Page 91 of Isabella

“Yeah, didn’t really think that one through now, did you?”

She scoffs. “No need to be an asshole. Jeez. What, is Teo rubbing off on you that much?”

“Excuse me? I take great offense to that, but I’ll choose to ignore it because he actually hasn’t been that terrible lately. I’m telling you that Lux has brought out a whole new side to him. For the most part, at least.” He pauses for a second as if to consider that. “Okay, maybe only sometimes.”

“So you’re not going to tell him about me and Nicco?”

Enzo lets out a sigh and mutters, “I knew you were going to ask me that.”

“Please, Enzo,” she begs.

“We actually need to talk about that,” he says.

Shit, here we go.

“What do you think you’re doing, Izzy? If Teo had found you in here with him instead of me, you know his ass would’ve been put in a body bag before you even had a chance to push him off you.”

Well, damn.

“I know, which is exactly why Teo cannot know about me and Nicco.”

“So, what… you expect me to keep this secret from him forever?” The shock in Enzo’s voice is prominent.

“No,” Isabella hurries out. “No, I just need you to keep it to yourself for a little bit.”

Enzo tilts his head, stretching it toward one shoulder before tilting it to the next, the stress of what Isabella is asking him to do clearly getting to him. “This is such a bad idea,” he mumbles.

I look over at Isabella, who’s on the edge of her seat now, her hopeful eyes lighting up.

Sliding his gaze to mine, he says, “Theonlyreason I’m going along with this is because of my sister.”

“Understandable,” I say.

“She quite literally saved your fucking ass tonight. I can tell she cares about you.”

“Love,” Isabella says. “Ilovehim, Enzo.”

“Yeah, whatever…love,” he says, brushing her off, and it nearly makes me laugh at how deterred he is from the word.

“I’m only going to say this once, Nicco. I don’t know what happened between you and my sister a few years ago, but I know whatever it was, hurt her. Now I know Izzy isn’t an idiot, so since she’s taken you back, that must mean you had a damn good reason for doing what you did.”

He pauses for a moment as if he’s thinking about the next words to come out of his mouth. “But if you hurt her again, she won’t be able to save you like she did today. I’ll make sure I fucking end you before you even have time to realize it.”

“I would expect nothing less,” I say, giving Enzo a nod. “I never plan on losing your sister. Not again.”

Enzo slides his gaze back to Isabella and says, “This goes against everything I’ve been raised to do. Teo will not be happy when he finds out about this, and to be honest, I’m not exactly thrilled about it either.”

She goes to speak, but he beats her to it, continuing by saying, “But I see it.” He looks at me before looking back at his sister. “I see the feelings that you have for each other, and I’m not going to stand in the way of that. You deserve to be happy, Izzy.”

“He makes me happy. I promise. When I lost him, I lost a part of my heart, and now that he’s back, I’m finally starting to feel whole again.”

“But so help me, if I find out he had anything to do with our parents?—”

“I didn’t,” I interject, my blood boiling at the accusation. “I wouldneverdo something like that to the woman I love.”

Enzo studies me as if he’s trying to find a sign that I’m lying.

“I’m telling you the truth,” I say. “You can try to find the lie within me, but I promise you won’t find it.”

---