The room was plunged into silence, not exactly tense but awkward as hell. I mean, what else could it be when I stood just a few feet away from Enzo DeRossi, the man who shattered my heart and severed my ability to trust anyone but myself? One second we were madly in love and planning a future together, and the next he’d flown back to Los Angeles for a family emergency that ended with the end of us. “Well?” I asked impatiently.
He blinked, almost taken aback by my tone. But then that slow smile appeared, forcing me to take stock of all that had changed in nearly two decades. He seemed bigger, but maybe that was just the presence he’d earned with age. The charcoal three-piece suit on his six-foot-three frame didn’t hurt either. Enzo was still broad with a commanding presence, but now everything about him screamedexpensive.
His masculine scent took up all the space in my damn office, making it hard to focus on anything but him, and I hated that I noticed everything about him. He wore his dark hair longer than he used to; it was still the kind of glossy black that made fingers itch with the urge to touch it. Then again, a lot of things changed over the decades.
“Serenity. You haven’t aged a day.” The reverence in his voice, the softness around his eyes, was almost too much to bear, and I forced myself to look away.
Traitorous heat prickled my skin, so I rolled my eyes in an act of maturity. “Right. What are you doing here?” I asked again, my tone harder now.
A smile touched his full lips, but then he nodded as if he knew we had to move past pleasantries and didn’t like it, and he slipped into a bland mask that I preferred. “Right. We have a lot to talk about, I suppose.”
“We don’t,” I insisted. “I just need to knowwhyyou’re here.”
He inclined his head, his sharp eyes missing nothing. “The best way to explain is to start at the beginning, which is to say, the end of us.”
I hated those four words and what they meant, how they made me feel. “I’m not interested in rehashing the past.”Liar,my conscience screamed. I’d waited too long to hear why he’d left me the way he had—why I wasn’t good enough.
“It’ll become clear soon enough,” he said easily. “I promise.” When Enzo stepped forward, my heart rate quickened, and I was suddenly very grateful for the desk that stood between us. The room was small, but it felt smaller with his big body dominating the space. “Come on, Ren,” he spoke softly. “Sit.”
The nickname that only he’d ever called me, Ren, hit that spot beneath my ribs with enough force to buckle my knees. I hated that I responded to him that way—or to that stupid nickname. “Serenity,” I corrected him when I finally found my voice.
A ghost of a smile made an appearance. “Of course.” He was so self-contained. Not quite icy, but he kept his emotions under wraps impressively. “The reason I left…” he began.
My ass had barely landed in the chair before its legs squealed as I pushed back, standing so fast I would’ve been dizzy if Iwasn’t so scattered. “No. Nope. We’re not doingthat.” I pointed in his direction as if one motion could ward off the words I suddenly knew I wasn’t prepared for.
“We must.” His tone didn’t rise; it simply filled the room. “It is the only way my being here makes sense.”
I dropped back into my chair with a heavy sigh, pushing back until it smacked against the wall. “Fine.” I dug my feet into the carpet and held my breath. And waited.
Enzo nodded once, like a man accepting terms he wasn’t happy with.Welcome to the club.“I told you I had to go home for a family emergency.” His eyes held mine, green and steady. “The emergency was my father’s death. That’s what I was told, but it turned out he was murdered.”
The word landed heavily between us.Murdered.
Enzo nodded as if he’d read my thoughts. “My future changed instantly. It was suddenly my responsibility to take over the family business, which wouldn’t have been a problem except he never planned on dying and didn’t want me involved. That’s why I was getting my MBA; he meant for me to be a legitimate businessman.” His gaze glossed over as if he was lost to the past, but then he sighed again. “His death left a vacuum that would’ve put my remaining family members in danger.”
Danger. That word sounded so fantastical, but Enzo’s expression was gravely serious. “Danger,” I repeated, testing out the word.
“Yeah, danger. I spent the first couple of years wanting it to be a bad movie.” He drew a slow breath and let it out so achingly slowly it made me breathless. “Ren, the family business isn’t just a string of wildly successful Italian restaurants. I am the head of the DeRossi crime organization. The DeRossi Family.”
Air deserted my lungs the same way Enzo had all those years ago as the words knocked around in my brain. “Crime family… like the mob?”
“Exactly that,” he said, flashing a relieved smile.
I tried to wrap my brain around this new reality as Enzo and I sat with our gazes locked in a staring contest. It was all still so unbelievable, and there was a part of me that thought this was a lie.
“That is why I ended things so abruptly.” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “My future changed, and I couldn’t risk putting you in danger. I knew you loved me the way I loved you, and if I had told you everything, you would have braved it all just so we could be together.”
It was a truth I couldn’t deny, and suddenly the room shifted and the air thickened. Two decades rearranged themselves into a different picture than the one I’d lived with all this time. Enzo wasn’t cold or heartless in this picture; he was someone who loved me enough to let me go. And he was a mobster. Or was it a mafioso? I had no clue, and my emotions were a total wreck. “Okay,” I said slowly as my thoughts slugged through the mud of my mind, trying to make sense of this new reality. “And you’re here now because…?”
He sighed, and there was a flicker ofsomethingin those green eyes that was both happy and sad. “I’m here because of Matteo. My son.”
“Son.” The word was ripped from my throat before I could stop it, hot and sharp and raw.
He’d left to keep me safe—or so he said—but he’d managed to have a kid with another woman.
Chapter 4
Enzo
