Merciful Vows: A Bittersweet Second Chance Romantic Suspense (The Giannotti World Book 1)

by Vanessa Luisa

  “How do I know you will actually give back my children?”

  “Well, that’s a little game called trust.” He smiles wickedly. “Twenty.”

  My heart explodes.

  NO. NO. NO.

  How can I get out of this? How can I get out of it?

  Giulio swallows, his gaze pooled with agony. “It’s okay, Lencia. It’s okay.”

  “No. I can’t. I won’t do it.”

  “It’s okay, Lencia. You will get the kids back. It’s three lives against one. If this is the way it needs to go, then it’s almost perfect. I’ll be alright. I promise I’ll be alright.”

  The knot in my throat swells. I’m burning.

  Tears cascade down, dripping to my neck. I cannot feel my heart beating. It’s numb. Just like the rest of me. “I can’t do this, Giulio.”

  “Sixteen.”

  “Darling, look at me.” His voice is so soft and calm, as if he isn’t in a life or death situation. When I do, Giulio manages to smile through his tear-stained cheeks. An angel amongst this hell. It warms me but doesn’t settle my uneasy breaths. “You need Addilyn, yes?”

  I nod.

  “Do you need Slonne?”

  Nod.

  “Fourteen.”

  “Do you need Oscar?”

  Another nod.

  “Then this is the only way out. I’ll be okay.”

  “But I need you too. I need you with me.”

  “I will be with you, baby. Just in another way.”

  “No. I need you to hold me. I need you to hold our kids. You can’t do that if you’re…” My voice breaks and I cannot get the word out.

  Giulio looks down at his lap but it’s not enough to conceal the pain on his face he so desperately wants to keep in. It’s true. I need him. This cannot be the last time I see him. I refuse. I refuse to let it end here. To let go of a feeling so strong. To really lose him without the choice or chance of repairing our marriage because we would be in another world.

  “Nine,” Blue Eyes snarls. “Click off the safety.”

  Oh my god.

  “Eight. Click off the safety. DO IT!”

  I do as I’m told.

  I will never forgive myself if I do this. Our children will have to live with this. There needs to be another way. There needs to be. There always is.

  “I’m so sorry, Lencia. I’m sorry for everything I have done. I didn’t mean to ruin us and I hope you can forgive me. I hope you can understand that all I ever wanted was to make you happy and protect our family. That’s all I ever wanted.”

  “Four.”

  “You do make me happy. I’m so sorry too. I want you. I want you, Giulio.”

  “Three.”

  “I want you too, baby. Show Addilyn the stars. I’ll be there.”

  “Giulio, I—”

  The man cuts me off. “Two.”

  “I can’t do it.”

  “Yes, you can. You need to do it.” Giulio nods bravely. “You’re my air. You always will be, even after. Tell our children that I will always love them. Always. Okay?”

  “One.”

  “Okay.” My heart aches. There is nothing but passionate love burning in his eyes and mine mirror the same. This is the love of my life. The only man I want. This cannot be the end.

  “Zero.” Blue Eyes snaps his fingers. “Do it. Pull the trigger.”

  I can’t.

  “SHOOT HIM!”

  My finger brushes against the trigger.

  “DO IT!”

  “I love you.” Giulio holds his breath and now fear is all I see in him. “It doesn’t matter where I am. I’m yours, Lencia.”

  “I love you too.”

  This is not the end.

  “DO IT!”

  No.

  “PULL THE TRIGGER! DO IT!”

  It can’t be…

  “SHOOT HIM! DO IT! DO IT NOW!”

  I jerk the gun to the left, aim, and pull the trigger.

  Blue Eyes drops his gun as he falls to his knees and clutches his chest. Dark crimson pours through his garments and without thinking I shoot two more rounds. He stumbles back and falls to the ground with a heavy thud, his head cracking against the concrete with a reverberating echo.

  Dead. Lifeless. Gone.

  Oh my dear god.

