He looks like I just told him he only has a few hours left to live.
And then I remember, he just shot me in both of my shoulders. I need to be recovering, not fighting in whatever game tomorrow. I’m going to have to spend the next several hours on a plane flying back to Miami. I’m going to be in no shape to fight and win
. And it’s all Milo’s fault.
His face is fear, matching my own. I should be happy he just ruined his chance of winning this game, but I’m not. Milo is unpredictable. There is no telling what he will do if I lose.
And I can’t risk losing Kai.
Tomorrow I will get to see her again. Tomorrow I will have to face the heartbreak. Tomorrow I will have to convince Milo he needs me and not her. Tomorrow…
9
Kai
Enzo Black has saved so many women.
Hundreds.
All in desperate need of saving and no one to turn to but him.
Most he’s saved since taking over the title of Black from his father, but even before his father died, Enzo was still saving women in secret.
This was Enzo’s burden. He didn’t talk to anyone else about it. And unless he couldn’t handle it himself, he didn’t even get his crew involved. But every single woman that came to him for help, he saved.
A tear rolls down my cheek as my heart hurts for Enzo. For the boy who lost his mother way too young—he couldn’t save her.
For his childhood friend who was hurt way too young—he couldn’t save Liesel.
Even the love of his life was taken—he couldn’t save me.
Enzo couldn’t save any of the women he cared for and loved. But he could save all of the strangers who came to him in the dark.
I flip through file after file of women he helped. Women who were running from abusers. Women who were taken and needed to be found. Women who were killed and needed avenging. Women who were broken and needed healing.
He saved them all.
He rescued them with weapons. Healed them by finding their families or paying for therapy. And sparked a new life in them by helping them find a job or career that could support them, even though none of the women needed the money. Enzo found every man who ever hurt them, and made them pay the women millions for the pain they caused them.
I wipe the tear from my cheek. How could Enzo think he wasn’t anything but an angel?
His father may have tried to turn him into a cruel bastard, but the good in Enzo resisted. Even as a child. And even now. Even when I pulled out the darkest part of him, he only fucked up for a moment before realizing his mistake.
Enzo is human, but to so many women, he’s so much more. He’s their knight coming to rescue them when they have given up hope of anyone finding them.
I lean back in my chair, trying to make sense of what needs to happen. I can’t be Black. But Enzo deserves to be.
He has everything needed to be Black.
Strength.
Courage.
And heart.
If truly given all the power and resources, Enzo could turn the hundreds of women he’s saved into thousands.
A rattle on the door stops my train of thought.