Chapter 25 #2
He processes me for a moment, then lifts an eyebrow. "Sure as hell is."
We start walking again, more slowly this time, knowing that before too long, we need to get to work.
"She used blackmail because she's never been taught any other way to get what she needs," I say.
"In her world, people only move when they have skin in the game.
" I pause. "But what she wants? Has nothing to do with winning.
Those women are real. Her father is real.
And walking into this is the riskiest thing she could do. "
I pause and the respect and admiration I’ve grown to have for her lights up under my ribs. “She’s special.”
Enzo glances at me sideways. "You care about her."
I don't answer that directly. "I want to tear down bad guys like you do. And she’s not one of them.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
He deserves the truth. “Yes. I do.”
But I don’t want to talk about that anymore, so I get back to the problem at hand.
"There's something else," I say. "Luther had a man at your engagement party."
Enzo stops walking, but his gaze stays fixed on the path.
"He approached Delilah in the hallway. Grabbed her arm." I keep my voice level even though the memory still rages in my system. "That's why we left early. We spent the night at a hotel just in case they followed. I didn’t want anyone coming here without preparation.”
"Luther knows she's with you?”
"Delilah felt certain she’d seen the guy before.
But his man didn't try to take her. Didn't follow us to the hotel.
Just—" It still baffles me. "He let her go, which doesn't make sense if Luther needs her back for the wedding. There’s some sort of alliance forming between the clubs and their marriage was to seal the deal.”
Enzo frowns. "Who are these archaic fucks still sealing alliances with their daughters?"
Collateral in the underworld isn’t the same as it is up here.
Enzo is quiet for a long moment, turning it over the way he always does — finding the logic in things that don't appear to have any. Where I move toward control, Enzo moves toward understanding.
“It’s strange he didn’t take her.”
It’s the one thing that makes me think maybe Delilah didn’t see the guy right.
I shrug. “All I could think was that their exit strategy wasn’t clean at that given moment. But he’ll be back for her.”
The thought is like acid in my veins.
“Ava and I need to get in on this,” he says finally.
I don’t want them involved. But I need them.
“David's good, but he works clean.” He says it matter-of-factly, without apology.
Ava is a hacker. She’ll find things quicker, faster–things that stay hidden behind legal process and warrants. Information we don’t have time to sleep on.
He sighs roughly when we reach the crossing of the path leading back to our cul-de-sac of houses again.
“Let me summarize. There are at least two women being held. We need to take down Iron Covenant to stop any more from coming. And we need to find something on Luther that makes him surrender what he has on you.”
My God. The thought that’s even possible. “I don’t see how we do that.”
Enzo snaps his gaze to mine, daring me to tell him no. “We have to figure it out, Rio. I’m not letting this happen to you.”
I've been connected to this man since before we were born and I have never felt it more than right now.
I’ve never been able to see a way out of my agreement with Black Ridge.
But then, I’m not Enzo.
I’m not Ava.
And I have no choice but to trust someone other than myself for once.
He stops at the corner of the fence where the paddock meets the open land and looks out at the property. The house where he and Ava live is visible from here. He stares at it for a moment, and I watch something settle in him. A decision is being made quietly, the way all his decisions are.
"You should have told me." It’s not an accusation, just the truth stated plainly, so it can sit between us and be what it is.
"Yeah," I say. "I should have."
He nods once. “No more secrets.”
He starts down the path toward home, but I call out.
"Enzo."
He turns.
"The favors I did for Ray — names, locations — if this gets to a point where GhostEye comes under scrutiny—"
"Then we deal with it," he says simply. "Together."
He glances back at me over his shoulder, and there's something in his expression that I don't have a word for.
“No,” I face him square on. “I take the fall. You knew nothing. You know nothing. Agree that much now. And cover your tracks.”
His lips form a thin line, and he nods once, then turns to go home.
And I turn back toward my house.
Toward Delilah.
Enzo's conviction still burns in my chest. He's always found a way out — always. His own love came to him as a girl on the run with a fake identity, and he worked it all out. And now he's about to marry her.
I've never put much stock in hope. But I've watched my brother do it and now he has it all.
The thought of Delilah leaving does something savage to my chest. She's not mine. She never agreed to be. I want her anyway — completely.
Could Enzo nail Luther to the point of surrender?
Could I ask her to stay if he did?
I don't have answers.
And in my experience, the questions you can't answer are the ones that destroy you.