Page 91 of Cruelest Vow

He managed to shake his head, but I sensed he would soon lose the fight.

“Who?” I shook him and heard another round of gunfire.

“Not… Mattia.”

“Then fucking who?”

Franco tried to answer, his voice barely more than a ragged, almost unintelligible whisper. I leaned down, but it was too late. He’d taken his last breath.

“Mr. DeLuca. I found something you need to see.”

I glanced at the soldier then back at Franco, closing his eyes with my hand. “Rest in peace, old man.”

“I’m sorry. Don DeLuca,” he corrected.

“Not yet,” I told him, returning my attention to Franco.

There would be no rest for a man who’d destroyed so many lives. While he’d told me in his way I’d been loved, it meant very little at this point.

As I rose to my feet, I nodded to the soldier, following behind him seconds later and into another room.

What. The. Fuck?

“Fuck,” Bruno hissed, moving around me.

Seeing Mattia’s bullet-ridden body splayed out on the floor was shocking.

Bruno dropped to him immediately, feeling for his pulse. “He’s alive.”

“Call for an ambulance.” I crouched down near my brother, gingerly lifting his head. “What happened?”

“Does it matter?”

“It does. Tell me and I’ll erase them from this earth.”

He laughed, his gasps pronounced. I quickly checked for his wounds. It was possible he’d make it as long as no major arteries had been hit.

“It’s not… that simple.”

“I don’t give a shit, Mattia. Did you make an alliance with the Bratva?”

“No… I…” He laughed, the bitter sound followed by a racking cough. While the attack had obviously been planned, the brutality of taking innocent lives meant the person responsible had fully intended on destroying the entire family. “What do you care? You have… everything.”

Seconds ticked by, time I didn’t have.

“Mattia. I swear my oath to you that I will hunt down the person responsible and they will pay. Tell me who did this. Allow me to avenge the death of… our father.”

There was such pain in the man’s eyes, more so than I’d ever seen in him before. When he finally nodded, I followed with one of my own. I would keep the tainted oath, ensuring those involved suffered.

He took a deep yet rattled breath.

Then he spit out the name of the traitor and ice coursed through my veins.

* * *

Chaos and carnage. I’d experienced enough of both in my life that I should be used to the effects, the tension and the anger.

But not tonight.

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