Bound By A Promise (Brutal Vows #3)

Chapter 16

Chapter

Sixteen

Dante

S tanding outside near the pool gave me a sense of vulnerability. It was probably just the way I was raised in the bloody world of the Mafia. Nevertheless, it felt as if at any moment, we could be within someone’s sights. I peered over the edge of the cliff down into the dark abyss. The salty scent lingering in the breeze and the crash of distant waves alerted me to the Pacific Ocean far below. I’d been here during the day and seen the glistening waves for myself.

High above, the dark sky above the sea twinkled with hundreds of stars, evidence that the earlier clouds had cleared.

“The bride-to-be is ready,” Silas said, coming up behind me.

“You’re sure it’s safe out here?”

“I’m confident in my security system.”

I jutted my chin toward the cliff. “Isn’t that how the robbers got into this house before?”

“ Sí . That was before the motion detectors and alarms were installed. I’ve increased the number of guards tonight.”

“You did? When?”

“After Se?ora Roríguez informed me of the wedding.”

The small hairs at the nape of my neck stood to attention. “Are you anticipating a problem?”

“I’m always anticipating a problem. It’s my job. Jano and Mia are like my family to me. I wouldn’t allow them to spend time out here if I wasn’t confident they were secure.”

I heard his sincerity and saw his determined expression. “They trust you. I will too. Don’t let us down.”

Silas nodded.

Aléjandro and Father Gallo joined me under the stars, the priest taking his spot beneath the archway of lights.

“ Se?or Luciano,” he called me toward him.

I took my place standing to his left side. My dark jeans and t-shirt were hardly wedding apparel. Yet, here I was, with my back to the vast ocean and my eyes set on the inside of the house. Mia emerged, taking a seat next to her husband. I noticed with a hint of jealousy the casual way their fingers intertwined with one another’s as if they couldn’t be close without touching.

I’d lived my life as a bachelor, a loner. Seeing my sister and her husband and my brother and his wife were reminders of what I’d missed. The lights within the house went dark, leaving the only lighting out on the pool deck.

“Is everything—” I started to question, alarm spiking my already-tattered nerves.

Before I could get the rest of my sentence out, Camila stepped from the darkness in a long white dress, looking like an angel brought to earth. Her beauty took the wind from my lungs as her emerald gaze met mine. She smiled and walked forward. Fresh flowers were in her hand. Scanning from her long, luscious hair to the toes of her shoes, I thanked the Almighty that she chose me.

Of all the men in the world, Camila Ruiz chose a man who didn’t deserve her—one who would spend his life trying to. No longer did I wonder why Dario hadn’t chosen Camila. The reason was here and now. Coming from two completely different worlds, we never would have met. Dario’s choice of Catalina brought Camila to me. She wasn’t meant to be with Dario or even Reinaldo. Her fate was set the first time I laid eyes on her.

I lifted my hand, palm up. Camila reached for it, holding the flowers in the other hand. I closed my fingers around hers and turned toward the priest as the scent of cinnamon combined with the salty air.

The priest’s voice penetrated my thoughts, bringing me to the present. “Camila Ruiz and Dante Luciano, have you come here to enter into marriage without coercion, freely and wholeheartedly?”

Looking down at her, I stared into her beautiful green eyes. “Yes,” I replied.

“Yes,” she said with a slight nod of her head.

“Are you prepared, as you follow the path of marriage, to love and honor each other as long as you both shall live?”

I squeezed her hand as we both answered affirmatively.

“Since it is your intention to enter into the covenant of Holy Matrimony, join your right hands and declare your consent before God and His Church.”

Camila smiled as she looked down at our already-joined hands.

I followed the priest’s prompts. “I, Dante Luciano, take you, Camila Ruiz, to be my wife. I promise to be faithful to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love you and honor you all the days of my life.”

Next, Camila repeated her vows, the words that would make her mine forever.

“I, Camila Ruiz, take you, Dante Luciano, to be my husband. I promise to be faithful to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love you, honor you, and obey you all the days of my life.”

I marveled at her strength and determination. No way had she imagined her wedding occurring in someone else’s home as the clock neared midnight, without the comfort and support of her family surrounding her. Yet here she was, unwavering in her proclamation.

The priest spread his arms to his sides. “May the Lord in his kindness strengthen the consent you have declared before these witnesses and graciously bring to fulfillment his blessings within you. What God has joined, let no one put asunder.” He grinned. “It is time for the giving and receiving of rings.”

“Oh,” Camila’s eyes grew wide. “I don’t have a ring.”

“I have one.”

We all turned to the unexpected voice. I stiffened, ready to reach for my gun.

“Em?” Camila said, her eyes filling with unshed tears as her hand began to tremble.

Emiliano came forward. “I hoped to get here in time to walk you down the aisle.” He smiled at his sister. “I brought this.” He extended his hand toward Camila. Lying on his palm was a gold band.

The tears my bride was holding back cascaded down her cheeks. “Em, that was el abuelito’s. He gave it to you.”

“And I’m giving it to you.” He turned to me. “They’re going to do everything they can to annul this marriage. Every irregularity will be scrutinized. Take the ring and complete the ceremony.”

Twisting, I offered Em my right hand. “Thank you.”

His lips quirked. “My warning still stands.”

“I’ll spend my life convincing her I deserve her.”

“You don’t.”

