A New Day

ENZO MORETTI

I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night. Isa on the other hand slept after trying to sob quietly.

She didn’t do a good job at keeping her voice low. I could hear her whimpers from where I was seated.

I knew she wanted to be left alone. I promised not to leave her side and I was keeping that promise.

On the other hand, I wished I could console her. I knew she wouldn’t have appreciated me coming to console her so I had to let her be until she eventually slept off.

The entire night was a torture for me.

I thought about Marco. I was mad at him for bringing Larry to my safe house.

And Larry. If I could kill him again, I would do it.

I’ll snap my boots deep into his guts so he wrenches in pain.

I was only thinking about it but I could already see Isa watching me.

She was filled with trembling fear as she watched me.

I remembered the look in her eyes tonight and I hated myself some more.

Sleep was far from me tonight so I stayed awake, rethinking my life choices for a woman I had just met.

The next morning came rather slowly. The light broke through the clouds in a slow speed.

I stayed awake through each hour, thinking of the damage I had done between us.

She either hated me, was scared of me or the both of them at once.

Once it was five am, I got out of bed.

The first thing I did was head to the kitchen. I washed my face and started making pancakes. I sent one of my men to drive almost an hour to get maple syrup and any other possible topping Isa would prefer.

I tried to be fast with setting the table. I wanted to be in the room when she wakes up.

I failed at that too.

Isa came down to the kitchen before I could be done.

At first, she stood by the door way. She hugged herself and I paused what I was doing when I felt her presence.

She was looking at my gun on the table.

I carelessly left it there when I started cooking.

I quickly put it aside and offered a smile.

I sucked at maintaining my cool.

“Good morning, Sir—“ Isa let out in a fast breath.

It was clear that she was still afraid of me.

I was faster in interrupting her. My brows shot up. “Sir?” I questioned. “What happened to calling me Enzo?”

“I don’t know.” Isabella shrugged watching me carefully. She wanted to know my every move.

She dropped her hands to her side.

She looked tired and her eyes were a little red.

If last night didn’t turn out the way it did, I would have hugged her and kissed her good morning.

I wanted her to live like a queen. My queen.

But now, she felt like a captor.

I shook my head. I had to stop us from going down a path of fights.

“Are you hungry?” As I asked, I was pulling out a stool for her.

She eyed the seat but stayed glued to where she was. “Do I have a choice?” Isa asked, barely audible.

“Isa–“

“No, Enzo,” Isa showed her palm to stop me from interrupting her. “Do you want me to move past what happened yesterday like it’s nothing? I watched you kill a man. He begged you that he has a child.”

“No! He begged me, lied to me that he stole our snow because of his daughter. He’s always been an addict ruining the business and his life. Killing him was a service to his daughter because with him here, she would be raised by an addict who would probably sell her off to the highest bidder as soon as he can,” I finished talking, breathing fast.

“So you made her fatherless. Does she even have a mother?” Isa barked back at me.

The anger seethed from her lips: it also flashed through her eyes as she glared at me.

“With all due respect, Isa, that is none of my business. He messed up and he faced the consequences.” I was trying to stay calm.

There was no use in snapping at her.

But she was pushing me. She was pushing me so bad.

If Marco was here, it’s him I would have snapped at. He caused this.

“So why did you stop your friend from killing me?!” Isa screamed.

The front door opened immediately and one of my men walked in. I waved him away immediately.

I had to keep my anger at bay.

I wiped my face with my palm and sighed deeply.

“Please, Ethan is all I have. I just need to go home,” Isa cried again. “Please, Enzo. Please.”

She was scared of me.

I watched her wrap her hands around herself. Like I was going to hurt her.

I saved her life! But I put her in a situation where she needed saving.

I shouldn’t have let her help me.

My hands instinctively went to the bandage and Isa visibly softened.

It’s almost like she remembered us before the incident.

“Isa,” I said in a small, pleading voice. I tried to move to her and she didn’t run away.

It gave me the motivation to keep going. “You might not get me and my line of work and I don’t need you to, but please don’t judge me.”

