Shattered Vows

by Shain Rose

For some reason, I cracked up with her admission and the lines on her forehead disappeared as she smiled big. Brilliant. Beautiful. And brutal. That’s what that smile was. She’d wreck my world if I wasn’t careful.

“Uncle Bastian,” a little voice whispered. I snapped my attention to my little niece who stared at us with stars in her eyes. “She’s your princess.” Ivy’s chin rested on the back of her threaded hands as she sighed at what she thought she was witnessing. “I love her with you.”

“Morina Bailey, you’re like the ocean. Pretty without trying, alluring without knowing, and I think you might be just as devastating. You could probably eat me alive.”

“Piccola ragazza, you think so little of me that it actually pains me. I’m never going to hurt you. I’d kill for you. You’re my family now. Your life is precious, love. It’s safe with me. But the men around you? I’d put a bullet through their skulls faster than you could murmur daddy.”

“To love and to be loved utterly the same is a hard thing to find.”

“You’re mine, ragazza. You spread your legs for another man, I’ll hunt him down and kill him.” He’d turned vicious, the way I wanted him. “I only

want you. You’ll have to decide if you want all of me too. I’m not a good man. I never was, but I’m going to try for you, ragazza. I’m going to try.”