Page 49 of Hired By the Consigliere

His words took my breath. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to tell him that I felt the same way but a small voice of doubt inside had me holding back.

"This was supposed to just be business. We agreed. Besides, I don’t want to be some rebound."

"You aren’t a rebound. I don’t want to be with you to get over Gemma. I need to be with you in spite of the fact that I don’t want to get over her."

His words were like a slap in the face. “You don’twantto get over her?”

“I do. But I don’t. I’m not sure how to explain it to you but getting over her feels like I’m somehow betraying her. I couldn’t let myself, but when I’m near you, the pain of losing her, the guilt of letting her go…it’s all shadowed in comparison to how I feel about you.”

"That's not enough."

"But it's a start."

I hesitated. I didn't want to let myself get hurt and I still wasn't sure if I could trust Enzo.

He must have seen the look on my face because he took my hand and gently squeezed it to pull me from my thoughts and I met his eye. "I'm not asking you to make a commitment. Not now. I'm just asking you to give us a chance. Just don't give up on us before we even get started just because of how all this began."

"I need to know more…about Gemma, about why you're having such a hard time letting yourself get over her."

"I told you, it's hard to explain but I feel like I'm betraying her if I let myself get over her."

"How couldyoube betraying her whenshe'sthe one that leftyou?"

Pain flashed in Enzo's eyes and he looked away to hide it. "She didn't leave me. She was taken from me."

"By another man?"

Enzo shook his head and my heart sank at the realization that Gemma hadn’t just broken things off with Enzo, she died.

“What happened?” I was barely able to get the words out around the lump forming in my throat.

“It was another mafia family.” Enzo scrubbed his hand over his face before looking at me with unbearable pain in his eyes. “Teo’s older brother, Gio, was originally supposed to be don of the Venturi family. He was a real bastard, always antagonizing other families, never wanting to take the diplomatic route.”

“Is that why Teo’s don and he’s not?”

“In a way.” Enzo shrugged. “It’s a long story but his mistakes finally caught up to him in the shape of a bullet to the chest.”

“That’s terrible.”

“That’s debatable. He was trying to kill Teo when it happened so I don’t mourn for him too much.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, Gio was always pissing off some family or another. The night of my bachelor party, we met up with Gemma and her girl friends to get some pizza at the end of the night. Gio made some drunken comment about a guy’s daughter who was there as well. The guy was furious. He jumped on Gio. I didn’t blame him. I probably would have done the same thing…”

“What did he say?”

“The girl couldn’t have been more than sixteen. Gio handed her his card and told her to call him when she turned eighteen, that with an ass like that, she’d do really well working the pole at his gentleman’s club.”

“Wow. I can see why the man was mad.”

“I would have been furious. But Gio was my future don so I stepped in, pulled the guy off of him, knocked him in the jaw and gut before he finally backed off. Gio just laughed.” Enzo paused and shook his head in disgust. “We were walking out of the restaurant when the guy chased us out, waving his pistol at Gio.”

Enzo swallowed hard and I took his hand, giving it a little squeeze of encouragement.

“It all happened so fast. Gio ducked out of the way. I tried to grab Gemma to pull her out of the path of the bullet but…it just all happened so fast. One minute she was walking right beside me, the next, she was bleeding out in my arms.”

“Enzo, I’m so sorry.” I wanted to cry but I fought back the tears, needing to be strong for him.

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