15. Enzo
ENZO
“I need your help.”
I show up uninvited at Gio and Megan’s penthouse apartment straight from the club that no longer exists.
It’s late. I’ve lost track of time and days and calendar dates, but I know I shouldn’t be here when I walk into the unique smell of baby lotion and lavender and sugar frosting, and music through the sound system turned down so low it could be singing a lullaby for the listeners.
Even now, this place evokes images of me and Demi lying on the couch together, Demi’s arms folded across my chest, her chin resting on her hands while she watches me closely. If anyone had told me when I was younger that quiet moments like that could be so perfect, I’d have laughed.
But it’s true.
Nyx was a pleasant interlude. The only reason I’m here now is because she’s in danger, and I’m not one of those assholes who can walk away from a woman in need, especially when the woman had all the right intentions.
“Enzo?” Megan is the first to speak.
She joins me in the living room, powdered sugar dusting her arms and face, her eyes sparkling at my unexpected arrival.
She hugs me tightly and holds my arms while she casts a critical eye over me. “What’s wrong?” She’s astute, I’ll give her that.
“I’ve had a lot going on.” She’ll see straight through a lie, and it’s true enough, I guess. “Long story.”
“Is that secret mafia code for you’ve been drinking yourself into a stupor for the past twelve months?” She drags me into the kitchen, where Gio is frying chorizo and mushrooms in a pan, a bottle of red wine open on the counter.
“I shouldn’t have come. You’re busy, and it’s late.”
“Since when has that ever stopped you from being here?” Megan gestures to a stool. “Sit. And don’t even think about getting up again until you’ve eaten. Do you even have any food in your apartment, or does brandy count as sustenance these days?”
I gaze at Gio for back-up, but he simply shrugs, pulls a wine glass from the rack above his head, and half-fills it with dark red liquid before sliding it my way.
“Don’t look at me,” he says. “I gave up making excuses for you a long while ago.”
“None of that communicating by telepathy either.” Megan points at each of us in turn and returns to a revolving cake stand where she’s decorating a simple white cake with silver ribbon made of frosting and delicate-winged butterflies. “Anything you want to say, you say it out loud.”
I raise my eyebrows at my brother while her back is turned.
“I know what you’re doing,” Megan says like she has eyes in the back of her head. “Start spilling now so that we can enjoy dinner together in peace after.”
“I’m not staying.” I swallow a mouthful of wine.
“Gio, do you want to tell him or shall I?” She gives her husband a sideways glance.
“She’s right,” Gio says. “You look like shit.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, bro.”
“Does this involve our sister?” He jumps straight in, feet-first, leading with his best shot. I don’t know if this says more about him or our sister.
“Not even close.” Another mouthful of wine, and my glass is almost empty. I should slow down; it’s going straight to my head.
Megan turns around to face me with a fragile frosting butterfly sitting in the palm of her hand. “Is this about Demi? Have you seen her?”
My pulse quickens. I scan her eyes, hoping that Demi might’ve reached out to her, but I’m way off target. She doesn’t know anything. “No, it’s not Demi.”
She furrows her brow. “Are you… seeing someone else?” She says this like it would be cheating on the woman who walked out on me a year ago.
And she’s fucking right. I would be cheating on the woman who still holds my heart in her hand just like that tiny butterfly.
“Not exactly.” Would I have fucked Nyx given the chance?
I guess I’ll never know, but she’s the closest I’ve come to even thinking about it since our relationship ended for reasons still unknown.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Hey.” Gio crosses the kitchen with a glass of wine in his hand and raises it to his wife’s lips. “Drink before you crush those wings.”
Megan’s smile is so tender, so filled with love, I feel like an intruder in a secret love story. I want what they have. I came so close to having it but now it feels like it was all just an illusion.
Gio returns to the meal sizzling on the stove and turns down the heat. “Stop talking in riddles, Enzo, and tell me why you came here to ask for help.”
“We’ll hold dinner as ransom,” Megan adds. “So, you might as well start talking because I’m starving, and you’ve never seen me when I’m hangry.”
Gio smiles. “Trust me, you don’t want to. Even Valentina keeps out of her mom’s way, and that child would face up to The Rock on a bad day without batting an eyelid.”
I chuckle. “I’ve missed them.”
“They’ve missed you too, Enzo,” Megan says, “but you’ve not exactly been approachable lately.”
On cue, I hear the pitter-patter of tiny claws across the hardwood floor, and Bella paws my leg, wanting to be picked up.
