Deadly Vows Rewrite - Chapter FortyEight (Patreon)

Elise

“Everything looks good. We’ll give her some medicine for the pain and swelling. But other than that ,there are no infections,” Dr. Patterson says.

I note that he speaks to Luca instead of me as he relays my condition. I’m barely listening, though. I shift my attention to the window. The sun is out, and the grass is green. I feel more at peace than I ever have as I slowly spiral into my own corner of reality. I never thought I would be so traumatized by the snow, but here I am, breathing sighs of relief that it’s grass I’m seeing beyond the window.

Luca hasn’t left my side since he saved me from the mountains. And I am glad for it. I fear the darkness that creeps at the back of my mind. It was easy not to think about everything that happened from the wreck to the auction house to being Alexander’s, because survival was at the forefront of my mind. But now that I’ve had a taste of what can come for me, I am dreading something like it ever happening again.

“Elise,” Luca calling my name pulls me out of my thoughts, and I look at him.

“Yes?” I ask.

He quirks a brow as he looks at me, and I realize I must have been asked a question while I was spaced out. Dr. Patterson clears his throat, his discomfort obvious as he repeats his question.

“Were you…touched in any other way? Would you like us to run tests?” he asks.

My eyes widen when I realize what he’s asking, and I shake my head.

“No. He didn’t touch me in that way,” I murmur.

But before Dr. Patterson can leave, Luca stops him.

“We’ll get the tests anyway,” he says.

Dr. Patterson nods, quickly making his way out of the room to leave me and Luca alone.

“I’m not lying. He didn’t touch me,” I say, looking at Luca.

He watches me steadily for a moment, obviously trying to approach the subject delicately.

“It’s just a precaution. You never know what could have happened to you. Men like Alexander do twisted things,” he says gently.

Nausea hits me as I think of what his words mean, and he immediately notices my shift in mood. He places his finger under my chin, lifting my gaze to meet his.

“Alexander will never be able to touch you again. I swear, Elise. You are safe now.”

His eyes linger on the bruising under my eyes, and I see his controlled rage as he tries to keep his composure. He releases a breath, his hand dropping from my face.

“Fuck… I’m so sorry, Elise. This is all my fault. I never should have told you about our past. I never should have let you leave,” he says.

His brows are furrowed as his features shift into regret, something I’ve rarely seen on his face in the time we’ve been married. Even hearing an apology is strange.

I release a shuddering breath, letting my tears fall. There’s nothing I can say that would make him feel better—nothing that would change the past. We were born into a fucked up world. Both sides of the same coin. This is the life we’ve inherited from our parents, and there’s no running from it.

Luca’s hands gently hold my face, his thumbs running along my jaw as he pulls me in for a soft kiss. There’s no power in it, no possession. Just gentle relief. And when he pulls away from me, his stormy eyes are a swirl of unreleased emotion.

“I love you, Elise. I’ll never let anything like this happen again,” he says.

The last time he said those words to me, I felt dread. But at this moment, I feel protected. I believe him. I give him the best smile that I can, placing my hands over his arms, as I lean into him to press our foreheads against each other. And I just breathe.

Luca slowly pulls away, his thumb continuing to stroke my cheek as he speaks.

“Elise… I need to know everything that happened. So I can protect you—protect all of us.”

My hands slowly lower to my thighs, digging into my skin as I try to calm myself. The memories of everything I went through are devastating. They signify a broken world to me. But I know Luca is right. And I know from the conversations I had that we are not out of the woods.

“After the wreck, I woke up in a room. A man came in, asking me to testify against you. And when I refused, he sent me to the auctions,” I say, thinking of the smug grin on his face as they dragged me from that room.

Tears burn my eyes as I recall the meeting. The man's cruelty is something I can never forget.

“He said they were really after you, and that catching me was a mistake. He said that Ari had contacted him before she died… and that you had inherited too much power to be left unchecked,” I say.

Luca is quiet, but I can tell by the way he stops stroking my cheek that he is trying to control his emotions. He is livid by this information.

“Did the agent give you his name?” he asks.

I slowly nod. I’ll never forget his name. “Jeffries.”

Luca scoffs, grumbling something to himself under his breath as he stands. But before I can ask, the nurse steps in with a smile.

“We’re all set for you, Mrs. Pasquino,” she says.

I look back at Luca, my distrust of anyone who isn’t him coming to the forefront. Especially after telling him the story of how I was abducted. But he gives me a charming grin of reassurance.

“I’ll be here when you get back.”

Luca

“I know she seems fine at the moment, but be prepared for her traumas to resurface. She hasn’t quite settled yet. She is still in a mild state of shock. Her cortisol, vasopressin, and norepinephrine levels are still elevated. And once those come down, I’m afraid she’ll begin to lose her grip on reality,” Dr. Patterson says.

I’ve been waiting in his office for the past hour while Elise goes through the rest of her tests, and he has finally returned with all of the results. 

