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CHAPTER 20
VINCENT
F or a while, things seem good.
I know better than to allow myself to get lulled into a sense of pleasant complacency. But I guess just once I wanted to feel like I could have everything I want without having to make any sacrifices.
Isla seems content—hell, she seems happy —here with me, with her own dance studio and her own stage and theatre. She spends hours a day training, and at night, with a glass of cognac or expensive scotch in my hand, I recline in the theatre seats and enjoy the private performance that she gives me. Watching her dance on that stage and seeing her happiness shine through each beautiful movement brings me more joy than I have ever known. Going to bed with her curled up in my arms every night brings me such deep peace that I can finally sleep at night after years of staying up on constant alert. Strangely, even though I haven’t gotten my revenge on Angelo Barone. I can’t risk any wars at this time until I know what other families would be on my side. I had planned to hold a gala to find out which families would side with me.
It isn’t until I hear ramblings from the streets and accounts from my crew that Angelo has moved on from his vengeance quest, that I finally feel that it’s safe enough for Isla and me to venture out together with no need to be hidden behind disguises. I’ve been doing most of my work from home, letting Luc handle all but the most important things at the casinos, and leaving the enforcement of any necessary actions to Alonzo until I’m confident enough in Isla’s safety to return to my usual routine in full force.
Now that Angelo seems to have accepted his defeat, I’m eager to resume business with Isla by my side. And to kick things off tonight, another gala at my club is in order.
“You look nice,” Marco compliments Isla when he arrives to drive us to my club.
I figured a sober driver tonight was a good idea since I plan to do a bit of celebrating myself.
“Nice?” I chuckle at his consistently modest decorum. “She looks breathtaking .”
I reach for Isla’s hand and give her a little spin in the foyer before we leave for the gala. Her skirt flips up around her thighs as she twirls, and the sound of her laughter is like that of a songbird.
“Thank you for driving us, Marco,” she smiles at him as she gets in the car.
He’s one of the good ones, always has been. Marco has a great future ahead of him, and I plan to ensure that he gets everything he has worked so hard to earn. His loyalty has been unmatched, and I think I might actually cut Alonzo loose one of these days and promote Marco to my underboss instead. He’s strong, smart, and capable of doing the hard things and making the tough choices. But he also has something that Alonzo doesn't—a good heart and a moral code.
When we arrive at the club, the place is already full. Gabriel is in the weeds at the bar, and the gambling tables are full. This time, I invited only guests that I know to be mild-tempered and respectful so that there are no incidents. I want to spend the night making the appearance of Isla on my arm an enjoyable and welcome occasion. I want everyone here to know that she is mine, and that I’m back at the helm of the ship.
Security is beefed-up not because I know of any viable increased threats, but simply because I don’t want there to be any chance of anything happening outside the safety of my home, where I have been keeping Isla protected these past days.
“This is incredible,” she beams as we walk inside. “It’s even more spectacular than I remember from the last time.”
“I had the staff add a few extra details—some more lighting, a few more high-roller tables, and a new menu for the event,” I say. “I want you to enjoy yourself tonight.”
“Isn’t this gala all about business, though?” she asks as she looks around at the crowds of people talking and laughing with cocktails in one hand and dice being thrown in the other.
“No, not tonight. Tonight, I want to see you have a good time in my world,” I say as I hold her on my arm. “The other side of my world—the part adorned in luxury and fine experiences and cultured people, not the bloodier, violent side.”
“Who are all of these people?” she asks, sounding slightly nervous. “Are they all entangled with the mafia?”
“No, not all of them. Some are just wealthy socialites and influencers who enjoy spending their money at my casinos. I invited a more select crowd to this event.” I reach out and grab two champagne glasses off the waitress’s tray as she walks past us. “Cheers. To new beginnings.”
Isla clinks her glass to mine and smiles as she touches the champagne flute to her lip. But just as I’m about to take a sip from my glass, chaos breaks loose.
“Get down!” Marco shouts. He seems to come out of nowhere, slamming his body into mine to push me out of the way of an incoming shot.
There, on the second level of my casino, a sniper fired his gun with me in the scope’s crosshairs. Marco must have spotted him just before the assassin pulled the trigger, and he threw his body in front of mine and took the hit. Isla screams as she watches Marco drop to the ground, and I reach to grab her and run.
“No! No!” she cries out as she wrestles against me. “We can’t just leave him here!”
All around us, guests are scrambling to run out of the club or take cover behind the gambling machines. My men are already firing shots back towards the sniper, and several are taking to the stairs to apprehend him. I look up at the second floor but can’t see anyone there anymore.
