In the Company of Killers

Chapter: 004

I already made up my mind that I wasn't going to give Enzo Cypher. If he wanted any information about the hacker, he'd have to torture it out of me. I wouldn't tell him that, obviously. For now, I was going to play his game. Wait him out. Find a way to escape here without them noticing and then disappear.

I had enough money saved to go somewhere far away. Though disappearing would mean I'd never see Natalie and Marianna again, or even abuelita...

But that's a price I'll have to pay to keep them safe.

To keep us all safe.

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Enzo

Vince and I clashed in blood and sweat. Calculative punches left blue bruises all over my body. Vince hardly looked different. He was a beast as he swung at me. I dodged easily enough crouching down to swipe his legs from out under him. He was on his feet in the same breath coming at me with easy ruthlessness and deliberate jabs to my gut.

Vince was a great fighter one of our best but the only person who's ever come close to beating me was Nino... and he was the Enforcer for a reason.

There was one rule when we were in the ring. Never go for the face. That rule wasn't instated on vanity. We are businessmen and we had an image to uphold, one a black eye and a bust lip wouldn't help maintain. That would only fuel the speculations of our dirtier side of the business. Though, the fact that the Corretti's is a major crime family isn't a secret... we still like to keep face because aside from the Mafia, we owned many hotel chains, casinos, ports, banks, and hospitals, and we liked to keep that side as respectable as possible... well as respectable as blood money can get.

"Tie—" Vince breathed out.

My breathing too was coming out fast and now that we'd stopped I could feel the brunt of his punches through the adrenaline leaving my system. Fuck. "Are you tapping out?"

He shook his head but then winced. "Hell no. But if we continue we'll kill each other."

I nodded, unwrapping the tape from around my bloody knuckles. "About that girl..." he said, hoping off the mat. "What are you planning to do with her?"

"What do you mean?"

Vince scoffed. "What I mean is the old Enzo would've tortured her and gotten some answers that first day we wrangled her ass here. But you gave her an ultimatum instead. You've never done that. To anyone. You like her, don't you?"

Instantly an image of Dylan in the sexy dress last night comes to mind. The dress was a size-too-small, so it hugged her curves perfectly, making her perky breasts spill over the top teasingly. My mouth watered.

"I don't like her. I want to fuck her. There's a difference," I informed him wrapping a new bout of tape around my busted knuckles.

"Ti dico questo perché sei mio fratello. That girl is trouble and not the fun kind."

I refrained from rolling my eyes. "I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?"

I tilted my chin up giving him a frosty look. "Careful."

Vince took the smart option and backpedalled. "You know that's not what I meant."

I didn't respond, hopping off the mat and striding towards the sandbag hanging in the corner of the room. To my disappointment, Vince didn't drop it.

"You can fuck her all you like but you must remember she is the enemy. It's bad enough she's under the same roof as Emilia. We barely know anything about her and I don't like that we're putting Emilia in the crosshairs of another psychopath we don't trust..." There was a tense pause. "I watched her at dinner the other night."

My jaw ticked at that last part, something in me didn't like the fact that he'd been watching her. And I've decided that part of me needs to get checked because this attraction is getting fucking ridiculous. I need to take her now before I start sprouting off ballads about her eyes or some shit.

"Did you know she didn't even flinch when Nino took out Scuderi right in front of her?"

I shrugged. I did notice it but I'm not going to tell him that. I didn't want to give him more incentive to chew me out over my attraction to her.

I pound into the punching bag mercilessly ignoring the sting on my knuckles and the blood already soaking the new tape. "She grew up in the cusp of gang activity in Mexico," I breathed out through each punch. "A fucked up childhood is a given. Just look at us."

"Even so, I still don't trust her."

"You don't trust anybody," I reminded him unnecessarily.

"I'm your consigliere, it's my job to worry about your stupid-ass decisions."

Vince takes his leave soon after, leaving me to pound out my frustrations into this sandbag in peace. He has nothing to worry about. Dylan is gorgeous... just like all the others. And like all the others, once I get a taste I will get bored, it's inevitable. No woman can hold my attention for long and I don't intend to test my limits with this girl.

She is only here for one reason and one reason only. And that's to get me my hacker. Then she can fuck off for all I care.