Page 67 of Bound to His Oath

"You live in a villa?' his mother asked.

"I do." Nico beamed. "It's beautiful, right on the beach, too. Luca and I have our own suite of rooms with a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean Ocean. Nonno and Nonna live there with us, too. They are so nice to me. Nonna even baked me cookies."

"If your villa is so big, surely there is room for us," Isabella said. "You want to live with your loving mother and father, don't you?"

Nico's snort was glorious.

"Not a chance in hell."

"But—"

Nico's sudden step forward wasn't as astonishing as the rage I heard in his voice when he spit out, "You took Luca from me. You made him spend four years in that horrible prison all so you could keep me under your thumb and marry me off to whoever gave you the most money. News flash, Mother, I'm not a piece of property you can sell. I'm a real live person with my own thoughts and opinions."

I wanted to clap. Nico was finally standing up to his parents. I knew he was terrified, but he was still doing it. I wanted to hug him so much right now, but I knew needed to let him have his moment.

"After tonight, you will never see me again. If you step one foot in front of me"—Nico pointed to the dead body on the floor—"I will ensure that a bullet between your eyes is the least of your worries."

Isabella sucked in a breath, pressing her hand to her chest. "You just threatened me. I can't believe you threatened me."

"Really?" Nico asked. "You can't believe it? After everything you've done to me you can't believe I would threaten you? You're lucky I'm not killing you, you stupid money-grubbing bitch."

When Isabella leapt forward, her hand raised in the air as if she was going to slap Nico again, I started to just forward to stop her, but Nico got to her first. The slap he laid across her face echoed through the large room, stunning us all.

"You hit me," Isabella whispered as she cradled her cheek, staring at Nico like she had never seen him. "I'm your mother. How could you hit me?"

"I'm your son," Nico countered. "How could you slap me, sell me, drug me, or allow one of your thugs to sexually assault me? Is that what a loving mother does to her son? If so, I want to be an orphan."

Okay, this time I couldn't stop myself from clapping.

My husband was amazing.

"I think we're done here," Vinnie stated. "I believe we've made out point. If either you or your husband come near Nico or Luca ever again, you'll have the heads of the five families on your ass, and we have a lot of reach, so I suggest that you find some hole to hide in because I know for myself, if I ever see your ugly face again, I'm probably going to put a bullet in it."

I wrapped an arm around Nico, pulling him close to my side. "Come on, cuore mio. It's time to go home. Nonno and Nonna will want to see you. They are very worried about you."

"It'll be good to be home. I miss them, too."

"You're just going to replace us?" Isabella asked. "Just like that?"

Nico smiled at his mother. "Yep."

I started to lead Nico toward the door when I heard a commotion behind us, a lot of yelling and shouting. I started to turn when something plowed into us and we went crashing to the floor.

I wrapped myself around Nico as best as I could, cushioning him with my larger body. When we hit the floor, I heard Nico cry out. I quickly started moving my hands over him, looking for injury. It wasn't until I got to his face that I realized he must have smacked his head on the cement. There was a small trail of blood trickling down the side of his face.

"Nico, baby?"

"I'm okay."

He clearly wasn't.

I sat up, pulling Nico into my lap. I grabbed a handkerchief out of my suit pocket and dabbed at the blood on the side of his face until I could see the small cut on his cheek. It didn't look deep, but it was bleeding a lot.

I pressed the handkerchief to it. "Hold this here."

Once Nico's hand preplaced mine, I slid my hands underneath Nico and stood up, lifting him with me. I turned to find Kenji standing with his foot in the middle of Isabella's back, pinning her to the floor. A gun lay on the ground several feet from Isabella's hand.

I lifted an eyebrow. "Seems you can't give up, can you, you stupid bitch." I glanced at Nico's father, who was being restrained by some guards and shook my head. "You two deserve each other."

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