Corrupt Vows (Vicious Mafia Kings #1)

Chapter 20

Nico Russo

My tires squeal as I slam on my brakes. I throw the car in park, jump out, and run the rest of the way to the accident.

Past and present collide as I skid to a stop beside the upside-down car. With my muted phone plastered to my ear, I drop to my knees knowing Serenity isn’t here, but terrified I’ll find Natalie’s tiny arms dangling from her car seat.

The empty back bench both sends relief through me and fills me with terror. I yell for Serenity even as I confirm she’s gone.

She has her phone. It’s still on a call with mine. I refuse to lift my phone from my ear as muffled sounds filter through the speaker.

As I stumble away, my foot tangles in the strap of her purse. The brown bag hanging halfway out of the top spills its contents. I stare in disbelief before dropping into a crouch and snatching the white sticks off the ground.

She’s pregnant. Mia principessa is carrying my baby.

Serenity will give birth to my child.

The woman I love is in the hands of my enemies while she’s the most vulnerable.

Cold fury wipes away my panic.

I turn and stalk back to my car. Ermanno matches my stride as he joins me halfway.

“Track her phone. I’m on a call with her, but I can’t make anything out,” I say as I drop into the driver’s seat.

He pulls out his phone as he crams himself into the passenger seat and slams his door.

“Double security on mia famiglia . Keep this quiet.”

His fingers fly over his phone screen. I put the call through the car’s speakers and hit the gas so hard the tires skip on the asphalt.

“Get our top twenty soldiers on our tail. Gather another hundred as backup.”

He pulls a second phone out of his pocket, puts the first in the cupholder where I can see the red dot indicating Serenity’s location, and starts coordinating our attack on the phone in his hands. I work my arms out of my suit jacket and toss it in the backseat as I weave through the busy streets. After yanking the center console open, I rip off the faux bottom.

“Bring my bride home at all costs,” I say as I pull the slim chest harness with two fully loaded pistols from the secret compartment.

“Kill them all,” I snarl as I dodge a box truck and jump the curb to go around on the sidewalk. Pedestrians scramble out of the way. I swerve back onto the road and thread my arms into the harness.

“We will, boss,” Ermanno promises.

I gesture to the glove box. He opens it and pops the back panel off before handing me the knives. I add them to the collection already hidden on my body.

The little red dot continues to move. I snarl and speed up as they reach the less crowded outer portion of the city. The harsh sound of fabric shifting over her phone’s mouthpiece blares through my car speakers. Serenity whimpers. My senses sharpen.

I run a traffic light and narrowly miss hitting a minivan. No guilt rises. Nothing matters beyond saving Serenity. A taxi pulls out in front of me. I swerve and thread the car between two motorcycles before barreling through another light and skidding around a corner.

A pack of police exiting a coffee shop do a comical double take, but none rush to their car after they read my license plate.

I close the distance between us and the little red dot, slowly gaining ground as I leave the busy streets behind. They turn off the main road. I curse as three black SUVs pop out of the woodwork and box me in.

Ermanno rolls down his window, sticks his arm out, and takes out the guy in the backseat before the piece of shit even fires his weapon. With a quick shift of aim, he flattens the front driver’s side tire with a few well-placed bullets. I mash the gas pedal to the floor and avoid the vehicle as the driver loses control.

Two assholes with rifles lean out the back of the SUV in front of us. I turn the wheel. The driver mimics my movement. I slam on my brakes, jerk the wheel in the opposite direction, and mash the accelerator.

The third vehicle swerves in response and clips the back bumper of the other SUV. I hit the space behind their back tire with my front bumper. They spin. The two idiots fall out of the second vehicle and disappear under the third.

I swerve wide to avoid the spinning vehicle as they tip and roll, leaving a trail of shattered pieces behind us.

With only one more vehicle to deal with, I leave it to Ermanno and check the little red dot’s location just in time to see them head toward the industrial park outside the city limits.

Flames fill my rearview mirror. I don’t know how Ermanno took care of the last SUV, but they won’t be chasing us.

Serenity’s scream blasts through the speakers and fabric rustles against her phone as she fights. She must have hidden it in her clothes.

I smash through the gate to the industrial park, and even though they know we’re coming, and we don’t have backup, I race across the massive lot toward Serenity.

A single black van sits several feet from a set of open double doors. Serenity struggles between two men as they lift her out of the vehicle.

