The Storm Before the Calm

Chapter 12

Dominico Vicious Vitale

As soon as I got back to the safe house, I got all of my computer equipment out to run a background search on Aurora Salvatore.

While my systems were running the only information I had about her - her first and last name - I took my suit jacket off, rolling my sleeves up and unbuttoning my dress shirt, pouring myself a drink. My skin felt like it was buzzing, vibrating just underneath the surface, and I wasn't quite sure why.

I wasn't sure what it was, or if it was just a multitude of everything, but my instincts were telling me that there was more to Aurora Salvatore than what met the eye. My instincts had never steered me wrong before, but this case was tricky. I couldn't exactly walk into Zio Giovanni's office or call up Zio Dante telling them that I was suspicious of the fucking mafia princess that was Aurora Salvatore.

I also did not appreciate her fucking attitude towards me. Although I respected the challenge of communicating with her, I didn't like her quick tongue, nor her sharp glares aimed at me. I much preferred them aimed at other people.

But even from the moment I laid eyes on her the other day, something resembling a tiny voice in my head said she was nothing like she seemed. And I was determined to find out what the fuck it was, exactly. To other people, she seemed so put together, maybe even kind-hearted, definitely possessing an angelic face. But I knew she was anything but. She was a strange, hostile, dominant little thing, with an angelic face nonetheless.

It only took a short minute or two for the check to be complete, even though it felt like the system was taking forever, but once it was, my eyes read as quickly as they could as I took everything about her, in. In all of their family photos over the years, she looked like a completely different human being. She looked...happy. Lighter. Her blue eyes glistened like she was so full of hope and life, she was bursting at the seams. She looked so fragile.

Like there wasn't a huge load she carried on her back like she clearly did now.

Aurora Angela Salvatore was born on November 11, and is 27 years old, which would make sense since Antonio and I are 33, which is why I'd never hung around her or Ariana as kids, as they were so much younger than us. I was already being trained in mafia law by the time she was out of Kindergarten.

She went to all the same public schools Angelina and Antonio went to, and later, her younger, louder sister, Ariana. She graduated the top of her class, but after that, she seemingly dropped off the face of the normal world. No college classes, no employment, no records of anything.

But my blood simultaneously ran as ice cold as it ran boiling upon seeing the emboldened line under her known aliases....

Status: Married; Nico Russo

Nico Russo dropped off the face of the planet about 2 years ago, and I'd been hunting him down ever since. Ever since I got the call that Zio Giovanni had found Elizabella in one of his skin houses after he'd taken her, tortured her, and finally showed her mercy by killing her.

I was seeing red dancing in my line of vision as I crept through their marriage license records, their wedding day photos, their happy fucking family.

Zio Giovanni knew why I was hunting for this man and his brother. He knew what he had done to my last remaining family. He knew the target that Nico and Enzo Russo had painted on their foreheads. Was he pretending to help me find them, while simultaneously just sending me on a wild goose chase away from his son-in-law?

His son-in-law.

Aurora's fucking husband.

Staring at her angelic smile that was now tainted by betrayal as her monster of a husband grinned at her on the alter, I dialed my own head of security's number. It rang but two times before Luca answered.

"Vicious. What's up?" Luca answered, but I was still seeing red.

"I have a job for you. Nobody is to know. Not even your fucking diary." I said, and continued once he hesitantly agreed, since I've never asked him to do anything like this before. "I want 3 men following Aurora Salvatore everywhere. Do you hear me? I want to know when she leaves her house in the morning, the gym she goes to every day, who she speaks to on a regular basis. I want to know her fucking coffee order, and when she takes a fucking piss."

"Uh, boss. Aurora Salvatore? Like Giovanni Salvatore's daughter??" Luca asked for clarification, but I quickly shut that line of questioning down.

"Did I stutter?"

"Uh, nope. You got it. I'll call you tomorrow, boss."

"I want a text update every hour on her whereabouts. Do. Not. Let her out of your sight." And with that, I hung up before he could ask any more questions. I threw my phone across the room before running another background check, but this time on Aurora Russo. To see what else would come up, since she was seemingly still married to that fucking monster.

While the system was running its algorithm, I couldn't stop the thoughts from piling up. How much did she know? Did she know half of the disgusting, heinous shit she married into? Does she turn a blind eye to the innocent lives he takes? Worse, does Zio Giovanni know?

When I found my baby sister's body, I vowed to find Nico and Enzo Russo and make them beg for me to kill them. I was born into, grew up in, and was now completely emerged into the mafia underworld. I know evil exists, and I know what men like me do behind the scenes. But actually seeing evidence of that evil... seeing the torture Elizabella endured, hearing the piercing screams from other voices in that underground operation, the nightmares I woke up from every single night.

My mind flicked back to the other night when he told Antonio and Lorenzo about Elizabella back when they 'paid the Russo's a visit'. None of those men seemed like they were even remotely relaxed over the mention of his family name. In fact, they both seemed like they had a fire burning inside of themselves over the mention of Nico Russo.

My mind also flicked back to the scars that riddled Aurora's back...

Maybe she was just as abused as every other woman in Nico's life, and was just too terrified to leave him. Divorce wasn't recognized in our world. It wasn't as easy as separating from your spouse in our world.

Nothing was adding up, and I needed immediate answers. I was a very patient man, but not when it came to the Russo's.

Aurora knew my mom was dead, yet I knew dick about her. She told me that she'd killed multiple men for simple reasons. A girl who didn't die when she was supposed to, Mr. Vitale. You know how I know, Antonio.

Nothing came up when I searched Aurora Russo, except more photos of their happy little wedding ceremony. The wedding I had gotten an invitation to, but never attended because I had begun my search for my little sister. The little sister that her husband, in these photos, knew where she was being kept. Knew what was happening to her in the moment he was saying his fucking vows.

Flitting through photos of them, my fingers stopped hitting next when my eyes honed in on one photo in particular. A photo dated exactly 4 months after their wedding, and exactly 2 months before Elizabella was found.

Aurora was pregnant...