Page 31 of Enzo (Redcars #1)

THIRTY-ONE

Robbie

Enzo was quiet when he and Rio came back, both of them with that expression as if they’d seen something they couldn’t unsee. They huddled with Jamie, voices low, tension vibrating off them in waves. I watched from across the garage, pretending not to care, but every time Enzo glanced over and then turned away, something inside me curled up tight.

After ten minutes of being ignored and excluded, I slammed the folder I was holding onto the counter louder than I needed to and marched over. My pulse thudded hard in my ears. “What?”

Enzo blinked like he’d forgotten I was there. Jamie was awkward, and Rio gave me a warning glance that said not now , but I didn’t care.

“What happened? Where did you go? Why are you all?—”

Enzo reached for me, fingers twitching as if he wanted to touch me—then he dropped his hands as if they’d been burned. He wouldn’t meet my gaze, shoulders hunched under some invisible weight.

I felt it like a punch to the chest. Like a door slamming shut.

“What happened?” I asked, my voice cracking. “Why won’t you touch me?”

He didn’t answer at first. Just stared at the floor like it might open up and swallow him whole. “Vinnie is dead. I killed him.” Enzo’s breath hitched, barely a sound. But it was enough. “And I get if that’s too much for you. All you’ve seen is violence, and now?—”

“Stop!” I wanted to be angry he was shutting down, I wanted to scream that I’d fix everything, although I knew I couldn’t. But all I felt was the sharp edge of sadness for him—for what he’d done, for what it was costing him. For how he wouldn’t look at me, as if he was scared I’d break if he touched me with blood still on his hands. “I’m sorry you had to do that.” I reached out, grabbed his wrist, and held on. “I’m so fucking sorry, Enzo.”

His eyes burned. “Don’t you dare say that,” he said, “Don’t be sorry, because I won’t let anyone hurt you Roman, ever! You hear me?”

“You did it for me and now you’ll hate me.” God, how selfish did I sound? “No, I get it, I’m sorry. I’ll let you go… I’ll…” I was still gripping him.

Please don’t hate me. Please don’t let me go. Please touch me.

He stared at me and whatever was in his eyes broke my heart wide open. “I love you,” he said, and gathered me closer. “You’re still mine.”

My heart skipped, my eyes filled with tears, and I twisted my hands behind his neck. “And you’re still mine.”

He kissed me then, gentle, kind. “And I’m not letting you go, not now, not ever.”

“Did Vinnie give you any names?” It was a question I didn’t want to ask, but I needed to know. I waited, forcing myself to breathe. The kitchen clock ticked in the silence between us.

“Vinnie recognized you from a retrieval on the dark web, from John Mitchell.” He paused, and I knew I wavered. I knew all the blood drained from me. I knew I was shutting down.

“Mitchell,” I repeated. “John Mitchell.”

“You have something Mitchell wants, and for that, he needs you back.”

I couldn’t speak. My lungs refused to work, my vision narrowing to a pinpoint. John. Just hearing the name made me feel like I was drowning, like I was back there in that cold, sterile room with his voice whispering in my ear.

“Robbie?” Enzo’s voice came from far away. “Breathe, sweetheart. Just breathe.”

His hands were on my shoulders, steady and warm and I gulped in air, forcing myself back to reality, back to the kitchen with its worn, scratched table and the scent of dinner still in the air.

“He can’t find me,” I managed, my voice cracking. “Enzo, he can’t?—”

“He won’t,” Enzo cut in, his tone leaving no room for doubt. “I promise you that.” I noticed Rio and Jamie coming closer. “We need to know everything. What exactly does John want from you? Can you tell us?” I nodded and it was Rio who asked the first question.

“Vinnie said you have control of millions. What do they mean?”

I pulled away from Enzo, standing so fast my chair scraped over the floor. The walls felt like they were closing in and I wobbled, but he caught me, pulling me into a hug. Then he sat down again and tugged me to him. I straddled his lap like always, and I felt safe.

“Thirty million I managed to scrape, maybe more,” I whispered as Jamie whistled. “And it’s information that John wants. In my head.”

Enzo hugged me tight. “What kind of information?” he asked.

How could I explain the years I’d spent as John’s pet project, his perfect memory experiment.