I nodded. “I’m going to try.”

Again, her brother offered the gold band to Camila. This time, she picked it up and turned back to Father Gallo. “I have a ring.”

The priest looked at me.

“I have a ring, too.”

“Then we should proceed. Dante.”

I removed the ruby ring from my pocket and lifted Camila’s left hand. “Camila, receive this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

Camila’s smile was radiant as she lifted my hand and pressed the band over my knuckle. “Dante, receive this ring as a sign…”

Her love.

Her fidelity.

They were mine and I’d treasure them as I would treasure her.

“In the sight of God and these witnesses, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Dante, you may now kiss your bride.”

Leaning down, I cupped her cheek and brought my lips to hers, tasting her sweetness.

“Go in peace.” As the priest’s words came forth, a whirling sound came into range.

The noise grew louder as Silas yelled for everyone to go into the house. Seizing Camila’s hand, I pulled her along with me as I unsheathed my gun. Silas closed the glass doors. With the lights within still off, our wedding party was covered in darkness as well as behind glass.

Each man was armed, the barrels of the guns reflecting the lights from outside.

“What is it?” Camila asked, her hand trembling in mine.

“Helicopter,” Aléjandro answered. “Get back, away from the windows. Silas, contact the guards. Mia?”

“I’m here.”

The whirling grew even louder, shaking the walls. The whirl became deafening as if the helicopter were over the house.

Aléjandro shouted, “Take Camila, Viviana, and Father Gallo.”

“Come this way,” Mia instructed. Her silhouette barely showed against the backdrop of the front windows. Spotlights moved over the pool deck from above.

Fuck.

“Who did you tell?” I screamed over the noise at Emiliano.

“No one, motherfucker. I wouldn’t risk my sister’s life.”

“Bring her here.” Mia’s voice called from the darkness.

“Where?” I asked.

“Safe room.”

At the sound of the answer, Camila clung tighter to my hand and buried her face in my shirt. “No, please. I can’t do this again.” Her entire body trembled.

“Where is it?” I asked. Lowering my voice, I whispered in Camila’s ear, “You’ll be safe.”

“I can’t…I was alone.”

“You won’t be alone,” I promised.

Mia directed me to Aléjandro’s office. Within the closet, she moved a lever, causing the back bookcase to move. If there wasn’t a threat to my family and those I cared about, I could be impressed.

My sister offered Camila her hand. “Come with me.”

I’d take a thousand cuts from my enemies’ weapons over the terror in my new wife’s eyes. When I find out who caused her this distress, I’ll gut them, one by one.

“You’re not alone,” I reassured.

Rapid popping of gunshots came from outside the house causing Camila to jump.

“I can’t leave you, Dante.”

I kissed her hair. “You’re not leaving me. I’m not leaving you. Be safe.”

Father Gallo took her hand. Reluctantly, they both joined Mia in the safe room, followed by Viviana. Mia closed the bookcase. I turned off the closet light and closed the door. As I came around the corner, back into the living room, I saw the helicopter, hovering in the dark vastness beyond the pool.

“Fuck,” Aléjandro roared.

Three men were in the helicopter. The side facing the house was open with a door gunner armed with an MP5 submachine gun. They were fucking close enough to make out their identities if their faces weren’t obscured with ski masks. Bullets rained down over the pool deck, where we’d just been.

“The windows are bulletproof,” Silas yelled as they quaked with the repeated impact of 800 rounds per minute, shredding the pool furniture, planters, and anything in their wake.

“Goddamn them,” Aléjandro cursed.

We watched as the door gunner was struck, the bullet coming from the area to the side of the pool from the darkness. The helicopter wobbled. If not for his seatbelt, the damn door gunner would have fallen.

“Who the fuck are they?” I asked my brother-in-law.

“Border agents stopped a shipment of MP5s from coming into the US a few weeks ago.”

“Yours?”

“They tried to link them to us. They belonged to Kozlov.”

“Fucking Russians,” I said through clenched teeth.

“Our guards don’t have the firepower to bring down a chopper.” As Silas spoke, the chopper turned to the darkness of the ocean and disappeared.

“This wasn’t about the wedding?” I asked.

“I don’t think so,” Aléjandro answered. He turned to Silas. “Changing these windows saved our lives. Find out if any of our men were hit.” He looked at me and Emiliano. “We’ll get the all clear from the guards before we risk the women and collar.”

I turned to the large clock. “Fuck, it’s almost midnight.” We had less than fifteen minutes. The hands were ticking upward.

Aléjandro went to a tablet on the kitchen counter and handed it to me. “Go, take this. Father Gallo will make your marriage legal.” Next, he pulled his phone from his pocket. The conversation that ensued was not in English, yet I could tell it was upsetting him in the way the veins bulged in his neck and how his jaw tightened.

Holding the tablet, I waited.

Once he finished his conversation, he roared, a feral sound reverberating through the house.

“What else?” I asked.

“Rei’s house in Sacramento was attacked tonight. Simultaneously. Timed to hit us both when we should be sleeping.”

“That means this attack was against the cartel, not specifically our wedding.”

Emiliano came to my side. “Is Rei all right?”

That was probably the question I should have asked.

Aléjandro’s stare darkened, his pupils dilating. “Gerardo didn’t have bulletproof glass. Rei is fine. He wasn’t home. Two of our men on his patrol are dead.”