A Vow of Love and Vengeance

Renzo’s wild gaze met mine. “Stay back, Emi.”

Gio inched his face closer to my brother’s, and the anger that was so apparent only seconds ago evaporated. In its place was a deadly kind of calm that scared the shit out of me. He’ll kill him. “Are you a fucking rat, Renzo?”

My heart plummeted to my gut at the possibility. No. No, Renzo would never serve my uncle. He used to, though…

Despite the blade pressing against his windpipe, my brother looked offended. “Fuck, no.”

I instantly felt guilty for even thinking it was a possibility. Ren would never betray me like that.

“Someone is still feeding your uncle information, and you are still Outfit, so I guess that wouldn’t make you a rat, would it? Just loyal.”

“The only person I’m loyal to is my sister.” Renzo glared at Gio like he’d gut him if he could. And maybe he would. Ren was no friend to the Famiglia. He was here in this house because he helped me, because we had gotten caught.

“The logical theory is that it’s one or both of you,” Gio said, his monotone voice far more unsettling than if he had shouted the accusation.

He thought we—I would choose my uncle over him. After everything I had told him about Matteo and Chiara. After my father… The sting of hurt jabbed into my gut, digging in deep in a way I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to pry out.

I swear I could feel the crack in my chest as the void that had once existed between Gio and me tore open once more, filling with deceit and distrust and hatred.

It was like the ground had opened up at my feet and I was tumbling into the darkness with no end in sight. I wanted to beg Gio to make it stop, but it was too late. It couldn’t be stopped, couldn’t be taken back. The seed of doubt had been sown and was taking root right before my eyes. And so I fell, and fell, into the very abyss I had forged for myself the moment I had placed my trust in a man like him.

“If you really think I’m a rat for my uncle, then get it over with, Guerra,” Renzo snarled in his face.

“I want you to admit it.”

Renzo laughed, and my spine stiffened. Did he not value his life? “I’m not admitting to shit.”

“Not you.” Gio turned his shoulders slightly until he glanced at me. “Emilia.”

The venom in his eyes made me want to recoil, to run away from the monster before me, but I wouldn’t—couldn’t. Because he had a knife to Renzo’s throat, and I would die before I let him take my brother from me.

He really thought I had betrayed him this entire time?

I squared my shoulders, my gaze flicking from the knife at Ren’s neck to Gio’s eyes. “Admit what? That I’m some kind of spy for Sergio?” A laugh that bordered on hysteria slipped from my lips.

And that’s how I felt, hysterical, unhinged. Because the scene playing out before me… either way, it was going to destroy me. I could feel it—impending doom raking its claws over my skin, waiting to sink them in and rip out my heart. I would lose one, if not both of them.

“I’m not a fucking spy,” I spat, though my voice wobbled.

Gio’s grip on Renzo tightened, his jaw ticcing erratically. “You think I won’t kill him, little princess? I want the truth.”

“You know I would never help that man!” Tears streaked down my face as fear for my brother strangled me. “Please don’t hurt him, Gio. Please.” I would get on my knees and beg the devil for salvation if I had to.

He pressed his blade into Renzo’s skin until blood welled, a fat drop rolling down the V of his shirt.

The sight of it broke me, and I lost it. “Why are you doing this?” I screamed at him.

When he looked at me, there was no trace of the man I’d come to know. This was the man who had earned Giovanni Guerra’s gruesome reputation. Ruthless and cruel. He’d been many things to me but never cruel. My uncle was cruel. Matteo was cruel. And the realization that he was just like them was a crushing disappointment, driving a wedge into that fissured crack in my chest and widening it.

“Because I am being betrayed at every turn, and the common theme seems to be the name Donato.”

I swallowed down the hatred burning through me and approached him. His gaze never left mine as I raised a shaking hand to his jaw, trying to ignore my brother’s strained breaths. I fought down the disdain I felt for the Famiglia boss at that moment. “You truly believe I’ve lied to you about everything? That I deceived you this entire time?”