The Killer’s Vow by Aria R. Blue
Vera
Like thunder that follows lightning, the smell of Signora Ranallo’s perfume follows her voice.
I turn in my seat, a little startled by her presence. “Who is it?”
“I can’t tell you,” she says.
“I’ll do whatever it takes,” I say. “However many potions you want. Just tell me what that pervert’s name is.”
Signora Ranallo wrinkles her nose. “He’s no pervert. He’s a friend.”
“He was groping my sister on the dance floor,” I say, my voice sharper than an icicle. “How can you—?”
“No, no,” she says, waving her hand in front of my face. “Not that idiot. I’m talking about the man next to him. With the ace of spades tattoo on his hand.”
She presses play on the video.
And sure enough, the hand with the ace of spades tattoo punches the Asian man’s flawless fucking face.
A fight breaks out on the dance floor.
Some people move away. Others are drawn in by macabre curiosity.
Fights breaking out at our parties are not out of the ordinary once everyone gets drunk enough.
“Pause,” I say to Simon. His quick reflexes make the video pause at the exact moment I want.
All three of us lean closer to look at the man with the ace of spades tattoo.
His hair is as dark as midnight, and his skin is tan under the red mask he’s wearing. Most of his face is obscured, but there’s a hardness to his eyes.
“Signora Ranallo, this man you know, is he a liar?” I ask, thinking about the Luigi Monte my sister told me about.
“A liar, a cheat, a murderer. He’s all of it,” she replies.
“Why can’t you tell us who he is?”
“Nothing good can possibly come of it,” she says. “He doesn’t take kindly to strangers.”
We watch the rest of the video in silence. As I suspected, this is the man Inessa was last seen with.
He introduces her to a few of his friends, both men and women who are my age and older.
Inessa looks out of place at first.
But after a few minutes, she’s more at ease. Comfortable enough to go to another party on a yacht with them.
“That’s all I have,” Signora Ranallo says. “Do you know where your sister went after that?”
“She snuck out with them,” I say. “She told me about a private party on a boat.”
“We need to meet him,” Simon says, looking at the paused video showing Inessa with the group. They’re all fancy dresses and feathers, but I have a gut feeling that something bad happened after that.
There was a reason Inessa was crying the next morning.
One of these people had hurt her.
“Can you please give me their names?” I ask. “Both your friend’s and the Asian man’s.”
“What do you plan on doing once you meet them?”
“I just want to talk,” I say.
“And with the man who was inappropriate with your sister?”
“With him, she’ll talk using a baseball bat,” Simon replies for me.
“You’ll have to meet with Oscar first,” Signora Ranallo says.
“Is Oscar the man with the ace of spades tattoo?”
“No, Oscar is the man who knows the man I know.”
I close my eyes. She’s going to ask for more. Nothing in my world comes for free.
Everything has a price.
“What do you need?” I ask her.
“I don’t need anything.”
“What will it take for you to directly give me your friend’s name?”
“Even if I did, you won’t be able to reach him directly. You know how this works, Vera.”
“Is there a reason you’re refusing to tell me his name?”
She sighs. “He’s the son of someone very important. If you two fuck something up, it’ll be traced back to me. I can’t just give out identifying information like that.”
“Do you want more poisons?” I ask, tired of these games. “I’ll make them for you.”
Her entire face shifts, like an eagle who spotted its prey from ten thousand feet above.
“Vera, I don’t need anything else from you,” she says. “I’m only helping you because I empathize with what you’ve been through. I’ve been in a gilded cage myself once, and I know it’s not the most ideal situation.”
Her revelation hits me like a slap.
This woman is genuinely helping me.
In her mind, it’s not about what I can do for her, but what she can do for me.
“I’m sorry,” I say, bowing my head in shame. “Thank you.”
She pulls out a card and writes down an address on top of it.
“Tell Oscar that I sent you,” she says, handing me the card.
I glance at it and take a sharp breath. “But…this is in Mexico?”
She raises an eyebrow. “And?”
I hand it to Simon.
“And the Asian man?” Simon asks.
“If Oscar approves of you and decides to take you to my friend, you can ask him in person about the man he beat up.”
Another person to win over.
Another road trip.
* * *
“When do we leave?”I ask Simon once we’re back in the Lamborghini.
“I’m thinking,” he says, his brows furrowed.
“About?”
“It takes over thirty hours to go from Florida to Mexico.”
“Can’t we take a flight?”
“Impossible,” Simon says. “Your father probably has men on the lookout for you at every major airport. We’ll be handing ourselves over to them on a silver platter.”
“We can split up,” I suggest.
“No.” The word is said with so much malice that I shrink back.
I glance at him.
He rakes a hand through his hair. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to split up, Vera.”
I watch him for a moment.
For the first time since meeting him, I see the killer in him.
The rage and the violence have been lurking right under the surface this whole time.
And like always, my tongue utters the words my brain knows better than to say.
