Page 10 of Cruel Vows

Humming along with the song on the radio, I prepare my breakfast, my stomach growling. I’m ravenous after what felt like the longest shift at the clinic ever. The steak and eggs I want can’t seem to cook fast enough.

“There you are.” I pluck the egg from behind the container of leftovers with Royce’s name on them.

Footsteps echo on the tile floor. “My thoughts exactly.”

The egg flies from my hands, but I catch it before it can crack on one of the butcher block countertops. “Jesus, Aiden. What the hell? I haven’t slept in like eighteen hours. You can’t just sneak up behind me like that.”

“I made plenty of noise coming down the hall.” He leans against the counter, smirking as he crosses his arms. “You barely spoke the other night after the attack. I wanted to make sure that you were fine.”

“I’m good. I just want to get some breakfast and then pass out. I don’t have to be at the clinic for another four days, and I plan on sleeping those days away.”

Aiden chuckles. “Before you become a mole person in your room, we need to talk about what will happen now, after the attack.”

“Nothing needs to come next.” I grab a bowl from the cupboard, cracking the egg on the side. “I have a job to do, and I know that you and the rest of the men are going to be looking for the Rinaldos, so if you think I’m going to sit at home and wait for something to happen, you’re wrong.”

“I’m not telling you that you need to sit at home.” Aiden clears his throat, his voice stern. “You need to start being more careful, though. I won’t have you attacked again.”

“He surprised me.” I whisk the eggs with a fork a little harder than necessary, splashing some of them onto the counter. “You don’t have to worry.”

“I’m going to worry. Someone attacked you and said they were going to slaughter the entire family. Something has to be done about it, which is why I’ve been talking to a few people.”

The tone in his voice has the hair on the back of my neck standing.

It’s the same voice he uses whenever he’s trying to hide something from the family—slightly higher pitched and tight.

Aiden is a good liar, except when he’s in the comfort of his own home and trying to lie to his siblings.

I wipe up the spilled egg before adding the rest to the pan with my steak slices. “I’ll take Kara with me when I go out.”

He doesn’t need to know that I was already planning on doing that.

With Noah Rinaldo and his men lurking around, I don’t want to be a sitting duck. I’ve spent too much of my life building a world for myself outside the mafia.

I don’t need him ruining it for me.

If the only way to protect that life is to take Kara with me, then I’ll do it.

“That’s still not good enough, Ellie, although you’re right. Kara will be with you whenever you leave this house from now on.” Aiden rakes a hand through his hair, glancing out the window as one of the guards passes by with a rifle slung over his shoulder. “We already spoke about you needing to make more sacrifices for this family.”

I stir the food in the frying pan, adding a sprinkle of cheese. My spine stiffens at his mention of doing more.

As if spending my days sewing up the idiots who work for him or get injured by his men isn’t enough.

“Aiden, I don’t have time for anything else on my plate.”

“Well, you’re going to have to make time. A couple hours at least.” His words are sharp, cutting through the room. “I’ve about had it with your defiance, Ellie. All I’m doing is asking one thing of you.”

I spin around, crossing my arms. “No. You keep asking for more and more things, and each time you say it’s only one thing. You keep tearing at all these little pieces of me until there’s nothing left, Aiden.”

His mouth pinches, his glare one that I’ve seen send men running in the opposite direction.

He may be the head of our family, but right now, he’s my brother and he’s pushing hard against my boundaries.

“When I told you that I wanted to go into nursing, you told me that I could step back from this life as long as I was willing to provide medical care to the family. Then you told me that I had to do more. That I had to get the clinic to look the other way when people came in. And I did that without complaint. And a million other tiny things that always stack up in the end.”

“Well, unfortunately for you, I may have phrased this as a conversation, maybe a request you could turn down, but it’s not.”

My knuckles are white as I grab the frying pan and dump my food onto my plate, even though my appetite is long gone. “Then what is this?”

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