“I need to get you out of here,” I say to her, even though it sickens me to leave Marco behind without tending to him. “I need to keep you safe, Isla.”
“ No! ” she screams defiantly as she drops to her knees and places her hands against Marco’s chest to slow the bleeding.
My experience tells me that a gunshot is fatal, and he won’t survive. But still, I can’t help sympathizing with Isla’s profound desire to stay with him in his last breaths. Marco sacrificed himself to protect us. It profoundly shifts my perception of what being a good man, even one inside the mafia, means.
“Alright,” I say as I kneel beside her and lift Marco’s head from the floor so that he doesn’t choke on the blood pooling in his throat.
I keep my eyes keenly focused on everything around us, to make sure that Isla is safe even amidst this chaos. Several of my men surround us, providing a barrier of protection, and the sniper is nowhere in sight. Hopefully, one of my men has already put a bullet through his head.
“Y-you need to leave ,” Marco struggles to say. “Get out of here while you still can.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Isla says through her tears as she takes his hand. “We’re not leaving you, and you’re going to be fine.” She knows as well as I do that it’s a lie. There’s no chance that he’s going to survive this. But we’ll stay with him in his final moments because I owe him that much.
When Marco’s eyes fall open in a frozen stare, I know he’s gone, and that means it’s time for us to leave now, too.
“Come on,” I say as I pull Isla up to her feet and wrap my shoulder around her. “There’s nothing more we can do for him. It’s time to go.”
She nods, still sobbing, and takes my hand as we head for the door.
The next shot that I hear fired sounds like an echo coming from the back corner of the casino. I turn just in time to see the sniper in the shadows as my men pile on top of him. Only when I turn back around do I see his shot’s target.
Beside me, Isla’s mouth is open in a silent scream and the front of her dress is quickly pooling with blood. Her hands grasp the side of her torso where she was shot and her face freezes in a moment of sheer shock.
“ No, no, no! ” I howl at the top of my lungs. “Luciano! Alonzo! Help me!”
Instantly, Luc races around the corner and sees what has happened as I lift Isla into my arms.
“I’ll call an ambulance,” Gabriel says quickly.
“There’s no time for that,” Luc assesses. “My car is right out front.”
I run toward his car, cradling Isla gently in my arms. Luc speeds off toward the hospital, breaking every traffic law and running every red light. As soon as we get there, I push past the ER intake desk and demand to see a doctor. Isla’s eyes roll in her head as she loses consciousness.
There’s a flurry of activity. Doctors and nurses rush to take her from my arms and wheel her away. And no matter how much I try to assert myself, they refuse to let me into the operating room.
“You need to stay here and calm down,” Luc says in the waiting room as he puts his hand on my shoulder to still me. “Making a scene here will only interrupt what the doctors are doing to save her life. All we can do now is wait .”
I have never felt more powerless in my life, except for the moment when my sister was killed. It’s like reliving that tragedy and trauma all over again.
What good is being the most powerful, feared man in the city if I can’t protect and save the woman I love? What good is any of this for if my enemies are just going to take away the one thing that means the most to me and there’s nothing I can do to stop it? All the killing in the world means nothing if it’s done in vengeance after suffering an unspeakable loss.
Luc does his best to keep me calm, while terrifying thoughts of losing Isla race through my head and threaten to make me crumble for the first time in my life. I pace the waiting room like a caged animal, jumping at every sound of someone walking in or opening a door as I anxiously wait for news of Isla’s condition.
“It’s taking too long,” I say, frenzied and coming unhinged at the seams as I go to the hospital desk to demand an update.
“No, it’s not.” Luc stands in my way to prevent me from making a scene. “Vincent, you need to sit down and let them work. If you want them to save Isla’s life, you need to let these doctors and nurses focus on doing their job. She’s lucky to have survived the shot even thus far, so things are in her favor that we could get her here. They aimed that first shot at you, and you’re lucky to be alive.”
“Marco saved me,” I say in a stark moment of appreciation. “He sacrificed his life for me. I don’t know why he would have done that—he was young and had his whole life in front of him.” I look up at Luciano with anger in my eyes over having lost such a good man.
“He did it because he was loyal and decent,” Luc says. “And when this is all over, we will honor him.”
The loss and the still looming threat of more loss at the command of what can only be Angelo Barone and his sick quest for vengeance, is unbearable. Sitting down, I bury my face in my hands, sinking into the blue vinyl hospital chair. I thought I was done with all of this, with feeling and hurting and grieving the loss of people that I care about. I thought that losing my parents and then my sister was the most that I could take, and that I would never let myself be so vulnerable again. But here I am, palms sweating and throat dry as I grieve the death of one of my men and panic over the potential loss of the woman I’m madly and deeply in love with. I let myself care about Marco, and even more so about Isla. And despite how much it causes me pain , and how much I want to push it all away again, I can’t. Because it would be a disservice to what a good man and what a brave sacrifice Marco made to protect me and Isla. And it would be impossible for me to lessen the way that I feel about Isla now.
