Page 108 of Captive Vows
“You can’t have my daughter just because?—”
Ivan took over beating him silent.
Once he settled, crying and trembling, I squatted down.
“Gabriella ismy wife,” I corrected.
He growled, thrashing to get up as I stood.
I gestured at the men to stand back.
While I wasn’t in the mood to stay here when I could be at home with my family, I was determined to end this once andfor all. It was time to get rid of any threats fromthisman, even though there would always be danger lurking near us.
That was the nature of the Mafia life.
Because this wasn’t the same old and because this man had threatened the lives of my son and wife, I should’ve adopted the mindset of taking my time to torture him. But Miguel Lopez wasn’t even worth that anymore.
I straightened, gesturing for my firstborn to hand me one of the blades sitting on the table. No other furniture was on offer in this room. Except for this flat surface that housed a variety of torturing tools and weapons, it was just the bloody floor, the sack of broken bones that used to be Gabriella’s spiteful, lying father.
I didn’t need much. Emil intuited that, wasting no time to put a knife in my hand.
I tested the heft of it.
It’d do.
I didn’t care to return to my loved ones overly messy and bloody.
This death wasn’t going to be a fancy act of revenge and justice.
But it would be meaningful.
I would forever remember this day that I would eliminate the most direct threat to my love.
“She will never be yours, Dubinin,” Miguel snarled. “You can’t just take her. It doesn’t work like that. She’s my daughter. My blood.”
I shook my head, almost sorry for his pathetic ass.
Blood wasn’t always thicker. Plenty of recruits we brought into the family were as loyal, if not more, than the relatives I had. Allen was a prime example of such a bond.
“She is my wife,” I corrected with savage anger. “She is the mother of my child.”
His eyes opened wide as I advanced, showing him the knife in my hand.
“She has given me another heir to enjoy. A grandson you will never meet.”
I grabbed his hair, twisting the filthy strands in my grip as I pulled his head off the floor. He grimaced and squirmed, but I didn’t release him one bit. Wrenching his head back, I exposed his sweaty neck for the final blow that would end his life. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he tried to get free. I lined up the knife to end his wretched life, one that I really shouldn’t have taken before. If I’d been hasty to kill him earlier, I never would’ve met Gabriella. I never would’ve experienced how much of a beautiful blessing she was to save me.
“I didn’ttakeher,” I said. “I captured her, just the same as she captured me in the end.” It was that vow of love that I shared with my wife that nothing could ever break.
As I dragged the knife over his flesh, piercing it until blood gushed forward, I did the final deed. I killed him with swift deliberation. Just like this, with one movement of my hand, I eliminated the biggest obstacle to the peace I wanted to share with Gabriella for the rest of our days.
Watching the life spill out of him as he gurgled and moaned uselessly, I released his hair. His head dropped at a weird angle, splitting the open gash at his neck even wider. A crimson pool gathered on the floor where he’d dropped. With every drop that leaked from him, his death was that much more of a done duty.
I rose to my full height, knowing justice had been done.
By my hand, the Lopez name would exist no more.
Gabriella was a Dubinin now, my wife, secure under the protection of my family. She’d submitted to me in love and trusted her role in our family, and I would never, ever take that gift for granted.
