“I do. But Pops, I don’t want you to get hurt over this. That's not how this has to go down. It’s my fight with them. Let me deal with Armani. I can handle him on my own.”

“No. This is family. No one is allowed to touch our family. You understand?”

No one could command a response like my father could. I didn't respect anyone more than him. “Yeah Pops, I understand.”

He put his gun in his lap and he looked out the window. I knew we would ride in silence the rest of the way there. Both contemplating what we could gain, and what we could lose from this fight.

I couldn’t lose Vienna.

But I couldn’t lose my father either.

I knew I was going to have to kill a lot of men. And that was fine with me.

Blood on my hands wasn't new.

26

Vienna

I sat in the dark with my knees hugged against my chest. I had been there almost the entire day. I had never left the pub. I was such an

idiot for walking in there. I should have just stayed with Luka.

Armani had taken me upstairs and put me in a private apartment. If you could even call it that. The place was the size of Luka’s bedroom. It was a small studio with a bed, kitchenette, and attached bathroom. He had some thug watching over me the entire time. When I had asked to go to the bathroom earlier, I checked to see if there was a window I could escape out of. Unfortunately, there wasn’t. I was trapped, with no way to warn Luka about what was about to happen.

They offered me food, but I barely ate anything. My stomach was tied up in knots, and there was no way I would have been able to keep anything down. All that I wanted to do was go home. I wanted to hear Luka's voice telling me that he would take care of everything again.

For the second time in my life, he was going to have to kill for me, and I hated that. It wasn't fair to ask him to do that, to break little pieces of his soul by killing people to free me. But I knew he would have to. Armani wasn't letting me go that easy.

I couldn’t believe Roberto had put out a hit on me. Somebody to kidnap me, and finish the job if I couldn’t. It was like he knew the whole time I wouldn’t go through with it. And he was that desperate to end Luka? How had he lost his way so much?

The door to the apartment swung open, and the thug moved to the side, allowing Ian and two other cronies to enter. Ian was dressed in a dark green suit with a silver tie, and there was something charming about him even though I knew I wanted to hit him. I shot him a nasty glare.

“It's time to go, Vienna. We have a meeting with your boyfriend.”

“And what are you going to do with me there?”

“Use you as a bargaining chip, of course. They know I’m ratting on them to the Agnelli’s. So now we make sure they don’t do anything about it. They close up shop, move on. Let me run guns and their restaurants and strip clubs. Make all the money.”

“You think that if you give me to them, they’ll let this all go? You’re insane. Luka will kill you for this.”

He shrugged. “I don't doubt he’ll try. I just know he won’t succeed. Too many of the Agnelli’s stand with me. Oh, by the way, someone is here to see you.”

“Who?”

“Vienna,” Roberto said as he walked into the room. He had a limp, obviously from the altercation with Luka.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I said with venom dripping from my voice. I thought Luka had disposed of him. But it was my call to make sure he lived. I was so stupid! If I had let him kill Roberto, then I wouldn’t be here.

“Making a claim. You belong with us, Vienna. And Armani says he’ll take care of our problem for us.”

“Our problem? You are the problem! Luka was trying to protect us. He didn’t go after my father for any other reason than to keep us safe!” As soon as I said it, I knew I believed it. He just wanted to protect me, always looking out for me.

Luka loved me.

Large knots formed in my stomach. They wanted war, the whole time that was their end game. And with me, they could have it. I was the catalyst, no matter what I did. Had I killed Luka, war, had we fallen in love and they killed me, war, they take all their business, war. There was no way around it.

I wasn’t going down without a fight.

Tags: Violet Paige Romance
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