Enforcer’s Obsession

Chapter 17

SEVENTEEN

Nico

“He’s in the library,” the guard said as I pulled up to the boss’s gate.

It was night, and I was tired, but there was no fucking way I was going back to my house.

She was there, and so I couldn’t be.

Unfortunately, I didn’t want to be here either.

But as I drove up the long driveway and then treaded the familiar path to the boss’s office, I pushed thoughts of Hope’s aside.

There was work to be done.

Lives riding on the fact that I did what needed to be done.

I knocked on the door, but didn’t wait for Don Carlo to answer before I entered.

He was wearing burgundy satin pajamas and a satin dressing robe.

The picture of a perfectly respectable man.

But his eyes blazed rage.

“I told you to squash shit with the Genevose,” he bellowed.

“I haven’t escalated, Don Carlo,” I said.

“That’s not squashing it, Nico,” he yelled.

I glared at him. “Do you have some ideas? You’re the boss, after all, so what would you suggest?”

The boss stopped pacing and glared at me, the room thick with tension.

It was the first time I had question him so directly, something I had studiously tried to avoid.

But tonight, I didn’t give a shit.

For years, years , this family had only functioned because of me.

And I’d had enough of his bullshit.

An easy enough statement, though I knew the sexy hostage back at my place had more to do with this than I care to let on.

“I don’t need ideas, Nico. As I understand it, Federico Genevose offered you a way to make this all go away,” the boss said.

“You spoke to Enzo?” I asked

“You mean my loyal solider Enzo? Yes, I spoke to him and he gave me the information you didn’t. According to him, the Geneovese offered you a perfectly reasonable way to deescalate the situation, and you turned it down,” Don Carlo muttered, his eyes bulging with rage.

“It wasn’t an option,” I said flatly, my voice ice cold.

“Not an option? Some piece of ass could fix all this, and it’s not an option?”

I clenched my fists, something I knew he hadn’t missed. Then I locked eyes with him.

“She’s mine. Anyone who touches her will die.”

The boss glared at me, but then relented. “You won’t be the first to get yourself killed over pussy, but you won’t take my family with you,” he said.

“What does that mean?” I asked, regaining control.

“It means you can have a few men, but I’m not going to war with the Genevose over this petty shit,” he said.

“Meaning?” I asked again.

“Meaning do whatever the fuck you want, Nico. And you can have Enzo, Sebastian, and one of the younger soldiers. But that’s it. Whatever happens after that falls on you,” he said.

I shrugged.

Of course it would fall on me.

It always had.

This wasn’t any different, and Don Carlo knew that just as well as I did.

I said nothing else, but knew that this situation couldn’t last.

Now I had to decide what I was going to do.

Just like I had to stop being a bitch and go back to my house.

I both wanted to and dreaded it, not knowing if I would be able to control my emotions.

When I got back, the place was dark, quiet, but I still felt her there.

And even more, I felt soothing relief.

I liked her being here.

Wanted her to be here.

And it fucking terrified me.

When I went upstairs, she was sitting on the bed, her eyes hooded as she watched me.

I undressed, then went to the bathroom to shower.

When I returned, she was in the same spot.

I walked toward the bed, and she lay down, then reached for the bounds I’d used to tie her to the bed.

A feeling, far too much like shame, washed over me.

I circled the bed, then lay down without tying her up.

To my shock, she lay next to me.

“You didn’t tie me up,” she said in a quiet voice.

“Don’t need to,” I responded.

She didn’t ask why, and if I were the type who prayed, I would have given a prayer of thanks in that moment.

She was lying next to me, her body stiff, and she was awake.

I could practically hear the thoughts rushing through her head.

“Nico?” she finally said, her voice quiet.

“Yeah?”

“Your…job. Why do you do it?”

“What do you know about my job , Hope?” I asked, my voice ice cold.

She heard that, but she paid no attention.

“I know that it requires you to kill people. And throw people like me into trunks,” she said.

There was no judgment in her tone, only curiosity.

Against my better judgment, I started to answer her. “It’s not a job. It’s the family business. I was born into it. Just like my father was. And his father before him. And I’ll die in it. Just like my father did. And his father before him.”

“That’s not the only reason you do it,” she said with such certainty that it stunned me.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

I was lying close enough that I could touch her. Even though I made no move toward her, her arm lay against mine. It was barely any contact, but I felt more intimately connected with her than I ever had with anyone else.

“Those are the circumstances you were born into, but not your reason. Why do you do what you do?” she asked.

I wanted to lash out at her, ask her what a fucking right she had to question me.

But I didn’t.

I answered.

“Because it’s the only way I can protect people,” I said.

I splayed a hand on her stomach, felt her sharp inhaled breath. “And now, that includes you.”