Chapter 42
FORTY-TWO
ENZO
“Fox’s funeral is coming up. What are we going to do?” Cole demanded, following me into the office after the fiasco with E.
“Bury our best friend,” I muttered, grabbing a fifth of whiskey and opting to drink straight from the bottle. It had been hell lately, and it didn’t look like it would let up anytime soon.
Not only were Everett and his fuckhead son gone, but I couldn’t reach Emilio. He’d run off doing some vigilante shit in a bid to avenge my parents.
I assumed when they said they were all together, it meant he had a relationship with my father, too.
I rubbed my eyes and drank again. Fuck, everything would have been so much different if my father had told me things from the start. He’d left me this fucking mess.
I missed him. I missed my mom. I missed Fox. I fucking missed our life.
I was alone now. No guidance. Nothing. Just me and Cole against the fucking world right now while we try to hold shit together.
It wasn’t working.
“Enzo, man, we need to talk,” Cole said, taking a seat on the couch as I sat in my chair and drank. “Stop fucking drinking and talk to me. You’re avoiding everything—”
“I’d like to think I’m killing everything,” I muttered.
He sighed. “Come on. Our girl is broken. E is fucked. Fox is…” He couldn’t even get the words out. “I’m breaking too. I-I don’t know how much longer I can hold shit together. Your wedding is in a few weeks—”
“Like we’re fucking getting married,” I said, looking at him. I took in the fearful look on his tired face.
“What?”
“Do you really think now is the time to marry? To celebrate? Do you even fucking think Rosalie will want shit to do with me once she has time to breathe? Huh?” I shook my head. “Shit’s over.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” he demanded.
“It means you can suck my dick if you want to. Seems we’re all we’ll have left once the smoke clears.”
His hands visibly shook as he balled them into tight fists on his lap.
“Take it back, motherfucker. Take everything you just said back.”
“Cole.” I closed my eyes for a moment before opening them to look at him. “You’re a smart man. You know this won’t work now. She’ll never forgive me for Fox. It’s over.”
“She loves you,” he snarled. “She loves E. She loves me!” He pounded his chest with his fist. “Us, Enzo. Fucking US. It’s always been us.”
“We aren’t us anymore. Fox is gone.”
“We’re still here. We’re still fucking here. That means something, doesn’t it?”
I was quiet for a moment before I spoke.
“It means everything.”
“Then stop saying stupid shit. I’m barely holding it together right now. I don’t need to worry about losing my girl, too. You may not realize this, but Rosalie is the love of my life. I’m never going to love someone the way I love her. We’re supposed to have a baby—”
“Cole, you need to stop with the baby talk, OK? You’re not going to have a kid with her. Get that through your head. She wasn’t ready when you knocked her up in high school, and she sure as fuck isn’t ready now. So fucking STOP pressuring her on it.”
He glared at me, his blue eyes shimmering with tears.
“I really fucking hate you right now, Enzo. I love you, but I fucking hate you. You’re being a fucking asshole.
I know you’re hurting. I’m hurting too, but don’t make it worse.
I’m begging you to stop. We’re falling apart. I-I don’t want to fall apart.”
“All great empires fall so stronger ones can rise,” I murmured, drinking again. There wasn’t enough alcohol or drugs in this world to numb the pain. I wasn’t even sure why I kept trying to.
Cole threw a pillow from the couch at me, knocking my whiskey bottle out of my hands. It sloshed down the front of my shirt before crashing to the floor.
“Fuck you and your empire, prick.” Cole stormed from the room, leaving me to sit alone.
I deserve it. I deserved all this shit.
But they didn’t.
Fuck, how do I fix this?
I woke with my entire body aching. I’d passed out in my chair and had half-slept on the floor, my body twisted in a weird angle.
It wasn’t the awkward sleep that woke me, though.
It was Rosalie’s screams.
I staggered to my feet and found her on the couch, rocking, Colten and Jamie trying to calm her.
“What’s going on?” I demanded, stumbling into the room. I could hear Cole’s bedroom door slamming as he came rushing to us.
“She was trying to leave,” Colten said, releasing her so I could hold her. “Said she was going to go find Everett herself. She tried to see E this morning, and he lost his shit. He’s in the bathroom throwing up. Freaked the fuck out on her.”
I noted the faint black and blue mark forming on her cheek. I ground my teeth together hard.
“He hit her?”
“I-I don’t think it was on purpose. He was trying to get away from her, and his hands were going all over,” Jamie said, wincing. “He kept screaming not to touch him.”
Cole stopped in front of us, a worried look on his face.
“Rosebud, baby,” he said gently, kneeling so he could look into her eyes. “Hey, talk to me. Are you OK?”
“I-I don’t know what I did. He’s mad at me. What did I do wrong?” Her words made my heart constrict. Tears cascaded down her pale cheeks.
Fuck, what a mess.
This wasn’t going to work.
It was on repeat in my head.
“He’s hurting, baby. He’s been through a lot. He needs time. Just like you do,” Cole said softly. “Are you OK? Your cheek is bruised.”
She blinked at him. “I miss Fox.”
“I know, Rosebud. Baby, I know.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “He’s gone, though. You have us. I promise you do. It’s been a bad few weeks, but we’re going to be OK. I swear to you that we will.”
She sobbed quietly in my arms, her small body shaking beneath the effort.
“His funeral is tomorrow,” Cole continued in a gentle voice. “You don’t have to go—”
“I-I can’t miss it,” she choked out. “I need to see him! I need to tell him I love him. That-That I-I planned a movie night and bubble bath for us…” She wept harder.
“Fuck,” I snarled, holding her tighter. “Cole, take her.”
Cole immediately reached out and wrapped his arms around her, cradling her against him, whispering to her as she continued to cry.
“Where are you going?” Colten asked.
“I have to find Everett Church.”
Once I did, there would be hell to pay.