Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

E nzo scrubbed at the polished bar and tried not to look up at the door every time it opened. He finally had the courage to ask the mysterious Eris for a drink, but everything had gone wrong.

Enzo loved Nonna Bianca, but he could have murdered her the previous night. The emergency alert device that he had gotten for her in case she hurt herself was triggered, not because of an actual emergency, but because she found the device ugly and had taken it upon herself to hot-glue tiny rhinestones all over it. The heat had set it off, and he had blown his date and rushed over to her apartment only to find her drinking martinis and doing arts and crafts.

The bell on the door jangled again, and Enzo's head snapped up. It was just a couple leaving.

He was an idiot. Eris was never coming back. She was the first person he had wanted to ask out in over a year, and it had taken weeks of working up enough courage to do it.

There was just something about her that drew him in. She had a loneliness about her that called out and reflected his own. She seemed skittish around people who weren't her friends, so he had debated whether to approach her or show any interest at all.

He had a feeling she, too, knew all about the dark side of relationships and that maybe his own past wouldn't turn her off. Now, he would never know.

You should have gotten her phone number first, silly boy , Nonna Bianca told him when he scolded her for the hot glue gun incident. She had a good point, except things hadn't even gotten that far.

Enzo kept cleaning until the last people left, and he locked up for the night. He checked the streets, his ridiculous heart hoping that she might be waiting. He sighed. Women like Eris didn't wait. They didn't need to because they didn't give second chances to men who blew it once already.

Enzo grabbed the last of the trash bags and hauled them out the back to the large metal garbage bins in the alley. He turned to go back inside, only to find Eris leaning against the back door. He leaped back with a gasp.

" O Madonna mia ! You scared the shit out of me!" he said, heart thumping. "What are you doing back here?"

"I'm waiting for you," Eris replied and smiled. Something about the smile set all his alarms off. He had dealt with stalkers before, and they had liked to jump out at random times too.

"You could have come into the bar," he said cautiously.

Eris's smile widened. "I could have, but I didn't want to interrupt you while you were working. Did you close up?"

"Yes? Why?"

"Good," Eris said and nodded to someone behind him.

Enzo went to turn, but something hit him hard in the back of the neck, and he sank to his knees on the wet street before he went backward. A familiar face hovered above him. Eris's friend.

"Sleep tight, sleeping beauty," she said, and darkness rushed over him.

Enzo came to in the boot of a car. It smelled of upholstery cleaner and grease. His head was pounding, and he had something digging into his lower back. It took him a few moments to realize that he had been kidnapped.

Why are the only women you are attracted to crazy? Enzo thought as he tried to move. His hands weren't bound, which was a good thing. He discovered the source of his lower back pain was a high-heeled shoe. The car slowed to a stop, and he gripped his feeble weapon, his survival instincts kicking in.

"What have you two done now?" a man's deep voice asked.

"It was Laverna's idea," Eris replied, her voice a little high-pitched.

"Don't look at me like that, Romulus! Eris needed him. We don't have time to negotiate," a woman said stubbornly.

Eris, Romulus, Laverna… Nonna Bianca's old tales of Rome suddenly rose in Enzo's mind. They were names of gods.

"You can't just kidnap people off the street and expect them to help you! What were you two thinking?" Romulus demanded.

Enzo's grip on the shoe loosened just a fraction. "Who the fuck are you people?"

The voices outside the car went silent, and after a growling sound that wasn't remotely human, the boot popped open. Enzo threw the shoe at the man hovering above him, leaped out of the boot, and started running.

"Did that motherfucker just throw a shoe?" Laverna called behind him. "Who throws a shoe?!"

Something heavy plowed into Enzo's back, and he tumbled with his assailant. They rolled across the wet grass, and he swore when a sharp elbow drove into his sternum. He wheezed, trying to get air in his lungs. Eris was sitting on top of him, bits of grass and dirt sticking to her face and neck.

"Just say still, Enzo! I don't want to hurt you, but I will tie you up if I have to," she said, pinning his hands to his chest. He tried to move, but she held him firm. She was, he discovered, freakishly strong.

"Why did you kidnap me if you don't want to hurt me?" he said, his breath coming in gasps.

"It's complicated?" Eris brushed a piece of grass out of his beard, and her touch lingered. "Hmm, it is soft."

"There's no point in trying to run," Romulus said, coming to stand beside them. "Get off him, Eris." It could have been the poor lighting, but Enzo swore her eyes turned black at the order. "You are hurting him, amica ."

For some reason, it was those words that convinced Eris to let Enzo go and climb off him.

Romulus held out a hand to him. "Come on, you look like you could use a drink."

"Or seven," Enzo replied, taking the hand. Romulus hauled him to his feet like he weighed nothing. "What is this all about?"

"We'll all go inside so we can explain properly," Romulus replied.

Enzo straightened his shoulders. "And if I want to leave?"

The other man pointed at the two women. "They aren't going to let you. Unfortunately, you are the key to a plan they are hatching, and I have no say. Neither do you. Just hear them out?"

Enzo looked at Eris. She had her arms around her middle, like she was cold or hurt, and had the decency to look a little guilty. Laverna was just grinning from ear to ear.

"Okay, one drink," Enzo said.

Romulus patted him on the shoulder. "Good man."

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" Eris asked softly as they walked back to the villa.

Enzo wanted to snap at her, but he found that he couldn't. "I'm fine. Just really confused about why you decided to kidnap me at all."

"It's traditional for gods to kidnap mortals that catch their eyes," Laverna called out as if this was an obvious answer. Romulus looked at her exasperated and besotted at the same time.

Enzo stared at the people before him, his footsteps faltering. "And you are gods, are you?"

All three of them smiled, but Eris answered, "You're going to have to come inside if you want to find out."

She strode off toward the villa, black braid swaying, and even though this was shaping up to be the weirdest night of his life, Enzo followed.