Page 304 of Legacy
Enzo peeks his head in, scruff a little thicker, dark circles beneath his eyes. None of these men have slept in weeks.
“You ready to go, Mrs. Amato? Don Amato called. He’s ready for you.”
I roll my eyes. “Enzo, you can call me Adriana.”
He lets out a tired laugh. “No thank you, Mrs. Amato.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
I pull the door open all the way and he straightens, suddenly alert.
“Seriously, do you call Vasilisa Mrs. Amato too?”
His lips flatten into a line. “That’s different. Our relationship’s different.”
“How?”
He lifts a brow, careful now. “Not in any disrespectful way, Mrs. Amato. She’s just... more like a sister.”
“And I’m what?” I ask, annoyance bleeding into hurt.
He pauses. “A client.”
Something in me cracks.
A client.
I don’t know why it hits so hard, but it does. My stomach tightens.
“Am I not nice enough to you?”
His eyes widen. “No, nothing like that, Mrs.—I mean, Adriana. It’s just... Don—”
“Angelo?! He told you I’m just a client?”
Enzo exhales slowly, like he’s about to say something that costs him. “Don Amato requires that anyone on your service treat you with the highest level of respect. You’re the boss’s wife.”
“Well, I’ll tell him that you keep calling me Mrs. Amato and it’s pissing me off.”
He pales. “Please don’t Adriana, if you tell him that... he’ll kill me.”
I laugh, but there’s no humor in it. “You can’t be serious. You can be warm and friendly withScythe’swife, but not with me because Angelo would kill you?”
Enzo’s voice drops. “Don Amato doesn’t do surveillance like Santo. He doesn’t watch. Doesn’t wait. He hears something, he reacts. No second chances. No context.”
I stare at him.
“You’re making my husband sound like some monster without empathy.”
Enzo doesn’t blink.
Doesn’t flinch.
Doesn’t deny it.
And that’s when my stomach drops. Hard.
The air thins. My skin prickles. Because he’s serious. Deadly serious.
