Sinful Vows

SINFUL VOWS MESSINA CRIME FAMILY BOOK ONE LILIAN HARRIS CONTENTS Content Warning Acknowledgments Chapter 1 One Month Ago Chapter 2 Present Day Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Three Days Later Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Epilogue Also By Lilian Harris About the Author This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidences are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. © 2023 by Lilian Harris. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission of the publisher. Editing/Interior Formatting: CPR Editing Proofreader: Judy’s Proofreading Cover Design: Cormar Covers Created with Vellum CONTENT WARNING This book contains some depictions of human trafficking and violence. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Sinful Vows is my tenth book. Ten whole books. Wow. I can’t even believe it. I started as a little girl chasing dreams, to a woman who thought it’ll never happen. I became a lawyer, a mother, then I became an author, and it’s thanks to each one of you that I still am. I hope to continue giving you stories you can drool and swoon over. Thank you for being here. To my kids, I love you guys and how you support me. To my oldest, Harrison, who’s only nine, but tells all his friends his mom is an author. I’m lucky to be your mama. Kinda hard answering their questions though LOL. Warn me next time… To my daughter, Liliana, who’s six. Your spunk and maturity helps shape the kids I write in my books. Sophia was inspired by you. Not sure which one of you rolls her eyes better though. And to my youngest, Finnegan. You’re only two and you have no idea what’s going on yet, but that’s okay because you’re cute. CHAPTER ONE ELSIE ONE MONTH AGO Some say the devil has no soul. But I think it’s humanity that doesn’t. We do the sickest things to one another and find the dirtiest or most clever excuses. But in reality, we’re savages. All of us. Some more than others. “Take it off,” Keith grits, a hand within his scruffy white beard. I raise my chin up, clenching my teeth so hard it aches through my jaw. I won’t do it. They may think they own my skin, but they don’t own my heart. My mind. Those are mine, and I won’t let them inside either. Let them hurt me. Fucking kill me. I don’t care. Death is an escape I will welcome. But somehow, I’m still here. “Elsie, please,” Kayla whimpers, her body bare for the slimebag who works for Faro Bianchi, the one who stripped us of the dignity we once had. We were taken together, along with our friend Jade. My God, every time I think of her, my heart physically hurts. I have no idea where she is. It was supposed to be just a road trip, us three enjoying time together after finishing high school, wanting to have some fun before college – and then med school – took all our time. We had plans to become doctors one day. My mom’s a plastic surgeon. But me? I wanted to fix hearts. I wanted to see what made them stop. What made them bleed. What made them work again. I wanted to fix them, to make people live again – really live – and maybe when they came back, some of their humanity would too. But, of course, I never became a heart surgeon. Neither of us got to become anything. Kayla’s dreams of one day helping people with cancer as an oncologist went up in flames right along with mine. And Jade? She always wanted to work with kids. Well, except when she wasn’t dreaming of playing in international concert halls. She could play a piano like Picasso could paint. But Jade was selfless. Her mother was a single mom raising two kids, and Jade wanted to have a job that would guarantee her a salary high enough that she could help her mother. So much for that. The Bianchis run the Palermo crime family, and we’ve been theirs for nine and a half years. Brutal, torturous years. There are days where I’ve come to the point of wanting to slit my own throat. It’d be less painful than everything they’ve done to us. They’re sick. All the Bianchis are, but Faro, who’s the boss, and his brother Agnelo are the most ruthless of the four brothers. They sell our bodies for money. Kids too. Those monsters traffic women and children like cattle. They own a members-only sex club, and the only way for a customer to get there is by calling a number on the back of a gold card and having someone pick them up. They’re then brought blindfolded to the location. And no one knows where it is. Not us. Not the men. No one. Kayla and I have been taken there plenty. Some of the girls work there permanently, while others, like us, are only brought in when we’re needed. And none of us ever want to be needed. We’re forced into rooms with men who take every bit of us – our skin, the flesh underneath – until we’re begging for it to end. We don’t have control. No way to escape. We have nothing. When we’re not working there, sometimes we’re chauffeured to fancy hotels. And we know better than to talk to anyone