Veiled Vows: An age gap, marriage of convenience, secret pregnancy, mafia romance (Mafia Lords of Sin)

“You sure you’re up for this? You’re still pretty …” I look Ren up and down, my mouth twisting as I search for the right word.

“Injured? Raw? Cobbled together by stitches and tape?” He offers with a smile.

“I was going to say handsomely disheveled but sure,” I grin. “Two days in the hospital is not enough.”

“It’s fine.” He waves one hand toward me. “Besides, I’m sure you’ll cart me right back if anything happens. I’m not missing date night, understand?”

“How romantic.” My smile turns into a saucy little smirk. “Also, just so you know,” I continue as I loop my arm through his good elbow. “I bought up the deed to this land. Not directly, it’s through about five different offshore accounts and fake names on the off chance anyone does come here and discover a body, but this theme park is mine now.”

Walking arm in arm, we lazily wander between the old rides and crumbling stands with me guiding the way.

“You bought this shitty old park?”

“Yup.”

“Why?”

“Two reasons. One, I want to make sure what’s buried here stays buried. And also, it’s our date spot. I thought I could get some people in to clean it up a little. Renovate the entire place. And then it would be safe just for us. And also …” I glance at him with a soft look. “You said you spent a lot of time at places like this because of your mom, so I thought it would be a nice thing to do.”

“You remember that?” His brows reach his hairline. “I … wow.”

“Of course I do. You don’t talk about her much, but I remember what you’ve shared. She was important to you. The most important.”

“Jasmine, I don’t know what to say.”

“Is it weird?” I stop walking and turn to face him as my heart picks up its pace. “It’s weird, isn’t it? And creepy considering what we did to Seth and what we’re about to do to Santino.”

“Jasmine, Jasmine hush.” He moves forward and cups my face with his other hand, his fingers trembling slightly. “Sure, it’s a little weird but very on par with us, don’t you think? It’s more than I deserve.”

“Don’t do that,” I say softly. “Don’t put down what you deserve. I get to decide that, okay? And you’re right.” It’s hard not to laugh. “We are kind of weird, aren’t we?”

“Murder for dates, crazy family feuds, assassinations, and a muddled history … yeah, we are.” Ren leans forward and very lightly kisses my lip. “So this is very sweet.”

“Okay. Come on, one last surprise.”

Santino is exactly where I left him, bound and tied up like a Christmas turkey in the middle of the park. He’s on his knees with fury blazing like fire in his eyes, but anything he wants to say is denied by the gag wrapped tight around his head. He’s been here for three days under the watchful eye of armed guards who have, under my orders, refused to let him sleep. He’s knelt there with no choice but to stay awake and defecate himself, and I hope the humiliation of it is killing him.

It’s still a mercy compared to what he’s put Ren through.

“He hasn’t slept,” I say softly as we approach. “Part of me was a little worried that you weren’t going to wake up, and I told him he was going to kneel there until you did. No matter how long it took.”

“I’m a little disappointed I woke up so soon,” Ren replies, his voice tight. “Though it would never be enough time.”

“No,” I agree. “It wouldn’t.”

We stop a few feet away. With a flick of my wrist, the watchful guards in the shadows melt away to a farther perimeter, giving us the privacy we need. I walk forward, glaring at Santino, but his attention is focused on Ren behind me. I’m not gentle as I remove the gag, and as soon as it’s free, Santino starts coughing.

“Roman,” he gasps. “You’re alive!”

“Don’t,” Ren barks out tightly. “Don’t even try it.”

“Try what? Surely you see what’s happening here. She’s turned you against me, she made me think you were a traitor and I did what I had to do, but that doesn’t mean I love you any less!”

His pathetic attempts to twist the story are laughable, but in such a sad way. Santino, once the head of the great Gatti family now sits in the dirt surrounded by his own mess, trying to weave some terrible story to save his own life. It’s pathetic. He’s pathetic. My stomach churns just looking at him because how can a man so small be the cause of so much pain for so many years?

