Page 71 of My Solemn Vow
“I think this vehicle may have been overkill for the number of boxes.” Neil opens the back of the van. “I thought surely it was a mistake, but they said you packed your luggage byyourself. I double-checked three times, but they were sure this was everything. If they went through it or took stuff out, I can’t be sure, but it seemed pretty well sealed up.”
I step around to the opening and find the cargo net holding down four medium-sized moving boxes, two large suitcases, a dress bag, and a carry-on. A hollow pit forms in my stomach, and I clench my fist. Neil is right.
This has to be a mistake. No woman has this few possessions.I don’t care how sexist that sounds, it’s true. She’s twenty-seven. She should have accumulated more than this.
Why is our mate’s life so small?My wolf questions it too.
“Antonella, could you come confirm this?”
Antonella peeks around the van door. “Yeah, that should be all the stuff. Assuming no one went through it, but the tape doesn’t look cut.”
“This is all of your stuff?” I reiterate, pushing out each word while gesturing to the van. “A handful of boxes and some suitcases?”
“Yes. Why are you being weird about it? It’s not too much, is it?” She shakes her head. “I can help you carry?”
“That’s...” I put my hand over my mouth. I let it go. I don’t know what situation she came from. I’ll ask when we don’t have an audience. “Neil, let’s get these in the door.”
“Of course.” He unclips the cargo net, and I grab hold of the suitcases.
They’re at least heavy and clearly full. Neil carries one of the boxes, following me, and I hear Antonella pulling another box forward, so I rush back to take it from her.
“You don’t have to help. We’ve got it.” I try to keep the growl out of my voice, but I’m pissed.
Antonella raises her hands in surrender, turning to go back to the house, and I try not to focus on how the hollowness moves from my gut to my heart with that. I don’t want to be a place of fear for her.
“You think maybe she didn’t pack all her stuff because she’s not planning on staying here long?” Neil murmurs.
“That’d be an odd assumption.” I dismiss him, but silently I wonder the same thing.
I go back to inspecting the boxes by scent as I carry them. The one I grabbed from Antonella smells of books and paperwork. The box Neil picks up smells like leather — purses, maybe, and shoes for sure.
Neil’s next box seems to contain more books and toiletries.
And the last one is light. Probably mostly empty. I can’t make out any particular scents. Must be miscellaneous items.
This is really it? Or is Neil right?
When I close the door behind us, Antonella is standing in the foyer on the defensive. “I didn’t know where I was going so I packed everything I owned back into the boxes I moved from New York with. There’s nothing I’m really attached to if we need to get rid of some things —”
“Antonella.” I place a hand on each of her shoulders. “I’m concerned because I know if I packed up Mom’s ‘essentials’ for a long-distance move, it would fill the back of that van.”
She shrugs my hands off her shoulders, and I want to touch her again, to pull her into my arms, but I don’t feel like I can. Something about whatever it is between us stops me. I don’t know if it’s the short time we’ve known each other or the situation. Or the fact that Neil made me question why she’s here... But I didn’t expect the desire to comfort her to hit me so hard.
It’s because she’s not just a wife, she’s our mate. And you’re being a dick about everything.My wolf scolds me. He pushes me to get closer to her again.
“I don’t have a lot because I haven’t really called any one place home for a while. College, then two years teaching, back to grad school. I rented apartments that came furnished so I wouldn’t have to ask Berto for help moving.” Antonella looks at the boxes, stepping toward them to maybe pick one up. Shestops herself, her hand bent at the wrist as if to make a stop gesture toward the floor.
The truth in her words is undeniable, and I’m relieved that it’s not what Neil thought. She doesn’t have things for a valid reason, but I get an inkling there’s more to what she’s saying, the same inkling I get that tells me when to push someone in my basement a bit harder for information. “There’s more to it than that.”
She’s ours, and we want everything about her to be safe and happy,my wolf adds.
“Gregorio is on all my bank accounts except for one, which I set up to filter some of my paycheck away to hide from him. It’s spending money.” She sighs and turns to look at me. “I’m entitled to a one-quarter pay out of the family business.” Frustration looms, her eyes getting cloudy and her jaw tightening. “But God forbid I touch it. Any purchase or dollar amount beyond what Gregorio deems appropriate is labeled as a bad decision. Which he then uses as further proof to support his opinion that Eduardo’s son, Romeo, would be better to take over as consigliere. Women are too frivolous for business.”
I’m stiff, rigid, my body begging for violence. I want to shift, stalk, and to kill him.
Kill all of them. To hell with our laws.My wolf is ravenous.I want to end each and every one of them.
I hold him back, pulling calming breaths and forcing my shoulders down and back. “That ends now. I’ll take you to our credit union on Monday after school, and we’ll get you a new account and then request a wire transfer from your bank. I want you to have access to it anytime you want.” I try not to smile, already glad that I’ve done this, but my lips are traitors, and I do smile at her as I pull out my wallet. “I’m sorry this took me a bit of time to get. I paid to have your license expedited, but it would have been faster for our forgers to make one for you.”
