Page 60 of The Masked King

“She’s right,” Gio says. “You look like shit.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, bro.”

“Does this involve our sister?” He jumps straight in, feet-first, leading with his best shot. I don’t know if this says more about him or our sister.

“Not even close.” Another mouthful of wine, and my glass is almost empty. I should slow down; it’s going straight to my head.

Megan turns around to face me with a fragile frosting butterfly sitting in the palm of her hand. “Is this about Demi? Have you seen her?”

My pulse quickens. I scan her eyes, hoping that Demi might’ve reached out to her, but I’m way off target. She doesn’t know anything. “No, it’s not Demi.”

She furrows her brow. “Are you… seeing someone else?” She says this like it would be cheating on the woman who walked out on me a year ago.

And she’s fucking right. I would be cheating on the woman who still holds my heart in her hand just like that tiny butterfly. “Not exactly.” Would I have fucked Nyx given the chance? I guess I’ll never know, but she’s the closest I’ve come to even thinking about it since our relationship ended for reasons still unknown.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Hey.” Gio crosses the kitchen with a glass of wine in his hand and raises it to his wife’s lips. “Drink before you crush those wings.”

Megan’s smile is so tender, so filled with love, I feel like an intruder in a secret love story. I want what they have. I came so close to having it but now it feels like it was all just an illusion.

Gio returns to the meal sizzling on the stove and turns down the heat. “Stop talking in riddles, Enzo, and tell me why you came here to ask for help.”

“We’ll hold dinner as ransom,” Megan adds. “So, you might as well start talking because I’m starving, and you’ve never seen me when I’m hangry.”

Gio smiles. “Trust me, you don’t want to. Even Valentina keeps out of her mom’s way, and that child would face up to The Rock on a bad day without batting an eyelid.”

I chuckle. “I’ve missed them.”

“They’ve missed you too, Enzo,” Megan says, “but you’ve not exactly been approachable lately.”

On cue, I hear the pitter-patter of tiny claws across the hardwood floor, and Bella paws my leg, wanting to be picked up.

I bend down and scoop her into my arms, smiling when she licks my face. “I’ve missed you too, Bella. You’ll always be my favorite girl.”

Megan gasps loudly. “Don’t ever let Valentina or Amber hear you say that.”

She’s smiling though, and I remember how Bella always had this effect on everyone in the room.

The comfortable silence is only broken when Gio says, “I’m waiting to serve dinner, so you’d best tell me what’s going on.” Something in his tone snatches my attention.

He already knows. Or at least he’s heard a whisper of something on the grapevine.

“Dmitri Malevsky.” I register Megan’s shoulders tensing up and try to push it from my mind. “He’s been running a club in Tribeca. I think it’s a front—I think it was a front—for a trafficking ring. I went back there tonight to find a woman, and the place has been erased as if it never existed.”

They both watch me in silence, their expressions unreadable.

Then, Gio says, “Any woman in particular?”

“I’m not in the habit of paying for women if that’s what you’re implying.” I pause. “Her name is Nyx. She’s in trouble because of me.”

Gio refills our glasses and sits down across the breakfast bar from me. Megan is still working on the cake with her back to us, but I know she’s listening.

So, I hold Bella on my lap, sip my wine, and tell them everything. Minus the part where Nyx made herself come for me.

“Do you know her real name?” Gio asks when I’m finished.

“No.”