It's a turning point, one that I will never recover from this time. I’m refocused now, not only on fortifying my work in the mafia and ensuring my eventual vengeance against Angelo Barone and anyone else who would seek to undermine or damage what is important to me. But I’m also aware of an equally important priority—protecting those I love . I will no longer deny myself feelings, and I no longer see them as weaknesses. Instead, I’m going to let my love for Isla fuel everything that I do and protect her at all costs.
As soon as the waiting room door opens, I jump to my feet. This time, there’s a doctor standing in the doorway. I try to steady myself as he walks toward me. I can’t promise not to completely and utterly lose control if he delivers any bad news about Isla’s condition. For the first time in my life, I open my mouth, yet no words come out.
“How is she, doctor?” Luc asks in my place.
“ Alive ,” the doctor says with grave seriousness. “You got her here just in time. A few more seconds and she wouldn’t have made it.”
“But now she will make it?” I ask, needing to hear confirmation that I won’t lose her.
“Yes. She survived— barely , but she’ll pull through,” he nods. “It’s going to take her several days in the hospital to recover, and we’ll need to continue to monitor a few things. But she’s out of surgery, and her vitals are all good. We’ll be moving her to a room in a few hours.”
“That’s wonderful news, doctor,” Luc nods. “Thank you.”
The doctor glances over at me and stares at the blood covering my shirt. “You can go home and get cleaned up. I’ll have the nurse call you when Ms. Hart has been settled into her hospital room.”
“No, I’m not leaving,” I say firmly. “As soon as she’s in a room, I want to see her.”
“Suit yourself.” He nods as he turns to leave. “You can wait here, then. I’ll send the nurse to get you when it’s time.”
I’ve never been a praying man. Hell, I don’t even believe in a merciful God, so taking on the title of The Devil was never difficult for me to embrace. But right about now, I feel like dropping to my knees and thanking whatever divine deity has just spared Isla’s life—and spared mine .
“I’ll go back to the penthouse and pick up a change of clothes and some food for you,” Luc offers. “And I’ll make sure that Alonzo and the others are behaving and not doing anything too foolish in the aftermath of this attack at the casino.”
“I appreciate that,” I nod. “And there’s something else that I want you to do, too—interrogate the sniper. Find out as much information from him as you can and then kill him.”
“And when he talks,” Luc says, following my train of thought to conclusion. “When I find out who it was that shot Isla and who arranged this whole thing, you want me to kill them, too?”
“No. I want to do that part myself. Whoever did this, and I think we both have a good hunch who that is—they will deal with my wrath, and I will be the one to watch the life leave from their eyes.”
“You got it, boss.”
After Luc leaves, I sit in silence and wait. But this time, I can relax a little and be patient until the nurse arrives. I use the time to think about my next moves. Angelo will expect me to fly off the handle and react. He will want me to be unhinged now, and he’ll likely be prepared for it. Normally, I wouldn’t care, and I would launch an all-out war against the Barones. But I’m going to do things differently now. I am going to focus on what I want the most in my life, which is a life with Isla. I’m in this for the long haul, and I will take my time planning an excruciatingly accurate revenge on Angelo Barone—one that will make him wish he had never crossed me. But first, I am going to take care of something right now that can’t wait.
“Mr. Moretti?” a nurse calls my name. “Ms. Hart is in a recovery room now. Would you like me to take you to her?”
“Yes!” I say as I follow her down the hall.
As soon as I get to the room, I see Isla lying helplessly on the hospital bed. She looks so weak and vulnerable, with tubes and monitors stuck all over her. But she’s awake .
“ Vincent ?” she croaks softly as she gingerly turns her face toward me.
“I’m here, Isla,” I say as I rush to her bedside. “I’m here. And I’m never leaving you or going to let anything like this ever happen again. I swear it.”
She smiles and lifts a shaky hand to hold mine. Her grip is so weak that I can barely feel it.
“Isla,” I say as I lean over and place a gentle kiss on the top of her head. “I need to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“I love you more than anything in this world—more than life itself,” I say as I stand there in my bloodied shirt surrounded by the sounds of beeping medical equipment. “And I don’t think that I can live without you. I once thought that love was a weakness, and now I know it’s the only thing worth having in this life. I want you to be my wife. I want you to be mine in every way possible. And in return— I will be yours . Will you marry me?”