That’s why Elio stole her away, why he was desperate enough to take the contracted hit on me.”

Liam drums his fingers on the desk, the rhythmic tapping a soft staccato of contemplation. “Do you know what you are going to do with the lass once you’ve reclaimed what is yours?”

Releasing a long sigh, I shake my head, uncertainty clouding my thoughts. Last night was an unexpected revelation. The raw, primal connection we shared was something I never anticipated. Women have always been nothing more than a simple release to me yet being entwined with Gia was a near-divine experience, one that had nothing to do with her being a virgin.

“I’m not sure,” I reply to Liam with a tone of honesty that surprises even me. “Most likely, I’ll just let her get on with her life. She can choose to stay here in the States, or she can go back to Italy.”

As I say this, a tightness grips my chest like a vice. Gia’s been the only thing on my mind today. The memory of her writhing and moaning beneath me is as I fucked her. How wet her pussy was after her punishment. The image of her body trembling and her eyes rolling back when she orgasms—it’s intoxicating.

I crave her taste like an addict craves their fix.

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