Victorious Vice, page 22
“I’m here, Austin,” I say.
“Thank you, Vinnie.”
“For what?”
“For what I’m about to ask you to do.”
I raise an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”
He grits his teeth. “Finish what I started.”
I drop my jaw.
Did I hear him right? He just asked me to kill him?
“Before you say no,” he continues, “I know all about you. I know what you’ve done. What you will do.”
There’s no way he knows about the plan in the works for Agudelo, Vega, McAllister, and the others.
So what the hell is he talking about?
“Yes, you’ve made it clear you’re aware of my past. But the answer is no. And you knew damned well it would be no.”
“It’s the only way I can save my family,” he says.
“Look. I know what you’ve gotten yourself into. You may not have had a choice. You may have had a choice but got seduced by the money.”
“Money has no value to me,” he says. “My mother left me more than I could spend in four lifetimes.”
“Then why?”
“I could say it started eight years ago, but it started much earlier than that.”
“But eight years ago was when Falcon—”
“Yes,” he interrupts me. “It was. I used it to my advantage, but I was also protecting my son.”
“Falcon?”
He shakes his head. “Eagle, actually. The kid’s a loose cannon. Always has been. Star and Raven babied him something awful. He grew up entitled, and you know what happens to entitled rich boys.”
“I’m afraid I don’t.”
He wrinkles his forehead. “You grew up rich.”
“I did. But you know where my money comes from. And you know damned well I wasn’t entitled. If you knew anything about my grandfather—”
“I know.” He weakly raises a hand to quiet me. “You didn’t have it easy. I didn’t mean to say that you did. Hawk, Falcon, the girls, they all grew up the same way. But Eagle was the baby. None of that really matters now. What matters is that they’re better off without me.”
“I don’t think they believe that.”
“Please, Vinnie. Finish it off. I know you have access to anything you need.”
I shake my head. “I won’t let you put me in this position. I love your daughter, and she would never forgive me if I was ultimately the one responsible for her father’s death.”
He closes his eyes.
“There are things,” he says. “Things that, if my family found out, they’d turn their backs on me anyway.”
I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of what’s going on with Austin Bellamy.
“Tell me this, Austin,” I say. “Are you my friend? Or are you my enemy?”
Bellamy opens his eyes, looking straight into mine, yet his gaze feels distant, unreachable.
“Vinnie,” he says, “I am neither a friend nor an enemy. I am a desperate man. I have done things—horrible things—and now, I can’t see a way out.”
“You could face it,” I say, “Face the consequences.”
“A luxury I don’t have,” Bellamy replies with a bitter smile. “Not with my children at stake.”
There’s something profound in the silence that follows. A heavy weight of a father’s love and guilt mingle together in the room. It drowns every other sound, leaving just the whispering wind outside the window to break the silence.
He reaches out and takes hold of my hand with an unexpected strength. His grip is like iron, the desperation seeping out of him so tangible I can feel it clenching my heart. He locks his gaze onto mine.
“Your love for Raven…” he starts. “It’s real, and I trust it. But it’s her love for me that worries me. That’s why you cannot tell her about any of this.”
I pull my hand from his grip, a cold sense of fear creeping up my spine.
“I won’t be your executioner, Austin,” I say firmly. “But I can help you find another way.”
He stares at me, silent and inscrutable. I can’t tell if he’s considering my words or simply resigned to his fate.
“Vinnie,” he finally whispers. “I’ve dug myself too deep to climb out. There’s no other way.”
“You’re wrong,” I argue. “There is always another way. You’re just trying to take the easy way out. This is really about deciding whether you’re strong enough to take it.”
His eyes search mine. I see a flicker of something in those blue irises, but it’s quickly concealed behind a wall of resignation.
“You don’t know the full story, Vinnie,” Bellamy says. “Once you do, you’ll understand why I’m asking this of you.”
The prospect of uncovering Bellamy’s secrets makes my stomach churn with unease. But despite the dread seeping into my bones, I know that I have to hear him out.
“Then tell me,” I press on, my voice steady in spite of the tremor threatening to break loose inside me. “Tell me everything.”
Bellamy draws in a long breath, his chest rising and falling with an audible sigh. “Just protect them. Please. Protect Raven.”
