Page 29 of Read This Before the Villain falls in Love with You

"You lost?" He flicked a grease-blackened rag onto the zinc counter and folded his arms over his chest.

I leaned back against a wooden post. "I got tired of your brother staring at me like he wants to shoot me or throw me in a cellar. I wanted one quiet room in this place where nobody is glaring at me."

"Good luck finding that here, Blake." Enzo twirled the heavy shears around his finger and tossed them onto the table. "Luca does not glare for fun. When he stares like that, it means he is figuring out who needs to be buried next."

I stepped past a lemon tree and flicked dirt off a leaf. "That makes me feel so much better. Does all that planning include keeping me in one piece?"

Enzo leaned back against the bench with a smirk. "You threw a hard bread roll at Matteo's forehead two nights ago."

"I call that team bonding," I fired back, poke to a bruised lemon on a branch. "The man was whining about his hair gel. He practically begged for a bread roll to the head."

Enzo shook his head with a grin. "You joke around a lot for someone locked in a house full of guns. Most people would be crying under a bed by now."

I shoved my hands deep into my pockets so he would not see my fingers shaking. "I am terrified. I just do not let people see me break down. It ruins my focus."

"How much for you to stand quietly in a corner for ten minutes?" He tilted his chin, curiosity flashing across his face.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Two grand cash up front. Plus food and cab fare."

He let out a short, rough bark of laughter. Then the humor vanished entirely from his eyes. His head snapped toward the far perimeter of glass. Outside in the shadows, a shape shifted awkwardly along the iron trellis. Enzo dropped his shoulders, his stance hardening into sheer combat instinct.

"Get behind the planting table." He lowered his tone until it rasped against the glass like sandpaper.

"Excuse me?" I straightened up, scanning the dark foliage behind him.

"Now, Nora! Move your feet!" He shoved me violently behind the heavy galvanized bench with one sweep of his forearm.

I ducked behind the potting bench as the side glass panel shattered inward with a sharp crack. A man in tactical dark cloth cleared the frame with a short blade already drawn. His focus snapped right onto Enzo with lethal precision.

Enzo did not hesitate. He crossed the floor in three brutal strides, lunging before the intruder could steady his stance. The steel blade slashed through the humid air. Enzo trapped the attacker's wrist, wrenched it down, and smashed his elbow directly into the man's neck. They crashed sideways into a tiered wooden rack. Terracotta pots shattered across the paving. Soil flew. The blade came around again in a wild arc, slicing Enzo across his ribs. Enzo hissed through clenched teeth, gripped the man by the throat, and quit holding back.

He wrenched the attacker's arm backward until the shoulder popped, spun him around, and drove the heavy steel blade upward beneath the rib cage. The impact made a wet, heavy thump. The intruder folded completely as his knees gave out. Dark blood spilled onto the white flagstones in a wide puddle. Enzo held the weight for one second before letting the body crash onto the dirt. The man gave one shudder and lay motionless.

I gripped the edge of the table until my knuckles turned chalk white. The coppery reek of opened veins flooded the damp air, overpowering the citrus blossoms. I had resolved boardroom meltdowns and negotiated multimillion-pound ransom payouts across three continents, but I had never watched a man get gutted five paces from my shoes.

Enzo wiped a streak of blood off his cheek with his sleeve, chest heaving like a bellows. "You still in one piece?"

I gasped, words coming thin and rough as I stared at the blood on the tiles. "Define in one piece. My heart is pounding out of my chest and I think I might throw up, but nothing fell off."

"He had a knife." Enzo groaned, hand clamped over the gash along his side as dark red seeped through his shirt. "You saw him."

I swallowed the sour taste in my mouth, backing away from the body. "I saw it. I feel sick. God, I need to sit down."

Enzo leaned hard against a wooden beam, clutching his side. "Do not pass out on me now."

"I never pass out, you jerk," I snapped back, though my legs felt like jelly underneath me.

"Stay on your feet then." He coughed, hand pressed tighter against his bloody ribs. "Because Luca is about to lose his mind."

The heavy iron doors crashed open against the stone frames with enough force to vibrate the glass panels overhead. Luca crossed the threshold with a pistol drawn low and flat at his hip. His eyes ripped across the dead body on the tiles, noted the red dripping from Enzo's fingers, and slammed directly into mine. He processed the entire disaster in the space of a heartbeat.

"Nora." He holstered the weapon in one clean snap, stepped over the dead man's legs without glancing down, and planted himself directly in front of me. His large palm locked onto my waist, fingers gripping hard through the knit of my sweater to anchor me against him. "Did he touch you?"

Both my shaking hands rested against his hard chest as I felt him breathing fast. "No, I am fine. He never touched me. He went straight for Enzo."

"Bellini scout breached the garden lattice," Enzo reported, both palms raised to show the blood. "I put him down before he got near the main house."

Luca completely ignored his brother. He kept his eyes locked on my face, his fingers gripping tight into the curve of my waist. His hold was heavy, firm, and uncompromising. "You are getting out of here right now."