A truck barrels out from between two buildings without warning and T-bones the back driver’s side of my car. Metal crunches and glass shatters in a deafening barrage of sound as the bigger vehicle smashes ours against the building. Pain blasts through me and shrapnel peppers my face and shoulders, but the front of my car retains enough of its shape to prevent Ermanno and me from becoming pancakes.

Knowing my door won’t open, I wriggle my way over the steering wheel and out the broken front window. Bullets whizz past me as the four goons between the van and the building realize I’m not dead.

With Serenity’s scream in stereo—both coming from the open double doors and echoing through my car’s speakers—I stalk forward and shoot the man closest to the building before he can enter. Crimson splatters on the man beside him. I pull the trigger several more times, preventing the remaining three goons from entering the building. Two scream and clutch their sides.

White-hot agony streaks across my thigh as the driver of the van lands a lucky shot, but even without checking, I know it’s a superficial wound.

Ermanno’s pistol sounds behind me as he takes out the drivers of the van and the truck.

I pull my longest knife from its sheath and take the last few steps toward the only man without at least one extra hole in him. His knife grazes my side. Mine sinks into his neck. With crimson spraying between his fingers, he falls to the ground.

I use my last two bullets on the guy lying on his side and bleeding out from a gut wound when he reaches into his jacket for another weapon. My empty gun clatters to the ground as I pull the second from my chest harness.

Fully aware of how dangerous the situation is, I step into the building, and despite the darkness, I thwart the men waiting to ambush me with a few vicious moves. Unwilling to pull my trigger without clear visibility and potentially hurting Serenity, I use my handgun as a blunt weapon and slice important bits with my knife. Four goons lie incapacitated just inside the door as I stalk further into the warehouse.

The silence emanating from the back terrifies me, but Ermanno assures me backup is on the way as he picks off any strays I left behind me.

There’s no need for caution or stealth, so I stride between the rows of shelves, picking off the three stronzos who think they can take me by surprise, but when I clear the last row of shelves, I stop in my tracks.

Serenity sits in a chair surrounded by half a dozen men. All armed. One stupid motherfucker stands with his hand in her hair and his knife to her throat. With her bound wrists lying in her lap, she could push him away, but she doesn’t.

Her eyes meet mine. The world fades away. With blood trailing over her gag from her split lip and covered in grime and tiny cuts from broken glass, she’s still the most gorgeous woman on earth. The fear in her gaze infuriates the feral beast in my soul, but pride sweeps through me as she flicks her attention to the emergency exit in warning.

She’s terrified, but she’s not cowering. Despite being bound, gagged, surrounded by enemies, and having a knife to her throat, her trust and belief in my ability to save her gives her enough security to stay aware of her surroundings and prepare for the worst.

Her eyes burn with fury. With another flick of her gaze toward the emergency exit, I give a slight nod of understanding, needing her as level-headed as possible and rewarding her for telling me there’s danger lurking behind the double doors.

Ermanno joins me. Tension fills the air as we face off with six men I’ve never seen before. Their black pants, long-sleeve shirts, and caps hide any tattoos or markings they may have, so they could be from any family, clan, or gang. In fact, with only two being the same race, they seem to all be from differing houses.

“Drop your weapons unless you want one very dead puta ,” says the Hispanic man holding her at knifepoint.

She hisses as he yanks her head back. Her nostrils flare and hatred flashes in her eyes.

I toss my pistol and knife aside without hesitation. Ermanno’s handgun joins mine. Serenity eyes the rifle in the hands of the man to her left. Since he’s standing and she’s sitting, the grip is level with her nose. When her stare returns to my face, I give a tiny shake of my head.

She’d better not do anything rash, and reaching for any of their weapons definitely falls under that umbrella.

“Naw, dawg, we ain’t no estupidos . All your weapons,” he demands.

For being the supposed leader, the man doesn’t seem to hold much authority over the others. Three give him distrusting side glances. Ermanno’s chin tilt says he sees the same lack of unity between them.

I pull the knife from my belt, drop it next to my toe, and reach for the small of my back. The man closest to me, a redhead who probably quit suckling his mom’s teats yesterday, shifts uncomfortably. Ermanno’s blade clatters to the concrete. I slip the dirk from my belt and drop it at my heels, but leave the pistol at the small of my back.

When the short, stocky guy holding the rifle near Serenity’s head glances at the emergency exit, he confirms my suspicions.

This group of misfits may currently be the biggest threat to Serenity, but they aren’t the main course.

I pull my pant leg up to reveal the blade on my ankle and lift a brow in question. Ermanno drops another knife at our feet before lifting his hands to shoulder height.

