Enzo

I fell asleep.

I fucking fell asleep!

And now, when I wake up, she's gone.

I get out of the bed, alerted. Looking around me, there's nothing that tells me Alex is still here.

Don't panic, Enzo. Maybe she's not in the room but somewhere in the house. She wouldn't have left. She wouldn't be so stubborn and stupid. Right?

When I look around the house though, I come to the conclusion that she is.

This woman.

I take a deep breath to calm myself and unclench my tightened fists. Since Elena and Jake already left, I dial Elena's number, walking back and forth in the bedroom. Why would she do that?

"Hey, is everything alright?" Elena says when she picks up, her voice already filled with worry.

"She left before I woke up," I grumble in the phone.

"What?" she exclaims before she takes a deep breath. "Okay... did you try to call her?"

I pause for a couple of seconds.

"I—I don't have her phone number."

Silence follows.

"Oh, right. You want me to give it to you?"

I sigh. "Yes, please."

When I have it, I thank her and get ready to find this stubborn and crazy woman.

"Enzo?" Elena says before I hang up.

"Yeah?"

"Don't be too harsh on her."

I clench my jaw and open the front door. "We'll see about that."

*

She obviously didn't pick up the hundred times I called her. I searched everywhere. Stopped only when I really needed to go to the bathroom. Continued to search. At the mall, at the closest restaurant, but didn't stop to eat. I obviously don't know where she lives, right now. I didn't think to ask that to Elena.

I need to find her.

Then, only when it's starting to get late, I think about a place.

*

It's surprisingly packed. It seems like nobody knows about what happened here, last night. Good.

"Hey Fred," I greet him once I'm at the bar and he looks up in surprise.

"Have you seen a red-haired woman..." I pause, glancing at my watch. Then, sighing, "...probably drunk, somewhere?"

He narrows his eyes at the thought, glancing around the bar. Then, a knowing smile appears on his thin lips and he points at someone over my shoulder.

I look in the direction and indeed, find who I was looking for.

"I didn't know this was your type of girl," Fred teases me and I ignore his statement, walking towards her.

Gotcha, Princess.

*

Alex

I escaped him.

I resist the urge to laugh maniacally at the thought. Not sure what my friends would think of me.

Oh, who am I kidding? They're all drunk anyway. Again.

I am drunk anyway.

Drinking another shot of something, I grimace and let out a sigh. I couldn't stay. I couldn't stay in the same room, in the same bed, with him.

He fell asleep quickly. For a while, I just watched him. I can't believe how fate reunited us again—

Wait. Not fate. That has nothing to do with stupid fate. It's murder and Valdez and revenge and everything related to what I'm not used to that reunited us again.

Still, watching Enzo beside me just broke my already broken heart. I wanted to scream at him. To ask him why he's here. To tell him how much I missed him. How much I hate him.

Conflicted emotions.

Oh, and there's also the fact that he needs to be my bodyguard again.

I burst out laughing. Yeah, nope. I'll pass.

Sasha grins at me.

"You really like that dress, don't you?" she giggles and if I was sober, I would know there's nothing really funny. But I laugh anyway.

I didn't bother changing clothes. I went straight to Sasha's apartment and stayed there the whole day, hiding from Enzo.

Pfft, what am I thinking? Like he would search for me the whole day.

And now, we're back here. I wonder why Sasha still wanted to come here. She was here yesterday when someone shot in the bar. She doesn't seem too bothered by that.

Me neither, at the end. I'm free. I can do whatever I want, and it's not somebody called Enzo Martinez that will stop me.

Or Cole Valdez.

I shiver and ignore that part. I need to drink more.

So, I turn to do that. But he appears right in front of me, preventing me to go anywhere.

My lips part slightly and I step back. I stumble in my heels and in two strides, Enzo is catching me before I fall on my butt like a complete fool.

Time stands still. It spins. I'm drunk. He's fucking here, again. Holding me close. His breath fanning my face. His arm around my waist.

I need air.

"Go away," I mumble angrily, trying to push his chest with my nonexistent muscles.

I used to think I was strong. Kinda. Physically, but also emotionally. Now, I know the truth. I'm not strong. I'm weak, and I hate that.

I hate being weak. And I need to pretend that I'm not.

Suddenly, with no reasons, I start sobbing against his chest.

"Alex," he murmurs in my ear, and my heart breaks again.

"I don't want you here. Why are you here, Enzo?" I cry against his shirt, after promising myself that I would never cry for him again.

