No response.
"Is it because he doesn't get along with Maximo?"
"You're overstepping, Winter. I thought you'd learned to not ask so many questions."
I shrug my shoulders. "I did, but now I'm just over this shit. I found Giovanni's stupid fucking rat, so now what's the point of him even keeping me? I'm hoping if I keep mouthing off, one of you will eventually just shoot me in the head and put me out of my misery." The words are far too true for my liking.
I've been suicidal before, but this... it feels different.
It feels a hell of a lot like defeat.
"You shouldn't say that," Enzo says, but it's almost as if he's distracted, his full attention not on me, but on the front window.
"Then what should I be saying?" He doesn't give any indication that he hears me. "Enzo?"
His shoulders bunch and he turns around, "What?" Again, it's like he's focusing on something else.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" I ask, looking around us as well, but I don't see anything, so I have no idea what he keeps staring at.
"Winter, watch your mouth." His irritation is clear but it doesn't feel like it's aimed at me.
"Enzo?"
His gaze snaps full to me this time and his lips press into a firm line. "I'm uneasy," he finally says and I know it has to take a lot for him to admit the words.
It catches my attention, giving me pause. "Why?"
He shrugs his shoulders which is even further out of character for him. "I don't know, something just feels odd," he says before turning around. His hands clench on the wheel and I almost think he's going to break a chunk of it right off.
"What exactly feels odd?"
"It's just a feeling," he says, which isn't even slightly helpful. "It's nothing. Giovanni is phased, he just doesn't allow himself to show it." He returns to our original topic.
"How do you know?"
"It's what leaders do. When I was overseas, my COs would never let the stress and worry over what we were doing show. They couldn't unless they wanted a whole battalion of men to get nervous when their minds should have focused on war. So yes, Giovanni does get phased but he can't let it show or it'll put his men in a panic. And men do stupid things when they panic, desperate things."
"Hmph." I sit back in my seat, folding my arms over my chest. "Well, I wish he would hurry up. I'm sure the club is busy tonight."
Enzo peers at me. "I thought you were just complaining about working at the club still."
"I was complaining about having no purpose here. None of this has gone the way I expected, and deep down I feel like there's something Giovanni has up his sleeve, something involving me, but he isn't-"
A loud bang shuts off my words and I let out a scream as my body goes flying to the side. Pain racks through my head and I place a hand on it as loud shouting meets my ears. A bright light cracks through the air and I blink, briefly blind.
I hear the car door as it's ripped open, the cool breeze flying inside and then I'm being dragged out of the car by my hair. I scream, writhing and trying to fight a moment before my body slams against the concrete.
The grip on my hair is released, quickly replaced by my hands being pulled behind my back. I blink until my vision clears. My mouth falls open when I find Enzo fighting off a group of men. Despite the fact that he's out numbered, he goes through them clean and easily, tossing men twice his size to the ground. He pulls out his gun and points it just as I feel cool steel press against the side of my neck.
"I don't think you want to do that," an unfamiliar voice says and I watch as Enzo freezes.
His body is still coiled tightly but when his eyes land on me, I can see some of the light fading from his eyes, the fight leaving his body.
"Take another move and I put one right through her skull," the same voice says.
Enzo's eyes narrow and he looks at me before looking at the man standing behind me. He holds his hands up at the side of his head in surrender.
"Drop the gun." The voice is deeper, harder.
Enzo's jaw clenches but I already know what he's going to do. He lets the gun fall to the ground and then he's being pushed to his knees himself. His eyes full of worry is the last thing I see before pain explodes in the side of my skull and everything goes black.