Page 52 of Sacred Vow

His eyes narrowed. “What are you going to do with me?”

“What I should do is shoot you between the eyes and put you out of your misery. But what I will do is keep you alive until the council decides your fate.” Killing one of our own, while not unusual, had to be sanctioned, or else the resulting blood feud could drag in other allies and enemies and destabilize every family’s operation. I was within my right to kill the man who had abducted my wife and tried to kill me, but not without the council’s blessing. He needed to stand trial before his peers, and given that his unsanctioned vendetta against my family had affected everyone whose shipments Don Calogerà had plundered, I had no doubt as to the decision by the council, and that his execution would be mine to carry out.

I saw the calculation in the old man’s eyes. “There is an army outside, Vitale,” he said. “You’ll never get out of here alive. Not unless you let me talk to them.”

My men stepped up at once. “Boss—“

I held up my hand indicating silence. I wasn’t a fool, there was no way I could trust this guy.

“It looks to me like your men aren’t listening to you anymore, Santo. I think I’ll take my chances.”

I turned to leave.

“You think your men are any more loyal to you, Don Vitale? I’ve been inside your organization for years. Who is loyal, who isn’t… meh, who knows, eh? You haven’t brought an army to take me tonight. You’ve brought your back-up.”

He was trying to screw with my head, and it was working. He was right about one thing, he had infiltrated my organization and with relative ease. When this fiasco was over, that would be the first thing I would fix.

“Paulo, take him down, but keep him restrained. I don’t want this piece of shit getting any ideas.”

Matteo helped, and he was down in seconds. “Let’s go. One sound from you, old man, and I’ll put a bullet in your head.”

We’d been using our blades to keep the advantage of surprise and I wanted to believe that was why we hadn’t heard gunfire yet, but my gut told another story. We worked our way back toward the rear entrance. The two men we’d left to cover our backs were gone.

“I told you, Vitale,” Santo said with a laugh. “Your men aren’t trustworthy.”

I pulled out my phone and texted Massimo. “Get here now, we’ve been played.”

Shots from outside.

“I have your brother, Romeo!” Leo called. “I’ll trade your brother for my sister.”

Our enemies didn’t know Vittoria was already gone, whisked off to safety.

“It’s a trick. Don’t trade, offer me instead.” Don Calogerà insisted.

“As if! This is a perfect opportunity for you to get rescued and shoot my brother,” I responded.

My phone vibrated with a message from Vito. His team had gone through to the front first and set themselves up where they could hide amongst the tall grass. Being our sharpshooters, I wanted them to cover us from a distance.

“Boss, it’s Vito, we’re in position. Say when.”

“Run, Leonardo!” Santo shouted.

Paulo rammed the handle of his gun into Santo’s face. He crumpled to the ground, blood gushing from his broken nose.

“Now!” I typed.

A rapid exchange of gunfire ensued.

Santo managed to smirk at me from his position on the ground.

“I’d kill you, old man, but I want to see your face when your beloved Leonardo is executed.”

Santo’s eyes held nothing but malice, but I had no time to spare for that garbage. I left Paulo and Matteo behind to guard him and moved off into the dark, staying in the shadows as I crept around the east side of the building.

I heard a click then. “Got you, Vitale. Move and you die. Drop your gun.”

Leo materialized out of the darkness. He was alone. Either he didn’t believe in backup, or he was arrogant enough to think he didn’t need it. “Doesn’t look like you have my brother,” I said calmly, setting my gun on the ground.