TWELVE
Espen
The car ride involved nothing to write home about - a fight over music followed by comfortable silence as she watched the road signs on their way to Enzo's hometown.
And in that silence, her brain couldn't help but start to wander. And wonder.
When he pulled the car up beside what was, undeniably, a rundown building in a shitty area, her eyes went to the side of his face, finding his jaw tight, his eyes guarded. "Is this your old place?" she asked.
"Yep," he agreed, not moving to get out of the car.
"Would you rather maybe stay at a hotel?" she pressed, picking up on his reluctance to step back into his past. Whatever it was, it was clear that it was still eating at him.
"It's fine," he said, tone cold. It was so unfamiliar that she shrank back from it as he exited his door, closing it with much more force than was necessary.
She definitely got the impression that it was in no way fine.
But he got her bag out of the trunk, and was at her door, so she had to jump right into not-fine with him.
The apartment in this building was reminiscent of the one in the city. Except it looked like the place had been gutted at one time and completely redone. Expensively. There was no pinching pennies when it came to his seemingly marble countertops, cherry cabinets, solid wood dining table, plush black leather couches, giant TV, and top of the line stereo system.
All this led her to wonder how the hell he could leave an apartment with so much pricey shit in it abandoned in a crummy area... and have nothing be stolen.
Enzo moved past her without saying anything, returning without her bag, then moving toward the kitchen, going under the sink, and coming back with an armful of cleaning products.
"Enzo..." she tried, not understanding what, but knowing that something was wrong.
"This place is a mess," he answered back, not looking at her.
The place was literally spotless.
How? She wasn't sure, since he had been away for a while. But it looked like someone had been by an hour before to wipe every surface.
"Ah, alright," she said, recognizing that this was just his thing, his tick, his weird compulsion, and drawing any attention to it, or making an issue of it, was not only unfair, but it simply wouldn't change anything anyway. "Well, you get your cleaning thing on. I think I saw a Chinese place right down the..."
"No."
Her brows knitted as he filled a bucket with scalding water. "No, what?"
"No, you're not walking down there."
No explanations. He was going to make her pry it out of him.
"Why not? My ribs hurt, but I can walk fifty feet, Enzo."
Again, when he spoke, his yes were elsewhere. This time, on the sponge he was wringing out. "It's not about your ribs. It's about Third Street."
She took a beat, mentally thinking back to the street names coming in, realizing that Third Street was literally the street the apartment building was on. So, rationally, there was only one explanation for his response.
"Is Third Street a gang?"
This time, when he spoke, his eyes found hers. And, for the first time, they actually seemed... hard. "Yes, honey. It's a gang. And let's just say... we aren't on great terms right now. I'm not going to say you're unsafe here. My sisters live in this town and no one would dare touch them. But Paine is here to watch over them too. I don't know who is handling shit with Third Street right now, so I can't guarantee things will be smooth for you if you walk out that door alone. At least, not when you're hurt, and can't even fight off someone closer to your own size." Meaning Faith. Yeah, that little incident was constantly rolling around her head. She vowed that once she was in shape again, she was going to go to Faith's class or something to show her that she could, in fact, handle herself.
She could tell from the ticking in his jaw that whoever Third Street was, and whatever issue he had with them, was not a good subject. So she was going to go ahead and do the more gracious thing... and let it slide. For now.
"Who the hell is Paine?"
If she wasn't watching, she might have missed it. But because she was, she saw his shoulders relax, his jaw stop ticking, his eyes lose their guards.
Hell, he even smirked a little.
Just barely.
But it counted in her opinion.
And she wasn't sure why the hell that mattered so much.
"My half-brother," he said, with a shrug. "And, yes, that is his real name. And he is a tattoo artist. Yes, I know how ironic that is."
She laughed a little then, the smile almost feeling foreign. Hell, she wasn't sure when the last time she genuinely smiled even was. "Hear that one a lot, huh?"
"Been tight with him since we were five, so the shit about his name was constant. But when he started the ink thing, it tripled."
"What are your sisters named?"
"Normal shit. Kenzi and Reese. I don't know how the fuck Gina got conned into naming Paine that. I think the story was she was all kinds of fucked up on the delivery drugs, and our shithead father chose the name because of all the pain she was in or some shit."
That was a huge amount of information all at once for someone who had always been tight-lipped about his past. She had names, a profession of one of his siblings; she knew which parent they shared, and that there were hard feelings there.
"You're close with your family?" she decided to press, figuring it was now or never.
"We were raised practically as full siblings. Were tight all our lives. Until we weren't. That was Gina's choice. I respected it, even if it killed me. Those girls were everything. But just a while back, we finally started to reconnect. Paine was who got me the job with Rhodes."
