Page 48 of The Enforcer

20Alfonso

We haveto walk two hundred and fifteen steps down to Nicola’s house. Once again, I let Zoe set the pace. She’s distracted and clearly frustrated and speeds down the first nearly one hundred steps, but after she seems to have burned through whatever is on her mind, she slows to a more manageable speed.

“I hate these steps,” she mutters to herself.

I nod sympathetically, not that she’s paying any attention to me.

“It’s hot as hell,” she adds. “I feel like I’m melting.”

“We’re almost there,” I try and console her, “and then you can take a shower and cool off.”

She turns to glare at me, and my eyes widen in shock. I don’t think she’s looked at me once since before we left my parents’ house.

“The shower is too small,” she says irritably.

“What?”

“The shower in my bathroom is tiny. Have you seen me? Have you seen that shower?”

“No,” I say quickly. “I haven’t, actually. I always use the other toilet. I’m sorry.”

Those words catch her off guard, and she stops, turns, and squints at me. “What?”

“When I come home, I don’t use that bathroom. And I don’t come home often.”

“Is that what all that was about?” she asks, pointing up the steps.

I know what she means, and I shift uncomfortably. “Some of it.”

She crosses her arms and waits, her chest heaving as she works to catch her breath. I look at her from head to toe because I really don’t want to have this conversation with anyone, let alone a stranger. The fact that she’s a beautiful stranger somehow makes this harder.

Zoe’s covered in a sheen of sweat. Her curly hair is sticking to her skin at her temples, and small tendrils cling to her neck and shoulders. Her medium brown skin is flushed a bright red. And her dress — the one that I had appreciated just a few hours ago for giving a hint of her curves — is hugging to those same curves wantonly. There are no more hints, only gorgeous, thick certainties.

“I’m waiting,” she says.

I can’t help but smile. “We all have our roles in the family. You probably figured it out already, yes? You’re smarter than I am.” I lean forward, waiting to see if she’ll take the prompt.

She watches me for a while and then rolls her eyes. “Dario’s the baby, your mom’s favorite. Can do no wrong.”

I grunt in annoyance and nod for her to continue.

“Ugo’s a lot like your father, I think, quiet, hard-working, loves the land.”

I nod.

“I can’t quite figure Nicola out, but he seems like the kind of person who swans in at the perfect time and then leaves before anyone can ask where he’s been.”

“Like today,” I say. Even though I’d announced that Zoe and I should leave, as soon as Zoe had put Dario in his place, Nicola kissed everyone goodbye, welcomed Zoe to the family, and then slipped out of the garden on his way to who knows where.

Zoe nods. “He’s definitely up to some shit.”

I laugh.

“And you.”

The laughter dies on my lips.

“I can’t figure you out, actually,” she says in a quiet voice.

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