I meet Serenity’s eyes and glance at the floor, silently instructing her to roll off the chair if the shit hits the fan. Her pupils shrink and she winces as the asshole twists his hand in her hair, but she gives a tiny nod.

“You got more, too, cabrón ?” her captor asks Ermanno.

Ermanno nods.

“You two, check them,” he says.

In the dumbest move he could make, he lifts the knife from Serenity’s throat to indicate which men should step forward.

Ermanno and I attack in unison. I whip the pistol from the small of my back and bury two bullets in the Hispanic’s head while Ermanno shoots the guy on Serenity’s other side. She ducks and twists onto the floor, narrowly avoiding their flailing limbs. We lunge forward and drop the two closest to us before aiming for the remaining misfits.

Fire slices through my shoulder. I pull the trigger again, killing the man who shot me, and rush toward Serenity.

Shouting and gunfire sounds from outside. The emergency exit bursts open.

I lunge forward and throw my body on top of Serenity as bullets ricochet off the walls. She grunts and wriggles under me, and even though we’re still in the thick of it, relief spears through me. I yank the blade from my ankle sheath and cut the rope around her wrists before wrapping her fingers around the hilt.

“Free your ankles first,” I snarl.

When she nods, I yank a second knife from my inner ankle and reach for the fallen man’s rifle. She curls into a ball, slices the rope, and kicks her legs out of the bindings before reaching for her gag.

“Good girl,” I say as I snatch a handgun off the man’s belt and return fire at the imbeciles running into the room.

The first few soldiers drop as Ermanno and I pick them off, but the next wave runs through as though we aren’t even in the room. By the sounds echoing from the other side of the shelves, our second backup crew—since the first is mowing down the attack force waiting at the back of the building—rushes in through the front door. A standoff ensues as a few semi-capable soldiers duck between the shelves.

I haul Serenity around the chairs and desks to hide behind the file cabinets in the corner. She grabs my arm.

“Ralf was here, or, at least, he was in the van,” she yells over the noise.

The ground shakes and the skylights shatter as an explosion rips through the industrial park. I cover Serenity with my body. She clings to me.

“I don’t think he’s here anymore,” I say, but even before the words leave my mouth, I know neither of us believe it.

Ermanno shouts. I look over my shoulder just in time to see him stumble backward as bullets pepper his chest. Serenity stiffens under me as a shadow falls over us.

Agony spears through my shoulder. Serenity’s scream echoes in my ears. I snarl, grab the wrist attached to the knife in my shoulder, and yank my assailant off the top of the file cabinet. Ralf’s massive body crashes down onto the desk and chairs, but he rolls to his feet and lunges toward me. I punch my blade into his stomach. He yanks the knife from my shoulder. Blood sprays from us both as I stab him again.

A rifle fires.

He falls to his knees. Red blooms on his chest. He looks down in disbelief. Serenity steps out from between the wall and the file cabinet with the rifle tucked against her shoulder and the muzzle pointed at his head.

Despite the single-minded focus in her gaze, her entire body shakes.

Ralf glares at her as he falls to his side.

She tosses the rifle aside and runs to me. I grunt as she crashes into me but wrap my arms around her, needing her body against mine.

“ Mia principessa , are you hurt?”

“I’m okay, but you’re not,” she sobs against my chest.

“I’ve been through worse. I’ll surv—”

I pull her down to the floor as another explosion blasts through the air. Her delicate fingers, covered in sticky blood, trail over my face.

“Stay awake, damn it,” she demands.

I open my mouth to tell my dramatic principessa to calm down, but my jaw refuses to move. She slaps me and sensations return to my battered body. A masculine groan filters through the cotton in my ears.

“Stop bleeding. Mio Dio , why is there so much blood?”

I hiss and force my eyelids open as she presses down on my shoulder and I absently enjoy the view as her breasts nearly spill out of her bra. She uses her shirt to staunch the flow of blood from my wound.

My head feels hollow.

When I try to lift my hand to cup her face and assure her everything will be okay, she pierces my soul with her desperate brown eyes.

“Don’t move. Just keep breathing and stay awake. I fucking need you, Nico, so don’t you dare die on me now, you stronzo .”

If I could move my lips, I’d smirk and call her a good girl. Her eyes flare in panic as she reads my expression.

“No. No goodbyes. We’re not done. I have so much more to say to you, so don’t go to sleep.”

Gravity tugs at my lashes.

Serenity yells. Footsteps pound closer. Mia principessa’s voice cuts through the chaos as she screams her demands, and in my fleeting moments of lucidity, I realize she’s no longer a mafia princess.

