Page 61 of Ruined Vows (Borrelli Mafia #5)

VUKAN

THE MOMENT BEFORE

S he chose me. And now, I have to make sure she never regrets it. But that means one thing—she stays behind.

I have to leave before another attack. This isn’t her fight. When Radovan came for her, he made it mine.

I leave her a note on my pillow—scrawled, blunt, and soaked in everything I don’t know how to say out loud:

Wait for me. One more date. One more night. I’ll come back for it—for you. A promise is a promise. I’ll kill anyone who comes for you.

I gear up in silence. Luka arrives to pick me up.

“I kill him, he’s mine.”

He hands me the blade I requested, and he doesn’t argue.

Radovan won’t see it coming. He’ll think I’m walking into a trap. And maybe I am. But I’m walking into it like a man who has something worth dying for now.

The woman I never thought I’d want. The life I never thought I’d deserve.

I have one night left to take back what’s mine. And I’ll crawl through fire to make it to that next date alive .

The safe house basement smells like dust and oil, and the thick air clings to my skin.

Dragan, Luka, Filip, and David stand around the cracked wooden table in the center of the room, maps and burner phones scattered across the surface.

Bianca is upstairs with Irina, preparing food for us.

I pace, the adrenaline from earlier still burning under my skin.

David clicks the laptop closed and looks at me. His expression is grim.

“No confirmed hits on Radovan’s trail yet. He’s moving smart and switching safe houses. He’s even dumping tech, and I’m sure he’s paying off half the city to stay invisible.”

“Won’t be invisible for long,” I growl. “We’ll find him.”

Dragan leans forward, planting his hands on the table. “We need to stop reacting. He’s forcing us to play defense.”

“We hit first,” Luka says, cracking his knuckles. “Hard. Cut off his options before he even knows we’re coming.”

I nod. “Exactly.”

I stop pacing and face them all.

“No more waiting. No more giving him opportunities to come at her.” I jerk my chin toward Bianca. “We take the fight to him. We smoke him out, corner him, and put him down.”

David taps the laptop. “We’ve got a few leads. Properties he used in the past and safe houses tied to his men. There has to be a place he might feel comfortable crawling back to.”

I slam my hand down on the table, making the burner phones jump.

“I want full sweeps,” I order. “Surveillance, pressure, disruption. Hit his supply lines. Rattle his crews. Make it so he can’t take a fucking breath without wondering if it’s his last.”

Dragan smiles grimly. “Make him desperate.”

“Make him reckless,” Luka adds.

“Exactly,” I say. My voice drops low, lethal. “And when he’s desperate enough to show his face?—”

We march into the war room, and I glance at Bianca.

“I’ll end this.”

No one argues. They know I mean it.

David starts assigning targets, breaking down assignments. Luka and Dragan move into action without hesitation, weapons and comms already coming out of the gear bags.

Bianca stands quietly, watching me. She doesn’t try to stop me. Doesn’t ask me to be careful.

She knows better. She knows this isn’t about revenge. It’s about her. It’s about us.

And I’ll walk through fire and blood to make sure no one ever threatens what we’re building again.

I strap on my gear and check my sidearm, knives, and extra mags. It’s routine, automatic.

But every movement feels heavier tonight.

Because Bianca watches me from across the room, silent, her arms wrapped around herself like she’s holding something inside that might break free.

I can feel her eyes on me and the weight of everything she’s not saying.

I secure the last strap, turn to leave?—

“Vukan,” she says, voice soft but fierce.

I stop instantly.

She crosses the room to me, quick and sure, and grabs my wrist. Her fingers are trembling. She tries to hide it, but I feel it.

She looks up at me, her eyes burning with something that slices me open without mercy.

“I know you have to do this,” she says, voice low and tight. “I know you’re not doing it, so we’ll be free.”

I touch her face, cradling her jaw in my palm. “I’m doing it for you.”

“I’m not asking you to stay,” she whispers. “But you have to promise me you’ll come back.” She must love me because a tear slips free .

I lean in, my forehead resting against hers. Our breath mingles, fast and uneven.

“I swear it,” I say. “Nothing keeps me from you. Nothing.”

She surges up, her hands tangling in my shirt, and kisses me. It’s not sweet. It’s not soft. It’s desperate. Fierce.

A claim. A prayer. A battle cry.

I kiss her back like it’s the last thing I’ll ever do, pouring every ounce of love, rage, need into her, into this moment, this tether between us.

When we finally break apart, she presses her hand to my chest, right over my heart.

“Come back to me, Vukan,” she whispers.

“I will,” I vow. My voice is rough, shaking with everything I feel. “Always.”

I press one last kiss to her forehead, then tear myself away before I lose the strength to walk out the door.

Because now, it’s not just my life I’m fighting for.

It’s ours.

And I’ll tear Radovan’s whole world down to protect it.

Bianca

He’s gone. He left to end Radovan. The enemy. But how many more are lined up behind him?

When I reach for him, the bed is cold —the kind of cold that says he left hours ago, not minutes.

At first, I think it’s a mistake. That he’s in the shower, down the hall, pacing in the next room.

But then I see the note. Folded. Tucked into the pillow where he’d last been breathing beside me.

Wait for me. One more date. One more night. I’ll come back for it. For you.

My chest tightens. Not because it’s romantic. It isn’t. It’s a goodbye disguised as a promise. A man’s attempt to spare me the blood he knows is coming .

I sit on the edge of the bed and reread the words. Then again. I don’t even see them the third time—I just hear his voice saying them.

I should rage. Should scream. I should cry.

But I don’t.

I stay still. Frozen in a room that suddenly feels like a tomb because I understand what he’s doing. This is what love looks like for a man like him. It’s not filled with flowers or confessions—just sacrifice.

And I hate that it has to be this way. But even more, I hate the part that wants him to return.

Because that’s the part I can’t control. And if he dies out there… I won’t have to give it to him.

But if he lives, then everything changes.

And I don’t know if I’m ready for that. All I know is that I want to see him again and that I miss him terribly when he’s gone.

Vukan

The night air tastes like metal and gasoline.

I crouch behind the abandoned sedan, scanning the crumbling warehouse across the street.

Radovan’s inside.

I feel it.

Luka moves to my left, silent, ghostlike. Dragan’s covering the rear, his rifle steady.

David’s voice crackles softly in my earpiece.

“Target inside. Second floor. Two guards at the back entrance. Cameras on the east side are already dead.”

I tap twice against the mic. Acknowledged. I tighten my grip on the pistol in my hand. Every part of me hums with focus. With purpose.

This isn’t about bloodlust. This isn’t about revenge. It’s about her .

Bianca’s face flashes through my mind—her eyes full of trust, her body pressed against mine, the way she whispered, Come back to me.

I will.

I fucking will.

But first, Radovan dies.