“With everything I have. But she can’t weather the loss of her father. Neither can the others. You have to heal. And then you have to face what you’ve done.”
He closes his eyes.
I wait.
A moment passes.
And then another.
I stare at the clock, watching the second hand.
Minute by minute by minute by minute.
Has he fallen asleep?
“Austin?”
No response.
I grab his hand and squeeze it. “Austin?”
Still no response.
I nudge his shoulder. Again no response. “Austin!” I shake both of his shoulders. I don’t want to shake them any harder because of his recent head trauma.
I rush out of the room. “I need a nurse, please.”
“What is it?” A nurse comes bustling in.
“We were talking, and then he closed his eyes. When he didn’t open them back up, I thought he’d fallen sleep. But I can’t rouse him.”
“Mr. Bellamy?” The nurse puts the stethoscope into her ears and listens to his heart. “His heart sounds good. The monitors are all good.” She nudges him. “Mr. Bellamy? Can you hear me?”
“What’s going on?” I demand.
“I’m not sure. Let me get a doctor.”
A moment later, a doctor in a white lab coat comes in. She takes all of Bellamy’s vitals again.
“Odd. Looks like he may have fallen into a coma. He may have a hematoma that we missed during the first scan.” She turns to the nurse. “We need to check for brain activity. Order another CT and MRI. Stat.”
“I’m going to need you to update his wife and children,” I say. “They’re outside in the waiting area.”
The doctor cocks her head at me. “You mean you’re not family?”
“I’m a…friend,” I say. “He asked to speak to me alone.”
She rolls her eyes. “Great. I’ve just violated HIPAA.” She whisks out of the room.
I follow.
As she explains the situation to Raven and her family, I listen with one ear.
No need to get freaked out until we have his test results back.
Maybe he’s just in a really deep sleep. He is healing from a massive injury, after all.
Raven falls against me. “Oh, Vinnie.”
“It will be okay, sweetheart.” I kiss the top of her head.
She pulls back a bit. “Oh, how can I be so selfish? You just lost your mother. And all I’m thinking about is me.”
“That was a month ago, baby. I’m okay. It’s okay to lean on me.”
God, I love her. I love her so damned much.
Does her father have any idea what he asked me to do?
If I did what he asked, Raven would hate me.
And that I cannot bear.
43
RAVEN
After what seems like an eternity, we finally have news from the doctor.
“Thank you for your patience,” the doctor begins. “The good news is, we’ve done extensive scans—MRIs, CTs—and there’s no sign of any major brain damage. His brain activity looks normal, which is reassuring. The bullet missed any critical areas, and there’s no significant swelling or bleeding that would typically explain why he’s in a coma.”
I pause for a moment, letting that sink in as I grasp Vinnie’s hand with desperation. My mother’s face is impassive. It’s all too much for her to bear.
“However,” the doctor continues, her voice softening, “despite those promising signs, he’s still in a coma, and at this point, we’re not entirely sure why. His body is not responding in a way we would expect, given the scans. There’s no clear medical reason for this level of unresponsiveness. It’s not unheard of, but it’s rare, and we need to explore all possibilities, including metabolic or chemical imbalances, or even psychological factors. Sometimes, after trauma, the brain can react unpredictably, almost as if it’s protecting itself, even when physically, everything seems stable.”
I swallow. My throat hurts. My head hurts. My heart hurts.
Psychological factors? I guess Dad would have to be in a bad place mentally to want to kill himself in the first place.
God, I hate this.
My mind keeps wandering back to that day years ago when I made him pancakes. The slimy-looking man in his study. Grandma telling me to remember that grownups make mistakes. That grownups have secrets, and sometimes it’s better not to know what they are.
Does that have anything to do with this?
“Right now, we’re monitoring him closely,” the doctor continues. “We’ll keep running tests, and we’ll do everything in our power to understand what’s going on and give him the best possible care. For now, what’s most important is that his condition hasn’t worsened, and that’s a positive sign.”
We all stare at the doctor in silence. She’s offered some comfort, but the big question—will our father wake up?—is still hanging in the air.
I can tell by the sympathetic look in the doctor’s eyes that she’s seen all this before.
She takes a deep breath and nods to each of us in turn. “All I can offer is patience. Recovery in cases like this can be unpredictable, but we won’t give up. We’ll take this one step at a time.”
