Page 67 of Sinner's Vows

“No.” She leads the way into the bathroom which has an adjacent dressing room and walk-in closet. It’s stacked with clear plastic crates filled with clothes and shoes. “The Don took Bianca to a different hospital to give birth than the usual. Due to the new doctor, see? None of us were there to see what happened, and with her so weak…we didn’t even think to question it. We just took his word. Now I wish I saw the bodies, but even that never happened.”

No bodies?How did this happen? Everybody took the Don’s word, but without ever seeing Bianca’s body, there is no certainty of her death.

Portia picks up the top crate and holds it out for me, and soon, we’ve stacked those that were against the one wall away to the opposite side. “To think I stored all her things away years ago, and never caved in to the temptation to even look…”

I’m in awe. Loyalty gets rewarded, indeed.

“You cared for her very much, and you still do,” I say, reaching to squeeze her shoulder where it’s shaking with sobs. “You didn’t know, and you had no reason to suspect—”Treason. This is a form of treason.

“I know, right? And after she died, there were the boys…all of them so lost, and poor Benedict hardly five years old. I was busy, trying my best to fill a hole nobody ever could or would again.”

She drops to her knees, and I’m readying myself to see her whip out her rosary and go through a string of prayers, but instead she tugs at the baseboard, wriggles and shimmies it until it shifts.

Eventually, it slides out without protest, and Portia glances up at me.

“When the closet is full of clothes, you don’t notice, and I was careful to stack the crates just so.”

She pulls on the other corner’s baseboard, but this one has been hammered in with a lone nail, and she puts in a bit of force. Once it’s out, it exposes the cream carpet covering the floor, cut flush to the wall, now only with the baseboards’ footprint on it. Portia reaches for the carpet’s corner and peels it away, revealing the old hardwood floor underneath. One board has a hole in it, just big enough to fit a female finger. As she lifts it away, the wood creaks, and dust clouds up.

“Have no fear,” she whispers. “Everything in here is wrapped in plastic, covered for posterity.”

My heart hammers in my chest as this new reality finally sinks in.

“You told Dominic you didn’t know where her journals were,” I whisper, stunned.

“I lied,” Portia says without a blink or a blush. “I’ll go to confession on Sunday.”

“What? Youlied? To Dominic? Of all people?” Does she know he tortures people to death? For the truth? He’s admitted it tome…not in so many words, but I heard the evidence—there’s no misunderstanding the role he plays in this family.

“I did.” She glances at her watch again, clearly keeping an eye on the time, then leans back on her heels and gives me a stern look. “Listen, we Mafia women need to stick together. You and I have maybe two hours to scan through everything here and decide if we tell those boys where these are, or if we let sleeping dogs lie.”

36

DOMINIC

I prefer to do shit like this on an empty stomach, but it is what it is. We’re filing out of Matteo’s office and heading to the adjacent secret room where Vincenzo and the rest of Franco’s team of hired Ukrainian hands have been kept going. Matteo opens the door with his thumbprint, and once we go through more security checks, we reach the guard who is watching the men on TV monitors.

Yep, all my work and basically an impenetrable prison. There’s only one way you get out of here—in a body bag directly to the promession site in the building’s basement with Matteo’s private elevator.

The men listened to our arrival, and already they’re alert, whatever that means. I’m not a fan of this type of situation. I’ve seen enough of this shit to prefer it to be quick and done with, but they’ve been slow to talk.

Vincenzo blinks at us through his swollen eyes, and just seeing his face makes me want to choke him to death. He allowed Franco to get to Gigi. He saw what that maniac did to Ariana. Most probably helped?—

“Fuck,” I growl, but Matteo’s grip on my arm holds me back.

“I get it, Nicky, but first, the information.”

I purse my lips, clenching my teeth, my nostrils flaring with the need to control my anger. It’s weird—it’s a type of anger I’ve never felt before. Somehow, it cuts deeper, but maybe it’s because someone else cut into me first.Ariana.

Suddenly, I’m getting where Matteo and Stephano come from with their women. Not that I’m so dumb to fall for one, but the need to avenge what Ariana has gone through is real. Franco might be dead, but I’m here to avenge her with whoever else participated in her hurt, in whichever way. Vincenzo is going to be that man. For starters.

Matteo printed out the images we have of Boris and Boryslav, and now he’s holding them out to me. “Make them talk.”

His tone says everything. I’m never getting out of my role here. As we walked over, I’ve reconsidered our position. Maybe all of this isn’t an attack, but a test of our strength asIl Consiglio.I can’t afford to be the weakest link here. I’ll do what I must do for as long as it takes. I have time to figure out how to protect Ariana. For now, my focus needs to be here.

With the photos in hand, I approach the closest Ukrainian. He drops his head back to meet my gaze. Yup, this guy already wishes it’s over.

“Tell us who this is?” I say, starting nice. No need to go anywhere with this if it isn’t necessary. The before and after shots will probably be enough to make these men talk.

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