Deadly Vows - Chapter 30 (Patreon)

Matteo steps into the room, and as soon as we make eye contact, I stand to leave.

“Wait, Elise,” his voice calls out.

I can’t even begin to look at him. He’s just like Luca. It should have made sense, because Luca has been the only male figure in his life. I should’ve paid attention more. Ever since Matteo did what he did, I’ve been avoiding him like crazy. Every time I look at him, I see Luca’s conniving face. And Matteo has been following him around like a lost puppy. If Romelo is Matteo’s shadow, then Matteo is Luca’s new shadow.

“Please stop being mad. I did what I did for the both of us. Arianna has ruined our lives. Because of her, my mother is dead. And so is yours. Because of her, you’ve had to suffer. She kept information from you and used you. Elise, you should be happy I got rid of her.” I look at him in horror.

“My god, Luca has brainwashed you. You can’t really be that naïve, Matteo. Luca is the one that killed your mother! Luca killed my father. Luca did this to me, to you! How could you possibly think that Arianna had any part in that?”

Matteo’s eyes grow angry as he stares at me. “Luca did those things to protect his family!”

“So did Arianna! What do you even know of family, Matteo? You grew up away from all this! From the Mob, from the family.

You’re not even sworn in! How can you speak like that?”

Matteo looks away with an irritated expression. He looks back at me with those deep-green eyes. “I meant you. You’re his family, Elise. He did everything he’s done to protect you …” He trails off, looking in the hallway before continuing. “Luca has saved my life countless times. He has always taken care of me. And he’s taught me things. Even though it was unorthodox, he gave me the chance to get my revenge. He gave me the chance to be accepted by this family, because life would have been hard for me because I wasn’t sworn in, and especially who I was. And you should know this, Elise. I know he killed our father, but he did it to protect you. He took care of me because it was what you would have wanted. He’s been watching out for you this whole time, Elise.”

I shake my head. “You can’t really be this blind, Matteo. You acted as if you hated him just a few weeks ago!”

“I know. Because I did. He hurt you, and you’re my sister. My blood. But when it all comes down to it, Luca is the one that I know better. And last night, Luca gave me the chance that I needed. Whether you want to admit it or not, Luca has been looking out for us.” Matteo walks to the door before turning back to me with an expression filled with anger. “All your life you had it easy. Luca’s life was hard, as was mine. And I see daily what he deals with. Being capo isn’t easy, Elise. The least you can do is be thankful to him for saving you. For saving us.”

He walks out of the room, and I can feel anger flaring up within me. I jump from my seat and run out into the hallway, determined to find Matteo, but I run face-first into Luca. I stumble backward in shock, but Luca immediately reaches out to steady me.

I open my mouth to apologize. “I’m sorry.”

I look up at Luca, and he is watching me with a curious expression. He takes a step to the side. “You chasing after your brother?” He looks at me expectantly, like he is waiting for me to dash out of the kitchen.

“I was … yes.” I look down, not wanting to meet his eyes. I can feel his fingers under my chin as he guides my face up to meet his. He looks into my eyes, making me want to fidget under his piercing gaze.

“Well, aren’t you going to go get him, then?” Luca has an amused smirk on his face as he watches me.

“No … it’s okay. We both just need to cool off.” I try to step around Luca, but he grabs my arm.

“How about you come with me for the rest of the day?” Luca doesn’t wait for me to respond; he takes me by the hand and guides me upstairs to our bedroom. Once the door closes behind us, he takes my hand, leading me to the bed. He lays us down, dragging my body close to his.

“Why are you bothering Matteo?” His hand is lightly tracing my stomach. I am honestly afraid to respond. “I wasn’t. He started talking to me first.”

Luca lets out a deep chuckle behind me. “I find it amusing that you went through all that trouble to get him and now you won’t even speak to him.” Luca’s amusement at my predicament causes irritation to boil up within me.

“I didn’t expect him to be just like you.”

Luca stops tracing the pattern. “Me? How so?”

“A killer.” I squeeze my eyes, afraid of what Luca is about to do to me.

“A killer, huh?” I feel his chest heave behind me as he takes a deep breath. He jerks away from me and gets out of the bed.

I immediately sit up and watch him as he paces back and forth in front of me, running his fingers roughly through his hair.

