Page 119 of Vicious Vows

“I won’t intervene again,” she said. “If you come for Marchello, if you provoke him in any way, I’ll accept whatever he has to do to protect what’s his.”

“You choose the Accettis?” Gian’s face dropped. “I’ll never forgive you for that.”

“I don’t need your forgiveness, just your understanding,” Lissia said. “I love him.”

“There’s nothing left to say.” He pointed to the door. “If you walk out of here with him, I don’t ever want to see you again. You’re nothing to me.”

“You became nothing to me when you tried to kill him and shot me.” She squeezed my hand. “But before that, I wanted to forgive you for handing me over to Danny. I tried to see the good in you.”

“I’m growing tired of what you think.” Gian glared at me. “If she leaves here with you, I’ll be even more relentless than before. I won’t stop until you and your family have nothing.”

“I’m not taking her at gunpoint this time.” I held Lissia to my side. “She’s leaving here voluntarily. We’re going to walk out. My men will make sure we’re safe, and I’ll leave your men unharmed.”

“Like you’re doing me a favor.” He chuckled. “You’re not your father.”

“You keep saying that as if you’re insulting me. I know who I am, old man.” I guided Lissia to the door. “You should be dropping to your knees and praying I love your daughter more than I want to murder you.”

“I’m going to make you both regret this,” Gian shouted as Lissia and I left the room. “You’ll have to look over your shoulder every day.”

Milo and the guards followed us down the hallway and out of the house.

“Don’t be mad,” Lissia said.

I didn’t respond as I stared out at Lorenzo and his entourage. I had a lot of explaining to do.

“Are you mad?” she asked.

“I am,” Milo said as he strolled onto the porch and put his gun in the holder behind his jacket. “There’s something seriously wrong with you.”

“Hey.” I raised my voice. “Don’t disrespect her. She’s been through enough.”

“She ran into the line of fire even after I told her to leave,” Milo said. “What if she caught another bullet? Maybe she wouldn’t be here to disrespect me.”

“You came into the house after you knew there were gunshots?” Her stupidity should have surprised me, but it didn’t. “Why would you do that?”

“Why do you think?” She put her hand on her hip. “I can’t be in a world where you’re not.”

“How romantic.” Milo rolled his eyes. “You two need therapy.”

“I’m sorry for scaring you, Milo.” She stretched on her toes and kissed his cheek. “I won’t do it again.”

“Liar.” My brother looked over at me. “I need to go do damage control with Lorenzo.”

“Tell him I’ll call him later.” I hoped that giving him back that shipment today would be enough to hold over his cartel a little longer so I could come up with another plan for Gian. Killing him didn’t seem to be an option for me.

I took Lissia’s hand again and led her down the steps to the car she had arrived in.

“Give us a minute,” I said to Dom. “Then you can drive us back to the penthouse.”

“I’m glad everyone is okay.” Dom glanced at Lissia. “I’m going to have to come up with more creative ways to keep her in check if I’m going to remain in this position.”

“You and I both.” I arched a brow at my defiant hostage. “But I have a feeling she’s going to fall into line.”

“I can’t promise that.” Lissia smiled at Dom. “I don’t like to listen.”

“I’ve noticed.” Dom walked over to another group of men.

“I don’t think my new guard likes me.” Lissia leaned against the SUV. “I ran away from him.”

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