I collapse back in Vinnie’s arms.
He runs his hands up and down my back. “It’s going to be okay, baby. We’ll get through this together.”
I look up at him. “Did you just say what I thought you said?”
He raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“You said we’ll get through this together. You and I. Together.”
He squeezes me. “I didn’t misspeak.”
“So you’re done with this stay away from Raven for her own safety bullshit?”
He cracks a tiny smile. “I suppose I am.”
I wrap my arms around him, squeeze him as tight as I can. “Oh, Vinnie. I love you.”
“And I love you too, baby.”
And in this moment, perhaps the darkest my family has ever faced, there’s a small glimmer of something beautiful.
Hope.
44
VINNIE
A week later…
Everything is complete.
Mario and Serena are settled in Dubai.
I’ve received confirmation that McAllister and Agudelo are in their graves. No news yet on Vega, but I’m confident that my plan worked with him as well.
I’ve cooperated with law enforcement, handed over tainted funds to the Feds, and cleared our coffee import business of all illegal activity.
Belinda and her governess, Natalie, are getting settled in my home, and Daniela is thrilled to have a little sister.
But Bellamy is still in a coma.
He’s not on life support. He’s breathing on his own. But he won’t wake up.
Three months later…
Daniela now has legal status in the US, and our divorce will be finalized in another few months. She’s living in one of my guestrooms, and she’ll begin culinary school soon.
Belinda is doing well. She’s in therapy to deal with her father’s abuse, but she finds solace in her music. I’ve hired a college piano professor to teach her and bought a nine-foot grand piano for her to practice on.
I haven’t heard anything from Mario and Serena, but that’s expected. I assume they are happily enjoying their time together in Dubai. I’ve begun the process of getting my father released from prison. It will be a long road, but my attorneys think it can be done.
Austin Bellamy is still in a coma, and the physicians don’t know why. He shows brain activity, so pulling the plug isn’t an option. He’s been moved to a facility here in Austin, and Raven—who has moved in with me—visits with him every day. Her other time is spent working at Raven’s Wings, which is thriving.
I’m now CEO of the Bianchi Coffee Imports—a totally legit company, and a successful one. I have enough money to live out my life in luxury and support Daniela, Belinda, and any children Raven and I may have together.
And it’s clean money. So clean it squeaks.
I did what I set out to do, and though I was victorious, I had to become everything I despised about Mario. Unlike my money, my hands aren’t clean. I had to use evil means not to bring about ruin, but to achieve victory.
Victorious vice.
Victory came at a price. When you’re fighting darkness, you don’t walk away unscathed.
I have to live with that.
“Hey, babe!” Raven knocks on the open door of my study with that smile that still makes my heart pump faster.
“How is he today?” I ask.
She sighs. “The same.” Then she smiles again. “But I just heard Belinda working on a new piece. It sounds amazing. And she was smiling, Vinnie. Smiling!”
I nod. Belinda started smiling a few days ago. It was a huge thing for all of us, but especially for Raven. She’s grown to love the girl like a daughter.
In my desk drawer is a five-carat diamond engagement ring.
I haven’t yet popped the question to Raven. I want to, more than I want my next breath. But technically I’m still married to Daniela, though my attorney assures me the divorce will be final soon. And we’ll arrange an alimony agreement to make sure she’s taken care of as she pursues her culinary dreams.
But Daniela is not the real reason I haven’t proposed yet. I don’t need to be legally divorced to get engaged.
Part of me still feels unworthy of Raven. She is goodness and light personified, and I…
Well…I’m not. Plus, I’m a genetic nightmare—the product of a father and his daughter. I even had my DNA tested, just in case Mario was lying to me.
He wasn’t.
Raven’s cheeks are rosy and they’ve plumped up, and her hair is now in a stylish dark pixie cut that she tucks behind her ears. Her latest scans and blood work were perfect.
She deserves everything life has to offer.
“Vinnie…” she says.
“Yeah, baby?”
She wiggles the fingers of her left hand toward me. “When are you going to make us official?”
I raise my eyebrows. Has she been reading my mind?
I rise and walk to her, taking her in my arms. “I officially love you, Raven. You know that.”
“And I love you. We’re safe now. You took down the Bianchi empire. You’re a legitimate businessman. And you’re a wonderful human being.”
I don’t reply.
