Page 105 of The Beast Who Begged Me

Dami told him to drive around for a while, give him time to get to the Obelisk. So Vito is taking the scenic route, which also serves to shake off any tails we might have.

I turn away and look out the window. The first day I met Vito, he was picking me up from the Obelisk as merchandise, and now he’s returning me there as a sacrifice. I wonder if he knew from the first moment exactly what that place was.

While we’re driving along the river, Vito suddenly pulls over.

There’s no signal, no slowing down. He just swings the car into a pull-off and kills the engine. The river wind buffets the car.

“Is everything okay?” I ask Vito.

His hands grip the wheel tightly. With his eyes on mine in the mirror, he shakes his head slowly.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, alarmed now. “Is someone following us?”

He turns in the car and looks at me there in the backseat. He shakes his head again, then points at himself. His meaning is so plain, it might as well be a shout.

I won’t carry you to this fate.

“I’m not under duress,” I tell him. “I need to do this to get Sammy back.”

His eyes are filled with pain as I mention Sammy, and they close for a moment. But then he reaches back to me and pats my knee, shaking his head.

“Sammy pulled me out of the fire,” I remind him. “You were there. You know the debt I owe him. And he doesn’t deserve the things that the Russians will do to him.”

Vito stabs an angry finger at me, insistent. I know what he’s saying. You don’t deserve it either.

Words are my only weapons, and here I am, being outclassed by a man who cut out his own tongue. He looks down at his hands, then back at me, his eyes damp.

He doesn’t want to be the one delivering me into the hands of our enemies. And I see now what I’m asking of him.

“I’m sorry,” I tell him softly. “But it had to be you. Dami wouldn’t have been able to do it. He barely let me out of the house as it is—and I’m sorry that you’re the one who has to do this. But if you don’t take me, I’ll get out of this car and walk alone. Because nothing is going to stop me from doing whatever I can to save Sammy.”

His eyes close again. The car shakes in the wind once more, and a splatter of rain hits the windshield.

“I know I can’t order you,” I tell him. “You haven’t sworn to me, and I would never ask you to do that. But I am asking you to take me to the Obelisk and let me do what I can for Sammy. Please.”

He turns back in his seat and stares straight ahead for a moment. Then he gets out of the car. The cold rushes in as he comes around to open my door, too, standing back from it to let me out.

This is it, then. I’ll have to walk there myself. I’ll have no friends at all with me in my final moments of freedom.

But I can get through that. I’ve been through much worse.

I step out onto the curb, ready to face into the wind and start walking. But Vito gets down on his knees in front of me, right there on the dirty concrete, and takes my right hand in both of his.

He presses his mouth to my bare finger, the absent ring. And then he looks up at me.

Once more, his meaning is clear as day. He’s swearing to me. Not to the ring. Not to the Family. To the man.

To me.

I have to stare up at the streetlight overhead and breathe for a second before I can respond. Then I take him by the shoulders, help him from his knees, and kiss him on one cheek and then the other. His skin is cold from the wind and wet from tears.

“Okay,” I say gently. “Okay. Let’s go.”

It’s the battle of my life not to cry myself as I get back into the car and settle back in the seat. I can’t afford to arrive at the Obelisk with anything but my full armor in place.

Vito drives into the underground parking lot and pulls up across from the doors of the Obelisk. He comes around to open the door for me one last time.

He doesn’t look at me as I get out of the car, and I’m reminded again of the last time he took me here—with Dami, then—and averted his eyes from my nudity as I exited the vehicle. I thought at the time it was disgust.