“I was really small when I went into care, group home reject, nobody looking for me. Perfect for John’s purposes to sell on, because I was so young, but you see, when he found me I was fourteen by then, he saw more in me, said I had something he wanted.” I tapped my temple. “I have an eidetic memory. I can recall everything I’ve ever seen or read with perfect clarity. John realized what he had. A human hard drive who couldn’t forget.”

Enzo’s face remained impassive, but I caught the slight tightening around his eyes. “What information did he make you memorize?”

“Stuff that his bosses wanted at first, and then other things where he was collecting blackmail material, bad shit on bad people.” I sank back onto his lap, burying my face against his neck for a moment, drawing strength from his steady heartbeat. “Bank accounts. Shell companies. Transaction records. Names, dates, amounts. All of it stored right here,” I tapped my head again. “Untraceable. No digital footprint. Just me.”

“Jesus,” Enzo breathed. His arms tightened around my waist. “How much information?”

“So much, hundreds of thousands of dollars. I stopped counting after a while. He’d show me documents, make me recite them back perfectly. If I made a mistake…” I trailed off, the phantom pain of punishment making me shudder. “The other two used me, and he’d hurt me. Keep me chained, starve me. I’d get it right eventually.” My voice sounded hollow even to my own ears. “I stopped telling him what I knew, and the punishments grew worse. He punished me for keeping my secrets.”

“Tortured you,” Jamie muttered.

“He would keep me medicated, but I tricked him, I stopped the meds stopped eating so I could get out of this tiny window. I had one chance to get out, and I ran. He can’t find me, Enzo. I’m not going back.”

“You’re not going back,” Jamie spat.

“No fucking way.” Rio added.

Enzo’s jaw clenched and his hands settled on my hips, steadying but not restraining. “How long?” he asked.

“I don’t know, years, I remember turning fifteen, I think, and I made marks on the wall, but I ran out of room, and sometimes I didn’t know if it was a day that had passed. I don’t remember...” The words hung between us. “He started keeping secrets from his bosses, and I was his most valuable asset. The perfect ledger for all his clients’ dirty money. No electronic trails, no paper records that could be seized. Just me.”

“And now John wants his ledger back,” Enzo said, his tone dangerous.

“That thirty million is what he owes to the other two.” I nodded, throat tight. “I won’t go back.” I wriggled to get away, “I’ll kill myself first?—”

Enzo’s hands shot out, gripping my wrists firm enough to stop me but not enough to hurt. His eyes blazed with an intensity I hadn’t seen before. “Don’t you dare say that,” he growled. “Not ever.”

I stilled in his grasp, surprised by the raw emotion in his voice.

“You’re not going back to him, and you’re not going to die. Those aren’t the only options, Robbie.” He loosened his grip, sliding his hands up to cup my face. “I protect what’s mine, remember?”

The possessiveness in his tone should have frightened me, but instead it wrapped around me like armor. I leaned into his touch, letting my forehead rest against his. “You killed for me.”

“And he’ll do it again,” Jamie added.

“We all will,” Rio agreed.

“You don’t understand what he’s capable of,” I whispered. “The people who employed him, the resources they have?—”

“And you don’t know what I’m capable of.” The dangerous edge in Jamie’s voice made me shiver.

But it was Enzo I wanted to hear from. “I won’t let anyone hurt you, sweetheart,” he said as I stared at him, tears choking me.

“I know.”

He shifted me on his lap, his hands gentle despite the hard glint in his eyes. “What if we used what’s in your head against him?”

I blinked, struggling to understand. “What do you mean?”

“Those records you memorized—they’re evidence of money laundering, right? Tax evasion? Maybe worse?”

I nodded slowly. “Some of it was cartel money. Human trafficking profits. Arms deals. John specialized in hiding the worst kind of money. There were children Enzo, kids… I only managed to stay alive because I remembered things. And then I stole it all and put it in crypto and he can’t get it.”

Enzo’s lips curved into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Then we have leverage. If John wants you back so badly, it’s because you’re a liability. You could expose everything.”

“Do you have any names for the other two?” I asked.

“Vinnie knew shit,” Rio snapped. “And you have no idea?”

