Page 97 of Bloody Vows
“She wouldn’t come after me. She wouldn’t put herself in danger for me.”She doesn’t give a fuck about me.
“I’m reaching for my phone.” Sal eyes my guards, and I nod at them, that cold pit in my stomach intensifying. I can’t believe this is possible, and yet?—
Sal holds up his phone. There’s a video of Simone, tied to a chair. She’s cursing and screaming, spitting vitriol that I know all too well at the guards.
She’s alive. But he’s telling the truth.
Nausea floods me.She doesn’t hate me.If she did, she would have told Sal to get fucked. To go ahead and kill me so she could be free of her problem. But instead, she’s in his custody, trapped and furious, probably terrified despite how good of a job she’s doing at hiding it—because of me.
Cold rage shudders through me. "Where is she?"
"Safe," Sal says with a smile that makes me want to put a bullet in his head. "For now. Though I'm afraid she wasn't very cooperative when she figured out that you weren’t where I said you were. She actually punched one of them. Quite the little spitfire, your wife."
I think about Simone, about the way she looked at me when I left her at the house. About how I told her she'd be safe there, that my men would protect her. About how I failed her.
"If you hurt her?—"
"Oh, I won't hurt her," Sal interrupts. "She's far too valuable for that. But I will marry her, just as soon as I can arrange for your unfortunate demise. A tragedy, really. Young husband killed in a tragic accident. Grieving widow turns to family friend for comfort and protection."
"You're insane if you think anyone will believe that."
"I'm very good at making people believe what I want them to believe. It's one of my many talents. It made me very valuable to her father. And it makes me the winner of this little game, now."
I take a step toward him, my hand moving to my gun, but Sal holds up a warning finger.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You see, I have a man watching your house right now. If I don't check in with him every hour, he has orders to kill your wife and dump her body in the bay. And then where would we be? All of this will have been for nothing."
"What do you want?" I snap, my rage barely contained. I want to peel the flesh from his bones, to make him scream and beg. I want to hurt him with a violence that I’ve never felt before in my life, tied directly to the way that Simone makes me feel things I’ve never felt before, either.
I should have told her how I felt the morning I saw that test on the counter. Before that, even. And now I might never get the chance.
“I want to win.” Sal smiles. “I want what should have been mine when Giovanni died. What Iearnedafter all those years of service. He had no heir. It should never have been Enzo. It should never have been you. It should have always beenme.”
You haven’t earned it.Simone’s accusations come back to me, and I can feel that ice turning to molten rage.
We haven’t really had a chance to make up. Haven’t had a chance for me to show her how I could earn her, and everything that came with her.
Well, I’m damn well going to do it now.
“Fine,” I snap. “I’ll go with you, just as soon as I’ve seen that you’ve let her go. You can do what you want with me.” Better me dead than Simone in his hands, a realization that cuts to the core of what I feel for her, something I never thought I’d hear myself think. But I’m arrogant enough to believe I could find a way out of whatever he has planned, so long as I’m the one in his hands instead of her.
Sal smirks. "Oh, there's no trade. I'm going to have both of you, eventually. But I thought you should know that this was never about that pathetic fool Enzo. He was just a distraction, a way to keep you busy while I took what I really wanted."
“You fucking—” I hiss the words through my teeth, but Sal doesn’t flinch. Every part of me resents how cool he is, how calm and collected. “I’m not going to let you get away with this.”
“You are,” Sal assures me. “Or your wife dies, and you'll spend the rest of your very short life knowing that you failed to protect the one person who mattered to you."
He’s right, and we both know it. At least for now. I might have to let him walk out of here, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to let this end the way he wants it to.
I’m getting my wife back. No matter what I have to fucking do.
25
SIMONE
Iwake up to the sound of water dripping and the smell of rust and decay.
For a moment, I don't remember where I am. The surface beneath me is cold and hard, and my head is pounding like someone took a sledgehammer to my skull. But then it all comes rushing back—the drive to the address Sal gave me, the two men I brought with me despite his instructions, the sight of their blood as his men shot them. The realization that Tristan was not here, that I fell for a trap, that Sal gambled and won.
