Vow to Me: A Mafia Arranged Marriage (The Romano Empire Book 1)

Chapter Thirty

One week. Seven days. One-hundred and sixty-eight hours. That’s how long it’s been since I was let out of the hospital. That’s how long it has been since Luca decided he wasn’t going to let me out of his sight. I can’t even go to the bathroom without him attempting to hover over me.

The man is driving me fucking insane.

I thought it was cute at first, but now it’s just getting fucking ridiculous. If he doesn’t stop soon, I’m going to end up fucking stabbing him in the arm and sending him to the hospital just to get some peace.

I’m sat on the sofa, watching him pace around the room and muttering to himself about who the fuck knows what.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I eventually give in and ask.

“I need to deal with the cocksucker who was hired to rig the explosive on Enzo’s car, it’s been over a week since the incident, and we can’t wait much longer. I also don’t want to leave you here alone, so I don’t know what the fuck to do.”

Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t complain about him not letting me out of his sight.

“Easy, take me with you,” I say with a shit eating grin. I want to get my hands on the asshole who tried to blow me and my little brother-in-law to pieces.

He stops his pacing and turns to me, he runs his eyes over me as if assessing for injury, I’m completely healed so it’s not like he’s going to find anything. I’ve been fine for days and he won’t even touch me, the most action I’ve got from him is a quick kiss and him holding me at night.

He really needs to stop treating me as though I’m made of glass that will shatter at any moment. I won’t break, I’m a hell of a lot stronger than that and that’s just something he’s going to have to realize.

“Fine. But if you get dizzy, feel nauseous or feel even the slightest headache then were getting the fuck out of there and coming straight home. I won’t let you mess around with your health,” he says with a pointed look, and I roll my eyes before jumping up and pressing a kiss to his cheek and making my way to the bedroom to get ready.

I dress in black leather pants that could’ve been painted on to my skin, a cropped black sweater that hugs my breasts and I pair them with a pair of heeled, red ankle boots—and of course I add a red lip to match.

I eagerly walk back into the lounge to meet Luca, thankful that I’m getting to leave the apartment for the first time in a week. His eyes widen as he runs his gaze over me, his brows tugging down in a frown.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” he growls.

“What do you mean? What’s wrong with it?” I say in the most innocent tone I can muster and bite my lip to hide my smirk.

“Like fuck are you leaving the apartment looking like that Izzy, I’ll end up shooting every man we come into contact with, is that really what you want?”

“Tone down the caveman act, there’s nothing wrong with what I’m wearing and I’m not fucking changing. Now, let’s go,” I say in a no-nonsense tone and walk towards the elevator. Luckily Luca realizes this is not the hill he wants to die on and joins me with a sigh but doesn’t make a retort.

He stays silent the whole drive to the warehouse and he’s starting to make me nervous. Does he not want me involved with this? Does he not trust me?

“You’re freaking me out Luca, why are you being so quiet?”

“I’m regretting letting you come, what if you see the other side of me and hate me afterwards?” he says quietly and turns to me, the vulnerability in his eyes would floor me if I wasn’t already sat down.

“Are you being fucking serious? You do remember giving me a tongue in a jar with a bow made from flesh, right?” I say with a chuckle and take his hand in mine. “Nothing would make me hate you. Besides, I want a go at the asshole who tried to blow me up, are you going to hate me after that?”

“Of course not, I already know you’re a stabby psycho when you want to be,” he says, his tone is full of pride, and it makes my breath hitch knowing that I can completely be myself with him and not have to worry about what he’ll think of me.

I lean over and press a kiss to his jaw as we pull up outside the warehouse. Luca turns off the ignition and shifts so he’s facing me.

“If you want to leave at any time, just say the word and we’ll leave with no questions asked, if you start to feel sick at all just say the word and we leave. Don’t worry about anything else Izzy, okay? You come first, always.” He’s out of the door and rounding the car before I can reply.

We walk into the building side by side with Luca’s hand on the small of my back. The guards around the warehouse give Luca an inquisitive look before masking it and nodding to us, they’re clearly not used to seeing a woman involved in business.

We enter the main room and I see a man tied to a chair in the middle of the room, he must be in his early thirties, has shaggy blonde hair and brown eyes. There’s nothing recognizable about him, nothing at all that would make him stand out in a crowd. I see Marco stood in the corner with his usual mask of indifference in place while Enzo is standing behind the asshole strapped to the chair, he’s bent down and whispering in his ear with a manic look on his face.

