Page 84 of The Enforcer

Zoe and I wait for more, but that’s it.

For Ugo, it is enough.

He hugs and kisses me before walking back to the steps where he’ll ascend the stairs back to the home he shares with our parents and resume the rest of his very normal life.

I will miss him.

I drive down to the beach and park Ugo’s car in front of the grocers, where he will pick it up later today. I grab all of our bags and walk with Zoe back to the shore. We climb onto the pier to find Nicola’s yacht already there. He jumps down and helps me lug her bag onto the boat. And then we both offer our hands to Zoe. She takes mine.

I help her up the steps, where Nicola helps her onto the deck.

Nicola doesn’t banter. Not much, at least. Today, he’s driven by the same urgency I feel. We back away from the pier and head out onto the water. “We’ll be in Naples before noon,” I tell Zoe as I cradle her head in my lap until she falls asleep.

I settle her head on the cushion and then climb into the cockpit.

“What did you do with them?” I ask Nicola.

“Do you really want to know?”

I do, actually, but he’s right. The less I know, the better.

“You covered your tracks.” It’s not a question, but it is.

Nicola smiles at me and winks. “I am not that foolish, fratello.”

I squint at him. “Yes, actually, you are.”

He laughs, and I laugh.

I’ve missed this.

Zoe

I can see Naples.

We’re in a queue for the pier, and from the water, this city looks beautiful. I hadn’t realized that before. But a few days ago feels like a century. I feel like a brand-new person, especially when Alfonso wraps himself around my back.

His bare arms bracket mine. I want to go back to this morning when there was nothing between us.

“I can take you to the airport,” he whispers against my ear.

I jerk, but he holds me in place.

“You can go home,” he says. “That’s what you wanted.” I jerk again, and his arms tighten around me. “If you want to go home, you can.”

“What the fuck?” I hiss, at a loss for words.

Alfonso wraps his arms around my chest, squeezing me hard enough to keep me still, and also, I think, so that I can remember him holding me this way. His nose and mouth brush against my cheek. “I didn’t kidnap you,” he whispers.

I shift in his arms, enough to see him out of the corner of my eye but not enough to break his hold on me. “What do you want?”

He shakes his head and sighs.

“Tell me.”

I feel his struggle. The desire to keep this from me, to not follow my order. But he can’t. And I can’t describe what that does to me.

“I want you to stay,” he whispers. His mouth moves to my ear. “I want you to want to stay.”

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