“How can you not agree with me?” she asks.
“I didn’t say I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. By not saying anything.” She shakes her head. “Look what you’ve done for Belinda. For Daniela. For Savannah and Falcon. You’re everything, Vinnie. I want you to be my everything.”
I kiss her then—a raw, open-mouthed kiss—because what I’m about to tell her may send her running for the hills.
I break the kiss. “I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you too, Vinnie.”
I grip her shoulders. “I have to tell you something.”
She bites her lower lip. “You can tell me anything.”
God, I hate keeping secrets from her. She still doesn’t know the extent of her father’s involvement with the cartels. Hell, I don’t even know the extent, since Agudelo is now dead. Only Bellamy himself knows…and he’s not talking from his coma.
But one secret remains that Raven has to know before she consents to a life with me.
“I found out something right after my mother died,” I say. “Something that rattled me to my bones. But in an eerie way, it made sense.”
She bites her lip, her eyes wide. “You’re scaring me, Vinnie.”
I cup her cheek. “Don’t be scared. I don’t want you to ever feel fear again, Raven.”
“All right.” She swallows. “Just tell me. You can’t tell me anything that will make me stop loving you.”
I hope she’s right. “I’m just going to say it.” I draw in a breath. “Vincent Gallo Senior isn’t my biological father. Mario Bianchi is.”
She drops her jaw. “Then who’s your mother?” Then she gasps. “Oh my God…”
I nod. “Right. My mother is my mother. I’m a product of incest, Raven. And I don’t blame you for being disgusted. I know I am.”
“Oh, Vinnie.” She wraps her arms around me. “I’m not disgusted. Not by you. Maybe by how you came about, but that’s not your fault.”
“You should know that I’ve talked to a DNA expert and to my personal physician. They say that because I don’t have any genetic abnormalities from inbreeding that any children of mine probably won’t either. But there’s always a possibility, Raven. You need to go into this with your eyes open.”
She steps back. “This is… This is…”
God. I can’t lose her. Not after everything we’ve been through to be together.
But I’ll let her go if I have to.
If this is a dealbreaker for her, she certainly won’t be able to handle all the other skeletons in my closet as they reveal themselves.
“Thank you, Vinnie.”
“For what?”
“For what I’m about to ask you to do.”
I raise an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”
He grits his teeth. “Finish what I started.”
I drop my jaw.
Did I hear him right? He just asked me to kill him?
“Before you say no,” he continues, “I know all about you. I know what you’ve done. What you will do.”
There’s no way he knows about the plan in the works for Agudelo, Vega, McAllister, and the others.
So what the hell is he talking about?
“Yes, you’ve made it clear you’re aware of my past. But the answer is no. And you knew damned well it would be no.”
“It’s the only way I can save my family,” he says.
“Look. I know what you’ve gotten yourself into. You may not have had a choice. You may have had a choice but got seduced by the money.”
“Money has no value to me,” he says. “My mother left me more than I could spend in four lifetimes.”
“Then why?”
“I could say it started eight years ago, but it started much earlier than that.”
“But eight years ago was when Falcon—”
“Yes,” he interrupts me. “It was. I used it to my advantage, but I was also protecting my son.”
“Falcon?”
He shakes his head. “Eagle, actually. The kid’s a loose cannon. Always has been. Star and Raven babied him something awful. He grew up entitled, and you know what happens to entitled rich boys.”
“I’m afraid I don’t.”
He wrinkles his forehead. “You grew up rich.”
“I did. But you know where my money comes from. And you know damned well I wasn’t entitled. If you knew anything about my grandfather—”
“I know.” He weakly raises a hand to quiet me. “You didn’t have it easy. I didn’t mean to say that you did. Hawk, Falcon, the girls, they all grew up the same way. But Eagle was the baby. None of that really matters now. What matters is that they’re better off without me.”
“I don’t think they believe that.”
“Please, Vinnie. Finish it off. I know you have access to anything you need.”
I shake my head. “I won’t let you put me in this position. I love your daughter, and she would never forgive me if I was ultimately the one responsible for her father’s death.”
He closes his eyes.
“There are things,” he says. “Things that, if my family found out, they’d turn their backs on me anyway.”
I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of what’s going on with Austin Bellamy.
