Page 104 of Blood Vows

She reached into her coat, and Dante immediately said, “Elena.” She pulled out the copied letter, and Hale stared at it.

“My father knew,” she spat.

“Knew what?” Hale asked.

“He knew what you were,” she said. Hale’s face went pale. “He left everything.” Elena smiled. “Accounts, names, payments, and numerous murders.”

Hale shook his head. “No, you're lying.”

“Marco has all of it,” she said. The color drained from Hale’s face. Elena wanted him to feel the power slipping away from him. She wanted to watch him as everything he'd murdered people for disappeared.

“The Accord is finished,” she said.

“You can’t dissolve it,” he insisted.

“I can. I’m the bondholder.” Hale stared at her and then his gaze shifted toward Dante. Something ugly entered his expression.

“If I kill you, it transfers to me,” he said. Dante fired, just one shot, and Hale collapsed. Elena stared at him. The bullet had hit his leg. It wasn’t fatal, and she could tell that Dante had done that deliberately.

Dante walked toward him. “Try saying that again.” Hale groaned as Dante stood over him with his gun pointed down. This was it—the moment Elena had known was coming. Dante wanted to kill him. She could see it. She could feel it. Part of her wanted it too, God forgive her, but her father’s last request hadn't been revenge. It had been freedom.

“Dante.” He didn’t look at her. “Hale needs to answer for everything.”

“He will,” Dante growled.

“I mean alive.”

His jaw tightened. “Elena.”

“Please, Dante,” she begged. That got him. Dante looked at her, and for one long moment, she saw the war inside him.

He lowered the gun, and Hale laughed weakly. “You’ve become soft.”

Dante kicked the weapon away. “No.” He looked at Elena. “I’m not soft. I’m in love.”

Sirens sounded in the distance, and Hale’s smile disappeared.

Elena frowned. “You called the police?”

Dante nodded. “There was an anonymous evidence dump twenty minutes ago.”

“Let me guess—Marco?” she asked.

“Yep, Marco,” Dante said.

Hale struggled to sit up. “You can't do this.”

Elena walked toward him, and for the first time, she wasn’t afraid. “Yes, I can.”

“You’re destroying your inheritance,” he warned.

“No.” She crouched. “I’m destroying yours.” Hale stared at her, and Elena stood. Dante came to her side, and she reached for his hand. He took it. Behind them, footsteps thundered into the church. The Crimson Empire had been built in blood, but tonight, Elena decided it would end with truth instead. And for the first time in twenty-seven years, Vincenzo Hale no longer controlled what happened next—she did.

Dante

By sunrise, the church was empty. Hale was gone—but not dead. That still took some getting used to. Dante stood outside beneath a gray morning sky, hands shoved into the pockets of his coat, watching the last police vehicle disappear at the end of the street.

For most of his life, endings had been simpler. There was a body, a grave, and a problem erased. This one was messier. Hale would talk, lawyers would circle, and names would come out. Deals would be made, and records would be seized. Crimson Holdings would be dismantled piece by piece, but for once, Dante understood that surviving an ending didn’t make it weaker. Maybe it made it harder.