  I let go of the hot silver gun and rush up to the love of my life.

  Our victory kiss is hard and fueled with the awareness that we’re both still alive. We made it. The adrenaline continues to pump through me even with his comforting presence and I pull away in tears. “I love you. I love you so much, Giulio.”

  “I love you more, Lencia.”

  “He’s dead. He won’t hurt us anymore.”

  Tonight, I have saved a man and killed another, all within the same minute.

  Giulio leans our foreheads together. “We’ll get out of this mess. Everything will be okay. It needed to be done. We’ve both made scarifies to save our family now and we can’t go down for them. We need to be here for our children.”

  “This has to stay between us.”

  I am a killer.

  Pulling that trigger wasn’t right but it was the only solution. As I help Giulio out of his restraints, I realize that I am no different than him. In fact, I am exactly like him. Only now do I truly understand why Giulio did what he did. Killing in self-defense makes sense. It’s clearer what must have gone through Giulio’s mind when he killed his father and the intruder. It must have been the same thing that ran through my head seconds before I shot again…protecting the ones we love at all costs.

  This is a part of the ‘whatever it takes.’

  I saw the father of my children, the man I love, and everything that I am…and I reacted.

  Now, both Giulio and I have gambled with the fate of our children to save each other. This isn’t the point where I give up. This is the point where I continue running to the finish line. Because I know that even if I have lost everything tonight, I have gained Giulio.

  He is mine again.

  We’ve been shattered by the outside world and turned on ourselves when we should have sought healing in each other’s arms instead.

  When Giulio’s free, we share a tight embrace. The one that was supposed to be goodbye turns into one that says, I love you. I need you. I am sorry. I want this. I never want to let go. It’s everything at once and is the perfect symbol of us and just how far we are willing to go to keep our family safe.

  “You saved me. Thank you.”

  “We saved each other, Giulio. I understand why you did it now because I know why I did it. I don’t regret it. I can never regret it with you. I’m sorry I blamed you. I’m so sorry I walked away from us when you needed me the most. I never will again. Not after this. Never after this.”

  Giulio kisses me slowly and it’s all I need to know that I made the right decision. It feels like thunder’s pulsing through my veins when he looks down at me and smiles. “Lencia, I don’t care how hard life gets, I still want you. Over and over again I will still choose you. I will still choose our beautiful children. I still want to experience the world with the woman I married. The woman I love. That woman is you. Valencia Giannotti, thank you for giving me life.”

  And I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

  Giulio

  This has been a night I will never forget.

  Tonight reaffirms that when it comes down to the wire, our marriage can withstand any lethal threat. Our separation has taught me love on another level. It has taught me how to resolve any tempest coming our way. That love truly does conquer all. That home can have a heartbeat. That healing can be found standing by somebody.

  My somebody is and always will be Valencia.

  Stepping out of that alleyway, we are stronger than ever. Sandro does his job efficiently. His men clean up, takes the car, and of course, the dead fucker too. Sandro drives us home discreetly and doesn’t make me pay. He says we’ve endured enough pain and we say farewell with a solidifying handshake.
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  Valencia doesn’t ask many questions and I take that as her way of telling me that what will be tonight will be. That soon the moon will fade and the sun will rise to a new reaffirmed hope and a strengthened bond. One that is unbreakable. Unapologetic.

  When we arrive at our house in Madrona, Valencia disinfects my wounds and then we attend to our clothes. As she takes a shower, I discard our garments in the backyard fire pit and watch as they burn. The orange embers glow wildly until the only thing that remains is ash with a tattered story nobody else but my wife and I will ever know.

  Sandro won’t say a word. He’s a respected and reliable contact. I trust him.

  There’s a tugging tension in my chest when I step back inside. A gloom. Our marriage is restored but it’s not over for us. Our children are gone, all three of them, and that makes me feel helpless. I’m a meticulous man and all I want are my girls and my special buddy safe.

  I miss them so much.