I bend down and scoop her into my arms, smiling when she licks my face. “I’ve missed you too, Bella. You’ll always be my favorite girl.”
Megan gasps loudly. “Don’t ever let Valentina or Amber hear you say that.”
She’s smiling though, and I remember how Bella always had this effect on everyone in the room.
The comfortable silence is only broken when Gio says, “I’m waiting to serve dinner, so you’d best tell me what’s going on.” Something in his tone snatches my attention.
He already knows. Or at least he’s heard a whisper of something on the grapevine.
“Dmitri Malevsky.” I register Megan’s shoulders tensing up and try to push it from my mind. “He’s been running a club in Tribeca. I think it’s a front—I think it was a front—for a trafficking ring. I went back there tonight to find a woman, and the place has been erased as if it never existed.”
They both watch me in silence, their expressions unreadable.
Then, Gio says, “Any woman in particular?”
“I’m not in the habit of paying for women if that’s what you’re implying.” I pause. “Her name is Nyx. She’s in trouble because of me.”
Gio refills our glasses and sits down across the breakfast bar from me. Megan is still working on the cake with her back to us, but I know she’s listening.
So, I hold Bella on my lap, sip my wine, and tell them everything. Minus the part where Nyx made herself come for me.
“Do you know her real name?” Gio asks when I’m finished.
“No.”
“And you have no description of her.”
“Correct.”
“What proof do you have that Malevsky is involved?”
“Word of mouth.” I don’t add that the mouth belongs to our sister.
Gio rubs his thumb along the stem of his glass. “What’s in it for you? What happens when you’ve found her, and she tells you that you haven’t saved her, you’ve turned her world upside down?”
“Gio!” Megan joins us and half-leans against her husband when she sits next to him, covering his hand with hers. “You don’t know that’s what will happen.”
“You’re right, I don’t.” His tone softens like melted butter for his wife, and the gesture grips my heart and squeezes tightly.
“But women like Nyx don’t get embroiled with the Bratva for the fun of it.
It’s the reason why you’re so hellbent on saving her, right?
” He aims this at me. “If you’re not too late. ”
“Oh…” Megan covers her mouth with her hand, her eyes large with tears. “You don’t think… Ignore me, Enzo, I’m super-emotional at the moment.” She locks eyes with Gio, and something passes between them that doesn’t concern me.
I lower my gaze. “They’re using her to bait me. They’ll keep her alive… for now.”
Gio is quiet, pensive. The kitchen is filled with the aroma of spicy chorizo and tomato sauce.
The twins are asleep, and Bella is curled up on my lap, her head resting in the crook of my arm.
It’s a wholesome scene, a snapshot of a regular family leading a regular life filled with love, and I feel nauseous when I compare it to the sordid masks and blacked-out rooms of JADED.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come here.” I don’t want to taint them with it too.
Bella is instantly alert, sensing the change in mood, and I rub the soft fur behind her ears.
“No, Enzo, don’t say that,” Megan blurts out, sitting up straight in her seat. “We’re family. You should never feel as if you can’t come here or ask us for help. Tell him, Gio.”
“I’m glad you came, brother,” Gio says, choosing his words carefully. “You’ve been absent for too long, in here—” he pats his chest directly above his heart “—and here.” He points to his head.
I know what he means. I’ve been off my game since Demi, but I’m back now, and I have Nyx to thank for that.
“But my advice to you,” Gio continues, “is to let it go. You can’t take on this new strain of Bratva singlehandedly. You won’t win.”
“You did.”
He holds my gaze, his expression serious. “That was different. I understood what I was up against, I knew the risks, and I was fighting for family.”
“Family?” I don’t even try to hide the sarcasm. “Do you mean our sister, the woman you sent away and banished from seeing her own children without a second thought for what that would do to her?”
His expression doesn’t alter. “I knew exactly what it would do to her, and if you think I don’t lie awake at night afraid for her, then you’re mistaken. But I’m the head of this family because of Bianca, and I did what I had to do to protect the people I love.”
“Okay.” Megan sits forward; she means business without raising her voice and waking the twins. “Fighting isn’t going to solve anything. I think we should leave Bianca out of this and focus on the reason why Enzo is here. Are you in danger?” Her voice stumbles over the last word.
“No.” I don’t want to lie to her, but she doesn’t need to know the truth. And besides, I’ve already mentally checked out of this conversation and am preparing to do this without my brother’s support.