The Promise: Mafia Vows Two Read online

  THE PROMISE

  Mafia Vows Book Two

  by SR Jones

  Copyright Skye Jones writing as SR Jones – 2019

  This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to people real or imagined is entirely coincidental.

  This work contains adult themes and is only suitable for people aged eighteen and over.

  The series does contain dark themes, and therefore, trigger warnings apply.

  Thanks to my editor, Ansley Blackstock

  Proofreader, beta, and all round star, Silla Webb

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  EPILOGUE: PART ONE

  EPILOGUE: PART TWO

  CHAPTER ONE

  Maya

  They say that family is everything, and I never believed it. Now I know family can be the worst betrayers of all.

  It hurts to swallow; hell, it even hurts to breathe as my nose is dry too. I wonder how long I’ve been without a drink. I’ve lost track of time. Taken by my own damn brother, Costas. I still can’t believe it.

  I had to use the bathroom, and one of Costas’ big thugs dragged me to a horrible, stinking toilet, and watched while I went. He didn’t hold my gaze, but let his piggy eyes drop to where I sat on the toilet willing the pee I’d been so desperate for to come. It did eventually, despite my shame and mortification at my audience. I had been too bursting to hold it in.

  I want him dead—the piggy-eyed guard who had watched me so brazenly as I’d pulled my pants up, smirking at me as if I was there purely for his amusement.

  I want Costas dead too. Family or not, he’s betrayed me and my mother in the worst way. He needs to suffer for what he has done. I mean it as well. Me, who always wanted to escape this life because of the violence of it. Now I want my share. I’ve spent hours listening to my mother’s screams and cries. I don’t know what they’ve done to her, and now all is silent. I don’t even know if she’s still alive.

  Inside, my heart is breaking, but I have no tears left. I cried nonstop at first, but exhaustion, dehydration too probably, put a stop to my tears.

  “Okay,” Costas shouts as he enters the room, clapping his hands. “As much fun as that was, you are the main course, Maya. Your mother was simply the warmup.”

  “Where is she?” My voice surprises me with its strength. I’d expected a warbly croak, but I sound much stronger than I feel.

  Costas kneels down until he’s nearer my level. I’m slumped against the wall, and I sit a little straighter as he scrutinizes me. “Relax. She’s been having some fun. No harm, no foul. Of course, I will have to get rid of her completely at some point. But right now, I need her, and you, because you’re my bait.”

  “Bait? You said we were going to disappear.” My heart sinks as I realize what this might mean. More torture, perhaps. More danger too, certainly for Damen and Alesso.

  He laughs manically. “Change of plans. You’re too valuable to kill when I could use you to my advantage, and if I’m going to deal with my shithead of a father, might as well do it now, right? If I know one thing, it’s that your stupid husband, Damen, will come racing here to save your worthless carcass, and so I will have a perfectly legitimate excuse for killing him. Of course, his little puppy Alesso will follow wherever he goes, so I’ll kill two birds with one stone. And I won’t even be around to take the blame when the bodies are discovered. Finally, I get what I want. His goons out of the picture, and a seat at the top table. Then, of course, I’ll get rid of Father, too, but from a position of power.”

  “You’re insane.” I laugh, and once I start, I can’t stop, because he truly is. He’s so fucked in the head. “None of this is going to play out the way you think it will. There are so many ways this goes wrong for you, so many. Firstly, there’s the obvious. Damen, Alesso, and Markos are scary as fuck. You won’t be able to deal with them with the ease you seem to think you can. Secondly, your father will find out you had a hand in this. Let’s even go so far as to say your father lets it go because his men were attacking you. How do you explain taking and killing Mother and me, asshole? That stains you forever, and can’t be forgiven.”

  He slaps me across the face so hard my head hits the wall behind me, and for a moment I’m dazed.

  I glare at him, wanting nothing more than to launch myself at him, but my hands are tied behind my back, and there are four huge men in the room watching my every move. I’m not suicidal. No, for the first time in my life, I’m homicidal, and it’s this bastard I want to kill.

  If only he had never heard my mother and aunt talking that day, and never found out we were related then maybe, just maybe, I wouldn’t be in this mess. My family is a horrible nest of vipers.

  “To address your concerns, my darling half-sister, I’m not worried about the three musketeers. When they find out I have you, they’ll come alone. I can guarantee Damen won’t risk telling my father I have you, in case Stamatis picks my side. Damen and his two friends will be alone, against my twelve men. Three against twelve is so outnumbered they don’t stand a chance. This isn’t the movies where Segal takes out twenty guys alone.”

  I want to ask him when the last time he went to the movies was if he’s citing Segal, but I don’t want to antagonize the insane idiot any further, so I keep my mouth shut.

  “As to your concerns about how I will get away with what I’ve done to you? I have a friend helping out, and he’s happy to take the blame for killing you, because it suits our wider goals. Anyway, even if dear old Stamatis does find out I had a hand in your demise, what can he do? He can hardly harm his son for something done to his niece and his sister-in-law, can he? How would that look to the other families in our world? You guys are expendable when it comes to our code. I am not. I am his direct blood, his heir, and you, in the eyes of the world at least, aren’t. You’re also female. So, yeah, sucks to be you, Maya, but you aren’t important.”

