Page 10 of Enzo

“The mistake started decades ago when you teamed up with my mom.”

“That was the best deal I ever made.” He laughed, noting my disgusted expression. He hadn’t denied my claim, which onlystrengthened my suspicions about his identity. “We’ll just agree to disagree. Okay?”

My fingers itched to put a bullet in this fucker’s head, but first I’d need to find out what he wanted. No more fucking mistakes, like the one I’d made when I reached out to Diana Bergman.

“What do you want?” I spat.

“To warn you.”

“About?”

“Try to take me down, and I’ll drag you with me.” The beady eyes behind the ski mask studied me, calculating any weaknesses. I only had one:family.And contrary to what everyone believed, I counted DiMauro to be part of that family. “And DiMauro organs are mine for harvesting.”

I reeled, ignoring every instinct to pull out my gun and shoot him. I really should have, but this wasn’t a one-man show.

“So, you’ve been running the organ trafficking ring?” I asked. Organ trafficking had been against the rules for everyone with any shadow of a moral compass. It went in line with human trafficking, but took a horrid step further in using humans as body parts, only to discard them like animals. Not even Albanians touched it, although it might have more to do with the fact that Kian Cortes was running it now. So much had happened over the last two decades, especially with those who walked a thin line between good and evil, like Liana Volkov and Kian Cortes.

“I do. I’m the master behind all the puppets.”

“Who else works with you?”

He chuckled darkly. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

I took a step toward him, and he pointed a gun at me, his finger on the trigger.

“Don’t be brave, Enzo.” He tsked disapprovingly. “I promised your mother I would keep the Marchettis off the list for as long as this organization exists.”

I scoffed. “I guess there’ssomehonor among criminals.”

“Don’t act all superior. After all, we’re pretty much family.”

Red blurred my vision, but I smiled through it. You had to match some men’s craziness.

“We. Aren’t. Family.” My words were clipped and cold. “Touch the DiMauro girls and their precious fucking golden blood, and it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

“Funny that you’re threatening me and yet I’m holding all the cards.”

“Not all the cards,” I drawled. “Now what do you really want?”

“I need you to stop lurking around the DiMauros. I need one of them, and you’re in the way.” He said it like he was broadcasting the weather.

Fuck, I should just kill the fucker, consequences be damned. Yet, I couldn’t help but worry how my mother’s connection to this vile organization would impact my family. None of them deserved to be dragged into this mess.

Then an idea flickered in my mind.

“Penelope DiMauro has been promised to me. The wedding will happen this month, which makes them family by marriage,” I stated slowly. “And therefore, that family is off-limits. This agreement is decades old. You really should have done your homework.”

I would find a way to kill this guy without airing my family’s dirty laundry, destroying it in the process.

3

ENZO

Much later that same day, I stepped into the foyer of my parents’ house in Rome and was immediately cornered by my five-foot-five stepmother.

“Enzo, you’re finally here.”

She tugged on my sleeve, her red hair a wild mess. When Isla joined our family, things had finally improved and our life became normal. Unfortunately, our mother had already managed to inflict the damage that slowly but surely festered: in my obsessive tendencies and Amadeo’s playboy ways.