Page 37 of Savage Enemy

He let out a heavy breath.

“I think it’s the man she was supposed to marry before she had me. She had a newspaper about it hidden in her stuff.”

“Klimov?” I asked.

Enzo nodded. “Yeah, maybe. I think so.”

“Anything else I should know, to help your mother?”

Tony approached the doorway, papers in his hand.

While I needed the intel he’d gathered for me, I wanted to take care of my son first. I wanted him to know he was helping me get his mother back, that we would, in fact, get her back.

“I know she had a grandmother,” Enzo added. “Another nonna, not the same one at Con Amore. One from before. I don’t know how, but I know she helped Mama.”

“How do you know all this, Enzo?”

“Con Amore Nonna told me stories. She didn’t know I could tell it was true. I think she was sick.”

“Okay, son, go on then.”

“Like I said, the reason Mama kept me away from you was because she didn’t want the monsters to find us.”

“I understand,” I said. “But now the monsters do have her, and we’ll fight hard to get her back.”

Enzo nodded again and stifled a yawn. The day had been stressful, frightening, gut-wrenching, and also tiresome, though I doubted either of us would sleep for a while.

He reached behind himself, then offered some photos.

“Here. I grabbed them from home when Mama and me got our stuff to run away. They’re the only things she has left from her old life. I thought she might want them later.”

I took the stack of photos from him, and the photo staring back at me on top made my chest ache.

Val looked so young, maybe sixteen, dolled up, ready for a formal event. Beside her stood a young version of the man who’d dragged her out of my house by her hair.

I brushed the curls away from Enzo’s face.

“Thank you, son. Now go get some?—”

“I don’t want to sleep,” he interrupted. “I want to go with you to get her back.”

“You will,” I lied. “But I don’t have it all worked out yet. When I do, I’ll need you to be ready. So for now, get some sleep. If anything comes up, I’ll wake you.”

He looked up at me with my own dark eyes.

“You said all this before. Do you promise?”

“Yes,” I said.

Another lie that passed easily through my lips, sending a flash of guilt through my gut, for lying to my own son.

I couldn’t bring the boy with me into a den of lions. His mother would kill me this time for sure if we made it out.

“Now go to bed, Enzo.”

Yawning again, he obeyed without another word.

As soon as he left, Tony entered the room, but I lifted a hand to stop him from running his mouth. I waited a few seconds, then poked my head into the hallway to make sure Enzo had gone to his room.

---