“No. I never found names in what he made me learn, and they would blindfold me, but I know some stuff. And they know me. If Mitchell has told them… but then he wouldn’t, would he?” I stiffened. “They owned him, he worked for them, and he’s lost all their money.”

Enzo’s eyes softened, one hand coming up to brush my hair back from my face. Something in his gaze made my heart stutter. This dangerous man who held me as if I were precious, as if I were worth protecting. “We’ll figure it all out.”

“I’m heading out,” Jamie said, “Look after him, yeah?”

“Where are you going?” Rio asked.

“Out,” Jamie said.

“I’m coming with you.”

I stared at the two men, Rio with his hand on Jamie’s shoulder, and Jamie vibrating with tension.

“No,” Jamie said. “I do my best work alone, when I’m prepping for a burn.”

“Jesus, Jamie,” Rio snapped, but Jamie shoved him aside and left.

“Where is he going?” I asked, but Enzo shook his head.

“He’ll come back and maybe he’ll have the intel we need to take down Mitchell.”

Rio was pacing now. “What if he burns it all down? What is that going to do for any of us?”

“He won’t and he’ll come back.”

“I wish I had your faith, Enzo,” Rio muttered and then vanished out into the yard.

I snuggled deeper, feeling completely safe as Rio engaged the alarms when he left, and it was just me and Enzo. He scooped me up, almost bridal style, although I was clinging to him like a burr to a saddle, and then he went upstairs, and laid me on the bed.

“I’m not tired,” I said, and yawned, because yes my body is an asshole.

“Who said we’re sleeping sweetheart?” Enzo said, and climbed on the bed to cradle me, kissing me deeply. “I want to kiss every inch of you, love you, make you feel safe, and yeah I know it’s insane and you might end up hating what I did, but you’re inside me, in my thoughts, my heart, every dream I have, and I’m so in love with you it hurts.”

I stared up at him, saw the emotion in his chocolate eyes, and reached up to tangle my hands in his hair. “I could never hate you for keeping me safe, you don’t know what they did to me, they… you make the nightmares less.”

“Roman…” He scrubbed his eyes, his hands shaky.

“Come here,” I said.

“What I did…”

“Please hug me,” I asked.

“You’re here, safe.” He pressed a kiss to my lips.

“I’m okay.”

Then he kissed me. “ I love you right back. You’re everything,” he whispered against my skin, tracing patterns with his tongue. “Everything I never knew I needed.”

“Can you make love to me?” I asked, unsure if that was even the right thing to say.

Enzo pulled back, his eyes searching mine. “We can just kiss, and it doesn’t have to be anything else. There’s no rush.”

I shook my head, pulling him back to me. I shoved aside all the fear and pain into a box and slammed the lid. “I don’t want to stop. I want to feel everything with you. I want to touch your…” I was mortified, and he leaned down so i could whisper in his ear. “your hole, and your cock and I want to kiss you and…”

He stole my words with a frantic kiss, rolling us so I was on top, sprawled over him.

His smile was tender as he brushed a strand of hair from my face. “You want to make love to me? You want to push your fingers in me?”

I nodded, feeling a blush creep up my neck. “I want to do everything with you. I just… I’ve never done this before.”

“I know, sweetheart,” Enzo said, his voice husky. “We’ll go slow. I’ll teach you.” He captured my lips again, his tongue sliding against mine in a way that made my toes curl. “You can stop anytime. Just say the word.”

“I won’t want to stop,” I whispered.

His hands slid down my back, cupping my ass and pressing me into him. I could feel how hard he was through our clothes, and it sent a thrill through me.

“Let me take care of you first,” he said, flipping me onto my back again. His fingers played with the hem of my shirt. “Can I take this off?”

I nodded, shy but desperate to feel his skin against mine. Enzo tugged my shirt over my head, his eyes darkening as he took me in.

“Beautiful,” he murmured, bending to kiss my chest. His lips found my nipple, and I gasped, arching into his touch. “So responsive,” he said, smiling.

My hands fumbled with his shirt. “Off,” I demanded, surprising myself with my boldness. “I want to see you too.” I was hard, I could feel him, hard, and I wanted more, I wanted it all.

“Can I touch you?” I asked.

“Roman, sweetheart,” he said, taking my hand and placing it on his hip, “you can touch me anywhere you want.” he reached out to the drawer by the bed, grabbed something and was back in an instant. “I’m negative.”

