Page 79 of The Enforcer

I feel his blade slice through my shirt and skin. I don’t care. Those petty cuts are nothing compared to my knuckles connecting with his face, his teeth cracking and slicing up his mouth, the warm rush of his blood and spittle running over my fists.

I feel like myself again as I punch him repeatedly, breaking his teeth, his nose, his cheeks, his orbital bones. Everything. His face swells, and I keep punching, feeling the wet sack of blood and bone fragments under his swollen skin. I hit him until my shoulders and hands ache. Until Zoe’s scratches become one wide, pulsing wound. Until Andrea drops the knife and begins to beg — in wet, bloody bubbles — for his life.

“I’ll tell you,” he says. “I’ll tell you.”

I stop and wait.

“It was the Serpente Nero,” he says. “They sent me.”

“Ovviamente lo era,” I hiss. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

And then, because I’m merciful, I snap Andrea’s neck. Now he doesn’t have to explain what happened to his face. Besides, we both know the Serpente would have done much worse than that once they found out he’d failed.

My first call is to Nicola.

My second is to Giulio.

The call I want to make is home. Where Zoe is. But that will have to wait.

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