Page 43 of Ruined Vows (Borrelli Mafia #5)

VUKAN

A THREAT AT HOME

H e’s waiting for me in the old gun warehouse. It’s fitting that we don’t use it anymore and that he chose an isolated place to meet. God knows we’ve buried enough men in places like this.

Light filters through a high, cracked window, just enough to catch the smoke curling from Radovan’s cigarette as the concrete walls sweat under the summer sun.

He doesn’t rise when I step in.

Nor does he blink. He exhales slowly and poisonously. He’s a cancer that needs to be stopped.

“You came alone,” he says, like he’s surprised.

“I don’t need backup for rats,” I reply.

His smile is thin and crooked. It’s a face that knows the cost of that betrayal.

“You look tired, Vukan.”

“I’m bored. There’s a difference.”

He leans forward and ashes his cigarette against a broken stone tray.

“This alliance of yours—with the Borrellis. It’s got the council spooked.”

“Only the weak ones,” I mutter.

“They call it betrayal.”

“A smart man would view it as a strategy. I don’t give a fuck what it looks like to men who’ve spent their whole lives watching others build what they were too afraid to bleed for.”

Radovan chuckles, low and dry. “You always did like the sound of your own righteousness.”

“And you always liked to hide your ambition under someone else’s blood.”

His eyes darken. And there it is, the crack in calm, he stands, slowly, dragging the chair back with a shriek across the dusty floor.

“You were never meant to be our leader,” he says. “You inherited fire and thought you could tame it.”

“I didn’t tame it,” I say. “I became it.”

We’re close now, two feet apart.

“You killed Milo?,” he says with a flat voice. It’s not an accusation. He states it like a fact, and it is.

“I did what the old ways demanded. He touched a protected girl. He brought dishonor to this house.”

Radovan’s jaw tightens. “You’ve let a woman unmake you.”

I smile. “No. She reminded me I wasn’t made for your version of survival, or your version of a leader. I’m not my brother, I have honor, and a vision.”

There’s a long pause, and then he adds, “You know the next time we see each other, it won’t be for conversation.”

I nod once. “That’s the first honest thing you’ve said in years.”

I turn to go, but his voice stops me.

“Does she know?”

I pause.

“Know what?”

“That when this ends... you’ll lose part of yourself.”

I don’t turn around to answer. “She won’t have to. I don’t intend to lose. You’re a dead man walking, Radovan. ”

The showdown is looming. The problem? I don’t know who is on his side, except my Uncle, and I don’t know how he will come at me. But I’m sure I’m going to find out.

Luka comes by and we walk to my office.

The envelope is thick, and when I look at it, it’s unmarked. It was left on my desk in the estate’s war room— where no one should be unless I’ve invited them in. Which means it wasn’t placed. It was delivered.

Which means someone is telling me they can get to me. I open it slowly and find one sheet of paper. No letterhead. No signature. Just a photo, printed in black and white.

It’s Bianca.

Taken from a distance. Blurry but unmistakable.

She steps out of the shelter, sunglasses pushed to the top of her head, and her hand holds the door to the playground open for a little boy in a red shirt.

The timestamp in the corner tells me this was taken yesterday.

My jaw clenches as I flip the page. Then I notice something written underneath the photo, scribbled in a messy, masculine script: “She looks good in the light. I wonder how she’d look in the dark.”

I go very, very still. There’s no name, is there a signature? Not that I expected one. But I don’t need one.

Only one man still thinks he can touch me from the shadows and walk away with his hands intact.

Radovan.

I rub my hand over the stubble on my face.

This isn’t a threat. It’s a test. It’s a message that he’s watching me, and her, and that he’s close enough to strike.

He hasn’t forgotten who Bianca is to me, and that, because of her, and what she means to me, has pushed the situation past the point of no return .

I reread the note. Then I strike a match and burn it. I watch the ash float to the floor. Slow. Deliberate. No drama. No fanfare. No fireworks, but that will come.

But for now, it’s just silent ash and a room filled with white ash that makes it look like I burned the city down.

Luka steps in seconds later.

He pauses when he sees my face. “Something happened?”

“Call David. Get me eyes on Radovan’s top three lieutenants. Quietly.”

He nods, already pulling out his phone.

“And Luka?”

“Yeah?”

“Anyone who even looked at her wrong yesterday… disappears.”

But in my gut, I’m afraid I’ve procrastinated, and now, the danger is too close for comfort.

I’ve run out of time to take Radovan off the board. He’s coming for me, and she’s in danger. And that never sits well.