“Agent Rothwell,” Enzo purred finally. “I hope you have a warrant, because you sure as fuck don’t have an invitation.”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I do have an invitation. And from a founding member, no less.”
“Is the founding member in the room with us?” Enzo faux scanned the hallway. I ducked my head lower.
“Luca invited me.”
“Luca invited you?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Why the shit would he do that?”
“To save your ass,” Tom deadpanned. “Or at least try. Now, I want to take a piss. Step back, kid.”
“Kid?” Enzo’s neck flushed under his elaborated ink, and he didn’t budge from the door. “Dafuq, man? You don’t even know how old I am.”
“You’ll turn twenty-six on November thirteenth,” Rothwell said without missing a beat, fastening his cool gaze on Enzo’s firelit warm eyes. “Born at 5:33 a.m. in Cardarelli di Napoli hospital,” he continued, fixing Enzo’s collar nonchalantly. “Weight 6.8 pounds. The smallest of the four siblings. You live at 1215 W 46th Street. A modest one-bedroom, but you like the neighbors and it’s close to your fancy gym. I know your A/B plan. Your cardio routine. Who you fuck, when you fuck, andhow much you come each time. Down to the milliliters. I know who you killed last week and how. I just need a shred of evidence to prove it. The things I know about you,kid, you haven’t even begun to learn about yourself.”
Enzo’s reaction was similar to my own. His jaw was on the floor. For the first time, I saw my happy-go-lucky friend completely speechless.
It wasn’t just Tom’s knowledge about Enzo’s life that rattled me. In fact, I wasn’t completely shocked that he knew so much regarding the mobster he’d been studying for years now. What blew up my senses was the palpable, knife-edge attraction between the two. The air between them sizzled. And just like that, I realized why Tom Rothwell had no girlfriend or wife to speak of.
He was gay.
And he could be hating Enzo from today until his last breath—but he was attracted to him, too.
“Out of my way, peasant.” Tom shouldered past Enzo robotically, slamming the restroom door in his face.
Enzo stood there for a full ten-second stretch before spinning on his heel and crashing his palm against the door. “Hey! Peasant is even worse than kid.”
“File a complaint with internal affairs,” Tom drawled to the sound of his piss.
I turned around and found my way back upstairs before my bladder exploded. The journey to the restroom upstairs was drama free, an achievement in itself. After relieving my bladder and washing my hands, I dried them with a towel and slipped back to the hallway. It was a straight shot to the dining room. I hoped to make it in one piece. Something about tonight felt different, devious, like all our sins were catching up with us and everything was coming to a head.
When I reached a point in the hallway that forked, a body slammed into mine. I tumbled back a step before shooting an arm to the wall and righting myself. Luca stood in front of me. Our eyes met. It was the first time I was alone with him since Achilles found out what he’d done all those years ago.
“Watch where you’re going, asshole,” I muttered.
“Call me asshole one more time under my roof,” he dared quietly, blocking my way.
“Asshole,” I said cheerfully. “Now what?”
He took a step in my direction, his eyes shooting fire, and for a fraction of a moment, I saw it: the humanity behind them. It was dimmed, but it existed. And I wondered who’d put it in there. Because it couldn’t have been Sofia. Sofia didn’t even try.
“Are you gonna hit me, big guy?” I got in his face, laughing. “Threaten me? We both know you can’t do that.”
“You’re wrong.” Luca clutched my jaw between his fingers, tipping my face up with a sly smile. “Being with Achilles doesn’t make you immune from me. Nothing does. When I want to kill, I kill. It’s what I do. You’re a bad influence on my brother, always were, and eliminating a mere pawn from the chessboard is not something I’d hesitate to do.”
His eyes told me he wasn’t bluffing. His body language was languid, relaxed.
I believed him.
“You’ll have to kill him if you kill me,” I said quietly.
He didn’t blink. “The Camorra comes first. Family after.”
“Even Ciro?”
