Page 17 of Forgotten Vows

Once more, I hit him with the gun. He’d bleed out too soon with where I’d shot him. I needed answersnow.

“Tell me.” I pushed the tip of the gun back near whatever remained of his balls.

“The Riveras,” he got out between labored breaths.

Riveras?I furrowed my brow, placing the name.The Italians? What the hell?

“I’ve come to represent a new faction of the Rivera Family,” he clarified.

“Why?” I barked out, confused why the Italian Mafia would have any interest in me, and at this time. Or ever. My father never worked with any Italian crime families.

“I was instructed to capture you since you are a weak link to the Dubinin Dynasty.”

I blinked. Once. That was different. It wasn’t shocking that the Italians would want a piece of what Luka Dubinin had, but it didn’t add up for them to seemeas a connection to them.

“I’m not.”

It was stupid to waste the time and breath to tell this dead man that. He would be dead before I left this house.

“I’m not a weak link to any Dubinin,” I repeated, mostly just to confirm it verbally to myself.

Iwasn’t. I’d cut ties with any Dubinin since the day Ivan left me.

But my son was. He was a link to the Dubinins, sharing their blood.

Please, God no.

As the man closed his eyes, fading away as too much blood leaked from him, I had to admit that my worst fear was coming true.

This man was sent here to capture me, assuming I was a link to the Dubinins, but it was my son who would be wanted in that regard.

They know. Someone knows.

The second anyone in the world found out that Lev was Ivan’s son, there would be no semblance of safety in the world. A hidden, missing half-heir to someone in the powerful organization that Luka Dubinin mastered and ruled would be a huge discovery.

It would be an exploitation like no other.

I released the dead man, staring at him and damning him for coming to disturb this peace.

No peace would ever be waiting for me. Not real peace. Not a real and true sense of calm and security.

We have to go.

We have to leave now.

My neighbor would have to head home and figure this out the best he could. He would live, and his perfect little family would forever wonder why their mysterious neighbors were never heard of or seen in this area again.

But Lev and I had to leave.

Now.

And the only place I could think of to run to was the very last location I ever wanted to see again.

It was time to go home. As much as I hated the idea of going back to New York, it was time for me to go home and seek help from the man who should’ve been with us all along.

Ivan Dubinin might’ve wanted to cut ties with me once, but it was far past time for me to demand his assistance in keepingourson safe. If Lev was endangered because ofhisfamily, then he’d damn well have to own up and do the right thing now, no matter how messy our past was.

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