Hexed (Never After #6)

CHARACTER PROFILES

ENZO MARINO

Name: Enzo Marino

Age: 29

Place of Birth: Trillia, Brooklyn

Current Location: New York, New York

Nationality: Italian American

Education: High school

Occupation: Mob boss

Income: UNWI (Ultrahigh Net Worth Individual)

Eye color: Blue

Hair Style: Dark brown/black. Slightly messy on top but styled well. Movie—star looks

Body build: Tall, six -four, muscular and trim

Preferred style of outfit: Suits or Italian cashmere

Glasses?: No

Any accessories they always have?: His gun

Level of grooming: High

Health: Healthy

Handwriting style: Messy

How do they walk?: With purpose

Style of speech: Casual

Accent: Brooklyn accent

Posture: Good

Do they gesture?: Yes

Eye contact: Always

Preferred curse word: Fuck

Catchphrase?: Doesn’t really have one, but calls his victims “sweetheart”

Speech impediments?: No

What’s their laugh like?: Deep and raspy

What do they find funny?: People who are witty

Describe smile: Beautiful and straight. Movie—star smile

How emotive?: Relatively

Type of childhood: Got into fights a lot as a kid, always felt the weight of expectation of his father and being part of the family business. Teenage Enzo was always taking care of his mother.

Involved in school?: No

Named in the yearbook: Most likely to get a girl pregnant

Jobs: Caporegime, underboss, don

Dream job as a child: Always knew he’d be working in the Mafia

Role models growing up: His father until he saw how his mother was treated and then nobody

Greatest regret: Not being able to save his mom

Hobbies growing up: Cage fighting as an adult and fighting in general when he was younger

Favorite place as a child: The corner outside Max’s Meats

Earliest memory: His third birthday where his whole family showed up and his dad gave him a water gun and taught him how to shoot it

Saddest memory: Finding his mom dead

Happiest memory: When he finally got to be with Venesa

Any skeletons in the closet?: Yes

If they could change one thing from their past, what would it be?: Saving his mom

Describe major turning points in their childhood: His father treating his mom badly and his mom being a drug addict and killing herself

Three adjectives to describe personality: Suave, lethal, dangerous

What advice would they give to their younger self?: Be careful who you trust

Criminal record?: Never been caught

Any siblings?: One older brother, Giuseppe (Peppino)

Father:

Name: Carlos Marino

Age: 52

Occupation: Boss of all bosses

What’s their relationship with the character like?: It’s tenuous because he is volatile and paranoid, but Enzo is very loyal to him both because that’s how he was raised—-it’s the oath he took with the omertà —and it’s also a promise he made to his mother.

Mother:

Name: Giulia Marino

Age: Dead

Occupation: Stay—at—home mom/wife

What’s their relationship with the character like?: It was good when he was younger, and then parental roles were switched when she became a drug addict and he was constantly taking care of her.

Closest friends: Giovanni

Enemies: Many

How are they perceived by strangers?: Very handsome and dangerous

Any social media?: No

Role in group dynamic: Leader

Who do they depend on:

Practical advice: Gio

Mentoring: His father

Wingman: Gio

Emotional support: Gio

Moral support: Gio

What do they do on rainy days?: Work

Book smart or street smart?: Street

Optimist, pessimist, realist: Realist

Introvert or extrovert: Introvert but able to be an extrovert when needed

Favorite sound: Venesa’s laugh

What do they want most?: To find true love

Biggest flaw: Believing the good in people he trusts

Biggest strength: The ability to think through situations rationally

Do they want to be remembered?: Doesn’t matter to him

How do they approach:

Power: Commands it

Ambition: Always has it

Love: Aches for it but doesn’t think it’s in the cards for him

Change: Adapts to it

Possession they would rescue from burning home: He doesn’t put much stock in material things.

What makes them angry?: Being disrespected

How is their moral compass, and what would it take to break it?: Very morally gray, so it wouldn’t take much at all

Pet peeves: When people don’t give him respect, when people talk too much, people who are unnecessarily cruel

What would they have written on their tombstone?: Here lies Enzo “Lover Boy” Marino. He loved to kiss you before he fucked you up.

Their story goal: Enzo starts as a very loyal son to his father, the boss of all bosses in the Italian American Mafia. He has dutifully stepped into the role of being the underboss after his brother, Peppino, was murdered, but he doesn’t enjoy the way his father runs things, and he also misses the freedom of being able to actually be in the streets and do things the way he wants. He has longed for true love his entire life but has realized that it’s never in the cards for him simply because of who he is and who his family is, so he’s okay with marrying Aria to please his father and strengthen his family’s power. Throughout the story, Enzo will have to come to terms with the fact that sometimes blind loyalty isn’t the answer, and although he’s made promises to his late mother and feels a sense of obligation to follow through on his word, sometimes, he has to take the opportunity to rise up and take control, take the real power for himself. By the end of the book, Enzo will realize that love is the strongest and most important thing in the world, despite what happened to his parents, and he will find a better balance between who he’s meant to be as a Marino in the Mafia and accepting love into his life, being able to love people fully and without restraint despite how scary it might seem. He will realize that although he thought he had power and control in the beginning of the book, it was all an illusion, and he will grow into a character worthy of running empires and being the man who gets to call Venesa Andersen his for eternity.