The bedroom was dim and quiet, the air warm with the softness of night. The distant hum of the streetlights outside barely touched us here.

At first that word made no sense, but then it hit me—STD tests. I’d had that panel with Doc. “Me too.”

Then he squeezed something cold on my fingers, “Touch me.” He moved, then guided my hand to his ass, guiding my fingers to circle that tight ring of muscle. My breath caught as he let out a soft moan.

“Like this?” I asked, my voice trembling with nerves and desire.

“Just like that,” he breathed, his eyes fluttering closed. “You can push in a little. The lube will help.”

I pressed gently, feeling him open for me, and the intimacy of it made my heart race. One finger slipped in, and Enzo’s back arched.

“God, Roman,” he gasped. “That’s perfect.”

His reaction emboldened me. I moved my finger, watching his face for every flicker of pleasure. When I curled it, he let out a sound that sent heat rushing through my entire body.

“Another,” he whispered. “Please.”

I obeyed, adding a second finger, stretching him. His muscles clenched around me, hot and tight. I watched in wonder as he rocked against my hand, his breathing growing ragged.

“You’re doing so well,” he praised, his voice breaking. “Do you feel that spot, right there?” He guided my fingers to press something firm inside him, and when I did, his whole body shuddered. “That’s it, right there.”

I stroked that spot again, mesmerized by how he responded to me. His cock was hard against his stomach, a bead of moisture at the tip. I wanted to taste him, to feel him come apart because of me.

“Can I use my mouth on you? While I do this?”

Enzo’s eyes snapped open, dark with desire. “Fuck, Roman. Yes. But only if you want to.”

“I want to,” I said with certainty, sliding down his body.

I lowered my head, bracing myself on my forearm beside his hip, keeping my fingers inside him as I licked the head of his cock and swallowed as much as I could take. I coughed a little, pulled back to breathe, and then tried again, taking him deeper each time. I adjusted my knees to settle between his thighs, grounding myself so I could keep the rhythm steady while my fingers worked.

Every time I pressed that spot, his thighs would tense and he’d make a sound that sent electricity through my veins. I was painfully hard myself, but I didn’t care—this was about him. I wanted to see him come undone, completely lost under my touch.

“Roman,” he gasped after a few minutes, tugging gently at my hair. “Stop, baby. Come here or I’ll come too soon. I want this to last.”

I released him from my mouth and as I worked my way back up his body, he caught me in a deep kiss, his hand pressed my cock, and I whimpered.

“These need to go,” he murmured, tugging at the waistband of my pants. I lifted my hips to help him, feeling exposed but safe in the heat of his gaze. “God, look at you.”

He reached for the lube again, warming it between his palms before taking both of us in his hand. The sensation of his cock alongside mine made my vision blur.

“Enzo,” I gasped, burying my face into his neck. “I won’t last.”

“It’s okay,” he said, and he stroked us together, his grip firm but tender, twisting at the top in a way that made me see stars. I couldn’t help rocking into his hand, chasing the pleasure building at the base of my spine. I reached for him again, but his hole was out of reach and I let out a needy sound of frustration.

“I love you,” I whispered against his lips, the words falling out before I could think about them. “God, I love you so much.”

“I’m close,” he warned, his voice breaking, but the warning was all I needed, and I arched down into him, the words “I love you” tumbling from my lips over and over as pleasure crashed through me. Enzo followed seconds later, his body tensing beneath mine, and he was coming hot and wet between us, moaning my name.

For a moment, we breathed together, his arms wrapped tightly around me. I felt boneless and Enzo pressed gentle kisses to my temple, my cheek, and the corner of my mouth.

“Roman?”

“Huh?”

“You okay?” he murmured, brushing my hair from my forehead.

I nodded, unable to find words for the emotions swirling inside me. I was vulnerable and powerful all at once, And there wasn’t a single ghost in the room with me. I held onto that—this moment, this feeling—as tight as I held him. “More than okay,” I managed. “That was…”

“Yeah,” he agreed, understanding what I couldn’t say.

He reached for tissues from the nightstand, cleaning us with gentle hands. I should have felt awkward or embarrassed, but there was none of that, and when I curled into his arms, I was done.