Page 123 of Sinner's Vows

“One minute, sweetheart,” he whispers, and it seems to become eerily silent in the apartment.

I’m blocking out all other sounds, trying to listen to Pietro’s familiar gait. When a knock sounds on the apartment’s door, I pull in a sharp breath and freeze. Of all the things I’ve imagined since learning about his duplicity, the reality of facing him was very real…but now that the moment is here, I’m petrified.

Dominic opens the door. He only has a few precious seconds to drag Pietro into the apartment before Pietro realizes he isn’t Franco and he’s been duped. I can’t see anything, but I hear the scuffle, moans, something ripping, then bones cracking as Dominic forces Pietro in an armlock that goes too far.

Holy hell…Dominic isn’t messing around. Through the gap, I watch as he drags Pietro deeper into the apartment, kicking the door closed in the process. I’m not sure which move he pulled on him, but Pietro’s body has gone limp, and blood is already dripping to the floor.

Dominic is almost superhuman in the way he hauls Garlini around, a gag already stuffed in his mouth, the fight twisted out of him in an arm that hangs useless. His hair?—

I push open the door with a trembling fingertip and watch in horror at a rip of hair that’s been torn straight off his skull. My stomach turns as vomit pushes to my throat, but I harden myself. This man is responsible for my team’s butchering, andnow he gets to experience it first-hand. How many other agents have died because of his duplicity? I bet enough to fill a graveyard.

I step into the short space between the living room and the front door and wait, breathless as Dominic has Pietro slumped on a dining chair, restrained with cable ties in seconds.

Inside this man, this beautiful broken man, with hands that touch and love so gently, a dark monster lurks. And he lets him out only to protect those he loves, with precise and efficient brutality like I’ve never witnessed before.

“Don’t look, Ariana.” His voice comes quietly, without strain, as if he didn’t just manhandle someone into a chair. “It’s the stuff of nightmares.”

But it’s like a car wreck, and I find I can’t look away. “This is personal.”

“Yes. It is.”

He slaps Pietro in the face, but the man seems to be stunned into shock. I’d also be, and yet after the third slap, he bobs his head back and stares up into Dominic’s demon eyes because I swear, he’s become possessed.

“Have something to say?” Dominic asks softly, his hand on Pietro’s throat, squeezing.

Pietro drags in a haggard breath through the gag and a nose that’s bleeding, eyes glazed over.

“Want to tell us what happened to Ariana’s team? What your plans were for her?”

Pietro’s head sways, and I meet his gaze across the short expanse of the room.

“Are they dead?” I whisper.

He nods and attempts a shrug, already knowing his own fate.

“How could you?” I step closer, crossing my arms protectively over my body. “And me, too? At Franco’s hand? Do you even know what type of monster he is?”

Pietro closes his eyes, not even looking at me anymore, and fury splits me in two. How dare he?

We don’t have time for this. We need to wrap up the job and get the hell out of here.

“Talk,” Dominic growls as he plucks the rag from Pietro’s mouth. His fingers are gripping Pietro’s throat with just the right amount of pressure, he can only croak.

“You’re—” Breath. “Not—” Breath. “Franco.”

“No. I’m fucking worse, and when you get to Hell, spread the fucking word. I’m not the weakest link. You are. Who else is in on it?” Dominic demands, gripping his throat. “Who the fuck else in the DIA is in on Randazzo’s ring?”

Pietro’s eyes roll back, and Dominic gives a little.

“Massimo Eposito. And Enzo Caruso.”

So fucking weak. So quick to talk. The bile that sat in the shadows of my stomach wants to push to the light. The head of the DIA in Napoli and in Milan respectively. I’m trembling now, my whole body in a lock of shock. For all I know, it wasn’t Randazzo who had Elena Bianchi assassinated, but someone in the DIA.

“Anything else we need to know, before you leave us?” Dominic asks.

“My daughters?—”

Dominic kills off any further comment by choking him to the point where Pietro’s eyes pop.

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