Page 54 of The Silent Night Stalker
There must be something on my face because his brows furrow and he frowns. “What’s wrong, baby?”
“I don’t want to lose you,” I admit. I can tell Enzo these things because I trust him with everything: my words, my emotions, and my thoughts.
“Why would you think you’d lose me?”
I shrug. It’s hard to explain the sudden fear, but I manage to say, “There’s just been so much bad in my life, and now that I’m happy, it feels so fleeting. Temporary. I feel like something will take you away from me. I can’t stand it.”
“Then we make the most of it. I can’t make promises that something won’t happen to either of us. But you’re stuck with me until whatever time life deems fit to end us.”
I’ll just have to accept that. I wish he could give me promises, but no one lives forever.
“Are you okay?” he asks, checking on me again.
“Yeah, I’m better.”
He smiles down at me, filling me with such happiness, and I can’t help but smile back.
“Good. Let’s wash up.”
As much as I want to taste him too, there’s no more fooling around. He’s the one who bathes me, scrubbing all the blood off me. He even washes my ass, which gets me hard again.
After we’re clean, he gets dressed in a T-shirt and joggers that belonged to Mario and puts his bloody clothes in a trash bag. I put on a fresh T-shirt, hoodie, and jeans from my bag, but I have to re-wear my underwear.
Once we’re dressed, we wipe down the entire bathroom and everywhere we’ve touched, and make sure there are no loose hairs. Downstairs, we do the same, making sure there’s no trace of us. I pull out my mini portable vacuum to get up anything we may have left behind that’s unseen to the naked eye.
Mario is still there, dead, but no longer bleeding. Enzo stares at him for a while before sighing. “I’m grateful that you brought Enrique’s killer to me. Thank you. But I still have to deal with Alfonzo.”
I tense at that. “Why? I understand he gave the order, but he’s more powerful than Mario. If you confront him, he’ll kill you.”
“He needs to know that I know what happened.” Enzo gently pinches my chin. “I’m leaving town after I do, and you’re coming with me. Let’s get out of here. Let’s start fresh lives and really get to know each other when we’re not surrounded by chaos and violence.”
My stomach dips as a thrill courses through me. Not only does Enzo want me, but he wants me to leave town with him. “And we’ll live… together, or…?”
“Yes, Little Bird. We’ll live together. Everything has happened so fast, and this holiday has been fucking chaos, but there are some great things in the middle of it all. I didn’t expect to like you as much as I do.”
“What about your fights?”
“I love the sport, but I can teach it. I want my art to be my career, but even if it’s not… We’ll figure it out.”
I jump on him, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. “Really?”
He chuckles as he holds me tight, resting his head on mine that’s nestled on his shoulder. “Really.”
We hold each other for a moment longer before we need to get moving.
After double-checking that we’ve cleaned everything up, we leave and head back to Enzo’s house. He tosses his hoodie and dirty pants into the laundry, then he falls onto his bed and rubs his face. “I’m still fucking processing that Mario and Alfonzo betrayed Enrique and me. It’s a knife in my chest, man. I’ve worked with them for years, and this is how they repay my loyalty.”
I strip out of my clothes except for my underwear, crawl over to him, and sit on my knees. “They were wrong. I don’t care if they’re criminals. They shouldn’t have done that. There had to be another way.”
Enzo forks fingers through my hair. “Yeah, they could’ve, but greed and power always win out. It’s the American way.”
“Every time my stepdad hurt me or gave me those grotesque gifts, it was my mother I was angry with the most. It felt like years of betrayal, like why couldn’t she, just once, protect me? Why did her drugs and drinking matter more than me?”
His eyes soften, and he brushes the backs of his fingers against my cheek. “I don’t know, Little Bird, but I’m so sorry they hurt you. If I’d been around, I would’ve protected you.”
I smile at that because I know he would have. “I believe you.”
I lift his T-shirt and tuck my head under it to kiss his stomach and work my way up to his chest. Then I pop my head out through the V-neck, rest it in the crook between his neck and shoulder, and snuggle in for the night. It’s a tight fit, but his shirts are pretty big.