“Elise, you act like I chose to be this way.” He finally looks over to me, and I am shocked to see the hurt in his eyes. “You act like I was born into a normal family, with normal parents, with normal jobs, and I just chose to grow up and be this way. You act like the world is filled with nothing but love and rainbows.” He gives a bitter chuckle before continuing.

“Well, I hate to be the one to bear the bad news, babe, but it’s not. We live in a world where such a thing called the Mafia exists, and I was the lucky bastard born into leading it. And you were born into it also. Except you led a nice little life where your biggest problem was your father not paying attention to you. My biggest problem was shooting someone in the neck instead of the head because if I kept them alive, it was my life on the line. My biggest problem was learning to interrogate people, hurt people, kill people because it was my duty to my family. And if I didn’t, I was beat and starved by my father.”

My eyes grow wide as Luca opens up to me.

“Dammit, Elise! You want to hate me because I let your brother take his revenge? If I didn’t, he would be dead within the next six months. Your family betrayed us. Everyone here would question his loyalty and allegiance. He would not have survived! I didn’t swear him in, but I still gave him the chance to be accepted by the family when I didn’t have to! I could have just sworn him in, completely ignoring your request.”

He sighs. “You’re so selfish! You paint me to be this horrible man when I’ve done nothing but provide for you, protect you, and care for you! Because you finally get to see what life is like on this side and you can’t take it, I’m the bad guy?” He chuckles.

“I was the one forced to murder children. Fucking children! Because their fathers were too stupid to play it safe and follow my father’s orders. You wanna complain and paint me the bad guy because you were forced into this marriage? Well, guess what, baby, so was I. And imagine my shock, my guilt, my rage, when I find out that I have to marry the girl whose mother I shot in cold blood right in front of her! Imagine when I have to look at you every day and look at that small scar on the side of your temple from me! From beating you almost to death! Because if I didn’t, guess who would have come after me and my family? Your father!”

Luca is full-blown shouting now. But my eyes are wide and in shock. He has just admitted to being the reason for my mother’s death.

“W-what?” My voice comes out in a broken whisper. All the anger immediately dissipates from Luca’s face, and shock appears as he realizes what he has just said.

“Oh god, Elise …” He trails off and stares at me. He takes a step toward the bed, and I immediately fall of and scramble away.

We both sit there staring at each other in silence. I slowly reach up with a shaky hand and brush the indentation on my temple. All these years I believed it was a birth mark. Some strange scar I could never explain. But it was from Luca?

I stand and immediately take off out of the room, running anywhere. And for once, I don’t have Luca chasing me. I run to the guard that always takes me off the estate and immediately ask him to take me away from here.

I turn to look out of the window at the estate and see Luca standing on the porch, watching me leave. He doesn’t even make a move to stop me.

* * * * *

“Here you go, ma’am. Enjoy your meal!” The cashier hands me my food with the brightest smile I have ever seen. I wonder if her home life is happy. I give her a small smile and take the tray, walking to the table where my driver sits.

“I didn’t know what you wanted, so I just covered the basics.

Cheeseburger and fries.” I push the food toward him.

“Thank you, Mrs. Pasquin—”

“Elise. Please just call me Elise.”

He eyes me, confused, before finishing his sentence. “Elise … I don’t eat on the job, though.”

I roll my eyes. “Of course you don’t.” I take the spoon off my tray and dip it into the soup.

Luca has shown me two sides of himself today. He killed my mother on my father’s orders, but he has also shown me how part of him resents doing the things he does. That is, until he grew to like them, I guess.

“Are you all right, Elise?” I look up to see my driver looking at me with concern. I feel a wetness on my face and realize I am crying. I hastily wipe my eyes.

“Uh, yeah, I’m sorry.”

We are all messed up. This whole thing we call life. And I have been foolish enough to think that I could somehow be excluded from it. All I want is a man to love me at least if I am going to be forced into marriage. My whole life has been a plan. All of it was schemed and mapped out by my father. A mad, power-hungry bastard.

I think back to Matteo’s words. Luca has been protecting me, but his other actions say otherwise. He’s been driven to insanity by his father. It’s not like he had a choice in becoming who he is. He is raised that way, and he has to keep it that way because he was the leader.

I take a deep breath. Am I really selfish? It’s not only Luca who said it, but Matteo too. That I have been raised away from everything. My head is pounding from all the stress.

“Elise … uh, Mr. Pasquino is requesting we return home.” He looks at me with worry. I can understand why. If he refuses Luca’s orders, he’ll be in trouble.

