Chapter 15 · Prove She's Yours

The knife sits between us like a dare.

Vito's watching me with that same sick smile he wore when he showed Locke the video of his mother pulling the trigger. The old guard forms a half-circle around the table, their faces carved from stone. Nobody moves. Nobody breathes.

Locke's still on his knees in front of me, hands cuffed behind his back, blood smeared across his mouth from where I kissed him. His eyes meet mine and there's something raw in them I've never seen before. Not when he bit my finger at the engagement party. Not when he shoved me against the car outside the hospital.

Fear.

Not of Vito. Not of the family.

Of what I'm about to choose.

"You understand the terms," Vito says. He's leaning back in his chair like he's already won. "Blood oath binds her to the family. She betrays us, she runs, she breathes wrong—Locke kills her. In front of everyone. Or the family kills him instead."

"She's not taking the oath," Locke says. His voice is hoarse.

"Then she leaves." Vito spreads his hands. "Right now. Walks out that door.