She’s a queen.

She rallies the troops and builds a team to escort me out of danger, and since she never leaves my side—the agony in my shoulder as she applies pressure to my wound never waivers—I hear her command a safe retrieval of Ermanno and at least half a dozen other injured Russo soldiers.

The world fades to black. An engine hums. Serenity’s voice calls me away from the abyss. My pain worsens. Lessens. Surges.

Bright lights streak over my closed lids. Doctor Hennessy’s voice joins Serenity’s. Machines beep. Doors shut. The world stops spinning.

Liquid warmth infects my veins and pulls me into the void. My pain drifts away.

A machine beeps beside my head on one side while a feminine voice murmurs on the other. Strength seeps into me, but drugs blanket me in numbness. I peel my eyes open and blink through the haze.

Serenity stares down at me. Although her face is a lot cleaner than the last time I saw her, her hair remains a tangled mess and her green scrub top sports blood stains. She frames my face with shaking fingers and says something, but my brain turns the words into sludge. I blink and pull my mind into gear by sheer force of will.

A tear lands on my cheek. Serenity’s tear. My left hand listens when I tell it to cup her face, but my right won’t move.

“You scared the hell out of me. Thank fuck you woke up. Are you hurting? Do you need—”

I press my thumb over her lips, stopping her outburst. She blinks and another tear lands on my cheek.

“I told you I’d be fine, amore mio . You should know better than to doubt me by now,” I manage through my dry throat.

She huffs a half-sob, half-laugh.

“You coded during surgery, you asshole. I thought—”

“I’m not dead, mia principessa, so choose your words wisely.” Exhaustion threatens to pull me back into sleep, so my voice emerges much weaker than I intend.

“I’m so glad you’re alive. I was so worried,” she admits as she trails her fingers over my features.

“I told you he was just being dramatic,” Natalie says from the cot in the room’s corner. I jump and curse my delayed reaction as I expand my senses beyond my woman for the first time. Natalie stands and limps the first few strides until her joints loosen. Serenity straightens and moves one hand to my shoulder while weaving her fingers within mine.

“How long was I in surgery? What did I need?” I ask. Worry worms through me.

Pregnant women shouldn’t spend hours hunched over a hospital bed, especially not after such a traumatic and stressful experience.

Natalie answers with exaggerated spunk as she moves to the empty side of my bed.

“Not only were you stabbed in the shoulder, but you also had shrapnel in your back and multiple other wounds that needed stitching. Doc Hennessy fixed you up in a mere nine hours, though.”

I scowl at Serenity as fiercely as my dulled senses will allow.

“And in those nine hours, you didn’t do a single fucking thing to take care of yourself, did you?”

“She paced outside the operating room the entire time, no matter how hard I tried to get her to sit down. I got some food and drink into her, but I doubt it was enough to keep up with all her pacing,” Natalie says.

Serenity doesn’t deny it. Instead, she lifts my hand to her lips and presses soft kisses to my swollen knuckles.

“You haven’t told anyone yet, have you?” I grumble.

She stiffens and lifts startled eyes to mine.

“H-how did you…?” She trails off, clearly at a loss for words.

“I found your purse at the crash site.” My voice thickens as fear squeezes my heart at the memory of the ruined vehicle. Her mouth forms an adorable O of surprise before memories darken her countenance.

Natalie starts to speak but gasps and clamps her hands over her mouth instead.

“I wanted to tell you first,” Serenity says.

“Then tell me,” I demand.

She swallows, extracts her fingers from mine, and pulls my hand to her chest before leaning over me. Her eyes volley between mine as she pensively studies my expression.

“I’m pregnant,” she says.

To the sound of my sister screaming into her hand, I wrap my fingers around mia principessa’s throat and tug her face down to mine.

“Good girl,” I whisper against her lips before kissing her.

She tries to deepen the kiss, but I flex my fingers against her jugular and lift her away before I infect her with the gross taste in my mouth.

“You’re happy? You want a baby?” she asks.

“Yes, I do. I always have, but with you, I want an entire brood. I’ll have your belly round and beautiful with my children for years to come.” Her breath hitches as I rub my thumb over her jawline. “We’ll grow our family and create a loving, safe home for them.” I don’t say it aloud, since she’s been through enough stress, but with my declaration, I promise her our children will never know the abuse she suffered under her mother’s cruelty. Tears run down her face and gather on her chin. I catch them on my fingertips and smear them away.

“You’re my everything, Serenity.”

I’ve said it before, but she wasn’t ready to hear it.

