Page 27 of Enzo

“I happen to love pigs—just ask my cousin. And you’re wrong. She is my wife.” I slam the butt of my nine down on his skull and the sick fuck collapses.

“Close your eyes,” I tell Kayleigh.

“What? Why?”

“Because if you don’t see what I’m about to do, it didn’t happen,” I tell her. “Plausible deniability and all that bullshit.”

“That’s not really how it works,” she says.

“Okay, well, close them anyway. I don’t want you to see me be the person you think I am.”

“And who’s that?”

“A criminal? A killer? A monster?” I suggest.

Kayleigh shakes her head. “I don’t…” Then she slams her mouth shut and closes her eyes.

I turn back to Frank and quickly put two bullets into his brain. I should have kept him alive longer. There’s a time and a place to play with your victims, though, and this isn’t either of those.

I pivot towards Kayleigh again and find her staring at me. “You were supposed to keep your eyes closed,” I tell her, swiping up the knife and crouching down in front of her. I let my eyes travel over every inch of her body. “You know, if you really were into knife play, you could have just told me.”

“Enzo?”

“Yeah?”

“I… Untie me. Please,” she says.

I slice through the zip ties on her ankles, then cut her wrists free. Kayleigh’s entire body slumps forward. I catch her before scooping her up bridal-style. “It’s okay. I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I have to tell you something,” she says.

“It can wait. Come on, I need to get you out of here.”

Chapter Twenty

Enzo carries me through his apartment. Right into his bedroom. Sitting me on the edge of the bed, he kneels in front of me. “The doc will be here in a minute to see you,” he says.

I’m back in this room. When I was tied up and at the mercy of Frank Esposito’s sick mind, all I wanted was to be back in this room. And here I am. But not really. My body is here. My heart ishere. But it’s not really me, because Enzo doesn’t know the real me.

How do I tell him who I really am? He’s going to hate me. He won’t want anything to do with me. And his family, who are all currently in his living room? They’re going to want to kill me for it.

“I don’t need a doctor,” I tell him. “I shouldn’t be here. I can’t be here.”

“You think I’m going to let you walk out of here like this? You need a doctor,” Enzo says.

“You don’t know. If you knew, you would have left me in that basement.” A stray tear slides down my cheek.

“Know what?” he asks.

“You killed a federal agent, Enzo. That carries a life sentence,” I explain. “Ask me how I know that?”

“Who? Who was the agent? Because I can guarantee you old Frank was not working for the law,” he says.

I shake my head. “Not Frank. Geoff, the man whose body you stepped over when we got to the top of the stairs.”

“Okay, well, if it means that you’re here—alive, safe—then I’ll happily spend the rest of my life behind bars.” Enzo shrugs.

“You don’t mean that,” I tell him. “You don’t know who I am…”

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