We were tight all our lives. Until we weren't.
She found herself almost unbelievably interested in knowing that full story.
When he was ready to tell it. As someone with guards, she knew the importance of them staying in place until you were ready to let them down, in not having someone try to rip them away from you, in having that be a choice.
"How did he know Xander?"
"Ah, long convoluted six degrees of separation shit. Actually, Kenz is now dating Tig who once worked with Rhodes."
"Small world," she said distractedly as her attention somehow, despite herself, got focused on the way his arm muscles flexed as he started to scrub the stove.
Arm muscles.
She was feeling all tight-chested and wet-pantied over freaking arm muscles.
What was wrong with her?
"The take-out menu is next to the fridge," he advised, half-turning over his shoulder, and catching her staring. She knew she was caught too, because his smile went downright devilish. He didn't, however, say anything. "Order whatever."
So she did.
Then she excused herself to the bathroom, standing there, staring at her mangled expression until it started to blur and distort.
"What's up, Espen?" Enzo's voice asked from her side, making her jump and let out a quiet squeak.
"What?" she asked, looking over to find him leaning in the doorway watching her.
"You've been staring at yourself for like five minutes straight. What's up?"
Now, really, there was no good way to tell a man whose respect you wanted, and who you were more than a little turned on by, that you were having one of those moments. Those moments when you were getting down on yourself over something as superficial and ridiculous as your looks. She was never someone to be overly afflicted with those feelings. And while she did feel justified in feeling them since her face was a wreck, and it was beyond her control, she didn't want to have to admit that kind of insecurity.
But Enzo, being the good people-reader he seemed to be, must have picked up on it. Suddenly, he was pushing off the doorway to move behind her, his body touching hers from her feet to the back of her head where it landed somewhere in his chest. One of his hands settled at her hip; the other moved up to touch the purple skin under her eye that was slowly but surely opening up as the swelling was going down.
"This will be gone in a few more days," he told her as his finger slid over to the cut on the side of her face. "This isn't even going to scar with how clean it is closing up. And this," he went on, his hand touching her throat, "will be nothing but a memory soon. But even with all this black and blue and red," he told her, eyes finding hers in the mirror, "you're still the most gorgeous fucking girl I've ever been lucky enough to know. So, if you're done feeling sorry for yourself," he went on, resting his head on her shoulder with a teasing smile, "the food got here a couple minutes ago."
It wasn't until Enzo was steadily scrubbing the dishes an hour later that there was a pounding at the door, making her stomach drop suddenly for reasons she didn't fully understand. Maybe it was as simple as knowing they were on gang territory. A gang that Enzo wasn't on good terms with. Yeah, that seemed a good enough reason.
"Pretty sure if they were coming for me, honey," he said, giving her a small, reassuring smile, "they wouldn't be knocking."
Well, duh.
Yeah, that made sense.
She felt her breathing even out as he went to the door, sliding the locks.
It didn't escape her, though, that he had somehow found and slipped a gun into the back waistband of his jeans.
The door opened, the presence of the gun making her tense up again, until she heard another deep, smooth voice fill the room.
"No call. No text. I'm just driving by and see your goddamn car. Care to share why the fuck you are back in Navesink Bank when you should be up in the city working?"
"Paine," Enzo said, sounding somewhat amused. That explained it then. Paine. The brother. "Let me introduce Espen. Espen, this is my brother Paine."
Saying this, he moved out of the doorway to allow his brother to move inside.
And, well, it was kind of freaky that they were step siblings seeing as they could have been twins. They were both obnoxiously tall, wide-shouldered, strong, and had the chiseled bone structure she was such a sucker for. They both had that flawless mixed-race skin, the same light green eyes. Hell, they both even had a lot of ink.
"Fuck." That was Paine's greeting. Well, that wasn't fair. That was his initial reaction to unexpectedly walking into his half-brother's apartment to find a badly battered woman sitting on the couch. And, given how much Enzo seemed to care about his half-sisters, she could only imagine that Paine was also the kind of alpha male who liked to protect women as well. "Sorry, sweetheart," he went on, looking sheepish. "Just wasn't expecting the busted eye. And the fuck is this?" he asked, gesturing to his own throat. "An amateur or a fucking sadist do that? Coulda knocked you out without bruises."
That was true enough. "A stupid brute," she said, moving to stand, in doing so, momentarily forgetting about her side, sending the shooting pain through her system again. And here she was thinking she was getting better.
"Ribs too? Jesus," he said, giving her a sympathetic look as she lowered herself down. "The fuck kind of case Rhodes got you two on?"