She is now.

Fresh tears spill from her lashes as her breath hitches, and the love shining from her eyes broadcasts her words before they form on her tongue.

“I love you, Nico.”

I smirk as joy blooms within my heart.

“I love you, too, Serenity.”

She leans down and kisses me, and despite the dryness in my mouth, I give her everything. When she pulls back, the bloodstains on her borrowed shirt rub against my arm, and I bite back a snarl.

“I need you to take better care of yourself now, mia principessa , or you’ll force me to do it myself.”

She grips my face with surprising force and glares down at me.

“Don’t you fucking dare try to so much as lift a finger without the doctor’s permission,” she snarls.

I quirk a brow and struggle to stay awake as fatigue weighs down my eyelids.

“I’m taking care of you, at least until you’re back on your feet, so you need to focus on getting better as fast as possible. Don’t worry about anything else,” Serenity demands.

I huff an amused laugh as my mind slips in and out of sleep, and half-conscious words tumble from my lips.

“All I worry about is you, amore mio . You’re my everything. You could have died in that car accident, just like my mom. You could have lost something precious, just like my sister. I failed you. I wasn’t there when you needed me most, just like I couldn’t pull my mom from—”

Soft lips press against mine. Serenity’s tears pour down my face. She kisses along my lips and cheeks, smearing her tears between us, but when she shifts her attention to my temples, I realize the wetness seeping into my hair comes from my own eyes.

“You don’t have to be so strong alone anymore, Nico,” Serenity whispers against my face as she continues to pepper me with gentle kisses. “I’m not a child. I’m not helpless.” She runs her fingers over my scalp, pushing my hair away from my face and comforting me more intimately than anyone ever has. “Hell, I saved you , remember? I’m not some fragile doll to cover in bubble wrap or put up on a shelf.” My breath hitches as she frames my face with her hands and shatters my defenses with her sweetness. “I’m your fiancée. Your future wife. The woman who’ll be by your side for the rest of your life. I’m your partner, Nico.” With a fleeting smile, she gathers my broken pieces and melds me into a new creature. “You’re not alone anymore. I’m yours and you’re mine. We’ll protect each other. Forever.”

When she presses her lips to mine, I’m powerless against the emotions pouring from my soul. I growl, wrap my fingers around her nape, and take her mouth with the desperation of a starving man. After a moment, she tries to pull back, but I tug her closer and dive deeper into her mouth.

She submits so beautifully my heart aches.

When my strength wanes, I let her rise and take her hand. She wipes her face and meets my gaze as I struggle to stay awake through a long blink.

“Take a shower and climb into bed with me, mia principessa ,” I demand.

She shakes her head.

“There’s no room for me, and you need to rest, so I’ll sleep on the couch,” she says.

I scoff and shake my head as my eyes slip closed.

“I need to feel you in my arms when I wake, so hurry and get your fine ass up here, amore mio ,” I mumble as sleep tugs me toward the darkness.

Serenity’s and Natalie’s voices fill me with peace as I lie trapped in my recovering body. When Serenity slips into the narrow hospital bed with me, smelling of soap and clean woman, I roll her partially onto my chest and wrap my arm around her. Between one breath and the next, she drops into exhausted slumber and snores against my chest. Every time I rise from the abyss of drugs and pain, she’s the center of my attention. Her slight weight against me. Her gently compelling scent. Her breath ghosting over my hospital gown.

As time passes, she sneaks a hand under the fabric and rests her palm on my bare chest. I relish her need to be as close to me as possible, since the same desperation swirls behind my sternum.

When I fully wake up again, Natalie opens the curtains to let the sun stream into the room and smiles with such excitement I can’t be mad at her.

“C’mon, preggo, we need to feed that baby,” she chirps as she drops onto the couch.

Serenity shakes her head and snuggles into me.

“I need this more,” she whispers.

“Sorry to break it to you, Nitty, but as cute as you two lovebirds are, my brother can’t feed you right now. So get over here,” Natalie says.

Serenity lifts her head and meets my blurry eyes. Her vulnerable expression punches me in my already sore gut.

“Can we do this again?” she asks.

“Do what?”

“Wake up in each other’s arms.”

“Every day for the rest of our lives,” I promise.

“I’d like that. A lot,” she says with a small smile.

“Good girl,” I murmur and pull her lips down to mine.

She’s perfection. She’s mine.

My fiancée. My Serenity.

The love of my life.

Mia principessa .

I can’t wait to marry her, spending every night satiating our bodies, living every day by her side, and waking every morning with her in my arms.