Chapter 28 Enzo
I drive back to the villa, my hands steady on the wheel despite the fury building in my chest. Not at Madison. Never at her. Only at myself for the catastrophic error that may have cost me everything.
One careless quote.
Emilio is waiting in my study when I arrive, his expression grim. "How bad?" he asks, reading my face.
"Madison knows about the surveillance."
"How much?"
"Enough." I pour myself a glass of whiskey and drain it in one swallow.
Emilio shifts uncomfortably. "Boss, if she decides to talk."
"She won't." The conviction in my voice surprises even me. "Madison isn't vindictive. She's angry, but she's not stupid."
"Angry people do stupid things."
"Not her." I pour another whiskey, this one to sip slowly while I think. "What time are her friends leaving in the morning?"
"Antonio is picking them up at the hotel before daylight to take them back to the airport."
“Let me know the minute they’re in the air and out of Sicily. What about their communications? Phone calls, emails, social media posts about their visit?"
"Clean so far. Standard tourist photos. Nothing about you or Madison's situation."
"Continue monitoring them for the next month. If they start asking questions or making contact with authorities, I need to know immediately."
"Understood." Emilio hesitates. "What if Madison runs?"
The question I've been avoiding. What if she disappears in the night and resurfaces in Naples, demanding protection while spilling everything she knows about my operations?
"Then I’ll deal with it."
"How?"
I meet his eyes across the desk. Emilio has been with me for eight years. He's seen how I handle problems that threaten the family business. He knows what "dealing with it" typically involves.
"Not the way you're thinking," I say quietly. “She's not a business rival or a competitor's soldier. She's..." I pause, searching for the right words and fail. "She's Madison."
"She's a security risk."
"She's under my protection."
"Even if she betrays you?"
The question hangs between us, loaded with implications. In my world, betrayal has consequences. Swift, permanent consequences. It's how I've maintained control for over a decade, how I've built an organization that other families respect and fear in equal measure.
But Madison isn't part of that world. She stumbled into my territory by accident, became entangled in my business through circumstances I orchestrated. Whatever she does now is a reaction to my deception, not a calculated attempt to destroy me.
"Even then," I say finally. “But she won’t.”
Emilio nods slowly, but I can see the concern in his expression. My men follow me because they believe I make rational decisions based on what's best for our interests. Protecting someone who could destroy us challenges that belief.
"What do you need from me?" he asks.
"First, make sure all surveillance equipment is removed from her cottage and car. As soon as possible. I want every camera, every listening device, every tracker gone."
"Are you sure? That seems counterproductive."
“Maybe. But if she chooses to stay, it won't be because she's being watched. It'll be because she wants to."
"And if she chooses to leave?"
"Then we let her go peacefully."
"Just like that?"
I walk to the window overlooking the gardens, thinking about Madison's face when she realized the scope of what I'd done. The betrayal in her eyes, the way she pulled away from my touch as if I'd burned her.
"Have you ever cared about someone, Emilio? Really cared, not just wanted them or needed them for something?"
"I suppose."
"Then you understand that sometimes protecting someone means letting them make choices that hurt you."
"This could hurt more than your feelings, boss. This could hurt the business."
He's right, of course. If Madison goes to the authorities with what she knows, it won't just be inconvenient. It could be catastrophic. Names, locations, methods of operation. She's observed enough over the past months to piece together a substantial portion of my network.
But the alternative is unthinkable.
I've spent years becoming the kind of man who can make hard decisions without hesitation. Who can eliminate threats efficiently and sleep well afterward. Who can separate emotion from necessity and choose the path that ensures survival, regardless of the cost.
Madison has somehow made me soft. And the truly disturbing part is that I don't want to fix it.
"What about contingencies?" Emilio asks. "If she does talk, if the authorities start investigating, what do we do?"
"Then we activate protocols. Clean house, relocate key operations, burn anything that can be traced back to us."
"That would take months to rebuild."
"Then we rebuild."
"Or?"
"Or we don't." I turn back to face him. "There are other ways to make a living, Emilio. Legal ways."
The shock on his face would be amusing under different circumstances. "You're talking about walking away? From everything?"
"I'm talking about the possibility that some things are more important than business."
"Like what?" he asks.
Like the way Madison laughs when she's genuinely happy.
Like the fierce independence she showed when she decided to renovate that broken house with her own hands.
Like the way she offers coffee to dangerous strangers and thinks tourism can save a village that's been dying for decades.
Like the way she makes me want to be the man she thought she was falling in love with, instead of the man I actually am.
"Like having something real," I say instead.
Emilio studies my face for a long moment. "You've fallen for her."
"That's irrelevant."
"Is it? Because from where I'm sitting, it seems to be the only thing driving your decisions lately."
"Perhaps that's not entirely a bad thing," I say quietly.
"Boss—"
"Have you ever considered that maybe this life we've built, the violence, the constant vigilance, the inability to trust anyone completely, maybe it's not sustainable?"
"It's kept us alive. It's made us rich. It's given us power."
"And what good is any of that if we can't share it with someone who matters? With family?"
Emilio leans back in his chair, clearly struggling with this philosophical shift from me. "What's the plan?"
"We remove all surveillance from her property. Tomorrow morning, I tell her what she wants to know about who I am."
"And if she can't handle the truth?"
"Then I help her disappear properly. New identity, clean relocation, enough money to start over wherever she wants."
"You'd let her walk away with your secrets?"
Would I?
Can I imagine my life without Madison's laughter in it?
The honest answer is no. The thought of never seeing her again, never holding her, never watching her face light up when she discovers something new, it feels like contemplating my own death.
But the alternative is keeping her prisoner. Knowing she'll never trust me, never love me, never be happy with the choice to stay.
"If that's what she needs to be safe and free, then yes."
"Even though she knows enough to destroy everything we've built?"
"Even then."
Emilio stands to leave, but pauses at the door. "For what it's worth, I hope she stays."
"Why?"
"Because you're different with her. Better, maybe. More human. That’s not always a bad thing."
After he leaves, I sit alone in my study, staring at the phone. Part of me wants to call Madison, to hear her voice. To try once more to explain that my feelings for her were never fabricated, even if everything else was.
But she asked for time to think, and I owe her that much.
Instead, I pull out a secure laptop and begin typing detailed instructions for Emilio and the others. If Madison chooses to expose my operations, I want my people protected. If she chooses to run, I want her departure to be clean and untraceable.
If she chooses to stay, I want her to know exactly who she's choosing to love.
The truth, complete and unfiltered, for the first time since she walked into my carefully ordered world and turned everything upside down.