“Tell me this, Austin,” I say. “Are you my friend? Or are you my enemy?”
Bellamy opens his eyes, looking straight into mine, yet his gaze feels distant, unreachable.
“Vinnie,” he says, “I am neither a friend nor an enemy. I am a desperate man. I have done things—horrible things—and now, I can’t see a way out.”
“You could face it,” I say, “Face the consequences.”
“A luxury I don’t have,” Bellamy replies with a bitter smile. “Not with my children at stake.”
There’s something profound in the silence that follows. A heavy weight of a father’s love and guilt mingle together in the room. It drowns every other sound, leaving just the whispering wind outside the window to break the silence.
He reaches out and takes hold of my hand with an unexpected strength. His grip is like iron, the desperation seeping out of him so tangible I can feel it clenching my heart. He locks his gaze onto mine.
“Your love for Raven…” he starts. “It’s real, and I trust it. But it’s her love for me that worries me. That’s why you cannot tell her about any of this.”
I pull my hand from his grip, a cold sense of fear creeping up my spine.
“I won’t be your executioner, Austin,” I say firmly. “But I can help you find another way.”
He stares at me, silent and inscrutable. I can’t tell if he’s considering my words or simply resigned to his fate.
“Vinnie,” he finally whispers. “I’ve dug myself too deep to climb out. There’s no other way.”
“You’re wrong,” I argue. “There is always another way. You’re just trying to take the easy way out. This is really about deciding whether you’re strong enough to take it.”
His eyes search mine. I see a flicker of something in those blue irises, but it’s quickly concealed behind a wall of resignation.
“You don’t know the full story, Vinnie,” Bellamy says. “Once you do, you’ll understand why I’m asking this of you.”
The prospect of uncovering Bellamy’s secrets makes my stomach churn with unease. But despite the dread seeping into my bones, I know that I have to hear him out.
“Then tell me,” I press on, my voice steady in spite of the tremor threatening to break loose inside me. “Tell me everything.”
Bellamy draws in a long breath, his chest rising and falling with an audible sigh. “Just protect them. Please. Protect Raven.”
“With everything I have. But she can’t weather the loss of her father. Neither can the others. You have to heal. And then you have to face what you’ve done.”
He closes his eyes.
I wait.
A moment passes.
And then another.
I stare at the clock, watching the second hand.
Minute by minute by minute by minute.
Has he fallen asleep?
“Austin?”
No response.
I grab his hand and squeeze it. “Austin?”
Still no response.
I nudge his shoulder. Again no response. “Austin!” I shake both of his shoulders. I don’t want to shake them any harder because of his recent head trauma.
I rush out of the room. “I need a nurse, please.”
“What is it?” A nurse comes bustling in.
“We were talking, and then he closed his eyes. When he didn’t open them back up, I thought he’d fallen sleep. But I can’t rouse him.”
“Mr. Bellamy?” The nurse puts the stethoscope into her ears and listens to his heart. “His heart sounds good. The monitors are all good.” She nudges him. “Mr. Bellamy? Can you hear me?”
“What’s going on?” I demand.
“I’m not sure. Let me get a doctor.”
A moment later, a doctor in a white lab coat comes in. She takes all of Bellamy’s vitals again.
“Odd. Looks like he may have fallen into a coma. He may have a hematoma that we missed during the first scan.” She turns to the nurse. “We need to check for brain activity. Order another CT and MRI. Stat.”
“I’m going to need you to update his wife and children,” I say. “They’re outside in the waiting area.”
The doctor cocks her head at me. “You mean you’re not family?”
“I’m a…friend,” I say. “He asked to speak to me alone.”
She rolls her eyes. “Great. I’ve just violated HIPAA.” She whisks out of the room.
I follow.
As she explains the situation to Raven and her family, I listen with one ear.
No need to get freaked out until we have his test results back.
Maybe he’s just in a really deep sleep. He is healing from a massive injury, after all.
Raven falls against me. “Oh, Vinnie.”
“It will be okay, sweetheart.” I kiss the top of her head.
She pulls back a bit. “Oh, how can I be so selfish? You just lost your mother. And all I’m thinking about is me.”
“That was a month ago, baby. I’m okay. It’s okay to lean on me.”
God, I love her. I love her so damned much.
Does her father have any idea what he asked me to do?
