Veiled Vows: An age gap, marriage of convenience, secret pregnancy, mafia romance (Mafia Lords of Sin)

I’m … ashamed.

All my careful planning, all my meticulous calculations and patience, all my determination to avenge my mother, make Santino suffer, and protect the woman I love; it was all for nothing.

I’ve failed.

Not in a blaze of gunfire and glory.

No. I failed in the dark and in the quiet, with barely a ripple to those around me.

Jasmine hates me, as she should. I hope she utterly loathes me. And I hope that hatred forces her into overdrive to protect herself. I pray she becomes untouchable.

And my mother, who I’m sure I’ll meet soon, I hope she forgives me for being such a failure of a son.

Time fails to exist in this cell. Locked away in Santino’s basement like a forgotten sack of rice, my only visitors were several guards who beat me severely enough to ensure I couldn’t escape and Alto who came to gloat. He was lucky the bars remained between us because even injured and weak, I still would have ripped his throat out.

The only blessing about my prolonged time here is that Alto’s constant gloating is always about what he’s going to do.

Not what he’s done.

Which means Jasmine still evades them. Which means she’s still alive.

Maybe some good can come out of all of this.

There’s no food and no water, so sleep often comes when weakness takes over. What wounds I could staunch with the rags from my shirt quickly crust over and show signs of painful infections. The wounds I can’t tend to reach the same state only quicker.

It’s a painful way to die, but I deserve it.

Maybe things would be different if I told Jasmine the truth, but it was too much of a risk. I had no idea how many of those guards could be in Alto’s pocket, or how many other sneaky plans he had in place that could activate the moment I said something.

She has to make it out of this.

It’s my last thought every night I fall asleep and my first thought each time I wake up.

One night, the wooden stairs creak and the heavy footfalls reveal Santino. He stops in front of my cell and regards me cooly, then swipes his tongue across his upper teeth and spits off to the side.

“This will be a short visit. I came to tell you that I’ll be slaughtering your little bitch soon, once we take care of her mother. What a foolish woman. I can’t imagine her daughter will be any more difficult. If anything survives, I’ll bring you her head. But you know Alto. He’s a bit of an animal.”

Despite my exhaustion, despite the dehydration headache pounding behind my eyes and the heated throb of my broken ribs, infected lacerations, and bruised limbs, I surge forward and spit air at Santino as I have no saliva to curse him with. “You bastard.”

“Watch your tongue,” Santino snaps. “Or I’ll give Jasmine the same treatment I gave your mother.”

“You fucker!”

“I didn’t remember her at first. All those years ago when you turned up here with the heads of my enemies and blood dripping from your fists, I thought you were just another scrounger trying to make a name for himself. And I allowed it because your wrath and your talent were mine to use. And then I remembered her. She was just some bitch that got in my way, but I remembered how sweetly she screamed, and how fucking tight she was around my co⁠—”

“I’ll kill you!” White hot anger floods through me and energy surges from the depths of my soul. I throw myself at the bars with such rage that Santino takes a half step backward. “These bars won’t keep you safe forever!”

“I’m honestly surprised,” Santino chuckles. “Who knew a child could have come from her after I finished with her. She was ruined. You hear me? You came from a disaster and look at you. Not much better. I’ll admit that for a moment, I did believe you were the son I deserved. After all, Alto is … Alto. But then you became obsessed with that fucking Falzone cunt.”

The worn metal of the bars cuts into my palms as I grip them tighter and tighter, imagining Santino’s neck beneath my hands. “Love isn’t obsession,” I spit at him, my words cracking from the rawness of my throat. “It’s acceptance. Something you’ll never, ever fucking understand.”

“Acceptance,” he scoffs, rubbing at his jaw. “If you feel that way, maybe I’ll bury you together once I’m finished with her corpse.”

A yell of rage escapes me, and what little strength I have is used to shake at the bars, praying they’ll finally give way and let me at the fucker. I want to kill him. I want to tear him apart piece by piece.

I waited too fucking long. Another failure.

Unfortunately, they don’t move.

“I swear on everything I have left, on everything I have ever felt, I will kill you, you son of a bitch I—ah!”noveldrama

He shoots me in the shoulder, a single shot that explodes agony through my arm and sends me crashing down to the ground with a wail between my clenched teeth.

“Down, dog,” he spits. “Where you fucking belong.”