Page 11 of The Enforcer

“Follow Alfonso, please,” Salvo says. No, he pleads. And my eyebrows lift in surprise.

Salvo is different from the other bosses I’ve met. He’s gentle, doesn’t raise his voice, and makes requests even of low-life gangsters still wet behind their ears instead of barking out orders. Sure, it’s all a façade because, just like the other bosses, Salvo has no problem killing an enemy. In fact, he’s even better — scarier — because he doesn’t have a problem taking out his enemies with his own hands, and he never needs to raise his voice above a whisper while doing so.

But even with the gentler touch, Salvo doesn’t plead. He doesn’t beg. An hour ago, I thought he’d never beg, not even with a gun to his head, but apparently, I was wrong.

I look at Salvo, but he only has eyes for this woman. I want to ask what the hell is going on right now, but I’m standing in the middle of the square with a half-dead man over my shoulder, and I’ve been standing in this exact spot for far too long. I turn toward the entrance to the alleyway that runs along the side of the restaurant casually, shifting the dead weight to one shoulder as if this isn’t a strange thing to be doing whatsoever. I pull my mobile from my pants pocket and call Giulio.

“Ciao,” he says, laughing through the word. His voice sounds lighter than I’ve ever heard before. He’s happy. I hear Zahra’s laughter in the background, and I feel terrible.

I have three brothers, and Giulio is as close to me as any of them. I hate to break up whatever beautiful morning they’ve been sharing, but in our line of work, I cannot afford to be so kind.

“You need to get to the restaurant,” I say. “Now.”

I hang up before he can answer. There’s nothing else to say. We both know what kind of life we live. As I plunge into the darkness of this familiar alley, I turn around to find the tall, thick woman following behind me with big, scared eyes. She’s staring forward but not really seeing, not until I grunt under my breath. Her gaze shifts, her eyes focus on me, and she frowns. I smile at her, and her frown deepens. For whatever reason, that pleases me.

I lift my eyes to look past her to see the other woman and Salvo behind her. Close behind her. Their eyes are shifting to one another. Whatever is going on between them cannot be good.

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