Code of Silence: Cosa Nostra #2 by Jasmine Denton, Genna Denton

body cold. Even with all of the justification he’d been doing lately, he’d always known what he’d done to Bela was wrong. He’d just been hoping nobody else saw it that way.
    “She’s just a girl, Trey. An eighteen-year-old girl. And all she wanted was to be with Vincent, and now you’ve made sure that can never happen.”
    “But it can,” he insisted. “We have a plan—”
    “I don’t give a damn what your plan is,” she said. “I don’t care if you needed to unite the families to keep your crew or not. The point is: you chose work over your own flesh and blood.”
    “Mandi, listen…”
    “No, you listen,” she said. “She’s your sister. You’re supposed to protect her and instead you broke her heart. And you didn’t think twice about it!”
    “I’m going to get her out,” he insisted, his voice shaky from the emotions festering inside him. “I just needed time…power. Power I couldn’t get unless she married Rafe. Don’t you understand? I did what I had to do.”
    “Who are you kidding, Trey?” she asked. “Power is all you’ve ever cared about. Well, congratulations. You finally got everything you’ve ever wanted. You’re the reigning mob boss of the DeLuca familia . But you lost me along the way.”
    “Mandi, you can’t just leave,” he said as he followed her out into the hallway. “What about the baby?”
    Yanking her arm from his once again, she whirled around to face him. “I’m saving her from you!”
    Standing in the hallway, he was stunned silent. Shocked. A strange feeling of joy settled over him, even in the midst of this heartache. “ Her ?”
    There were tears in her eyes as she looked up at him, but the anger still remained in them as well. “That’s right. You’re going to have a baby girl. And I’d rather die than let you treat her the way you just treated Bela.”
    “Mandi, don’t do this. Don’t leave like this.”
    “What are you going to do?” she asked. “Are you going to lock me up like a prisoner again? Should I have planned some dramatic nighttime escape?”
    Right now, he wasn’t going to do anything. Mandi was angry and scared, that was why she was doing this. It didn’t mean she didn’t love him, that they wouldn’t work things out. All it meant was that he’d crossed a line this time and she wanted him to know it. So he said nothing, did nothing as she walked away from him.
    As the emptiness of the house settled over him, he realized everybody he loved was gone. His father was buried in the backyard. Bela was on a plane to Italy with the man he’d forced her to marry. And Mandi was getting into a cab in the driveway.
    She was right, he thought as he made his way across the mansion to his father’s old office. He’d finally gotten everything he’d always wanted. Why did it feel like such a hollow victory? 

Epilogue
     
    Vincent wasn’t sure why he’d thought getting drunk at the Strip Dive would help him take his mind off of Bela’s wedding. All the alcohol did was make his mood even more grim. Not even the half-naked women on the stage made him feel better.
    Nothing would help, he knew that. A look at his watch told him the wedding was over by now. Bela was officially off the market and no longer his. Officially a Marcano.
    That thought caused him to lift the glass of scotch to his lips once again. The only thing that dulled his heartache was his newborn hatred for Trey. It burned inside him like hellfire, eternal and everlasting. Everything that had gone wrong was his fault. Trey was the one who’d killed Sal and rendered Vincent’s entire investigation null and void. Trey was the one who’d sold his own sister into virtual slavery to keep the keys to the DeLuca dynasty. Trey was now the enemy.
    In the haze of the bar dimly lit with neon lights, he saw a familiar figure coming toward him. Nik slid into the booth across from Vincent.
    “Drowning your sorrows?” Nik asked.
    Vincent shrugged in response. In the back of his