“Enzo. Don’t.”
“Don’t?”
“He’s in a good place. He’s happy. Don’t ruin it.”
My chest tightened painfully, a sensation I only ever experienced when I thought of him. That was the problem. I never felt anything for anyone else—only Finn Rossetti.
“I’m not trying to ruin anything. I’m glad he’s happy. I came for his strategic mind so I can get justice for my cousin and end this war.”
Lies.
“You and I both know that is absolute bullshit,” she whisper-yelled, leaning in closer. “If you wanted justice for your cousin, you’d have met with Alessio. He could just as easily have listened to your demands and devised a plan of retaliation with you, but you demanded to meet with Finn.”
I met her fiery gaze and scoffed. She had me. My shoulders sagged as I glanced back down at the bar, avoiding her wrath. “I still love him, Elle.”
She blew a breath between her lips as if I had just uttered the most ludicrous sentence ever constructed. Shaking her head, she picked up her drink and swallowed the rest in one gulp.
I lowered my voice, making sure no one nearby could overhear. “I’m serious, Elle. I made the biggest mistake of my life by letting him go, and I’ve spent every day since living with that regret. I’ve tried to stay away. I can’t do it any longer. I want him back.”
“Jesus fucking Christ. I need another drink.” She raised her hand to the barman, who immediately replaced her glass with another. She took a sip before looking me dead in the eyes. “I don’t know what to tell you, Enzo. Except Finn is my best friend. And Alessio’s. If you hurt him again, Alessio will kill you. And I will let him.”
I chuckled, knowing how true that was. “If I hurt him again, I’d walk into Alessio’s knife myself.”
She raised her eyebrows, mildly impressed by my response. I genuinely meant it. I would rather die than hurt that man again. He was the only person in the world that I gave a damn about. It took losing him for me to realise that.
“If you have any chance, it can’t be like last time, Enzo.”
“I know.” I nodded before a slow, hopeful smile appeared on my face. “So you think I have a chance?”
She snorted. “I think you’ll be grovelling and begging on your knees before he even gives you the time of day.”
My smile grew. I was prepared to do both and more. “So what I’m hearing is, I have a chance.”
She laughed, climbing off her stool. “You men are all the same. You hear what you want to hear. What I’m trying to say is, don’t get your hopes up, Enzo. Finn isn’t the same man he used to be.”
“Neither am I.”
I wasn’t. I was just a boy back then. Scared and insecure. But losing Finn changed me. It hardened me and made me determined to become the man he deserved me to be. I’d spent the last ten years making damn sure that boy turned into a man—a man who earned the respect and fear of his men in equal measure. A man who built an empire, becoming the most successful arms dealer in Italy. But it all meant nothing when he wouldn’t look at me the way he used to. None of it mattered if I couldn’t get him back.
She leaned forward and kissed my cheek. “If that’s true, make sure you want to go down this road and don’t mess with his heart. You won’t get another chance.”
She left, waltzing into the restaurant with an air of confidence and poise, like the queen she was. She was right. This was my only chance, and I’d waited long enough to take it. I’d let Finn walk away from me once, but I wouldn’t let it happen again.
My burner phone buzzed in my pocket, alerting me to the call I had been waiting for all night. I glanced at my men standing by the door as I answered, subtly letting them know we were leaving with a nod of my head.
“Pronto.”
“Found him, Boss. I’ll send you the address.”
“Grazie.”
I hung up, rose from my chair, and threw back the remainder of my drink. Adrenaline rushed beneath my skin as I stepped outside and climbed into the back of my hired car. I gave them the address of a bar three hours away, and they didn’t ask questions. They had been on enough of these late-night crusades with me over the years to know better.
When we arrived at the back of the dive bar in a small rural village on the other side of the island, I put my gun in the back of my trousers and my flick knife in my pocket. “You know the plan.”
“Si,Boss.”
I climbed out of the car alone and made my way to the front of the bar. It looked like any other dilapidated local dive, but the real decay was in the souls of those drinking inside. As I slipped through the front door, the blast of loud music and the stench of sweat and stale alcohol assaulted my senses. I scanned the room in search of the man I’d come all this way to see.
