Page 48 of Vow Of Fire

He wasn’t wrong there.

“I know, but I’m not going to… Fuck.” I dragged a hand through my hair. “Can you come out to the cabin? I’m not having this discussion over the phone.”

“What, now? It’ll take me at least a couple of hours to get there.”

“Tomorrow. Come first thing. We need to talk. And for God’s sake, don’t tell Valentina.”

“Wouldn’t dare. See you tomorrow.”

He hung up.

I stared out the window to where Max was standing, surveying the perimeter, rifle over his shoulder. There was a time when I’d been part of that unit too. It felt like yesterday. We’d all followed orders that had gotten us court-martialed. We’d been thrown under the bus by our CO and lost our careers because of it.

Dishonorable discharge. I still couldn’t say the words without feeling incensed. You gave your life, and that’s what you got. Betrayal.

So, no. I wasn’t about to blindly follow orders again, not without doing my own due diligence first. Valentina had pressed me, so I’d lied to her. It had been the only way to buy myself some time, and to keep Evelyn alive long enough for me to check her out.

Thank fuck I had, too, since it was beginning to look like she wasn’t the rat. Just an innocent caught up in this whole ugly mess.

If I’d listened to my mother, I’d have her blood on my hands. I’d have added her face to the ones I carried around in my head.

Another, darker thought plagued me. If I hadn’t abducted her and brought her here, whoever had broken into her apartment would likely have killed her.

In a twisted, fucked-up way, I might have saved her life.

“Who’s Nico?” she asked, closing the laptop with a snap.

“My brother.”

Her eyebrows rose in a delicate arch. “He’s coming here?”

“Yeah. If anyone can find out about Ricardo, it’s him.”

“Why didn’t you want to talk on the phone?”

“You never know who’s listening. Besides, I want to talk to him about… family matters.”

“About me?”

I gave a stiff nod.

“Who’s Valentina?” She bit her lip, and it drew my eye. “Is she your wife?”

I coughed, then shook my head. “No, my mother.”

“You call your mother by her first name?” Her eyes widened with surprise. Granted, it wasn’t a normal thing to do, but then, we weren’t a normal family.

“Sometimes,” I acknowledged. “When the situation calls for it.”

She tilted her head and studied me as if she were appraising a painting for her gallery. I didn’t like it. “And the situation calls for it now?”

“Valentina runs the Marcelli family business,” I explained, although why the hell I was telling her this, I didn’t know. Maybe I wanted her to understand that this wasn’t just me she was dealing with. This was a family where scores were settled with fists, or in blood. “Think of her as a ruthless CEO.”

“She’s the boss?”

“That’s right.”

“Where’s your father?”