Page 10 of Venomous Vows

“Who heads this household?” I press, already aware of the answer, but I need confirmation.

Adrian is the oldest. That would mean everything would fall onto him after his father’s passing.

“Adrian,” Abigail voices with a frown. “Did you not know who you were working for?”

Nope.

Because I would’ve mentally prepared myself for this, for one.

Two, I would’ve asked Zane to work with me and not have his brother involved, but it doesn’t work that way.

Nothinghas been working the way it’s supposed to.

My sister is gone, locked up God knows where, and I’m at the Bernardi brothers’ mercy.

I have no problem being at Zane’s because he doesn’t make me feel like a full-blown moron every time I’m in his presence, but Adrian…there’s no way he’s going to help me.

You have to try.

Raising my chin, I drag in some much-needed oxygen and force myself to function. “Do you mind if I take that break? I’m…I need some air.”

“Absolutely,” Abigail replies, giving me a light shove around the stainless steel table. “Come back when you’re done and I’ll help you with serving.”

Great. She can serve Adrian.

Quickly striding out of the kitchen, the evening’s cool air greets me the moment I step out of the house, and I don’t stop walking until I get to some bushes and begin pacing in front of them.

I can do this.

There’s no time for pride and things that have happened in the past.

I candealwith Adrian at twenty-eight because I did as a child. What is he going to say that’s any different?

A different curse word?

I scoff at my reactions from a few moments ago and try to settle in on my mission. I can’t rely on Dad to figure this out.The clock is ticking and I’m just awaiting the next text message to come through from the routine ones that intimidate and mess with my head.

I’m going to ask for proof this time that Marcella is alive.

I just hope they don’t send me any body parts in retaliation for my demands.

My stomach practically begins to gut itself out at the imagery in my head, and it doesn’t take long for me to talk myself out of that idea.

I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know how long people keep folks as hostages before they start getting stir-crazy for cash.

“You’re still predictable as shit,piccola diavola.”

I jolt around, locating a large male figure standing a few feet away from me, and it’s Adrian.

It wasalwaysAdrian sneaking up on me like a freaking stalker all the time.

But this is so much different.

His demeanor immediately sucks me in because he’s not the scrawny teenage boy anymore, but a fully developed and alluring man of power, time, and a whole damn city at his disposal.

His dark hair is cut short around the sides while a bit longer on the top. His matching facial hair blankets around his sculpted jawline where the gray jacket he’s wearing is popped up around the collar to keep the air from entering his body.

It’s cool outside, but it’s even colder being within eyeshot of Adrian.

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