Page 154 of Vow Of Fire

“I have something that belongs to you,” Vincent said, interjecting calmly.

Dante broke off. I could hear heavy breathing on the line.

A long beat passed, and I could only imagine what was going through his head. It didn’t take him long to understand.

“You’re already dead,” Dante said, his voice icy with rage. “But if you touch one hair on her head, I’ll make you wish you’d never lived.” I could hear he meant it, and a pang of longing shot through me, so intense it took my breath away.

Vincent snorted and turned to me. “Seems you were wrong, my dear. He does still care.”

I heard Dante growl on the phone. “I’m warning you, Vincent. One fucking hair.”

“No, you’re not,” Vincent snapped. “Because she’s not all I’ve got.”

My heart twisted painfully in my chest. I knew what was coming. I knew the loaded gun he held over Dante, and it wasn’t me.

“I’ll let Evelyn tell you.” The traitorous weasel nodded at me to go ahead.

My voice was hoarse and broken. “He knows, Dante. He knows about the plan with the Russians.”

There was a stunned silence on the other end of the line.

“Don’t worry, she didn’t tell me,” Vincent said mockingly. “I found out about that all by myself. Valentina’s not the only one who knows how to move pieces around a chessboard, you know. And you forget, I know how she operates.”

They used to be friends. I remembered Dante telling me. I wondered what could have happened to make him so bitter now.

“Where is she?” Dante demanded. Hearing the strain in his voice made my chest ache.

Vincent ignored him.

I got it then. He’d been in love with Valentina, many years ago. Dante had said he thought there’d been something between them. Except she’d married Filippo and been absorbed into the Marcelli clan. Then when her husband had died, she’d taken over his role. Any hope Vincent had of being with her had been dashed by her alliance to the family.

Dante gave a frustrated growl and Valentina came on the line.

“What do you want, Vincent?”

Vincent crouched down in front of the phone but kept his gaze pinned on me. He issued his demands. Back off the gallery, give the pipeline to the Colombians, and transfer a hundred million into a Swiss bank account.

I gasped. “That’s not what you said before.”

He had the audacity to wink at me. “You don’t think I’m going to hang around for your boyfriend to find me, do you?”

“You know we can’t do that,” was Valentina’s cool reply. My chest tightened. If they weren’t willing to back off, I was as good as dead. Then again, I doubted Vincent would have let me live anyway. Not with the cartel after my gallery.

“I haven’t told the cartel yet,” Vincent continued. “Or Malakov. But I will.”

“Go ahead,” she said easily. “We’ve got nothing to hide.”

I tensed. What game was Valentina playing now?

Then I got it. She knew. Maybe not every detail, but enough. Enough that there was no surprise in her voice. No outrage. Just calculated calm.

“And why is that?” he asked coldly.

“Because it’s you who’s been playing everybody off against each other. You’ve been selling information on us to the cartel, selling information on the cartel to the Russians. What are Los Santos Rotos and the Bratva going to say when they find out?”

“That’s not true,” he snapped. “No one will believe you.”

I had to give Valentina credit. She was damned brilliant. In an instant, she’d turned the tables on Vincent and now he was the one running scared.