  When the man Valencia killed presented himself on my doorstep I was ready to call the police until he mentioned the intruder I killed and showed a photo of the twins as evidence. I was on a conference call with Lance, Marcus, and my client, Tate, when it happened. And damn how I was lucky to have tapped the mute button prior to answering the door. I believed the man and was willing to take the chance to save them… I never expected to almost die doing so.

  I share my somberness with Lencia when stepping into the shower behind her. My hands wrap around her waist and I hold her through the tears. It reminds me of the night she was with Bryce at the bar.

  I’m in awe of Valencia. She has been so strong throughout all of this and tonight was the epitome of her dedication. The same one I shared with her. Tied down to that chair, I was willing to risk it all and sacrifice myself for the greater good, so at least she could have our children. But right now, as I hold her, I’m glad I’m still breathing. I never want to stop feeling my adoration for our family. I never want to stop living in a life with them.

  “We’ll get through this together. It’s what we were born to do.”

  “I know we will. I just miss them so much. This will be our secret. Helena knows about the intruder and your father, but she won’t tell anybody. Can I…ask you something?”

  I kiss her neck and nuzzle my nose into her hair. It smells of my fresh, woody shower gel with a tinge of her own scent of vanilla. I love the way she’s cut her hair. It only barely touches her shoulders and makes me think it’s like a new beginning. “Of course, darling.”

  There is a brief pause until I twirl Valencia around. Warm water licks our skin as I hold her closer. Those gorgeous hazel eyes stare up at me and amongst the havoc, I find courage in them. “When you killed your father and the intruder…how did you feel after?”

  “For a few moments, I was in shock and then I felt…liberated in some sense and heavier in another. But with my father, it soon faded. You need to forgive yourself to find closure. The man you killed deserved it, darling. He would have killed us both and then gone on to kill others. Sometimes we resort to desperate measures because we need to. We just need to continue to be strong, even after we have our three musketeers back. Can you do that for me, baby?”

  “Yes. A million times over.”

  Yes.

  I’m amazed by her resilience. Her bravery. Her devotion.

  I cup her face and kiss her passionately against the shower wall. It’s foggy when I pull her away from it and note the most impeccable silhouette of her body. When I smile at Lencia, my eyes stray from the fire in her eyes to her natural curves, those beautiful breasts, and killer legs that step even closer to me when my stare lingers.

  Holy fuck, I’m spending the rest of my life with this woman!

  Her wet hand eases down my abdomen and out of desperation I crush my mouth to her full lips once again. I love her. I love her so fucking much. Valencia Marie Giannotti is my air, my home, my everything. She amplifies the idyllic feeling of being alive over and over again for me—until I believe it will never end.

  “We’re going to be okay. We’re going to make it out of this hell.”

  “Lencia…even through this hell, we still found our life. Heaven is a place I go when I’m with you and I never want to stop visiting.”

  “Then don’t stop.”

  “I won’t.”

  I catch her smirk and take the moment to take her all in for the millionth time tonight. I could look at her for a single second and find a billion things I love about her. I could continue looking for centuries upon centuries and still find those things.

  “Please don’t ever feel as though you are alone in this, Giulio. When the days get hard, we can talk about it. You’re not alone in this. You never have been and never will be. I’ve got you.”

  My heart cannot stop flipping for all the right reasons. Valencia is happy and that is all I have ever wanted. However, there are three more things we need to make this complete. That and uncovering who is behind this.

  In the middle of bathing, we make love against the shower glass. It’s just after 3 A.M. when we enter the kitchen, just as Valencia’s phone begins ringing. She hits speaker and our hands intertwine.

  “Mrs. Giannotti?”

  Sergeant Flynn.

  “Speaking. Giulio is here too.”

  “I have developing news regarding the kidnapping of Oscar and Slonne. We have located the Porsche. It was torched just a few miles away from the scene, and unfortunately it’s a write off. No bodies were located which gives us extreme optimism your children are alive. Witness statements are currently being taken. I do suspect this will soon escalate into a ransom…Mr. and Mrs. Giannotti, we’re going to need you down at the precinct.”

