Page 133 of Vicious Vows

I wanted more than anything to have him back on the throne, but we weren’t there yet. We still had much to do to save this fallen empire.

“Don’t alert the staff that he’s back in town. Wait for him to contact us and see what his next move is going to be.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “If he did make it back to New York, he was focused on the task at hand.”

“That’s what he does.”

“He may have gotten out of the city already. If the cops come sniffing around us, we don’t know where he is. We haven’t seen or spoken to him.”

“I’ll have them contact our attorney.”

This hit had our father’s signature all over it. He knew how to be discreet. He didn’t alert me or Milo for a reason. He got in and out. Now, it was my job to make sure his efforts weren’t for nothing.

“Did you pop the question?”

“Yeah.” I should have known happiness wasn’t in the cards tonight. “But now I have to go and tell Lissia she has to plan a funeral instead of a wedding.”

“Go do what you have to do,” Milo said. “I’ll be at the house when you arrive. We’ll take things from there.”

I ended the call and shoved my phone into my pocket. The news of Gian’s death would break soon, and I needed to shield Lissia from the details as much as I could. No matter what had occurred between them these past few months, he was still her father. I had to be sensitive to that.

When I entered the bedroom, her phone was ringing.

“Don’t answer that.” I hurried to the bed and snatched it from her. “Not now.”

“What?” She held out her hand. “It’s my mom. I want to tell her our news.”

I sent the call to voicemail.

“You can do that later.” I sat on the bed across from her, taking her hand in mine. “I have to tell you something, and you have to hear it from me.”

“Oh no.” She twisted her hair around her fingers. “Did my father do something to provoke you again? Did he intercept another shipment? Really, Marchello, this has to stop. We can’t live like this.”

“No, we can’t.” I placed my palm on her cheek. “Men like your father, my father, me, Milo…we deal in a brutal business. Things we do come back to bite us. There are consequences we have to pay. Regrets we can’t come back from.”

She turned and kissed my wrist. “My father is on his own. I won’t plead his case. After we left the other day, I told him whatever happens between the two of you is business. It has nothing to do with me.”

“You don’t have to plead his case.”

There would come a day I would have to plead my father’s case if I wanted to keep her by my side. But right now, I wanted to spare her the immeasurable heartache that was headed her way. The pain my family caused her.

Her phone rang again, then the text messages began coming in at a rapid pace.

“Who is blowing up my phone?” She tried to get a glance at the screen, but I turned the phone off and tossed it on the bed. “What are you doing?”

“Listen to me.” I was never one to stall, but saying these words to her face, knowing I was going to hurt her, wasn’t anything I ever wanted to do.

“Marchello, tell me what’s going on. What did my father do?”

“He didn’t do anything.” I placed my hand on her shoulder. “He’s never going to do anything again.”

“What do you mean?”

“He was killed tonight.”

“Oh,” she whispered.

“Lissia.” I studied her blank expression. “He was murdered.”

“I just left him a message. I told him we were getting married. He didn’t answer. I thought he was ignoring me.”

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