Page 91 of Lethal Vows

All I can do is smirk.

CHAPTER59

Crue

“What did you expect?” my mother says, sitting across from me on the plane.

“Mother.”

“No, Crue, whatdid you expect, really?”

I grind my teeth and remember to not kill my own fucking mother.

She needs to live.

But then again, what for?

“Don’t give me that look, boy. Those businesses have been in the Monti family for six generations, and I willnotlet you be the first generation where it falls. Youwillmarry before you turn thirty-four.”

“I know this.”

“Then get over yourself and figure it out.”

“Why do you think I’m on a private jet back to Italy,Mother?”

“Because all your years in New York are for naught, and you’re returning needing a bride in less than three months. That’s why. You’ve left it too long.”

I grit my teeth. I had forced myself to stay away from Rya for that long, vowing I would give her freedom until she turned thirty. But now, for the first time ever, I wasn’t so sure about the card I played.

I thought…Well, frankly, I don’t know what I thought.

Any woman would be blessed to have been looked upon by me twice. Let alone an offer of marriage for convenience. But it was more than that with Rya. I rub my leg. Well, I sure as shit was mistaken to think it was more than that.

There’s nothing more abundantly clear than your bride shooting you so she can escape and run out of the chapel.

“The families are going to be in such a fuss when you come back unmarried. Had your father been here, he wouldn’t have let any of this happen.”

“For fuck’s sake, Mother,” I say, standing and pulling out my gun. Her mouth snaps shut. “Fuck!” I scream, pissed off that I pulled my gun on my own mother. “I told you not to mention him in front of me. Or Rya, for that matter. Do we understand one another?”

A scowl mars her expression as she pouts.

Had my father been here?For fuck’s sake!

There’s no point in telling her about that little hit he had once put out on her because I cleaned it up before she’d ever been the wiser. As I always did. As was my responsibility.

Like now.

I had to marry.

And I would find a wife.

My jaw grinds as I take a seat. “And besides, I’ve increased the family’s profits by thirty percent since being in New York. I doubt they can complain about that.”

She picks up the romance novel she was reading and looks it over. She’s good at that. Looking down her nose at me to have the last word. “They will complain, and you know it. It’s not enough. This istradition, and tradition is everything to the families.”

“Maybe I’ll return and kill them all. I’ve become good at wiping out families lately.”

“Watch your mouth,” she hisses.

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