first, it would always come first. My loyalty, my life… my love, was reserved for Dominion, and Dominion alone.
But there was no denying that Nora Abato had buried herself under my skin. Like a slow acting poison, she was inside me. I cared whether she was safe. I cared who she was seeing and who she was spending time with. And I fucking cared that she was here.
Because of me.
Because this fucker somehow has ties to my old man. There were too many things that didn’t quite add up yet, like why he’d started his campaign of destruction in Providence and not Verona. But the end game was the same. And the end game was all that mattered.
As my boots crunched against the ground, made hard from a cold winter, I pulled out my cell and dialed Uncle Michele.
“Enzo, son, what is it?”
“Any more news?” I asked, coming to a stop by a bench on the periphery of the woods.
“All leads ran dry. No prints, no address, no witnesses. This guy is a fucking ghost.”
“Ghosts don’t weigh two-hundred-and-fifty pounds, and I felt that fucker on top of me.” Watched as he sank his blade into Gino’s jugular.
Fuck.
He died… because of me.
And now this motherfucker was in Verona County. It was too close… too close to the people I cared about.
Too close to Nora.
Just the thought of him getting anywhere near her had me seething with anger.
“We’ll get him, son. You took the girls to the cabin, right? They’re safe.”
“Yeah, they’re here.”
“So, let us focus on finding this asshole.”
“I can’t just sit here, doing nothing.” It was fucking killing me.
“Shit, I know, kid. I know. But we’d all feel a helluva lot better knowing our girls have you around.”
“Twenty-four hours. I’ll stay twenty-four hours, but then I’m joining the hunt.”
“You’ll have to clear that with Toni, Lorenzo. You know the deal.”
“Yeah.” The boss’s word was final. But I couldn’t just stay here doing nothing. It was going to drive me in-fucking-sane.
The girls were inside, acting like this was a girl’s weekend away. Not to mention the fact Nora was in there, and she was pissed. At me. At the fact I’d dragged her away from her life… from Luca.
Jesus, the guy was worse than a dog with a bone. Did she really like that good guy routine he had working for him?
“Fuck,” I hissed, kicking the hard ground with my boot.
“You need to burn off some steam.”
For a second I’d forgotten Uncle Michele was still on the line.
“Go for a run or something,” he added.
Or something. I internally grumbled.
My eyes flickered back to the cabin.
“I’ll call if there’s any news,” Uncle Michele said. “Keep our girls safe, Enzo. That’s what we need you to do right now,” he said. “Your pound of flesh will come.”
We said goodbye and hung up.
My uncle was right, of course he was right. But I was never very good at sitting around and waiting for the fight to come to us.
Eventually, I went back inside. I was fucking freezing, not to mention hungry.
“I left you a plate,” Nora said. She was curled in one of the chairs, scrolling on her phone.
“Thanks.”
Matteo caught my eye and silently asked if I was okay. I nodded, shucking out of my jacket and slinging it over the back of the couch.
“Watch it, asshole,” Tristan said.
“Oops, my bad. I didn’t see you there.” My lips curved with smug satisfaction as I grabbed the plate Nora had left me and put it in the microwave.
“You okay?” Matteo joined me, perching at the breakfast counter.
“I’d rather not be here.”
His expression fell and I sucked in a harsh breath. Of course Nora had chosen that exact moment to go to her room, walking straight past the kitchen area.
“Did she—”
“If the look on her face is anything to go by, then yeah, she did.”
“Fuck.” I scrubbed a hand over my jaw.
“What’s happening with you two? I figured after last night you were working out your differences, but then today it’s like you can’t stand to be around one another?”
“We fucked,” I said, checking the spaghetti. It was done, so I sat down opposite him and began digging in.
“Yeah, I kinda got that part, asshole. But what I don’t understand is, how you even ended up there?”
“Welcome to my world. One minute I was chasing this fucker, the next I was outside her apartment covered in Gino’s blood.”
“Shit, man. I’m sorry.” His teasing expression fell. “That had to be rough.”