I take a deep breath and move to throw my soup away. The last thing I want to do is face Luca. Especially after this revelation. But I don’t want this poor man to get maimed because of me.

We step out into the car, and night is already falling. We are driving in silence when, suddenly, a car pulls out in front of us, slamming on their brakes.

“What the fuck!” my driver shouts. He swerves around as another car pulls up close to the bumper, slamming into it.

“Shit!” he shouts and tries to swerve out, but the cars have us blocked. There is another car coming toward us to block us in, but the driver slams on his brakes and swerves right, allowing us to break free.

“Shit, someone’s after us!” He immediately presses something in the car and begins talking into his earpiece.

“This is Violli. We’re being hit pretty hard. Whoever is after us wants us alive! We’re in the downtown district, heading south toward the interstate—ah!”

Bullets fly across the windshield, and I give out a small cry of panic. The windows are luckily bulletproof.

“Yes, she’s safe for now!” he shouts.

Suddenly the car is jerked hard to the right, and I am sent flying into the door. The driver reaches into his pocket and fishes out his phone, handing it to me.

“Dial *864. Hurry!” He jerks the car again, causing an array of horns to erupt around us. I dial quickly and hold it to my ear as it rings.

“What?”

I gasp. “Luca?”

“Elise? What the hell are yo—”

I shout, unable to listen to him any further as a car rams us from behind, “Someone’s following us! They keep hitting the car—”

The car swerves again, and my stomach lurches as we become airborne. It feels as if everything is in slow motion as the car flips over several times before landing, finally coming to a halt upside down. The seat belt is crushing my chest painfully. I can feel a burning pain on my forehead, and my arms are hurting.

“Elise! Elise! What’s happening?” Luca’s voice is shouting at me from the phone that is now on the roof.

I grunt in pain and can feel the warm trickle of blood. The darkness envelops me as I hear shouting coming toward the car. I can’t make out a word of what is being said. All I know is that I am happy when I finally pass out.

* * * * *

I jump up in bed, gasping aloud as I finally awaken. The movement causes pain to spasm throughout my body. I cry out in pain and fall back on the surprisingly soft bed. I have to constantly blink to force my vision to focus. The room I am in is small. The floor has carpet, though, and there are no windows. It is surprisingly clean. I immediately check my body for permanent damage, such as broken bones, but there are none. I sigh in relief and slump back in the bed.

There are cuts and bruises on my body, and I can feel the thick gauze on my forehead from what, I must assume, is a nasty cut. I can’t check because there are no mirrors in here.

The door to the room sounds, and in comes a woman with blond hair. She is carrying a tray with steaming food on it, and bags are draped over her arms. She sets the bags down and drags the mini table over to the side of my bed, setting the food down. She smiles at me.

“I see you’re awake.”

I study her with clear confusion. Last thing I remember, the car was upside down and there were not-so-friendly people after us. My stomach loudly growls, and she gives a soft chuckle.

“Someone’s hungry.” She gestures to the plate of food. It’s chicken and rice. And it looks delicious.

I don’t touch it, though. I don’t know if it’s poisoned. The woman seems to sense my hesitation and gives an irritated sigh. She grabs my spoon and shovels food into her mouth to prove it isn’t poisoned. As soon as she sets the spoon down, I grab it and dig in. I have no idea how long I’ve been passed out, but it was definitely long enough for my stomach to grow empty.

She reaches for the bags and begins pulling things out.

“We got you some soap and clothes and a toothbrush. Oh, and a brush, some magazines, and some lady products when it’s that time of the month.” She smiles so big at me, as if I weren’t a hostage.

“Why am I here?” I ask.

She stops shuffling with the groceries and looks at me, her smile faltering. Her eyes quickly glance to the corner and back to me.

“Look, you don’t need to know why. You just need to know you’re not leaving anytime soon, okay? So don’t waste your breath asking questions, sweetie. And save your strength.” She snatches my plate from me even though I am not finished eating. She then turns back to me. “You’re gonna need it.”

She then walks out of the room, slamming the door. My heart drops as I hear the lock of the door on the other side.

I stare at my hands for a moment. Suddenly, I remember the way she glanced at the corner behind my head. I slowly look over my shoulder, and sure enough, there is a camera there overlooking the entire room. I have no idea what is happening. What is about to develop. But I do know the familiar feeling brewing deep within me.

It is one that I have grown accustomed to since marrying Luca.

Fear.