  You. Aren’t. Important.

  His words concrete the message I’ve received all my life from the men around me. Spiro made it clear I didn’t matter one jot from an early age. He only wanted me as a bargaining chip to gain more power.

  Mother, she might have loved me, but she didn’t put my needs first. Not for the longest time, at least. Things would never have got to this point if she had.

  My real father, Stamatis, he stepped up, yes, but he only went so far. He won’t claim me as his. Not even now.

  And Damen. He is in some ways the biggest betrayal of all. He made me feel special, as if I was important, but then he told Alesso he doesn’t care about me, not really.

  Not important.

  A nobody.

  No more.

  I am determined to get out of this alive. No matter what I have to endure, I’ll take it, and then when I am free, I am going to bring the whole lot of them crashing down.

  My father. Costas. Yannis. Hell, even Damen if he gets in my way.

  I don’t know how I will do it. But if the sheer, livid rage coursing through my veins is anything to go by, I will find a way.

  It’s invigorating, this feeling. I’
m scared, and I am terrified as to what these men have done to my mother, but I’m not down and out, and the reason I’m not is I’ve found something to hold onto. Something important to me. Maybe more important now than anything else.

  Revenge.

  I could go to the cops, tell them every single thing I know. Everything I’ve heard. Put the whole damn family behind bars. No one goes to the cops in my family. Young kids, they’re taught if they’re lost, in trouble, scared, find a policeman. Not in my family. I was told to never trust a policeman, no matter what.

  Now, though? Now, I think the first thing I will do if I get out of here alive is go find a policeman. And then I’ll open my pretty little mouth and sing.

  It might get me killed, but I don’t care if it takes all of these bastards down too.

  Damen.

  He’d go down as well. I’d be implicating him and Alesso. I shouldn’t care, I really shouldn’t, but the realization has my stomach sinking.

  Could I see him in prison? Locked away for years, probably decades?

  “You’re awfully calm, little sister.” Costas raises his eyebrows as he watches me.

  There’s sweat on his upper lip, and he sniffs twice.

  “You’re not, though, are you? Is the high wearing off? Need another hit?” I don’t know why I’m goading him, but my hate is about all I have left in the world, and it’s the only thing that feels real to me. So, I feed it.

  He hits me again, but I only laugh at him.

  “You bitch. I was going to spare you some of the … indignities I’ve put your mother through, what with you being my sis and all, but you can fuck yourself. Or rather … you’re about to be fucked. A lot.”

  “I knew you were sick, but I didn’t think you were into incest.”

  His words make me want to throw up. They bring the fear back from earlier, and I can’t handle that. The fear isn’t good. The fear paralyses me. It’s the anger I need. Crave.

  But … they’ve raped Mom. Oh, God. The screams, that’s what they were.

  “I won’t be doing it myself, God no.” He shudders. “You’re the last place I want to stick my dick, brat. I have twelve men, though, who I’m sure will line up to do the job. And here is the thing, Maya. You’re a virgin, right? It’s gonna hurt. It will hurt even more when you’ve got a dick in your ass, as well as your cunt, and another stuffed in your mouth so you can’t scream.” His eyes blaze with a sinister glare.

  “Get her up,” he shouts to Piggy Eyes.

  He comes and grabs me, hauls me to my feet. “Where do you want her, boss?”

  “Fuck it, put her on the table in here. Go get the others. Make sure the mother is watched and doesn’t move a fucking inch.”

  Piggy drags me to the table while a man with white blond hair and pale blue eyes heads to the other room.

  Some of the men aren’t dressed like Costas and his crew; some of them look more like bikers to me. They are scary too. This whole thing is so terrifying, and I once more focus on the anger, letting it calm me.

  The door opens, and I can hear the quiet sobs of a woman in deep distress. Oh, God, what have they done to my mom? I want to cry, but I can’t. I want to scream, but the sounds in me are all dead.

  I dig deep and find that rage, the white-hot feeling that reminds me I am alive. I grit my teeth and swear if I go down here and now, I’ll ensure I take some of these men with me.

  I send up a prayer to God to give me strength, and to help me face whatever is about to come my way.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Damen

  They say family is everything, and now someone has taken my family. Maya.

  She’s mine, and this is where I get her back. I'll make every fucker who has hurt her pay.

  My other family, the family of brothers made from fighting on the frontline are lined up by my side. I stare at the men filing into the room, my heart bursting with gratitude. Andrius is at the head of the group. Two other men are with him. One has dark hair cropped close to his head and a face that screams don’t mess with me. The other one is huge, with blond hair and a friendly face. He is bigger than me, which is not something I see often.

  The blond giant goes to lean against a wall, his ankles crossed casually in front of him. The cropped haired one stands ramrod straight in the middle of the room. Andrius crosses to one of the empty chairs and folds himself into it.

  I know who the other two men are. Liam and Reece. Ex-British Special Forces, and now close protection specialists. They helped Andrius when there was a threat against Violet, his fiancée. Now, it seems they are about to help me.

