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My dress is already laid out on the bed, so I pick it up and shimmy into it. I’ve kept it simple. It’s black with long sleeves and hugs my body, flaring at the knee and has a round neckline that shows a hint of cleavage. I arrange my necklace so the Archangel Michael sits just between my breasts. I’ll have to take a bag tonightbecause I can barely squeeze my body into the dress, let alone a gun.
I slip my knife into my bra, though, feeling naked without it. Black high heels complete the outfit, giving me a few extra inches. I swap out my watch for the diamond tennis bracelet that matches the earrings Vice gifted me and stand back so I can see my full reflection in the mirror. With my hair loose and wavy and my makeup smoky, I look like I’ve made an effort but not gone overboard.
I tuck my hair behind my ear and curse when I notice one of my earrings is missing. I scan the floor for it but don’t see it. I put them in earlier, so it’s possible I lost it downstairs. Or maybe when I was putting the laundry away. Dammit.
I walk over to the dresser and shift through my underwear drawer but come up empty-handed. I check Vice’s next, but I don’t find my earring. I do find a small jewelry box, though. I pull it out and look at the door.
If this is another gift, I’m going to kill him. The tennis bracelet and earrings are more than enough. Hell, the fact that I’ve already lost one of the earrings is precisely why I don’t usually wear them.
Unable to resist taking a peek, I open the lid, and all the air rushes out of my lungs. I stand there in shock, trying to make sense of what I’m seeing and explain why it would be here. I lift it from the box, hold it up to the chain around my neck, and whimper when both halves fit together perfectly.
I yank it away as if it burned me.
“I thought you were going to be ten minutes. Typical woman… What’s wrong?” Vice looks at my face. His eyes drop to the necklace in my hands—the other half of the one around my neck.
“Why do you have this?” I whisper, taking a step back from him.
He moves to the door and locks it before stalking toward me. I back up until I hit the wall.
He cages me in, his arms on either side of me. “It was a lifetime ago. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
I shove at him. “It matters to me. Tell me right now how the fuck you have this.”
“I won’t let you leave me,” he warns, and I know that whatever he says will destroy me.
He peels my hand open and pulls the chain I found in his drawer free. He stares at the half-pendant of the Archangel Michael before flipping it over. On the back is a stylizedN.
“My mother was murdered on her thirty-sixth birthday. I was fifteen years old. She was picking my little sister up from school when they were run off the road.”
I blink. I knew his mother had died in a car accident, but I didn’t know he had a sister.
“What people don’t know is that we found evidence that neither my mom nor sister died in the wreck, even though they were found in the car in a ravine. Both had been tortured and raped. My sister was six years old,” he hisses.
Tears run down my face at the torment in his voice.
He rubs his thumb over theN. “My sister’s name was Natalia.” He reaches for the chain around my neck, turning the half-coin over to show the letterVon the back. “V isn’t for your Nanny Viola. It’s for Vice. Natalia picked them out for us the Christmas before she was killed. She always wore the V for me. I always wore the N for her.”
I rear back, banging my head on the wall.
“I don’t understand. How did I end up with it?”
He leans his forehead against mine, his hands gripping my hips. “We found out the truth about what happened to my mother and Natalia a few years after their deaths, purely by accident.”
He blows out a harsh breath. “Giovanni wasn’t Natalia’s father. Vigo was. He raped my mom and threatened to kill me and Dano if she said anything. He didn’t know he got her pregnant. It was a pure coincidence that he was walking in the park with you in your stroller when he passed my mother and Natalia. She wrote about it in her diary. The horror on his face when he saw how much Natalia looked like you. Not because he felt guilty, but because if he could see it, so would others.
“He sent a team of men to take them out, and they did, but not before having their fun first.”
I sob, gripping his jacket, feeling my heart break. I’m sick to my stomach for the loss of a woman and a little girl that I’ll never meet, all so my so-called father could hide his sins.
“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
“He never laid his hand on a child after that day, far as I know. And he didn’t let his men either. He executed the men he sent after them. I think the guilt twisted him up inside, but it was too late.”
He takes a step back, his face tight. “You know the world we live in better than most.”
I shake my head, not wanting to hear anymore.
“An eye for an eye,bambola.”
