Chapter 360: Enzo Has Being Asking Questions About You

He still couldn’t throw a full punch without his side pulling. Still had to sit down after too many stairs, still felt it when he pushed further than he should. But he could stand at the window of his Brooklyn office without gripping the frame for balance, and today that felt like enough of a victory to notice.

"You’re doing the thing," Luca said from the couch, not looking up from his laptop. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

"What thing?"

"The thing where you stand there looking pleased with yourself because your body finally stopped betraying you."

"I’m allowed a moment."

"You’ve had about eleven moments this week."

Dante turned from the window, and even that felt easier than it had a month ago, no sharp intake of breath, no careful recalibration. "You’d be insufferable too if you spent three weeks being carried around like a piece of furniture."

"I was insufferable when I broke my wrist in college. I can’t imagine what you’d have been like with an actual bullet wound." Luca finally glanced up. "How’s the ribs?"

"Better. Not perfect."

"You still can’t go three rounds with anybody."

"I don’t need three rounds. I need people to think I could go three rounds. There’s a difference." Dante crossed the room, dropped into the chair across from Luca with only the faintest tightness in his side. "Where are we with the shipment?"

Luca’s expression shifted, something satisfied creeping into it. "Clean sweep. We hit the warehouse before Dimitri’s people could clear the shipment. Got the whole consignment out, no losses, no exposure."

"And the buyers?"

"Happy. Very happy. Word’s already moving that we’re the ones who can actually deliver on time, which is more than anyone can say about the Valentino side right now, what with everything falling apart over there." Luca leaned back. "You should’ve seen their faces when they realized we’d taken the entire shipment from right under their noses. Marco about lost his mind."

Dante allowed himself something close to a smile. It didn’t come easy these days, but this one arrived without effort.

"Good," he said. "Let them lose their minds."

"Speaking of not looking in our direction." Luca’s tone shifted, careful now, the way it always did right before he delivered something Dante wasn’t going to like. "We need to talk about the Japanese deal."

"What about it?"

"It’s not dead. But it’s wounded. Their reps are getting nervous about the instability over here, all the noise with the Valentinos, Isabella Russo’s name floating around every conversation in three languages. They’re asking questions about whether we can actually guarantee a stable supply chain if the whole East Coast is about to go to war."

Dante’s jaw tightened. "Tell them the instability is on the other side of the table. Tell them we’re the ones who just executed a flawless operation while Dimitri is busy chasing his own missing shipments."

"I already told them something close to that. They want a meeting. In person. Somewhere neutral."

"Set it up."

"You sure you’re up for travel right now?"

"I’m up for whatever I need to be up for." Dante said it flatly, daring Luca to push back on it.

Luca held his gaze for a second, then let it go, the way he’d learned to over the years, picking his battles instead of fighting all of them. "I’ll set it up boss. Give it two weeks. That’ll put you further along."

Dante nodded, satisfied, and reached for the glass of water on the table beside him instead of the whiskey he actually wanted. Small concession to the body that was still, in its own stubborn way, telling him what it needed.

"What else," he said.

"The Covenant reached out."

That got his full attention. "And?"

"Same contact as before. No name, no face, just the usual encrypted line." Luca pulled up something on his laptop, turned the screen slightly toward Dante. "They’re pleased with how the shipment interception went. Said it lines up with what they wanted to see, that we’re capable of hitting Valentino assets cleanly, without drawing heat back to ourselves."

"They say what they actually want from us next?"

"Not explicitly. But the tone’s different. Less testing the waters, more like they’re deciding if we’re worth investing in properly." Luca closed the laptop. "I think they’ve been watching to see if you’d fold after the warehouse. Since you didn’t, they’re recalculating."

Dante turned that over in his mind. He’d known from the beginning that whoever sat behind The Covenant wasn’t in the business of charity, that every piece of intelligence they’d handed him was a weapon they wanted him to use agains Dimitri.

"Keep the line open," he said. "Let me know the next time they reach out."

"Already the plan."

Dante stood, moved to the window again, testing his own body the way he tested everything now, trying to find out what still hurt and what didn’t. Below, Brooklyn moved the way it always moved, indifferent to the small war being waged in its shadows.

Three weeks ago he’d been carried out of a warehouse half-conscious, uncertain if he’d walk again without a limp, uncertain if Dimitri’s bullet had done more damage than the surgeons wanted to admit. Now he was standing at a window, planning shipments, fielding calls from shadow organizations, watching his own territory expand while Dimitri’s world came apart.

It felt, for the first time in a long time, like winning.

"You look like you’re thinking too hard," Luca said.

"I’m thinking about how good this feels."

"Don’t get comfortable. Comfortable is when things fall apart."

"I’m not comfortable. I’m confident. Different thing entirely." Dante turned back around. "I built this from nothing. I built it back up after a bullet nearly finished the job. I think I’ve earned a little confidence."

Luca didn’t argue with that. He rarely did, when Dante’s tone made it clear there was no room for it.

A knock at the door interrupted whatever Luca might’ve said next. One of Dante’s men, Paul, stepped in without waiting to be told, which meant whatever he had wasn’t something that could wait.

"Boss."

"What."

"Word from downtown." Paul glanced at Luca, then back to Dante, choosing his words. "Enzo’s been asking around. Quiet stuff, careful stuff, but it’s definitely him. Talking to people in the old neighborhoods, asking questions about you."