Chapter 15 Enzo Breaks His Own Rules #3
The man’s smile was thin. “You won’t get him tonight.”
Valentina’s eyes cut to Enzo, fierce. “What did you do?”
Enzo felt heat behind his eyes, not from fear - anger. He’d promised her survival. He’d given her a channel. He’d burned rules to route her documents safely through a legal corridor.
And now the intermediary’s office had become a trap.
“I violated protocol to get you a legal corridor,” Enzo said, keeping his voice steady so she could hear the truth and not the panic. “The corridor got compromised anyway.”
Valentina’s throat worked. “So what now?”
Enzo’s mind ran through options like a weapon being loaded.
He could fight. He could shoot - except he didn’t carry a gun in his hand.
He could take a risk with the service door - except there were men between them.
He could surrender - except surrender would hand her over with a neat bow of procedure.
He lowered his gaze to the burner phone in her hands. “That phone. Did it connect?”
Valentina’s eyes flicked to it, then back. “It connected. For a moment. Then it - ”
“Then it wiped,” Enzo guessed. He didn’t like how easily his mind fit the pieces together.
Valentina’s mouth tightened. “I didn’t open anything. I just held it.”
The man without gloves chuckled quietly. “She’s smart. Too smart for your kind of love.”
Enzo’s chest went tight at the phrasing. Love. Their connection wasn’t something anyone else got to name.
He stepped forward a fraction. “What’s your price?”
The glove-wearing man shifted, ready to grab. “Your price is that you stop moving.”
Enzo’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not here for me.”
The man’s gaze flicked to the door. “We’re here for what you tried to hide.”
Enzo understood then - not fully, but enough to feel cold. The burner phone wasn’t the only thing they’d prepared to wipe. They’d prepared to erase whatever channel Enzo created. They’d prepared to sever the legal corridor before it could open.
And they’d prepared to catch Valentina before she could reach any intermediary.
Valentina’s voice shook with restrained fury. “You used your own channel.”
Enzo nodded once. “Yes.”
Her eyes burned. “That means you put yourself between us and them.”
“That’s what I do,” Enzo said, and it came out rougher than he intended.
She stared at him like she hated the devotion and needed it anyway. “Don’t do that.”
“I can’t promise - ”
The glove-wearing man moved.
Enzo reacted without thinking. He lunged forward, grabbing Valentina’s wrist and yanking her behind him, using his body like a shield she could feel with her skin. The men surged.
A fist slammed into Enzo’s ribs. Pain flared bright, hot. He grunted through it, breath knocked out, then drove his elbow into the glove-wearing man’s stomach. The man folded with a grunt.
Valentina made a sound - sharp, horrified. “Enzo!”
Enzo didn’t look back. He couldn’t afford to see her fear. He needed her anchored to him, not drowning in him.
He twisted, grabbed the man without gloves by the collar, and shoved him toward the service door. The door banged against the frame. The hallway echoed with the metallic clang.
The man without gloves recovered quickly, hands reaching for Enzo. Enzo blocked one hand, then took a hard hit to his shoulder that made his grip loosen.
Valentina moved then, not running - she reached for the burner phone and shoved it into her pocket like she could hide it from fate. Her face was pale, but her eyes were unbroken. She looked at Enzo as if she could still choose to trust him despite the pain.
“I’m not leaving you,” she said.
Enzo’s breath came in rough. “You’re leaving me. That’s the point.”
Valentina’s mouth trembled, anger or grief, he couldn’t tell. “You don’t get to decide that.”
The man without gloves raised his hand as if signaling. Another set of footsteps approached from the hallway behind them, quick and heavy. Backup.
Enzo felt the trap closing. The legal corridor had been compromised, and now the building’s lower levels were becoming a cage. He needed an exit now - not later.
His gaze flicked to the burner phone in Valentina’s pocket, then to the service door’s narrow gap. Dark beyond. Maybe a stairwell. Maybe a maintenance exit. Maybe a dead end.
He had to know.
Enzo shoved the glove-wearing man aside again, then slammed his shoulder into the service door. It swung wider with a squeal. Cold air rushed out, smelling like damp concrete and dust.
Valentina stepped forward despite herself. “Enzo - ”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the gap. The service door slammed behind them with a heavy clang.
In the narrow space beyond, the lights were dim, emergency bulbs buzzing like weak insects. The corridor turned into a small utility stairwell with a metal railing slick under Enzo’s palm. The sound of men pounding on the other side of the service door rose like thunder.