But it seems like I don't care anymore.

He doesn't answer. So I keep going.

"You're the one who ended things between us. So why are you here?"

"Alex..." His voice breaks.

I look up from his chest, my eyes blurry with tears. The pain in his eyes is probably just my imagination. It can't possibly reflect mine.

I'm too drunk, too heartbroken to care about what I'm saying right now.

*

Enzo

It fucking kills me.

She kills me. All over again. She rips off my heart from my chest, throws it on the ground and steps on it again and again.

I can't stand there and watch her sobbing against my chest. For the first time, she lets me see her emotions. She lets me see what I've done.

It's all my fucking fault.

"You're the one who ended things between us," she sobs against my chest and I close my eyes in pain, taking a deep breath. "So why are you here?"

I can't. I can't tell her that I was forced to.

"Alex..."

She looks up, tears in her pained eyes. I notice she didn't put any make-up, besides a red lipstick.

"Why did you leave me? You ran away from me without a reason," she continues and I didn't know until now how words could really break you for good. "Two years, Enzo. It's been two years. And you were good enough to ignore me all this time."

Please, stop saying it. Stop remembering me what I've done.

"I needed you," she cries again, her voice muffled against my chest. "You were my hero."

Closing my eyes, I hold her close and promise myself that I'll fix this. One way or another, I need to. Fuck the rest.

All I want to do now is to be with her. To protect her and to reassure her.

"I'll always be your hero," I whisper in her ear, rubbing her back in small circles.

I'll always be yours.

*

Alex

I don't know how I ended up in his car. How I ended up following him and finally, arriving in this cheap hotel room.

I just did. I'm too tired to care. Too drunk, too. After all the tears I cried though, I don't feel the effect of the alcohol anymore.

Please, let me just be drunk again.

"Why are we here?" I ask Enzo who's standing in the middle of the room, looking around him.

He turns around to face me and I almost grimace. Ugh, why is he so good looking?

"You're tired. Drunk. I'm tired," he states and shrugs a shoulder, taking a few steps towards me. "We'll stay here for the night and talk more tomorrow."

"Because we need to talk?" I raise my eyebrows with no conviction.

Enzo just stares at me before he suddenly takes off his t-shirt. I take a step back and give him a doubtful look.

He only smiles. Just a little.

"Take my shirt. You won't sleep in that dress of yours again."

Sighing, I grab his shirt and hold it close to my chest. Then, I head towards the bathroom.

When I come back, wearing only his t-shirt that ends mid-thigh, he looks up at me from the bed, his eyes sweeping my body slowly. I suddenly feel self-conscious and almost run back into the bathroom to hide, but then I realize how stupid this sounds.

His eyes lock with mine and he bites his lip.

"Keep it. It looks better on you," he murmurs before clearing his throat, looking back down at his phone.

Okay.

"What are you doing?" I ask, slowly walking to where he is.

"I got news from Jake and Elena. They did some researches about Cole Valdez. It seems like the guy used the name of Erik Lewis to do his illegal stuff. He was already in our system, but we didn't know who he really was. Until now." Enzo shakes his head. "Still can't believe he's a Valdez."

"What a great family," I mutter under my breath.

Enzo scoffs. "Yeah."

We fall in a weird but comfortable silence. I sit next to him on the bed, fidgeting awkwardly. After a while, I just lie down, staring at the beige ceiling. Enzo does the same thing, his body at a reasonable distance from mine.

"Who did you lose, Alex?" he questions in a whisper after a moment and my heart stops.

Slowly, I turn my head towards him. He keeps his eyes towards the ceiling, but I know he's waiting for my answer. Expecting for me to open up so quickly, so easily to him.

Swallowing the lump in throat, I shake my head.

"How do you..." I pause, closing my eyes. "I'm not ready to tell you."

I don't want to. I don't want to just forget about the past years that he was gone and I don't want to remember the past year because—

It hurts. I can't think about...

"It's okay," Enzo says softly, turning his head to meet my eyes. "You don't have to tell me."

He turns his whole body towards me and he mentions for me to do the same. Carefully, I do. Then, he just stares at me, not saying anything.

Finally, after what feels like forever, he lets out a little breath and speaks up.

"Sleep. I won't let anything happen to you."

And just like that, he moves closer, presses his lips against my forehead, and turns to the other side.

*

I was almost sobbing while writing this chapter. Alex and Enzo... *sighs*

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