  Valencia

  Once inside the police department, we follow Sergeant Flynn’s orders and hand over our phones to be hooked up to a monitor so if a ransom call is made, the chances of identifying the caller will be significantly higher. The memory of the oak desks in the precinct reminds me of the night Addilyn went missing.

  “What are you going to do about the car?” I ask Giulio who is pacing.

  “Oh, it doesn’t bother me. I just want our children to be okay.”

  “I al—”

  I cut myself short at my blaring ringtone. It’s an unknown number.

  My mind begins spiraling. “Could this be it?”

  Detective Brigs signals to Sergeant Flynn who gives me a nod towards the phone. “This very much could be. I would like you to answer. Do not sound nervous or give any indication you are with us. Everyone else is completely silent, okay?”

  Giulio falls into the seat beside me as I answer with a sharp breath. “Hello?”

  I tap the speaker button and set it on the table.

  There is a soft crackling on the other line before a highly distorted voice speaks. “Valencia Giannotti, I have your children. I have them and I will kill them if you do not listen to what I say very carefully.”

  Panic in my voice cannot be defused. “Please. Please, don’t hurt them!”

  “Listen to what I say very carefully. Are you listening, Valencia?”

  Sergeant Flynn gives a thumbs up. My eyes meet Giulio’s helpless ones and he squeezes my hand tighter with a nod. I can do this. “Yes. I’m listening.”

  “Two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars in cash and you will have your children back.”

  My heart falls to my feet. There’s no way in hell we have cash like that laying around.

  “Wait a minute. I can’t…” Sergeant Flynn instructs me to continue talking. “I can’t withdraw a sum like that in the early morning. I need to request it from my bank first.”

  “That is not my problem,” the distorted voice hisses. “Two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars or I start with the pretty girl first. Trust me, she will not be this pretty when I finish up. Is that understood?”

  My baby. My Slonne.

  With his free hand, Giulio covers his mouth in a tight grip. It restrains him from saying a word, eve
n though it’s evident something is threatening to slip out.

  It’s as if I’ve been thrown inside an inferno, forced to accept the consequences of a deal I’m sure we won’t be able to complete. “Okay. Okay. I can give you the money. Two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars in cash. Where do I meet you?”

  The man states a Seattle address causing Sergeant Flynn to glance over at Detective Brigs. She points at something on her computer and he nods at whatever he sees.

  “I want you to hand me the money, Valencia. Only you. I do not want anybody else to be there or to know you are coming here. Am I clear?”

  “Yes.”

  “The moment I see somebody else, I will break every bone in your daughter’s body and I will make your son watch his sister die a long and painful death. Is that understood?”

  “Yes! I will have the money! That will not happen. It will just be me.”

  “For your own sake, it better be. You have thirty minutes or it’s over for your family.”

  That’s until 4 A.M.!

  My voice wavers. “Okay, I’ll have it. Just let me talk to my kids. Let me tell them—”

  “Twenty-nine minutes now. Alone, Valencia.”

  “Please can—”

  The line goes dead.

  Shit.

  I have never felt this kind of nervous determination in my entire life. If this were to have happened with Addilyn, I would have crumbled. This time around I want to scream in anguish at the person.

  Giulio massages the tension away from my shoulders. “You did well, baby.”

  We wait in anticipation for anything the detective can give us. Detective Brigs collects something from the printer and when Sergeant Flynn’s eyes find ours, they’re promising. “I can confirm the location the person provided is legitimate. It is where the call was made. We tracked the number throughout the call and have pinned a man.”

  “Nick Conrad,” Detective Brigs says, setting down the printed photograph. “A twenty-five-year-old male originally from Kent. He was arrested and jailed back in 2011 for accessory to murder. Following his release, it didn’t take him long to venture into house invasions, battery, and assault.”