“How do you want to do it?” I walk slowly back to Ren. “Kill him slowly? Poison? Fire? Drown him in the lake? Could bury him alive if you like.”

“Me?” Ren looks at me with open surprise, resembling a puppy momentarily. Maybe it’s the way he hugs one arm to the side of his body to protect his shoulder, or the slight gaunt look he developed during his starving days in Santino’s captivity. It makes my chest ache to look at him, and I suddenly want to bundle him up in my arms.

“Who else?”

“He’s … he’s caused you and your family so much pain for decades, Jasmine. He’s the root of everything. He’s even the one that worked with Alto, and after what happened to your father, your mother⁠—”

“Ren, stop.” I gently take his hand, ending his rambling. “I love that you look at things that way, and I’ll be honest, I did consider it. But this is your kill. For you and your mother, and all the work you did and the pain you went through to get to this moment. I’ve had my closure with killing Alto, and the rest will come from watching you find some peace. So please.” Softly squeezing his knuckles, I smile. “So tell me what you need and I will get it for you.”

Ren’s visible surprise is a little heartbreaking, and each second we spend together dissipates the anger I feel that he lied to me. It’s an interesting clash of emotions when you understand why someone did something that caused you pain. But the longer we stand here, the more it becomes clear that holding onto something like that is pointless. Life can change so fast. Too fast.

Once Santino is gone, our lives can really begin.

“Are you sure?” Ren’s eyes search mine as if he’s looking for a hidden meaning, a secret or something else, but he finds nothing but honesty in mine.

“I’m sure.”

“Can I have your gun?”

Sliding it from the holster, I hand it over and step back. Ren stares down at it for a few long seconds and then he approaches Santino.

“You’re going to choose that bitch over me?” Santino spits, wavering slightly where he kneels.

“You know …” Ren stops a foot away and stares down at the gun. “All those years ago, when I first found out what happened to my mom and how I was conceived, I couldn’t understand why she didn’t hate me. My existence was a reminder of the worst night of her life. A night where you terrorized and hurt her, where you took from her and then cast her aside like she was nothing. I never understood why she didn’t hate me, and honestly, I still don’t. She always looked at me with such love in her eyes, and she always did her best to care for me even when we were scraping by. I never went without food, without clothes or care. But she did.”

“Oh, boo hoo,” Santino snarls.

“So when I got older, I swore I would repay her. I would make sure she lived a life of luxury like she deserved, but it turned out she was holding too much pain. You broke her, and caring for me was the only thing keeping her together. Until she decided I didn’t need her anymore, and I didn’t get the chance to tell her that I would always need her. So then you became my focus, Father. I was going to find you. And for decades, I’ve dreamed and entertained all the ways I wanted to hurt you. How badly I wanted you to suffer so you’d feel even a fraction of her pain. I’ve run so many scenarios, and even on the way here, I was thinking about it. How much pain can I put you through? And I’ve realized … you’re not worth it.”

Ren lifts his head and looks his father right in the eye.

“I have a woman who loves me. I have money. I have the power now. And you?” Ren sniffs quickly. “You’re nothing but a disgusting cretin of a man and you don’t deserve a creative death. You don’t deserve my time or my energy, you don’t deserve any more space in my mind or my heart. I’m going to make sure the world forgets you so that not even your name will live on. You will fade into obscurity and stay there, forgotten.

“Why you fucking little piece of⁠—”

Ren quickly lifts the gun and shoots his father in the mouth causing his jaw to explode in a flood of teeth and gore. Santino’s head snaps backward, and Ren shoots him again as he flops back like a dead fish.

Then Ren shoots him again.

And again.

He empties the entire clip into Santino’s body, and then silence falls like a gentle blanket over both of us. Slowly, he lowers the gun, and it hangs limp from his fingers. When he turns to me there are tears in his eyes.

“I hate him,” Ren says brokenly. “I thought killing him would give me some incredible rush of feeling, or free me from this sadness I’ve carried since I was a child. But it’s still there.”