If I did what he asked, Raven would hate me.
And that I cannot bear.
43
RAVEN
After what seems like an eternity, we finally have news from the doctor.
“Thank you for your patience,” the doctor begins. “The good news is, we’ve done extensive scans—MRIs, CTs—and there’s no sign of any major brain damage. His brain activity looks normal, which is reassuring. The bullet missed any critical areas, and there’s no significant swelling or bleeding that would typically explain why he’s in a coma.”
I pause for a moment, letting that sink in as I grasp Vinnie’s hand with desperation. My mother’s face is impassive. It’s all too much for her to bear.
“However,” the doctor continues, her voice softening, “despite those promising signs, he’s still in a coma, and at this point, we’re not entirely sure why. His body is not responding in a way we would expect, given the scans. There’s no clear medical reason for this level of unresponsiveness. It’s not unheard of, but it’s rare, and we need to explore all possibilities, including metabolic or chemical imbalances, or even psychological factors. Sometimes, after trauma, the brain can react unpredictably, almost as if it’s protecting itself, even when physically, everything seems stable.”
I swallow. My throat hurts. My head hurts. My heart hurts.
Psychological factors? I guess Dad would have to be in a bad place mentally to want to kill himself in the first place.
God, I hate this.
My mind keeps wandering back to that day years ago when I made him pancakes. The slimy-looking man in his study. Grandma telling me to remember that grownups make mistakes. That grownups have secrets, and sometimes it’s better not to know what they are.
Does that have anything to do with this?
“Right now, we’re monitoring him closely,” the doctor continues. “We’ll keep running tests, and we’ll do everything in our power to understand what’s going on and give him the best possible care. For now, what’s most important is that his condition hasn’t worsened, and that’s a positive sign.”
We all stare at the doctor in silence. She’s offered some comfort, but the big question—will our father wake up?—is still hanging in the air.
I can tell by the sympathetic look in the doctor’s eyes that she’s seen all this before.
She takes a deep breath and nods to each of us in turn. “All I can offer is patience. Recovery in cases like this can be unpredictable, but we won’t give up. We’ll take this one step at a time.”
I collapse back in Vinnie’s arms.
He runs his hands up and down my back. “It’s going to be okay, baby. We’ll get through this together.”
I look up at him. “Did you just say what I thought you said?”
He raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“You said we’ll get through this together. You and I. Together.”
He squeezes me. “I didn’t misspeak.”
“So you’re done with this stay away from Raven for her own safety bullshit?”
He cracks a tiny smile. “I suppose I am.”
I wrap my arms around him, squeeze him as tight as I can. “Oh, Vinnie. I love you.”
“And I love you too, baby.”
And in this moment, perhaps the darkest my family has ever faced, there’s a small glimmer of something beautiful.
Hope.
44
VINNIE
A week later…
Everything is complete.
Mario and Serena are settled in Dubai.
I’ve received confirmation that McAllister and Agudelo are in their graves. No news yet on Vega, but I’m confident that my plan worked with him as well.
I’ve cooperated with law enforcement, handed over tainted funds to the Feds, and cleared our coffee import business of all illegal activity.
Belinda and her governess, Natalie, are getting settled in my home, and Daniela is thrilled to have a little sister.
But Bellamy is still in a coma.
He’s not on life support. He’s breathing on his own. But he won’t wake up.
Three months later…
Daniela now has legal status in the US, and our divorce will be finalized in another few months. She’s living in one of my guestrooms, and she’ll begin culinary school soon.
Belinda is doing well. She’s in therapy to deal with her father’s abuse, but she finds solace in her music. I’ve hired a college piano professor to teach her and bought a nine-foot grand piano for her to practice on.
I haven’t heard anything from Mario and Serena, but that’s expected. I assume they are happily enjoying their time together in Dubai. I’ve begun the process of getting my father released from prison. It will be a long road, but my attorneys think it can be done.
Austin Bellamy is still in a coma, and the physicians don’t know why. He shows brain activity, so pulling the plug isn’t an option. He’s been moved to a facility here in Austin, and Raven—who has moved in with me—visits with him every day. Her other time is spent working at Raven’s Wings, which is thriving.
I’m now CEO of the Bianchi Coffee Imports—a totally legit company, and a successful one. I have enough money to live out my life in luxury and support Daniela, Belinda, and any children Raven and I may have together.
