Page 85 of Vicious Vows

“No, Milo. There can be no problems.” I took a breath. “Resolve it.”

“Gian is not in the house alone.”

“What?”

“Lissia is in there,” he said. “She’s walking toward the door now. Our guy picked her up through the windows in the study.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I wish I was.”

“Abort this mission now.” I hurried up the steps. “Clear the property.”

I tugged the earpiece out and shoved it in my pocket just as the front door flew open. Out stumbled my defiant, disobedient mafia brat, clueless that she had bought her father another day on this miserable earth.

“Oh!” She raised her phone in my face, as if I was supposed to know what she was trying to tell me. “What are you doing here?”

You don’t want to know.

“The more appropriate question would be, what areyoudoing here?”

Waiting for her response seemed like an eternity, but within seconds she answered me with brutal honesty.

“I wanted to see my father.”

That statement was one of my biggest problems. She wanted to see him, and I needed to kill him.

I grabbed her arm and rushed her down the steps. We had to leave before Gian and his guards came out and realized what I had been up to. Once the cameras came back on, they would figure out something was amiss. I couldn’t be caught here.

“I thought I could make sense of what happened in Miami.” She kept up with me even after she tripped over her own feet. “Why are you walking so fast?”

“Because I can’t kill you here.”

We hustled down a path on the side of the detached garage and into a wooded area. This was supposed to be my escape route after I did what I came to do. The plan was brilliant. Too bad I couldn’t execute it.

“I know I shouldn’t be here, but I had to come.”

“You mean you had to escape again.”

“I planned on coming back, so technically, I didn’t escape.”

“What makes you think I want you back?” I hissed. “You’re too much trouble.”

“Why else would you be here?”

Do you really want to know?

“Why are you parked in the woods?” She gazed around. “Is this where you tracked me to?”

“What?”

“On my phone.”

That tracker I put on her phone gave me my alibi. I opened the car door and guided her into the passenger seat, looking over my shoulder to make sure we were still alone.

“I tracked you to your father’s house, but I didn’t think pulling up to his driveway after he already tried to kill me would be my best move.”

“But you thought walking up to the porch would be a better move?” She smoothed out her dress and then buckled her seatbelt. “You’re lucky there were no guards around.”

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