Over the past week, Enzo has visited me nearly every day, he apologized profusely about what happened the day of the incident. He feels guilty that I got hurt, I ended up telling him that if he apologized one more time it would be him that had a concussion and he soon stopped. Yet, he still came to sit with me, and gave me a break away from my overbearing husband. Enzo glances up and spots us as we enter.

“Izzy! Oh, fuck dude, you thought having to wait for Luca to deal with you was bad? It’s even worse now that my favorite sister is here with him,” he sing-songs to the fucker and I give him a grin.

I go to stand next to Marco in the corner to let Luca do his thing and get any information out of him. There’s three of their men stood around the room who remain stoic, they ignore our presence until Luca orders one of them to bring me a chair—I internally roll my eyes because he’s such a fucking mother hen.

I sit and watch the show as Luca uses various torture methods to try and get information out of him. He clearly lives for this shit; he’s fucking loving it. The sadistic look in his eyes as he removes parts of his anatomy is a thing of beauty.

Huh, a thing of beauty? I guess I’m just as sadistic as he is.

It’s clear the asshole doesn’t know much, he says he was hired through an online forum which I’m familiar with, the thing about that forum is that it’s virtually impossible to trace the hit back to whoever placed it, but that won’t stop me from at least trying. Apparently, he was paid twenty grand to set up the explosives and the attack wasn’t aimed at me or Enzo in particular, the ad was placed for any member of the Romano family. The guy thought it would be easier to go for Enzo’s car since he uses less security than the rest of the family.

Once it’s clear our new friend—Elliot Barnham—doesn’t know anything more that’s of use, Luca turns to me and raises his brow. An unspoken agreement passes between us, he knows I’m pissed about the attack and that I want to inflict some pain on him myself. I won’t kill him—I’ll leave that part to Enzo who’s been jumping around the room wanting to get on to the killing part of the process.

I stand and make my way over to them, there’s a hint of relief in his eyes, thinking that I can’t be anywhere near as brutal as my husband, and I inwardly smirk at his misogynistic views.

“I spent three days in the hospital because of your little attack,” I say, feigning hurt. “It wasn’t very nice what you did to us.”

“I’m s-sorry, Mrs Romano… please... please ask him to let me go,” he pleads, and I tip my head back in a laugh.

“Let you go? Sorry sweetie, that’s not how this is gonna go.” I grin at him before pulling a switch blade for my boot, I fucking love these boots. Theres a hidden strap inside to keep my knives in place—plus, they’re pretty. Luca sighs when he sees me retrieve the blade, for some reason he doesn’t like me carrying them. I shrug at him and casually walk towards my new friend before bending down and cutting the ropes that tie his legs to the chair.

“Stand,” I order as I nod to Luca and Marco, gesturing for them to hold him in place. They both comply, letting me run my little show while Enzo giggles, yes fucking giggles from where he’s stood. Psychotic idiot.

This whole time Elliot has been sat in nothing but boxer briefs that are now covered in blood from Luca’s antic’s, I walk around him and stand behind him before I crouch and bring my blade to the back of his knees and slashing along the tendons in the back of both knees.

He drops to the floor and is now in a kneeling position while I walk back around him so I’m standing in front of him, him kneeling at my feet.

“I do love bringing men to their knees,” I say with a sweet smile while Luca growls at the insinuation. I ignore him and bring my attention back to the little fucker who thought he could hurt me and Enzo.

“Beg me,” I say, and he starts pleading at me to let him go. I stare into his eyes and the dryness of his face makes me frown.

He’s not very good at begging for his life. There should be tears.

I bring my knife down to his face and make a slice at both of his eye lids, so it looks like he’s crying tears of blood.

Hmm, that’s better.

Marco makes a sound in the back of his throat, I’m not sure whether it’s from approval or not, but that’s what I’m going to class it as.

“You should have cried for me, I didn’t want to do that, but you weren’t begging hard enough,” I say with a mock pout before nodding at Enzo, I’ll let him have his fun since it doesn’t seem like Elliot is going to last much longer after everything me and Luca have done to him.

I glance around the room and the men the guys have in the room are staring at me in shock, they’re not used to a woman having bigger balls than most men it seems. I clean up in the attached bathroom once Luca is finished and walk back out into the main room where Luca holds his hand out for me. “Mia regina,” he says clearly enough for the others to hear when I place my hand in his before bringing my palm to his lips and placing a sweet kiss.