And it’s clean money. So clean it squeaks.
I did what I set out to do, and though I was victorious, I had to become everything I despised about Mario. Unlike my money, my hands aren’t clean. I had to use evil means not to bring about ruin, but to achieve victory.
Victorious vice.
Victory came at a price. When you’re fighting darkness, you don’t walk away unscathed.
I have to live with that.
“Hey, babe!” Raven knocks on the open door of my study with that smile that still makes my heart pump faster.
“How is he today?” I ask.
She sighs. “The same.” Then she smiles again. “But I just heard Belinda working on a new piece. It sounds amazing. And she was smiling, Vinnie. Smiling!”
I nod. Belinda started smiling a few days ago. It was a huge thing for all of us, but especially for Raven. She’s grown to love the girl like a daughter.
In my desk drawer is a five-carat diamond engagement ring.
I haven’t yet popped the question to Raven. I want to, more than I want my next breath. But technically I’m still married to Daniela, though my attorney assures me the divorce will be final soon. And we’ll arrange an alimony agreement to make sure she’s taken care of as she pursues her culinary dreams.
But Daniela is not the real reason I haven’t proposed yet. I don’t need to be legally divorced to get engaged.
Part of me still feels unworthy of Raven. She is goodness and light personified, and I…
Well…I’m not. Plus, I’m a genetic nightmare—the product of a father and his daughter. I even had my DNA tested, just in case Mario was lying to me.
He wasn’t.
Raven’s cheeks are rosy and they’ve plumped up, and her hair is now in a stylish dark pixie cut that she tucks behind her ears. Her latest scans and blood work were perfect.
She deserves everything life has to offer.
“Vinnie…” she says.
“Yeah, baby?”
She wiggles the fingers of her left hand toward me. “When are you going to make us official?”
I raise my eyebrows. Has she been reading my mind?
I rise and walk to her, taking her in my arms. “I officially love you, Raven. You know that.”
“And I love you. We’re safe now. You took down the Bianchi empire. You’re a legitimate businessman. And you’re a wonderful human being.”
I don’t reply.
“How can you not agree with me?” she asks.
“I didn’t say I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. By not saying anything.” She shakes her head. “Look what you’ve done for Belinda. For Daniela. For Savannah and Falcon. You’re everything, Vinnie. I want you to be my everything.”
I kiss her then—a raw, open-mouthed kiss—because what I’m about to tell her may send her running for the hills.
I break the kiss. “I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you too, Vinnie.”
I grip her shoulders. “I have to tell you something.”
She bites her lower lip. “You can tell me anything.”
God, I hate keeping secrets from her. She still doesn’t know the extent of her father’s involvement with the cartels. Hell, I don’t even know the extent, since Agudelo is now dead. Only Bellamy himself knows…and he’s not talking from his coma.
But one secret remains that Raven has to know before she consents to a life with me.
“I found out something right after my mother died,” I say. “Something that rattled me to my bones. But in an eerie way, it made sense.”
She bites her lip, her eyes wide. “You’re scaring me, Vinnie.”
I cup her cheek. “Don’t be scared. I don’t want you to ever feel fear again, Raven.”
“All right.” She swallows. “Just tell me. You can’t tell me anything that will make me stop loving you.”
I hope she’s right. “I’m just going to say it.” I draw in a breath. “Vincent Gallo Senior isn’t my biological father. Mario Bianchi is.”
She drops her jaw. “Then who’s your mother?” Then she gasps. “Oh my God…”
I nod. “Right. My mother is my mother. I’m a product of incest, Raven. And I don’t blame you for being disgusted. I know I am.”
“Oh, Vinnie.” She wraps her arms around me. “I’m not disgusted. Not by you. Maybe by how you came about, but that’s not your fault.”
“You should know that I’ve talked to a DNA expert and to my personal physician. They say that because I don’t have any genetic abnormalities from inbreeding that any children of mine probably won’t either. But there’s always a possibility, Raven. You need to go into this with your eyes open.”
She steps back. “This is… This is…”
God. I can’t lose her. Not after everything we’ve been through to be together.
But I’ll let her go if I have to.
If this is a dealbreaker for her, she certainly won’t be able to handle all the other skeletons in my closet as they reveal themselves.
