Page 29 of Rise of Temptation

I gesture towards the door to let everyone know they’re dismissed. My soldiers are used to my preferred methods of communication. I will never add unnecessary niceties or beat around the bush about anything. It’s not my style. Anyone who doesn’t like it can keep their mouths shut about it.

Everyone is almost out the door and I’m whispering to Sal and Frankie that they should stick around when I hear Elise make a sound.

“Nobody move,” I state.

Elise

As the men start to file out of the room, I stay where I am. This is by far the most humiliating moment of my life. I’m not a fucking dog. I know that Enzo is doing me a favor by letting me hear the information firsthand, but he’s pushing his luck with this little stunt. At least I know that Lydia’s tip was a good one. I really didn’t want to find out that I was being fed bad information by the people who are supposed to be the good guys.

The corner of the room that I’m in means the men are facing me when they walk towards the door. I could keep my head down and pretend to be a demure, scared woman. And if I wasn’t so pissed off, maybe I would. But in my current mood, I choose to watch each and every one of them as they leave.

One of them—I can’t remember his name—has a predatory gleam in his eyes when he makes eye contact with me. He quickly looks over his shoulder to make sure that Enzo is occupied and finds him deep in a whispered conversation with Frankie and Sal. He turns back to me triumphantly and when he’s next to me, he puts his hand over his crotch, thrusts, bites his lower lip, and wraps the whole disgusting package up with a smarmy wink.

I make a noise of disgust, roll my eyes, and look away. Men like that are a dime a dozen and always think they’re God’s gift to women. Ten bucks says he can’t keep it up long enough to do anything worthwhile.

“Nobody move.” Enzo’s voice isn’t particularly loud, but it’s authoritative. Everyone instantly complies. I’m not sure if anyone is even breathing anymore. I look up at him in question, and he asks, “What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“You wouldn’t have made that noise if it was nothing.”

It really wasn’t a big deal, and I have no desire to blow it up into something it wasn’t. “I was clearing my throat.”Nice one.

“Are you fucking lying to me right now?”Shit. Maybe it wasn’t such a nice one.

“Hey, Benny. Do you happen to have any idea what made Elise sound like someone forced her to smell a dead cow?”

I whip my head around and glare at Joey, who apparently witnessed the whole thing. He’s smirking at Benny, who has gone white as a sheet. Everyone in the room is looking at Benny now, who seems to have recovered from his life flashing before his eyes. He’s bright red and stuttering excuses. “Oh, uh, I-I-I don’t—no, I—you didn’t—I mean, I didn’t—”

“Answer the question, Benny,” Enzo says. His voice is deceptively calm. I’m sure we can all tell that he’s a coiled snake, ready to strike. Benny definitely can; he isn’t saying anything anymore, but his mouth is still opening and shutting.

“Joey?”

Joey jumps in at the prompt from Enzo and explains what happened. Enzo doesn’t move a muscle or change his facial expression for the duration of Joey’s fairly accurate description of the events. When he finishes, we all wait for the inevitable fallout. I’m close enough to Benny to see that he’s shaking like a leaf. I’d feel bad for him, but he’s disgusting and got himself into this mess.

I’m having an internal debate over how hard Enzo will be on this guy when I see Enzo move. It happens so fast, and it wasn’t even a consideration in my mind. He pulls his gun, aims, fires, and sets it down on the desk. I scream in surprise. Then I’m embarrassed that I just screamed like a little girl. It’s not like I’ve never seen a gun before. I carry one for my fucking job. But it occurs to me that the scream is very in-character for me. I’ll just pretend it was intentional if Enzo tries to make fun of mefor it.

“You three, get her out of here,” Enzo says to Sal, Frankie, and Joey. “The rest of you, clean this mess up. And make sure word gets out. I wasn’t joking about keeping your fucking hands to yourselves.”

They lead me upstairs to my room, where I try to ditch them in the hallway. Unfortunately, they’re not having it, and we all pile into my room.

“I’m sorry you had to see that. Are you okay?” Sal asks. He looks like he wants to comfort me with a hug or something, but he isn’t sure how I’d react.

“I’m fine,” I answer honestly. None of them look like they believe me, and none of us say another word until Enzo walks in.

Chapter 23

Elise

Ijolt awake. Something feels off in my room, but I can’t pinpoint what it could be. I don’t see or hear anything out of the ordinary. That is, until I rub my eyes and see someone rise from the chair in the corner of the room. I scream, only to be instantly shushed by Joey.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I whisper angrily. “You scared the shit out of me. That’s the creepiest thing anyone has ever done to me. And I live in Enzo’s house.” My heart feels like it’s trying to take a running start before it leaps out of my chest. What kind of maniac hides in someone’s room while they’re sleeping?

He helps himself to a seat on the side of my bed and goes to put his hand on my leg but pulls it back at the last second. It’s as if he isn’t sure I’m okay with him touching me. The fact that it would even occur to him to care is almost touching, but I’m still recovering from my near-death experience moments ago.

“Sorry,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay after, well, you know.”

“After Enzo shot that guy for looking at me funny?”

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