Page 103 of Bloody Vows
Simone nods, her teeth chattering with shock. "I'm fine. We're fine. They didn't... the doctor didn't have time to..." She can't finish the sentence, but I understand. They were going to hurt our child, but I got here in time.
Barely in time.
I help her stand, keeping one arm around her waist to steady her. She's shaking, whether from cold or shock or both, and rage slices through me again.
“You’re safe,” I murmur to her. “You’re safe now.” There’s so much more that I want to say, but not here, not with Sal on the other side of the room. I look at Vitto, who is standing there with his jaw clenched, holding the man at gunpoint.
"What do you want to do with him?" Vitto asks.
I look at Sal, at the man who dared to take my wife, who threatened my child, and I feel a cold certainty sliding back into place. The hot, primal fury is fading, replaced by something more familiar. More dangerous.
"We're taking him with us," I say flatly. "I'm not done with him yet."
Damian nods and moves to secure Sal, zip-tying his hands behind his back and hauling him to his feet. Sal twists as Vitto tries to bind him, making an effort to fight back now that he knows what comes next. Damian slams the butt of his pistol into the back of Sal’s head, nearly sending him to his knees.
“Keep struggling,” Damian snarls. “You have no idea how many pieces I could carve off of you before you die. I haven’t forgotten what you did, or how you hurt Sienna.”
“You can’t just kill me,” Sal spits. “I know things. Things about Giovanni’s business, about his dealings with the Russians, about?—”
I motion to Damian, and he slams the pistol into Sal’s head again, leaving him reeling. "The only information I want from you," I tell him flatly, "is how long you plan to take to die."
His face goes pale, and I motion to Damian to get him out of the house and to one of the vehicles.
We make our way out of the building, Damian and two of the other men escorting Sal while I keep my arm around Simone. She's still shaking, but she's walking on her own, and I'm proud of her strength. I knew she was tough, but this only reinforces everything I already knew about her.
She’s brave. Stubborn. Fiery. Her place was never on her knees or in the shadows—it’s always been at my side. Next to me, not behind me. And I was a fool to not tell her that sooner.
To not tell her everything as soon as I felt it.
I take a deep breath, letting the reality of the situation sink in. We won. Simone is safe. Our child is safe. And Sal is going to pay for every moment of fear he put my wife through.
The next hours pass in a blur. I take Simone straight to the hospital, where she’s checked over until we’re assured that she and our baby are safe. The doctor suggests an overnight stay, but Simone asks me to take her home, and I’m done arguing with my wife and refusing her what she wants.
We go home. The car ride is quiet, and I help Simone inside, to her bedroom and into the shower. She doesn’t protest when I help her out of her hospital gown and under the hot water, and for once, none of it has anything to do with desire.
She’s beautiful as ever, even bruised and exhausted, and I want her, but there’s far more to it. What I want more than her body is to see her look at me like she did that one singular night when we got drunk together and let our walls down.
I want her to see what she means to me, and find out what I mean to her in return.
Simone is silent until she’s finished showering. I’m waiting in the bedroom when she comes out, wrapped in a robe, her face drawn and exhausted. She stops on the other side of the room from me, looking at me with tired, dark eyes.
“Why did you come?” she asks simply, and I stare at her.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I shake my head. “What do you mean, ‘why did I come?’ I came for my wife.”
Simone presses her lips together. “Butwhy?”
I look at her as if she’s grown a second head. Now would be the time to say how I feel, but I can’t push the words past my lips. “You didn’t think I would?”
“I wondered.” She lets out a slow breath. “If Sal’s plan to draw you in hadn’t worked, if he’d given up and killed me, you would have had an easy excuse to move on. You could have chosen your own second bride, someone more… compliant. You could have pretended you tried to save me and couldn’t, grieved, and then found someone who wasn’t so difficult."
I feel like she’s struck me. Of all the things I thought she might say, the possibility that she might have really believed I wouldn’t come for her wasn’t one of them. I’m on my feet and walking to her before I can think about it, stopping just in front of her as I reach down to touch her face gently.
“You drive me insane.” My thumb sweeps over her cheekbone. “And you’re insane if you think that I haven’t fallen in love with you.”
Simone’s eyes go wide, her lips parting as if to say something, but nothing comes out. I take that rare momentof speechlessness from her, and barrel on, determined to say everything that’s weighing on me before I lose my nerve.
This, apparently, is the only thing that’s ever scared me. That, and the thought that I was going to lose her.