“Papa and his men are on the lookout for a couple. With our height and build. We can wear wigs and contact lenses and dentures, but we can’t change our bodies. If we split up—”
He crashes into a parked car.
On purpose.
My body lurches against the seat belt. Blood rushes to my ears, and my heart stays levitated, beating erratically.
He slams his palm against the steering wheel.
“Fucking hell, Vera,” he growls. “Don’t even suggest that.”
I stare straight ahead. “Are you telling me what to do, Simon?”
“What have I not done to make you feel comfortable?” His voice is cold and alien. I don’t even recognize it. “I’ve done everything I can to protect you, and you don’t even know the half of it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Say that you won’t leave me,” he says, turning to me. Something vulnerable flashes in his eyes.
A desperation.
An obsession.
Fuck me.
What have I gotten myself into?
“I won’t leave you,” I mumble.
As Simon pulls back out onto the road, I look at the punched-out dent on the other car.
I’ve done the very thing I promised myself I’d never do.
I put myself at the mercy of a monster.
Of a man not unlike my father.
Just as I think this, the sky is split in half by lightning. Before the flash even retreats, it starts to pour.
We drive in silence as the sky weeps.
When we reach the resort, nothing in me perks up at the sight.
The days before feel like a dream.
Not even my dream. They feel like someone else’s dream.
“We can’t take a flight, but we can take a boat,” Simon says finally.
It takes me a second to understand what he’s talking about.
“Okay,” I say.
“Do you get seasick?” he asks.
“I don’t know. I’ve never been on a boat.”
“Better not to risk it, then. We can also drive there.”
The space between us feels endless.
He’s sitting right next to me, but it feels like there’s an ocean between us.
I knew that he was a temperamental man, but I never imagined that he would show me that side of him.
But I should have known better.
“Vera,” he says now, his voice pained.
“Don’t,” I say, suddenly furious.
I’m angry for letting myself be hurt by this man.
I knew what he was from the start.
But a foolish part of me believed that his heart was somehow softer for me.
As he parks, I watch the rain cover the distance between this car and the hotel room.
I wish it could wash away all the reasons I ache.
“I have a meeting,” he says, clearing his throat.
“Okay.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me who it’s with?” he asks.
I open my door and step out into the rain, slamming the door shut behind me.
The rain soaks through my clothes almost instantly.
I’m about to walk back to the hotel room alone, but Simon is beside me before I can take a single step.
He shrugs out of his jacket and holds it over my head like a makeshift umbrella.
His heat and scent are too overpowering. It makes my knees weak and my heart heavy.
“I thought you had a meeting with somebody,” I grumble, walking in the rain.
He moves with me.
“Nothing that can’t wait,” he says, gazing down at me.
He’s studying me, trying to read my mood and thoughts.
But I shut him off.
There’s rage and humiliation in my heart.
And it’s not just because he refused to split up in this quest to find my sister.
It’s because of what he said earlier.
I love you.
Love is dangerous territory. It’s dangerous for me to wish for things like love.
He’s drenched by the time we reach the door.
We face each other—him staring at my face, and me staring at his muscular chest.
He pulls the jacket tighter around me.
“Can we talk?” he asks softly. “Later?”
“Okay.” I’ll be a doll for him, telling him only the things he wants to hear.
“Vera, this isn’t what I wanted—”
My tongue can’t hold the words back. “That’s the entire fucking problem. It’s always about what you want. I’ve spent an entire lifetime conforming and making sure I’m not offending anyone. What’s it all for? To please men who don’t even care about what I want?”
He opens the door.
Holding my waist, he guides me inside.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Lion sleeping peacefully in his favorite corner.
Simon makes me sit on the bed and kneels in front of me.
Holding both of my knees, he looks up at me. “Now, why don’t you tell me what this is really about?”
The words leave my lips. “I miss my family.”
“You mean your sister?” he asks slowly.
I blink, surprised by my own thoughts. “My whole family. My controlling father, my neurotic mother, my rebel brother, my wild-spirited sister. I miss them all.”
“Why?” Simon asks, searching my eyes.
I shrug. “I’ve been with them my whole life.”
“But your father—”
“I know the things he’s done,” I say. “I know the men he almost set me up with. But it wasn’t always like this. It was different before. And I miss Russia too.”
“I’ll take you there someday,” he says.
“But we were banished from the country,” I say.
“I’ll find a way,” he says, his grip tightening on my knees. “It scares the life out of me, Vera. When I think about you alone and exposed to all of these men hunting for you. The thought of being away from you makes my heart beat out of control. Is it okay for me to feel that way?”
I look into his enchanting eyes.
Nothing but the truth comes out of my lips for this man. “Yes. And Simon?”
He’s rubbing circles around the inside of my knees. “Hmm?”
“I think I love you too.”
My knees are pushed apart. He hums his satisfaction by pressing his mouth between my thighs.