Page 94 of Enforcer's Obsession

“It means this Genovese situation ends today. I won’t tolerate loose ends, Nico. I’m not going to wait months for this to be over. You have my support. Do what needs to be done,” he said.

“I will,” I said.

I hung up the phone and started pacing.

Don Carlo was right.

He’d never be able to make up for what had happened. But giving me this leeway now meant something. And, though I knew he would never admit it, he was opening the path for the future.

He would always mourn his son, but at least in these moments, he recognized what had to happen.

Just as I did.

I went back upstairs, found Hope there, staring at me.

Her in my bed was perfection, something I’d never allowed myself to believe that I could have.

Something I knew I couldn’t keep.

“You’re here,” I said, tossing her words back at her, feeling like a piece of scum for it.

“I am,” she said. Her eyes were wide, but steady.

I scoffed. “You think that now.”

“What does that mean, Nico?” she asked, her voice even.

“You say I should forgive myself for the fire. What about you?” I asked.

“What about me?”

“When you saw your stepfather, you became that scared little girl again.”

She said nothing, but I saw how wounded her expression was.

Hated it, but kept going.

“You probably wanted to piss yourself, didn’t you?” I said.

“No,” she said, her voice quiet, “I stopped doing that when I was eight. No matter how scared I was. That always made it worse. So I figured out how not to.”

She kept her eyes locked on mine, and though I wanted to relent, this was too important for me to let it go.

“Hope, your stepfather was nothing. Yes, he hurt you and killed your mother, but he was nothing,” I said.

“What are you trying to say, Nico?” she said, her voice calm, patient, driving me to the edge.

“As bad as you think he was, I’m worse. You think you could do that, be with somebody—love somebody,” I said, my voice deepening, “who’s going to come home with blood on his hands most nights?”

I left the question hanging there, certain of the answer.

Hope might think she knew what she wanted but she was just a stupid, innocent girl.

She didn’t understand the real world, no matter what she might have seen.

I could take advantage of that, let her think she knew what she wanted.

But as fucked up as I was, as selfish as I was, I wouldn’t.

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