Valentina leaned into Enzo’s chest as they moved down the stairs. Her shoulder pressed against his bruised ribs, and the contact made him wince. She noticed anyway. Her hand lifted, hovering near his side like she wanted to touch the pain and erase it.
“Let me see,” she demanded.
Enzo pulled her hand away gently. “Not now.”
Valentina’s breath turned shaky. “You broke your own rules for me.”
“I did it because I couldn’t watch them take you,” he said. The words tasted like metal. He hated that he sounded like a man begging.
Valentina’s eyes flashed. “You’re still not listening. I’m not a thing you rescue.”
“I know,” Enzo said, and he meant it. He’d known since before he’d ever asked her to trust him. But knowing didn’t stop him from acting like her survival was his responsibility.
They reached the bottom landing where a door stood ajar - painted white, peeling at the edges. He pushed it open and they spilled into a cramped maintenance room. The smell of oil and old paper filled the air. A narrow window sat high on the wall, barred, overlooking the back service alley.
Valentina exhaled sharply. “We can - ”
A sound came from the stairwell behind them. A latch. Voices. Men entering.
Enzo’s mind snapped into motion. He grabbed Valentina’s wrist, guiding her toward the back window, then looked up at the alley. Narrow. Fast-moving traffic beyond. A camera pole across the way, angled toward the alley mouth.
“They’re coming,” Valentina said, voice tight.
Enzo nodded. “But they’re late.”
He reached for the maintenance room’s metal tools - he didn’t need them, not truly. He needed distraction. He needed a moment. He needed to buy time for Valentina’s next legal move.
Valentina’s gaze sharpened on the tools. “What are you doing?”
“Burning another rule,” Enzo murmured.
She grabbed his sleeve. Her fingers dug in, possessive and fierce despite the fear. “Stop.”
He met her eyes. “If they’re wiping the intermediary contact list, we need to know what they wiped. We need something they didn’t anticipate.”
Valentina’s face twisted. “You think there’s something left?”
Enzo’s gaze went to the burner phone in her pocket. The channel he’d
need wasn’t protocol. It was survival.
Valentina’s eyes dropped to the phone like she could feel his attention through her coat. “Enzo…”
“I’m not taking it,” he said quickly, because she’d hear the impulse in his tone and shut down. “I’m asking. How did you get it - who gave it to you?”
Her throat worked. “It was routed through the legal intermediary. The same corridor you insisted we avoid.”
“I insisted we avoid exposure,” he corrected, low. “Not the intermediary. Tell me who held the line for you.”
Valentina’s mouth tightened, and for a second the fight drained out of her, leaving only something raw underneath. “I don’t know his real name.”
Enzo’s jaw flexed. “Last message?”
She blinked, like she wasn’t used to being pressed for specifics when she was used to being listened to. “He said the legal channel was clean. That the documents could go through without touching Shadows records.”
Enzo’s gaze cut to the maintenance room door. The pounding on the service stairwell had shifted - closer, angrier.
“Then he’s not clean,” Enzo said. He didn’t raise his voice, but the certainty in it made Valentina’s fingers tighten on his sleeve.
“Or he’s compromised,” she whispered.
“Same outcome.” Enzo swallowed the heat that rose under his ribs, the ache that had nothing to do with pain and everything to do with the way she looked at him like she was deciding whether to break him. “Give me the number he used. The name on the account.”
Valentina hesitated. “If I give it - ”
“They already know we’re here,” Enzo said. He nodded toward the stairwell. “They were watching your tail long enough to get bored. That means they’re willing to move early. This isn’t about finding the sealed pact anymore. It’s about erasing the proof.”
Valentina’s lashes lowered. Her voice went thinner. “You’re talking like you’ve seen this before.”
Enzo didn’t answer with words. He leaned in, close enough that she could feel the heat of him through her coat, and he spoke against the side of her mouth so the men pounding outside couldn’t catch the shape of it.
“I’ve broken protocol for you,” he said. “I’m going to do it again. But I need you to trust me for one minute.”
Her eyes snapped up, a flash of anger and longing tangled together. “One minute is a cage.”
“It’s a door,” he countered, and he guided her away from the back window. He didn’t let her drift toward the stairwell. He didn’t let her think about escape routes. He kept her moving with him, because movement was safety.
Valentina pulled her phone out at last. The screen glow lit her face in a cold wash, making her look even paler than she’d been upstairs. Her thumb hovered over the contacts list like it was a trigger.
Enzo watched the micro-tremor in her hand. “You’re afraid.”
“I’m not afraid,” she lied, and he heard it.
“Good,” he said, because he wanted her angry. Fear made people hesitate. Anger made them act. “Then read it.”