  “Liam, Reece,” Andrius says, as if this is his house. “Thanks for coming. My friend, Damen, he needs our help.”

  I lay the situation out for them.

  When I’m done Reece cracks his neck from side to side and sighs. “You’re telling me you think the son of one of the biggest mob guys in Greece—no, strike that, in the world—has your fake-wife, and you want to burn the city to the ground to get her back? Despite this meaning your probable death at the hands of said mob boss and his men for going against his son? All of this to get back a woman who isn’t your real wife, and, unless I missed something, you haven’t told us you love more than life itself etcetera, etcetera.”

  I want to punch the snarky fucker, but instead I give a lazy grin. “Yeah, that.”

  “Okay. I’m in.”

  And suddenly I want to hug him instead of punching him.

  “What?” Liam snaps, giving Reece a deadly glower.

  “I like it. Sounds like the sort of thing I’d do. I’m in.” Reece grins and shrugs.

  Liam pinches the bridge of his nose.

  Andrius steps forward. “I have three men on their way here. Ex-Spetsnaz and very dangerous. They will be here in five minutes. We will go over the plans you have pulled up for the warehouse where you think Costas has Maya, and then we will go there to try to get her back. You”—he points to me as if he’s my boss, and it pisses me off, but I let it go because I have bigger problems—“don’t fuck this up with Stamatis. Don’t lead with Costas having Maya, lead with the betrayal he is committing against Stamatis. Get him onside, and then tell him what is going down.”

  I hate the fact that I am relegated to speaking to Stamatis, while these other men go and save what is mine.

  Markos speaks again; I think this is the most he has said in one day. “I will talk to Stamatis. I don’t say much, and I think he might listen to me.”

  I don’t know. My own view is that Stamatis thinks Markos is weird, but he keeps him around because he’s very deadly, very loyal, and doesn’t flap his lips.

  “We’ll see,” I say. “Let’s get over there.”

  My legs are like lead when I walk. Heavy, like my heart. This doesn’t sit right with me, going to see Stamatis while Maya is held by Costas. I get to the door and stop. It’s not even a decision I make; my legs won’t cross the threshold and take me out of this room where Andrius, Liam, and Reece are already pouring over maps and plans.

  “Crap,” Alesso mutters.

  Andrius looks up. “Do we have a problem?” he asks, voice as cold as his eyes.

  “Yeah, we have a problem,” Alesso answers. “Damen’s not going to come with me and Markos, and even if he did, he’s going to screw this up. He needs to be with you guys. I can handle Stamatis.”

  Shit.

  I want to punch something. Letting Alesso walk into Stamatis’ lair alone makes me want to poke my own eyes out because it’s as dangerous as hell, and we’ve always had one another’s back. On the other hand, I cannot let Andrius and the men go after Maya and not be there. It’s not even a question of trust. Andrius is one deadly, precise motherfucker, and I trust him to get her out of there. I simply need to be there.

  “It’s okay.” Alesso comes up to me and takes hold of my shoulders, looking into my eyes with his blue gaze. “Really, it’s okay. I got us into this. Right back at the start, I began working for Stamatis, so I set a
ll of this in motion. I can handle this; you go get your woman.”

  I rub my forehead, trying to erase the pounding headache I’ve got. “Okay.”

  I look away from Alesso, feeling weak somehow under his gaze.

  There’s a banging at the front door, a weird drumbeat of knocks, and Andrius grins. Not an expression I see on his face often. He jogs out of the room and returns a few moments later, talking in rapid-fire Russian with three men. They’re all big, all wearing fatigues, and all carrying. How the hell they got into the country like this, I do not know. They’re scary, though, and I like that. It’s not their size or weaponry that makes them scary, but the coldness deep in their eyes. It’s the same icy depths in Andrius, and I know some of the shit these men went through to leave them this way.

  I might have my own horror stories to tell, but I understand they are nothing on what these guys went through. I know for a fact that Andrius once sat in a ditch for two days with his colleagues’ brains all over him, unable to move because they were pinned down by the enemy. He saw his own men turn on one another, gut one another, because they’d lost their minds in the depravity of the war they fought. Andrius has seen things that most people would never come back from, and these men most likely have seen similar things too.

  It has made them dangerous as fuck. You don’t mess with them, and I am glad because now they are on my side. These dangerous men are going to help me get Maya back.

  Thirty minutes later, we’re ready. Alesso and Markos are already gone, driving to Stamatis to tell him his own son is turning against him. At least due to the hacking I did, they have proof. The problem is, this is Stamatis’ family, his blood. He might decide to spare Costas and kill the messenger instead. I send up a prayer for the two men who are my best friends and ask for their safety.

  The drive to the warehouse is torture. My heart is pounding in a way it never did out in the field. What if she’s already dead? Does Costas intend to kill her? My gut instinct is that he does. It makes no sense for him to take her otherwise. He tried to scare her away with his notes, and when it didn’t work, he took her. He knows she’s competition for his father’s love, but more importantly, for a place at the table because it seems Costas is one greedy little shit. Willing to harm his own father to get what he thinks is his.