The Golden Boys

Chapter Fifteen

"Holy shit, Enz!" Zara exclaimed when she saw him sitting on the stairs covered in more blood than usual. His suit jacket was hanging on the railing, his white shirt was unbuttoned and revealed the wound. His hands were applying pressure and... he was smoking. "I need to call an ambulance." She started to panic when she realized she left her handbag in the car, and Andrei had just dropped her off a couple minutes ago. "Where's your phone?"

"Relax, Zarita," Enzo said. "I have people coming over to help."

Zara was not relaxed. She was now on her knees, helping Enzo apply pressure to his wound as he was doing a shitty job. "You have people coming over to help?" she repeated.

"This has happened many times before," the boy told her with a breath of smoke. "They'll be here in a couple of minutes. So, how was the club?"

Was he fucking joking? Of course he wasn't. Enzo was bleeding to death with a bullet wound in his chest and wanted to talk about her clubbing experience with Kenji and Andrei. "Priorities, Enz, get your priorities straight. My God."

"Talking will keep me distracted from the pain like smoking does," he pointed out.

Zara let out a breath. "I hooked up with a cute brunette in Hart's private rooms then Andrei came and beat him up for no reason. After that, he forced me to leave the club before I could even dance or party on the main floor, and now I'm here."

"Kenji ditched you?" Enzo asked.

"Yeah, the little shit did," Zara replied. The blood felt warm on her fingers. "Can your people hurry the fuck up? When did you call them?"

"About ten minutes ago," Enzo said. She noticed how there was now blood all over the stairs. She would have to clean that up before Sam woke up.

"You gonna tell me what the fuck happened?"

Enzo leaned back onto the stairs and released a large puff of smoke into the hair. Zara would also need air fresheners and perfume, something for fall season so it wouldn't look suspicious. Sam hated the smell of smoke.

"I was talking with some informants who had gotten info about my father when we were ambushed. My informants took shots to the head and I managed to only get hit in the chest, grab the briefcase, and had my driver take me here. On the way back, my driver was shot as well and so I took care of the assassins."

He said it so casually as if it were a normal occurrence. It probably was. There was no remorse in his voice for his informants or his driver.

"It's not bad," Enzo shrugged. "I've had worse. At least I got the briefcase and I'll soon find my father so we can deal with my uncle."

"Did it ever occur to you that there might be a tracker or some device listening to our conversation in the case?" Zara asked quietly.

"I already checked it."

Zara gave him a look of disbelief. "How?" He clearly wasn't in the correct condition to stand up, let alone check the case while applying pressure to his wound. "And why didn't you go to the hospital?"

"We can't let the other clans know of our situation, they'd take advantage. As for─"

Her front door flew open to reveal two men dressed in tailored suits, carrying a large ass bag and each with a big ass gun.

"Capo," the taller one greeted.

The man with the bag swiftly moved to Enzo's side and began his process.

"Zarita, this is Giovanni and the one who needs you to move your hands is Fabian," Enzo said as he released another puff of smoke.

Zara removed her hands from the wound and saw the blood spew out slightly quicker. She stood up and backed away from Enzo to give Fabian space.

"You need a drink or something, Zarita?" Enzo asked. He looked worried.

"You're the one who's been shot, Enz," Zara shook her head. "Besides, I still have a small hangover."

"Bellissima, if you do not like needles or seeing metal dig into skin, please leave the room," Fabian instructed.

Zara was fine with needles and seeing metal dig into the skin, but she listened to his advice. She didn't want to have to step over Enzo in order to reach her bathroom, so she went to the kitchen to wash the blood from her hands and arms. The girl dug her nails into her skin as she viciously scrubbed off the blood from all of body and even her clothes. How was Enzo alright with getting beat up, returning with blood, being targeted by assassins, and being shot? And then he was always worried about everyone else.

She downed a tall glass of water and walked back to the entrance to see Giovanni sitting on a chair he had dragged from the dining room with his gun resting on his knee. Fabian was now cleaning his wound once more and applying bandages.

"How are you feeling, bellissima?" Fabian asked.

Zara leaned against the railing and watched him work. "Tired," she replied. "So how do you know Enz?"

"My father worked for his father and they had been friends since they were children," Fabian said. "I'm carrying on the family tradition." He seemed slightly older than them, twenty at the youngest. Did all children in their mafia continue the tradition?

Zara nodded her head, not knowing what to say. "You?" she addressed Giovani.

Giovanni met her eye. "I've been assigned to protect him since his father left."

"And he's done a wonderful job," Enzo smiled as Fabian wrapped the bandage around his torso with a strong force.

"If it were up to me, we would leave this country," Giovanni snipped. "But our capo is a stubborn man who has the habit of not telling anyone his plan."

"You would have tried to stop me," Enzo pointed out.

"And you wouldn't have been shot."

Clearly Giovanni took his job seriously. She spotted the weary look on Fabian's face as he handed Enzo his jacket and helped his boss stand up.

"Gio is like a mother lion," Enzo told Zara.

"At least the cubs would allow me to do my job."

Zara cracked a smile. "You're welcome to live here, Giovanni. You too, Fabian. If you're Enz's closets... um, friends, it may be easier for you both to do your job from here."

"Zarita, they're doing a perfectly good job. See?" Enzo said as he gripped the railing. "I'm standing fine and I'm alive."

Giovanni and Fabian shared a small look.

"We will move in this afternoon," Giovanni claimed, picking up his gun.

"Will your father approve of us?" Fabian asked. Though he tried to hide it, the fear in his voice was evident. At least Zara knew he was sane.

"He will," Zara replied confidently. She didn't plan on telling her father that three mafia members were living with her, he probably already knew.

ahh, im so sorry that i didn't publish this yesterday. i fell asleep 😖 anyways, happy halloween! 

now, zarita's got gio, fabian, and enz living in her home. chaos and some fun scenes are to come! also zara forgot her hand bag in andrei's car... whoops.