I want to argue with him. I want to tell him that he is wrong and Elise is strong. But I know Elise. I’ve seen her throw up at the mere sight of blood. For her to have done what she did to Alexander, she must have been in survival mode for quite some time to finally snap.

Getting Elise back was one of the biggest stressors of my life. I will remember it for years to come. But it will also remind me to never be so lax with her life again. This could have ended much worse than it did. Even her escape was pure luck. If not for the man she met in the snow, she would have died in that wrecked vehicle before I had the chance to rescue her.

And I doubt he was there by coincidence.

Coming so close to losing her has once again stirred emotions inside of me that I thought I had shut down. They’re much stronger this time around, and I don’t know that I can ignore them. Especially with the way she looked at me while saying she loved me back. The desperation on her face—the need in her eyes for someone to be her protector always. I stepped into that role the day we married. And I fell asleep at the wheel as the enemies associated with her came out of the woodwork. But I won’t do that again. She is a Pasquino. She is mine. Till death do we part.

“The good news is her tests came back clear. There is no signs of distress either,” he says, handing me the results of her more recent tests.

I read over them silently, my gaze lingering on the form of birth control she takes. Her time to re-up was last month. But seeing as she was held captive by Alexander, that didn’t happen. Luckily, he didn’t touch her.

And now, I am highly aware of all the strings pulled to put her in that position. Hiding my reactions from her took most of my willpower. Agent Jeffries is a pathetic man who has been trying to take my father out for years. I thought he had slinked away after his last failed attempt, but it looks like he got a promotion, he is eager to dig his own grave with.

The only good to come out of this is that he probably thinks Elise is lost in a back channel somewhere, never to be found by me, meaning she will be off his radar until I can kill him—until I can kill them all. We’ve always had a mutual respect with the higher-ups. Our way of life fuels theirs, and sometimes, they ask for favors from us that help them take offices and win wars. But this time, someone has fucked up big time putting their trust in someone like Ariana. They have ruined the balance. And I will make them pay.

“Is Elise ready to go home?” I ask, placing the folder between us.

Dr. Patterson nods, watching me warily.

I don’t respond as I make my way out of his office. With this revelation comes a bigger problem than the Trovolis. Even in death, Eli taunts me. All of this is because of his greed. He put his family up against a behemoth, with no regard for the consequences. And as her final act, Ariana set an unprepared beast on me and my family. But I will not go down without a fight. And I will take as many of them with me as I need to.

******

“Elise! Thank God you’re okay!” Enzo pulls Elise into a tight embrace, spinning her with tears in his eyes as he reunites with his sister.

I note that even Elise smiles with happiness to see her brother. It’s been a hellish few months as we searched endlessly for her, and Enzo witnessed the brunt of my anger, hiding his own turmoil since the last moment between him and Elise was an argument.

Elise brushes his hair out of his face, her eyes glassy as she speaks.

“You’ve gotten bigger,” she says.

Of course, he has. He’s been training like one of us since she’s been gone. But I don’t mention that, nor do I bother spoiling this moment between them. I shift my attention to my office door where Romelo stands waiting for me.

“I’ll leave you two to catch up,” I say, leaving them.

Elise slept for most of the ride home. I’m sure she’s exhausted from everything she’s been through, but I also know that Enzo has been nothing short of worried about Elise, doing what he could on his end to find her. He really sees her as his sister, combine that with his realization that she is the only family he has left, and you have the pefect loyalist.

“Please tell me you have good news,” I grumble, moving past Romelo and into my office. I make sure to close the door behind us as I move behind my desk, plopping down. When I look up, Romelo’s expression tells me all I need to know.

He doesn’t have good news.

“I can’t catch a fucking break,” I growl as he sits across from me.

“The man who saved Elise works for the FBI. Or rather, he did until he was placed on leave. He got too close to some corruption happening that involved Sokolov and the auction houses,” he says.

I turn on my computer screen, waiting for the security system in the annex to boot up. Both screens light up to show the man who saved her in one room, and Alexander in a separate one.

“So he’s a Boy Scout,” I say, eyeing him.

Romelo nods. “He’s also very determined. He wasn’t at that particular cabin by accident. He was monitoring Alexander. Probably thought if he could get some proof, he’d get his job back. Fortunately for him, Alexander frequents the Sokolov’s auction houses, making him the perfect target,” he says.

“And Elise stumbling out was the icing on the cake for his case,” I say.

Romelo nods again, and I lean back in my seat, studying him. I knew the moment we set foot in that cabin, he wasn’t just some good Samaritan. And with his life basically destroyed, maybe I can use him. Maybe he’s the perfect trump card I need.

“Did he give a reason he didn’t contact anyone?” I ask.

Romelo nods. “Your wife convinced him not to. She was too scared of what the police would mean. Then she told him why she was up the mountain and where she came from. I guess that was enough for him to understand that his life was fucked if he brought her forward,” he says.

I chuckle.

“Smart man,” I say.

“Did Elise tell you everything that happened?” Romelo asks.

I nod. “Yeah. And I think our agent here will be a big help to us to make it all go away.”