"I would, but I do have two conditions." She cleared her throat. "First one is that I really hope you're not into human trafficking. I understand you're doing illegal shit, but please, for the love of everything, if you want this to work, I don't want to be with someone who has anything to do with humantrafficking."
"No human trafficking, that I can promise you. Our family may not be operating fully on the right side of the law, but we all agree that we don't want anything to do with that."
"Okay, okay," she smiled. "That's good to know."
"And what's the second condition?"
"I want to learn how to fight," she blurted out. "I want to learn how to defend myself and how to help when it's needed."
"I—"
"I can help you with that." A new voice came from the direction of the doors before I could even try to tell her that she would never again need to defend herself, and I wasn’t surprised to see Aria standing there, grinning from ear to ear.
"You didn't tell me she was stunning, Nicolas."
"Here we go," I grumbled, standing up from the bed together with Ajla. "Ajla, this is my pain-in-the-ass sister Aria," I looked back at the aformentioned pain in the ass. "Aria, this is Ajla. My..." I stammered. My what? Everything? Girlfriend? Future?
"His kidnapped something-to-be," Ajla said, laughing as she approached Aria and hugged her. "It is so nice to meet you. And holy hell," Ajla pulled back, looking between Ari and me. "Are all of you this hot or is it only the two of you? BecauseNico, if you tell me you have an older brother that looks like the two of you, I might leave you for him."
"No older brother," I chuckled. "I'm afraid you're stuck with me, but we do have one more sister."
"And she's nothing like me," Aria said, wrapping her arm around Ajla's shoulders. "I heard you shot Johnny in his dick."
"I did," Ajla beamed. "And I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel good. The fucker had the audacity to tell me I should lay off carbs."
"He did not," Aria grumbled. "You're gorgeous and curvy and fucking hot. I never liked that fuckface."
"Yeah, I know," I added. Aria had said it a million times, but I didn't listen to her. She always thought there was something wrong with him, and I never paid enough attention because I was trying to juggle so many other things in my life. "I should've listened to you," I murmured, seeing the shocked look on her face. "You can gloat now. I know you want to."
"Have I heard that right?" She asked Ajla. "My older brother, the stubborn mule of our family, just said that he should've listened to me. Can you say it again so I couldrecord it?"
"Oh, shut up," I smiled. "This was a one-time thing."
"Riiiight," Aria drawled and suddenly sobered. "As happy as I am to meet you, Ajla, I came to bring some more news." And I didn't like the look on her face. "We located Enzo."
Her words would've shocked me less if she had told me somebody else was after us.
"Is he..."
"He's alive," she confirmed. "But I'm not sure if he's in the condition we’d want him to be." I liked those words even less. "Turns out the old man had him locked up at Westview for over a year. He was paranoid Enzo would try to take him down, and before that could happen he had him taken away, keeping him heavily medicated until one of my contacts made a connection with the John Doe who was at the hospital."
I shuddered.
Westview was an asylum located on the outskirts of the city, and it didn’t have the best reputation.
"I took him out," Aria added, "and we will take care of him until the drugs are out of his system, but I'm scared he won’t be the same Enzo we knew before."
Fuck, I wouldn't be either.
"Who's Enzo?" Ajla asked.
"He's my best friend, and instead of looking for him, I thought he had betrayed us."
"Good thing I was looking for him then. Otherwise who knows how long he would've been stuck there, especially since the paranoid old bastard got killed here today."
Enzo would need all the help he could get because he was the next in line to take over the Mancini family, and maybe, just maybe, with him at the top we could end this fucked-up war his father had created.
Shit. "Have you told Clara?" I asked Aria, and I didn't miss the slight flinch.