"That's why we're here," Enzo explained, closing the door, but not before looking out into the hall first.
"Didn't see anyone of consequence coming up," Paine commented, picking up on the move as well. "You got to get rid of this fucking place."
"I'm making a point," Enzo shot back, moving into the living space, taking the seat across from Paine who had dropped down beside her.
"Won't be making any kind of point again if you get your ass shot."
"Again," Enzo said, a seemingly inappropriate smile - ala Xander - tugging at his lips.
"Won't say I'm sorry about that," Paine responded with an almost identical smile. "So, anyway, the fuck kinda case is this? I thought it was some petty vandalism shit."
"So did we," Enzo agreed. "I was down here for the Kenz shit, so Espen was on the site alone watching for the guys because the CEO chewed her ass out about some threats he was getting. She followed the guy she saw, not realizing there was another. She got roughed up," he said, blowing over it even though she knew it still pissed him off. "Then her place was broken into. And then mine."
"So it's not a petty vandalism case anymore. Rhodes booted you out of town and took over."
"Exactly," Espen said, impressed with his grasp of the situation - as well as the people involved - with so little to go on.
"You know Ma is going to insist you come to Sunday dinner this week. Figure you'll likely be here that long."
Would they?
She hadn't even considered it taking longer than two or three days. If she was gone longer, she was sure Biyen would figure out she wasn't around. Then he would go to her father. Then shit might hit the fan for her personally.
Well, she was just going to hope that Xander and his makeshift superhero squad could figure shit out faster than a week.
She wasn't too keen on being left alone in a gang neighborhood in the apartment of an enemy of said gang while he went off to Sunday dinner.
Not even if she had a gun.
A gun wouldn't defend her against an entire gang.
"I have a feeling Kenz would like this one," Paine went on, gesturing toward her. At her questioning look, he shrugged. "You'd have to meet Kenz to get it, but she's this take-care-of-herself, loud-mouthed, opinionated pain in the ass. She'd like you."
"I feel like that was meant as a compliment to me, but somehow it didn't sound like one," she said with a smirk.
"I figured she would appreciate another of her kind," Paine agreed, shrugging. "I hear you handle your own shit."
And that, well, it was one of her favorite types of complements to get. Anyone could be beautiful. Anyone could have DNA that mixed just right and made them have great skin, eyes, proportionate features, and a decent body. Through absolutely no work of their own. So it meant absolutely nothing to remark on that.
It meant something when someone recognized the parts of you that you were responsible for. Like your intelligence, your humor, your kindness. Or, in Espen's case, her independent streak.
"He's been talking about me, huh?" she asked, turning more toward Paine to jokingly keep Enzo out of the conversation.
"He's had some things to say," Paine agreed, playing along.
"Such as?" she pried, keeping it light though, inside, she was desperate to know what he had told his half-brother about her. The good or the bad.
"Badass at some kinda martial arts, capable, smart, someone he had to watch out for. Not that way," he clarified when she stiffened. "I meant more like... you're so good that you're a threat kinda thing. Oh, and you know, you're hot shit. He didn't leave that one out. Well, maybe he did, but Kenz pried it out of him."
"Did he also tell you that I'm taking the job, not him?"
At that, Paine pressed his lips together to keep his smile from spreading. "He might have said you were, what was the phrase, E?"
"Don't," Enzo warned, making Espen's lips twitch as well.
Biyen aside, she had never really dealt with that good-natured family ribbing that makes you look like you want to be anywhere but where you currently were. Which was very much how Enzo looked right that minute.
And, seeing as it wasn't her who was receiving the ribbing, she was enjoying the hell out of it.
"Oh, please do," she urged, looking between the brothers.
"I believe the term was 'stubborn as fuck.'"
"Paine, come the fuck on here," Enzo complained, shaking his head.
"What?" she asked, unsure why he was looking so damn uncomfortable. "It's true. I am stubborn as fuck. It would be weird if you didn't pick up on that part of me."
"Yeah, but he was talking about you," Paine went on, going right ahead and letting the smile spread, charming bright white teeth everywhere. And, good lord, a dimple too. Jesus. The two of them were entirely too good looking. "You know... all behind your back and shit."
"Hey, look at the time. Isn't Elsie getting out of work soon?" Enzo jumped in.
"She's going out with the girls club for drinks. I can be here all night, man," Paine explained, leaning back, throwing an arm across the cushions of the couch, making himself at home. "Hours and hours of potentially humiliating stories to share with Espen here. Sounds like a good way to kill some time right, babe?"
"More entertainment than I've had all day."
"I need a fucking drink," Enzo growled, jumping up out of his chair to go back into the kitchen.
