Page 155 of Vow Of Fire

“Au contraire, my dear Vincent. We’ve checked your offshore accounts. You received funds from both the Colombians and the Russians. Frankly, I expected you to negotiate more.”

“You can’t threaten me, Valentina,” he barked. “They’ll know I was set up.”

“I wasn’t finished,” she said on a scoff. “Then there’s the other evidence. The bullet casings with your fingerprints on that were found at the Bratva warehouses, the emails on your computer containing Russian information you were sending to your Colombian contact, dead captains⁠—”

“Alright!” he cut her off.

But she kept going. Valentina, I’d decided, was one ruthless mafia queen. She’d stabbed the knife into his back and was now twisting it.

“In fact, I think it’s far more likely Sergei Malakov and the cartel will conclude that you’ve been manipulating both organizations for personal profit.”

Fear crept into Vincent’s eyes then. Actual fear.

“If I were you, Vincent, I’d run as far and as fast as you can. This is only going to get worse for you.”

Vincent was trembling with fury, or maybe it was fear. I couldn’t be sure. Either way, the conversation had not gone the way he’d intended.

“Release her,” Dante demanded, coming back on the line. The sound of his voice sent a violent ache through my chest. “Now.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Vincent retaliated, his gaze hard.

“If you hurt her,” Dante said, every word precise and lethal, “there is nowhere on this earth I won’t follow you. Do you hear me?”

I had to bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from crying.

Vincent looked at me and his expression hardened. “Well, that’s unfortunate, because Valentina has just signed Evelyn’s death warrant.”

Then he ended the call and pulled out his gun.

40

TEAR THE WORLD APART

Dante

“Where the fuck is he keeping her?” I barked at Nico, pacing up and down Leo’s private living room like a caged animal. Every muscle in my body was coiled tight enough to snap.

Evelyn was out there somewhere, at the mercy of that madman, and Valentina had just pushed him over the goddamn edge.

“Now he knows he’s done for, he’s got nothing to lose,” I told her, venting some of my fury. The inactivity was driving me insane. I needed to do something. I needed to get to her.

“Calm down, Dante.” Her voice was like an arctic breeze off the polar icecaps. “Vincent isn’t going to kill Evelyn, he’s got enough to worry about with both the cartel and Malakov coming after him. He’s not going to want to add you to that list.”

“How do you know?” I growled.

“Because I know him. He might be a shit, but he’s also a survivor. He’ll take what money he has left and run. Mark my words.”

I wasn’t so sure. He’d sounded like he meant business, and my mother had a way of pushing people to the brink. I knew what that felt like.

“My team is checking every property linked to Vincent,” Marco said from the dining table, hand over the receiver on one of his three cell phones. “Apartments, shell companies, storage facilities, warehouses.”

His team was a bunch of paid minions that dove into the secret lives of the candidates he wanted to destroy or manipulate. My brother had the power to ruin a lot of careers, if he so chose. And he often did.

“I’m tracing the number he used to call us on.” Nico scratched his head. “The signal was scrambled and bounced through multiple towers. I’m still trying to narrow it down.”

Why didn’t that surprise me? Vincent knew what he was doing. He’d had time to plan this. And now he had Evelyn.

I dragged both hands through my hair, jaw aching from how tightly I’d been clenching it. “There must be some way we can trace her.”