“She’s making a mess of things.”
I look over at Kira to see her chugging back a bottle of tequila. She is unhinged. Clearly this is something she keeps from her family otherwise, I doubt her father would allow her to be doing this. I know my father would be ashamed of me.
Kira stumbles over the edge of the carpet and falls back to the floor, spilling tequila everywhere.
“I’m so sorry,” I say to Enzo. “I’ll get her to leave.”
“It’s fine,” he says, his eyes raking over Kira before looking at me. “You’re new here, are you not? I tend to throw a lot of parties at my house but I’ve never seen you or your friend before.”
I help Kira back to her feet and deliberately take the bottle of tequila away from her. She only laughs and tries to stand with me. Enzo keeps his eyes on us the entire time.
“We don’t get out much,” I say.
“Clearly.” He sounds amused. “You’re both young. Don’t you know that there are monsters out there that you need to be careful of?”
My body goes still. Is he saying he’s one of those monsters I need to be careful of? I’m too afraid to ask.
“We’ll go,” I say.
“You can stay. Have fun.” The way he says it… I’m not sure I want to have fun with a man like him.
And that’s when it hits me. Enzo. I remember Maksim saying that he was dealing with this Italian mafia man named Enzo Bianchi. But surely he isn’t the same Enzo…
“What’s your name again?” I ask.
“Enzo.”
“Last name.”
He smirks. “Why do you need my last name?”
“Just curious,” I lie.
“It’s Bianchi. Enzo Bianchi.”
Oh no. Kira and I walked straight into the house of Maksim’s enemy. I’m not sure if Enzo knows who we are but we have to leave right now.
“My friend is drunk,” I say deliberately. I don’t want him to know Kira’s name in case he recognizes it. “We should really go.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t stop you.”
I tug on Kira who leans heavily against me. She’s already drunk from how much she consumed in the last thirty minutes.
I can feel Enzo’s eyes on us as we leave the house. It’s not until we’re outside and heading towards the car that I start to feel safe. Kira’s driver, Sam, doesn’t comment on her drunken state as he helps her get inside.
“Where are we going?” Kira mumbles once we’re in the car and driving away from Enzo Bianchi’s house. Did he know who we were? If he did, he didn’t stop us, which is either a good thing or a terrifying thing. I just have to hope he didn’t know who we were.
But I’m going to have to tell Maksim about this. Kira cannot go back to that house ever again. Even if it means getting her into trouble, I’ll do whatever I must to protect her. She’s my sister now. I won’t let what happened to me in Greece happen to her.
Sam drops me off at the penthouse.
Maksim is inside, pacing around the living room. His eyes are fire when he turns to me as I walk through the front door. “Where have you been? I was worried.”
It warms my heart that he was concerned for me. “Kira came over. She wanted to go to a party.”
Maksim scoffs. “That girl. She always loves going to parties and yet, our father never sees it. He thinks she’s a princess that can do no wrong.”
I wring my hands together and bite my lip.
