Page 51 of Masked Don

“All I could do then was silence them. But now, they’re going to hear you. And this time, they’re going to listen.”

“Enzo…”

“Luca.”

I stop, my eyes widening at the mere mention of his name.

“The meeting is with Luca,” he says. “I want you there, and I want you at my side. I want to give you the chance to look him right in the eye and show him you’re not afraid.”

CHAPTER 16

STEVIE

“You’re nervous.”

The car is a little pocket of the kind of silence you pay big money for in New York City. There’s no road noise, no rattle, no clang-clang-clang of passing garbage trucks or wail of sirens. It’s just the city sliding by in perfect quiet.

Carmine’s driving, and Enzo and I are in the back, my body practically sinking into the expensive leather.

“I’m cautious. It just looks the same from the outside.”

“Right,” he says, “you don’t get nervous. I’ve watched you in situations when it should happen: the interview, the night of the party.”

“And?”

“You get sharp.” Then he looks at me, amusement in his gaze. “And you sharpened up in the hallway before we left. I could hear it happening.”

“That’s a disturbing thing to be able to hear.”

“I have a lot of disturbing skills. A long list. And I typically don’t need to use them around breakfast time.”

“No, breakfast is for finding the one way to get Matthew to eat fruit.”

“I had it sourced.”

“You had a four-dollar snack sourced.”

“I had a lot of things sourced. The snack was just one of them.”

I’m not sure what to make of that, so I just sit with it.

“What?” he says.

“Nothing. Just strategizing.”

Carmine slows the car, pulls to the curb, and I look up at the building we’ve stopped in front of. Every warm, easy thing in my chest turns to ice water.

Glass and steel, twenty stories of it, and over the doors in brushed silver letters tall enough to read from the next block: SANTINI CORP.

“No.” It’s out before I can stop it. “No, absolutely not.”

“Stevie…”

“That’s his building, Enzo. That’s…” My pulse is hammering like a fist on a door.

“I told you we were meeting him.”

“I know. It’s just…” I take a deep breath, gripping the armrest. Now I can feel my heartbeat in my ears. “Meeting with him is one thing. Going to his building, his lair, that’s something else.”