I reached for her hands and though she resisted at first, she let me.

I willed her eyes to look at me.

She did. She bit her lips too.

I stopped my mind from going crazy for her but that was impossible.

“You killed–“ She was about saying but I stopped her.

I pulled her into a hug and held her close to my heart. She sighed against me.

“You were not meant to see that, okay? So can you pretend like you didn’t see that?”

We pulled away and she watched me for a small minute.

She said nothing. She didn’t disagree to pretend, she also didn’t agree to pretend.

“I made breakfast. Do you like pancakes?”

I rushed to the table to show her my work.

In the process of hurrying, I pushed a plate down.

It scattered on the floor, making a loud thump but Isa’s scream was the loudest.

It was instant.

She screamed and threw her face away.

Isa lowered her entire body in fright. She was a ball of herself, squatting on the floor with her hair ducked under her hands.

And she was shaking.

“I’m so sorry,” I rushed over to her.

This was happening because of me. She was messed up because of me.

Because of Marco. And that dimwit Larry.

I wondered why people couldn’t just be loyal as I wrapped my hands around her.

Slowly, she stood with me.

“It was a plate. You’re save,” I assured her.

Isa’s eyes were holding a storm. She crumbled through at that, throwing her hands around me.

The tears came after that. Her shake of fright turned to sobs. She held on and her tears kissed my skin.

I kept on apologizing. I wanted to do everything possible to make her feel better.

This was not the plan.

“I’m sorry, baby,” I said again.

I craddled the back of her head.

I had to let her get home to some familiarity. To see that Ethan was doing okay and that I wasn’t going to hurt her.

“Should I get you home?”

Isa wasn’t in my embrace when she nodded. “Please.”

I tipped her chin and held her gaze. She had to see the pureness of my heart.

It was for her own good.

She needed to know I wasn’t a danger to her except she pushed me to be.

“You were never a captive, I was never going to keep you against your will or hurt you. But you have to promise that you won’t do anything suspicious.”

She shook her head. “I won’t,” Isa promised.

She looked honest in that moment.

I took her word for it.

Accepting that I had lost the permission to kiss her, I called for one of my men.

Marco had insisted on sending them over after what happened last night.

I wasn’t in support but now, I was glad they were here.

They were going to drive her home and watch her from afar.

I hope she’s amongst the loyal bunch because I would hate to hurt her.

I’m not sure I can even bring myself to if it comes to that.

***

Between last night and this morning, our organization had experienced a change.

Larry was an important soldier. He also had his roles and now that he had betrayed us, some changes had to be made.

We were going to change routes. We also had to be sure he was the only one working against us.

And for the people he had sold us to, we had to get them all and stop them from harming us further.

No more accidents and loss of funds. For the rest of our men, they had to know what will happen to them if they crossed us.

It seemed they had forgotten.

Bobby stopped the car. He was my driver and my closest soldier.

I waited for him to look up at the rearview mirror.

“How’s she doing?” I asked Bobby.

He dropped Isa earlier today and he was in charge of watching her every move.

I asked him to deploy someone to do that so it was mission to oversee.

I could trust only him.

“Okay so far. She hasn’t raised any cause for alarm.”

I unlocked the door but paused again. “Remember, don’t spook her,” I reminded him for the umpteenth time.

She had to feel safe. She wasn’t a criminal he was watching. She was someone I cared about.

“Yes, Boss.”

Bobby got down after me. He locked the door behind him and rushed to lead the way.

We went through the back entrance, used the private elevator and ended up on the tenth floor of the M & M Powerhouse.

M & M stood for Moretti and Martins which were my surname and Marco’s surname, respectively.

we had a line of business together apart from the illegal sector. The legal businesses cleaned the illegal money and in turn, the illegal business funded most of the legal business.

M & M Powerhouse was where we held most of our meetings. The scheduled ones and emergency sometimes.

It served as the head office of our business. Administrative work was what happened here so it was the best place to lie low.

Bobby knocked twice on the door and pushed it open.

I arranged my collar and took a deep breath.

I hoped Marco would say nothing about Isabelle to our associates.