Page 142 of Forged

“This is who Dante says you are,” Enzo spits.

“That’s who Iwas.”

“And I’m supposed to believe a man like this falls in love and suddenly grows a conscience?”

“I don’t need you to believe in my conscience,” I bite back.

His stare turns glacial. “And how much have you already told her?”

“Nothing useful. Enough to keep her satisfied that I was working on completion. Not enough to expose the Key. She knows there’s a portion of your network where it lives, but she hasn’t gotten close to it yet. Please believe me, Enzo. I’m on your side.”

Enzo steps forward so quickly Dante eases his hold inanticipation, like he knows his Don is about to strike. Enzo doesn’t hit me, though. I wish he would, I wish he would let the tension snap.

“You are not on my side,” he says in anger. “You are a ticking time bomb that walked into my brother’s life wearing a pretty face and good manners, and my brother put his heart in your hands without knowing they were made for killing.”

I swallow and let the sorrow sink deep

“Then use me,” I say. “Use what I know. Use me to stop her. I can tell you how she thinks, how she stages pressure, where she likes to place her secondary threats after the first strike. I know the cadence she uses. I know how she’ll come for Blackwater if she believes brute force won’t work. I know her. And if you let me help, I will help you burn her operation to the ground.”

Enzo’s gaze doesn’t shift. “And what do you expect in return?”

“Nothing.”

The answer comes easily because it’s the only one I have left.

His mouth hardens. “Liar.”

I shake my head. “I only want you to protect them. That’s all.”

That finally cracks the tension wide open.

Enzo grabs the front of my shirt again and this time he doesn’t pull me close. He drives me backward toward the door, forcing Dante to pivot with us. My heels skid against the hardwood. The desk, the monitors, the photographs all slide out of view as the office narrows into movement and the hard line of Enzo’s body in front of mine.

“You don’t get to crawl in here after poisoning my house and ask me to protect the people you were hired to betray.”

“I just want to make sure they’re safe.”

He wrenches the door open and shoves me into the hallway. Somewhere farther down the corridor, I hear movement that tells me other members of the family have noticed. Enzo follows me out, fury spilling with him.

“Enzo—”

“Shut the fuck up.”

The command cracks through the corridor loud enough that every conversation nearby dies. Dante emerges behind us, silent and lethal.

I plant my feet because this is the last chance I may have to get the warning out cleanly. “She will trigger Blackwater if she gets hold of it,” I say. “If she can’t penetrate the system directly, she’ll go after the people around it. She will force your hand any way she can. I’m telling you the truth.”

“And I’m telling you to get the hell out of my sight before I forget what Lars would suffer if I kill you in this hallway.”

There it is. The final line drawn in the sand.

For a second I think of fighting for one more sentence, one more plea, one more explanation. Then I picture Lars upstairs with Neomi, still raw from the sight of her in that hospital bed. I picture what it would do to him to hear this from Enzo. I picture Neomi’s face if she realizes all at once that the man in her bed came to the estate carrying Sera’s poison in his pocket.

I’ve already done enough damage.

So, I stop resisting the motion of Enzo’s hand at my chest as he marches me toward the front of the house.

“You want to make yourself useful?” he says, his voice low and vicious now that we’re moving again. “Stay away from my family until I decide whether your information is worth the breath you used to give it.”