Page 92 of Veiled Vows

ROMAN

Death is a kindness.

So they say.

The raw agony pouring from my shoulder pulses with every sluggish beat of my heart. I’m tired. My head hurts. Revenge is far from my mind and only one thought occupies me.

Jasmine.

I hope I did enough to help her. I hope she’s safe. I hope she’s so angry that she never lets anyone near her ever again.

My head hangs low and remains there until the two men carrying me drop me to the ground. I crumple immediately onto a cold, damp stone floor and lie there panting. Heavy footsteps approach me from behind and stop near my right side.

God just kill me now.

“Santino.” A distant voice across the room greets us. “What have you brought?”

“For years you demanded I bring this dog back to you,” Santino says. “I refused because I thought he was my son. And he has his uses. Both of those have come to an end.”

“So,” continues the second voice. “You brought him here?”

“Yes. You can do whatever the fuck you want with him now, I no longer care. My only request is that you don’t kill him immediately.”

“Telling me I can do whatever I want with him, then demanding I do not kill him is quite the request.”

Cracking open one eye, I place my hands on the ground and struggle to push myself up. Hot agony throbs through my wounded shoulder, but I push past it until I’m on my knees, resting back on my ankles. That’s as far as I go. I’m too tired for anything else, and it takes all my strength to keep my head raised.

The Yakuza stand before us with several guards surrounding one man in a tan suit with a red jacket hanging loose from his shoulders.

Shit. I’m back here.

Funny how things come full circle. They thought it was a secret, but I’m well aware that my shift in alliance to Santino was taken as a betrayal all those years ago. I’d hoped the decades and my work had freed me from that debt, but it seems not.

So this is my fate. To die at the hands of the Yakuza while my father watches on in glee. I wish it could be different. If I’d acted sooner, if I hadn’t grown so greedy in wanting Santino to suffer. I should have killed him when I had the chance.

I’m sorry, Mom.

“Yes,” Santino says with a touch of annoyance in his tone. “I need some hint that he’s alive so I can draw out his bitch of a girlfriend. She’s been a thorn in my side for far too long, and he’s the only thing I can use to get to her. So if you would be sokindand not kill him right away, that would also be pleasing.”

The man in the tan suit stares at me for a long moment, then he nods and motions for two of his men to step forward. Those who don’t move unholster their weapons and aim them at me.

What do they think I’m going to do in this state? The most I can do is breathe aggressively in their direction. The Yakuza approach and grab me by the arms, but just as they lift me, a wail of pain escapes me.

“Stop!” barks a voice from the shadows, one that sends a lance of pain through my chest.

I must be dreaming because that voice, that sweet voice sounds almost exactly like…

“Jasmine?!” Santino nearly chokes on the word and he stumbles backward, but as he does, the Yakuza shift focus from me to the men he brought with him and open fire. Santino’s men have no time to react and they drop like flies, hitting the ground in a symphony of yells, cries, and wet thuds. It’s over almost as quickly as it began, leaving only Santino’s audible panting to fill the room.

“What thefuckis going on?” he yells.

And then she’s here.

Somehow.

Jasmine walks out from behind the Yakuza Chairman and stops just in front of him with her arms crossed over her body and her gaze as sharp as her eyeliner. She doesn’t look at me, but I don’t need her to. Seeing her one last time before I die is more than I deserve.

“Santino, in case it still escapes your notice, your Yakuza are actuallymyYakuza now. I’m surprised you didn’t catch wind of the change in ownership, but then you were always so self-absorbed that maybe I’ve been giving you too much credit.”

---