“I stare at everyone. It’s a problem.”
“I know. You stared at Dario for five weeks.”
“You know about that?”
“I know everything that might affect the family.” He leans back, one arm draped over the booth. Easy in his body in a way that makes me feel like a collection of anxious angles. “I watched you watch him. Thought you might be a threat.”
“I’m five-foot-four and my idea of violence is overbaking cookies. I’m a walking liability, not a threat.”
“You’d be surprised.” His eyes meet mine. “Threats come in all kinds of packages.”
“Is that what you are? A threat?”
“Depends who’s asking.”
“I’m asking.”
He holds my gaze for a long moment. And I see the thing underneath the teasing, the easy smile. Something sharp. Something cold.
“I hurt people,” he says simply. “That’s my job. Dario points, I swing. Someone needs to disappear, I make it happen.Someone needs to talk, I make them talk.” He doesn’t look away. “That’s what an enforcer does.”
I should be running. Screaming. Crying into my government-issued pillow.
But I just keep looking at his mouth. That’s not a mouth, that’s a war crime waiting to happen between my thighs.
“Does it bother you?” I ask.
“Does what bother me?”
“Hurting people.”
“Sometimes.” He picks at a scratch on the table. “When they don’t deserve it.”
“And when they do?”
“Then no.”
The waitress returns with our shakes and fries. Drops them on the table with the enthusiasm of someone being paid minimum wage to care.
Enzo picks up a fry and dips it in his vanilla shake.
I stare. “Did you just?”
“What?” He does it again. Takes a bite. “Sweet and salty. It’s good.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“Don’t knock it till you try it.” He nudges his shake toward me. “Go on. Live dangerously.”
“I broke into a mobster’s house three days ago. I think I’ve met my danger quota.”
“That wasn’t danger. That was aggressive tourism.” He grins. “This is culinary adventure.”
I pick up a fry. Look at it. Look at him.
He’s watching me with an expression that’s half challenge, half something warmer.
I dip the fry in my chocolate shake, take a bite, and pause.
