“I know.”
“He’s...” Dario pauses. “Not in good shape. Finding her, seeing her with you broke something in him.”
“He saw us?”
“He followed you to Colorado. Watched you together outside the bakery, kissing.” Dario straightens his cuffs. “I’ve never seen him like that.”
The image hits harder than expected.
Enzo, the enforcer, the weapon, broken because he watched the woman he loves kiss someone else.
“Call him,” I say.
Dario pulls out his phone.
Twenty minutes later, there’s a knock on the door.
The knock isn’t a knock. It’s a warning. The kind that says someone’s barely holding it together.
Dario opens it.
Enzo stands there looking like he’s been through a war. Bloodshot eyes. Jaw tight. Hands curled into fists at his sides.
His gaze lands on me.
Everything in the room goes sharp.
“What the fuck is he doing here?” Enzo’s voice is low.
“We’re talking,” Dario says calmly. “About Stevie. About what happens next.”
“What happens next?” Enzo steps inside. Doesn’t take his eyes off me. “I’ll tell you what happens next. He leaves. Gets in his car. Drives back to Colorado and tells her we stayed away like good little boys who know their place.”
“Enzo.”
“No.” He’s moving toward me. Each step controlled rage. “You took her. You swept in with your badge and your protocols and you erased her. Took her away from us without warning. Without letting us say goodbye.”
“I was protecting her.”
“You were stealing her.” His voice rises. “Son of a bitch. I came back to an empty apartment with cookies and a fucking note.”
He’s in my face now. Close enough that I can see the muscle twitching in his jaw. The barely controlled violence in every line of his body.
“I found her,” he says. Quiet. Deadly. “Had to. Because I love her. And you know what I saw?”
I don’t answer.
“I saw her happy. Laughing. Kissing you like.” His voice breaks. “Like I never existed. Like what we had was nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing to her,” I say.
“Bullshit. She sure as fuck moved on, didn’t she?” He shoves my chest. Hard. “Why did she build a life with you while I was searching every fucking state for her?”
I don’t step back. Don’t react.
“Because I was there,” I say quietly. “Because she was alone and grieving and I showed up. That’s all I did. I showed up.”
“And I couldn’t.” His hands fist in my shirt. “I couldn’t because you snatched her away. I had no idea where she was.”