I approach him carefully and reach for the gun when we’re face-to-face. My other hand lightly cups his face as I caress his cheek while smiling gently. “It will take time. Which sucks, I know. But he’s gone. He’s not going to hurt you, or anyone, ever again. And I bet your mom would be so fucking proud that you worked so hard and for so long to avenge her. Because I know for a fact that even though you came to her through such a cruel act, she loved you. How could she not? A mother’s love makes them do everything and anything for their child. Look at my mother.”

Ren nods, turning his face into my palm. He sniffles and closes his eyes, allowing one single tear to escape from his lashes. I catch it on my thumb and gently wipe it away.

“The Gatti’s are no more,” he says quietly, opening his eyes. “My mother’s maiden name was Sato. I’ll go back to that.”

“Sato,” I repeat softly. “Beautiful. Although …” Stepping back, I holster my gun and loop my arm through his, starting to guide him back to where we parked. “Don’t you like Falzone?”

“Huh?”

His confused expression immediately makes me laugh. Perhaps it’s cruel for me to toy with him so soon after being released from the hospital. “Didn’t we establish that our feelings still exist? And are very much real? And you went through so much to keep me safe.”

“Uh huh.”

“So … the wedding was never officially called off. I mean, the venue is still booked, the dress is being worked on, and all the other caterers and stuff are still on speed dial.”

Ren stops dead. “You … still want to marry me?”

I stop in front of him, studying his handsome face from the curve of his brow down to the swell of his lower lip. “Of course I do. I love you. And if I’ve learned anything these past few months, it’s that shit changes so fast and I don’t want to wait around for the good things to get taken from me. So … yeah, I do.”

Ren’s face breaks into a wide smile and he surges forward, wrapping his good arm around my waist. “Holy shit.”

“Ren Falzone has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” I grin up at him. “You should take my name. Come into a family that truly cares for you. Besides …” My heart begins to race. “Given our new path in life there’s also something I need to tell you.”

Ren’s eyes dart back and forth across my face for a moment, then he frowns. “Why do you look nervous?”

Distance suddenly feels like the best option here, so I ease myself out of his grip and resume walking back to the car while he follows.

“I was going to tell you earlier, but then everything with Alto happened and when you claimed it was you and left, I was really angry and hurt and didn’t want anything to do with you. And then I was going to tell you when you woke up in the hospital, but I was waiting on some scan results to make sure everything was okay.”

“Jasmine …” Ren catches my hand and we stop in the parking lot. “You’re scaring me a little.”

My heart beats like a drum at the base of my throat and tremors shoot through my arms as I turn to face him. “I’m pregnant. And I didn’t tell you earlier because when I fought Alto, he hit me in the stomach, and I was really scared I’d lost it. Which ironically helped me decide whether or not I wanted to keep it. But I needed to check that everything was okay, that I was okay, and the baby was okay, and then time got away from me and I …” The look on Ren’s face brings me to silence. He looks a mix of shocked and alarmed.

“You’re pregnant?”

I nod quickly. “Mm-hmm.”noveldrama

“For real?”

I nod again.

“Really for real?”

“Yes! And I know it’s not something we ever talked about or even anticipated because we were just a business agreement and then this really hot fling and then things got so messy and I⁠—”

Ren’s mouth crashes against mine as he sweeps me up in his strong arms, seemingly ignoring the pain in his injured shoulder. I’m spun around until my stomach flips and my heart is racing in my ears, until I’m gasping against Ren’s lips with my stomach twisting into knots.

“Does this mean you’re not mad?” I gasp as the kiss breaks.

“Holy shit,” Ren laughs. “Mad is not what I’m feeling. I’m … I’m shocked, holy shit but this is amazing. This is so …” He leans back and looks down at my stomach, then when he looks back up at me there’s nothing but love and awe in his eyes. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Ren kisses me again, deeper this time and once he starts, he doesn’t stop. Not that I let him. With racing pulses and adrenaline flooding me at the prospect of our new future, I’ve never felt more alive.

We make love on the hood of my car under the glittering stars with nothing but love in our hearts.