Page 99 of Blood Vows

“I need to see you.” Dante’s hand flexed at his side, and Hale was quiet.

“Why?” he finally asked.

“Because I found the vault,” she said. He was silent, and she took that as a good sign. She had his attention.

“You went there?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“What was inside?” Elena looked at Dante and noticed that his expression said, don’t give too much.

“My father’s letter,” she said.

“That’s all?” he asked.

She let a shaky breath escape on purpose. “No.”

“What else did you find?” he asked.

“I know what the Camorras did to him,” she said. Dante’s face went stone still. Elena hated saying it. She hated even pretending she blamed him, but Hale needed to believe her.

“I’m sorry,” Hale said softly.

Liar. She gripped the phone tighter. “You were right.” Dante’s eyes darkened, and Elena continued. “I can’t trust them.”

“I tried to tell you,” Hale said.

“I know,” she lied.

“You’re with Vitale now?” he asked.

She looked at Dante. “Yes.”

“Leave,” he said. The command came fast, and Elena’s stomach turned.

“I want to.” Dante’s jaw tightened so hard she thought his teeth might crack.

“Good girl,” Hale said, and she almost gagged. Dante looked ready to commit murder through the phone.

Elena kept her voice steady. “I don’t know where to go.”

“I can help you,” Hale said.

“I need answers first,” she insisted.

“What answers?” he asked.

“All of them.”

Hale sighed. “Elena, there are things your father did⁠—”

“No.” She hardened her tone. “No more vague warnings. No more dead bodies. No more messages.” Her demands were met with silence. “I meet you, or I go back to Luca and give him everything,” she warned.

That seemed to do it. Hale’s voice changed. “What do you mean by everything?”

“The documents.” Dante gave her a sharp look, but she kept going. “Crimson Holdings, the Accord, everything my father hid.”

There was a long pause, and then Hale said, “You shouldn’t have told them about that.” She could hear the fear in his voice for the first time, and it almost made her smile.