Page 5 of The Bond

I shivered at that, coming undone as I saw that determined flash in his dark eyes. Enzo wasn’t going to give up. He would never let this go. Something had happened either during or after the fire in the woodshed that had strengthened his resolve. Solving this conspiracy wasn’t just duty for him anymore. This was personal.

“Fine,” I said, deciding to seize the moment. The only way to keep tabs on what Enzo was doing or thinking was to be where I could watch that happen. This was the wrong time to rely on updates from him because he could simply lie to me like he always had. “I’ll agree to this foolish scheme of yours on one condition.”

He frowned, clearly hating this already. “Which is?”

“You can recover at my townhouse,” I offered.

Enzo narrowed his eyes, seeming to size me up. “Very generous of you.”

“It’s the least I can do,” I said, fighting to keep my words casual.

“You’re trying to keep tabs on me,” he said.

There was no point in pretending otherwise. Now that I knew his true motives, I certainly wouldn’t be helping him out of the goodness of my heart. I had an agenda the same as him. Only unlike his, mine wasn’t steeped in manipulation. I was actually trying protecting my family. From whoever was coming after us, from Enzo, from the entire De Luca family, if that was what it took to survive.

I gave a non-committal shrug. “Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I don’t think you’ll take your chances recovering on your own.”

There was, of course, another reason for wanting Enzo under my roof. My love for him meant I couldn’t let him go. Not yet. He’d betrayed me and I had no idea what to do about it. My stupid, lovesick heart wanted to forgive him. Wanted to go ahead with the upcoming wedding so that I could have him for myself forever. Even if he didn’t love me. Even if he’d been using me for his own ends the entire time. My love for him was that powerful. I was ready to sacrifice all common sense and dignity to call him mine forever.

But my heart didn’t reign over all of me. I still had a brain and I still had instincts. Both were telling me to make him pay for his deceit. I’d have to make the punishment a violent, terrifying response to what he and his family had done. Not only was it the right action to maintain my power, part of me also wanted revenge. The De Lucas had played me. They needed to pay a heavy price for that and I needed to be the one to exact it.

So I was caught between my head and my heart. Caught between wanting to forgive and wanting vengeance. If Enzo was under my roof, I’d be able to bide my time and figure out which one I truly wanted. Not to mention, I’d be able to protect my father from him if I could watch Enzo’s next move.

“Regardless of your motives, it’s a generous offer,” Enzo finally said. “Plus, we have a lot of talk about. There’s the wedding, for one thing...”

“Yes, the wedding,” I said, lowering my eyes. That was the other thing I’d been working on. While I’d been there for Enzo during his stay in the hospital, I had also been planning the wedding. Canceling it outright while Enzo had been recovering wasn’t an option. It would have raised questions that I couldn’t answer and we needed to keep up appearances now more than ever. We couldn’t have the criminal underworld see any weakness on our part or we’d have even bigger problems on our hands.

“Everything’s arranged,” I continued, my heart pounding. “Between me, my mom, and my assistants we’ve managed to get things done. And a lot of people owe us favors, so we called those in.”

He looked surprised by that, no doubt shocked that I would go through with the wedding in spite of his lies and manipulation.

“Looks like you kept things running smoothly in my absence,” he said finally.

I nodded. “I did my best.”

“I think you did more than your best, Valentina,” he said. “For one thing, you’ve managed to keep me alive. I ought to thank you for that.”

“Don’t thank me,” I said. I didn’t say it out of a false sense of modesty. I truly didn’t want him to thank me for keeping him alive, because part of me was on the verge of changing my mind about that. There was a very good chance that I’d kept him alive long enough to kill him myself. Of course, I didn’t say that. No use in showing my hand when I was gaining the advantage.

He gave a nod, then pushed away from the hospital bed. “Time to get out of here.”

His sudden proximity made my stomach do flips. All I could manage was a single, “Yes.”

Enzo maintained eye contact, his gaze hard and unyielding. The next words out of his mouth made me quiver. “When we get to your place, you and I have a lot to talk about.”

Chapter 3

Enzo

Medical staff at the hospital tried to object to me leaving. They didn’t like it. Not even when I promised to come in for a checkup later on. But I’d been through all this before with an earlier fire. This was just their way of squeezing more money out of us. Not to mention the off chance they’d use another oxygen tube put the fear of God into me. I wanted out ASAP. I didn’t even give a fuck when they wrote their objections on my chart.

With a date for follow up and a prescription, I was good to go. Valentina drove me to her townhouse herself, forgoing her usual chauffeur. Guessed she was trying to be that secretive. We needed discretion now more than ever.

When we pulled up in front of her place, I stepped out of the car and the next thing I knew, I was winded and close to collapse. Valentina was instantly at my side, holding me up. I wanted to protest. I was a grown fucking man. Getting this level of help wasn’t going to help me get stronger—it would just make me dependent. But when I got to put an arm around her, I kept my mouth shut. Getting to touch Valentina was not a reason to complain. It was the opposite. I was lucky she was still letting me touch her after everything I’d put her through.

Together, with my arm around her and her arms barely getting around my torso, we managed to stagger up the front steps and into her townhouse. I tried to pause to park myself in the living room, but she ignored me and straight-up shoved me into the guestroom that had basically become my room.

Valentina took off my jacket, pushed me down onto the bed, and then worked to take off my work boots. There was something exciting about her taking charge by getting me out of my clothes and getting me into bed, but seduction clearly wasn’t what she had in mind.