It never occurred to her that someone as self-assured as Enzo was most of the time could possibly be feeling insecure. But, she had to admit, no one knew your dirt like your family. No one would ever be half as capable of getting under your skin and itching at you until you scratched yourself raw.
But as Enzo tipped back some whiskey, then went right back to obsessively cleaning, she realized that Enzo was human after all.
Somehow, that realization made her kind of want to walk over there and give him a hug from behind.
But since that was certifiably insane, she shook her head to rid the thought, then turned back to Paine.
"He does that," he said, shrugging one shoulder.
"The cleaning thing?" she asked. "I noticed."
"Started a couple years after his mom passed," he explained, eyes showing a bit of pain still. Even though she figured the wound was an old one.
"Your families were close?" she asked, hoping it didn't seem like she was prying. But it was Paine's story every bit as much as it was Enzo's, even if she knew that the reason she was asking had nothing to do with getting to know Paine, but getting a deeper understanding of Enzo.
"Our Pops knocked up both our moms within months of each other. That's why Enzo and I are so close in age. They literally figured it out when we were five by bumping into each other in the hallway and realizing how alike we looked. From that day on, Annie, Enzo's mom, and my ma were like sisters. They were kind of in the same boat. My mom had the three of us where Annie only had the one, but they both struggled hard doing it all on their own. It's why he's so protective of Kenz and Reese. We weren't raised like we were half-anything. He and I were brothers, case closed. Those girls had two older brothers to watch out for them."
So, why the break?
Why did Gina, Paine's mom, no longer want Enzo around her girls?
Burning questions all, but she knew they weren't ones she could ask of Paine. That was for Enzo.
Maybe.
Hopefully.
Some day.
"What ever happened to your father?"
"Fuck if any of us know. See, Gina and Annie might have pretended to ignore some shit about him that didn't add up while they were together. But when the lies became too big to ignore, well, neither were the kind of woman to look the other way. He was a dickhead anyway. It wasn't a loss to us that he wasn't in our lives. My ma worried more about the girls growing up without a father, but I think having protective older brothers helped ease the possible daddy issues."
"Well, Kenz sounds like a battle ax of a woman," she said, admiration clear in her voice.
"She is," he said with a proud smile. "And Reese, well, she has her books. I don't remember the last time I had to worry about her with any man. Unless you count her book boyfriends."
"It sounds like your mom got an easygoing girl after the more, ah, spirited one."
"Funny how life balances out that way. You know," he went on when he noticed Enzo's attention wasn't really on cleaning, but was on their conversation suddenly. "Like you, the battle ax. And Enzo, the gentleman's sword, turned halberd, turned back into a gentleman's sword."
She wasn't sure she fully grasped the weapon analogy, but she did sure as hell pick up on one thing.
"Enzo and I aren't dating," she rushed to say, realizing too late that where she wanted her voice to come out firm and determined, it came off a little uneven and almost... sad?
"No?" he asked, looking amused again. "I think that..."
"Paine," Enzo cut in, voice sharp. "Don't you have some guy who wants tribal up and down his arms so he thinks he can look like a badass? Or chicks who want feathers or butterflies or some shit to go work on?"
There was a pointedness to his tone that she didn't miss; Paine had outstayed his welcome.
Paine took a deep breath, nodding, and getting to his feet. "Right. Probably. See," he said, looking down at Espen, "I like that I have a woman who makes her own money, but I like to take her fancy ass out to dinner sometimes too," he admitted. "So I should probably squeeze some work in, and let you rest up. Though," he said, looking between the two of them, settling on Enzo. "I will be telling Gina about Espen being in town. Expect a text. And then about a dozen calls if you don't respond within five minutes, demanding you bring her to her table on Sunday. So, Espen, babe, it was nice seeing you. We'll catch up more over the weekend."
With that, he was across the room then gone.
The silence afterward was almost deafening, both seemingly unable to find a thread of conversation.
Just when she was sure she couldn't take the awkwardness anymore, and was planning on running off to the bedroom, Enzo's voice cut like a whip through the silence.
"If you wanted to know about my past, honey, why the fuck wouldn't you ask me?"
Surprised, her gaze shot up to find him looking almost a little offended?
"I... whenever you've talked about it, you've used generalizations. I didn't think it was something you wanted to talk about."
He nodded slightly at that, acknowledging the truth of it, before he moved over toward her, dropping down on the edge of the coffee table in front of her, his legs touching hers.
"Ask."
She wasn't sure what it was, but there was a heaviness between them right then, something that made her feel like there was no turning back. Which was a weird thing to think, but there it was anyway.
"Can you tell me about your past?" she asked, tone oddly hesitant.
Then he did.
Boy did he ever.