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It was the guy who’d approached me at the Lunchbox Diner, the one who had acted like I should’ve known him and who had told me to “tell them it’s not over.”
At the time, I hadn’t understood what he’d meant, but now that I knew the truth about what Jax was, I figured this guy must’ve been a werewolf, too. And his threats were a lot scarier now that I knew he probably wasn’t human. Was he going to kill us?
“Jax Sherwood. We meet again, after all these years.” The guy crossed his arms over his chest.
“Enzo, what are you doing here?” Jax’s jawline hardened as he stood his ground firmly. I noticed that his body didn’t tense up as much as it did when we were around my father; whoever this guy was, he didn’t seem to intimidate him as much. It was sort of strange, because this guy was bigger than Jax. But at the same time, it made me feel slightly more relaxed to know that Jax wasn’t scared of him. I wasn’t sure what he wanted, but hopefully he wasn’t dangerous. Or if he was, hopefully he wasn’t out to hurt us.
“This isn’t about what you’re probably thinking it is,” Enzo explained. “I know we’ve had a rocky past, but I’m not here because I want to fight you.”
“Well, I know you’re not here because you want to be my friend, either. So, why are you here, exactly?” Jax questioned, staring him down.
“The reason I’m here is because our pack needs your help.”
Ah, there it was: all the proof I needed to know that this guy was a werewolf.
“Help with what?” Jax’s blue eyes, which sparkled under the dim gas station lighting, were full of curiosity.
“We need to take down Demetrius, and we need your help. There’s no way we can do it alone. He’s far too powerful. I doubt that we could pull it off alone, but with the help and strength of your pack, it should be easy.”
I just stared at him, allowing this all to sink in. This Enzo guy and his pack wanted to kill my father... and they wanted my help?
“That’s just crazy talk.” Jax laughed. “What did Demetrius ever do to you?”
“Haven’t you heard?”
Jax shook his head. “I’m afraid not.”
“He killed Melina.”
“Wow,” Jax murmured. “I heard she died, but I didn’t hear how.”
“I’m sorry, but I just have to ask. Who’s Melina?” I questioned, wanting to be in the know.
Enzo glanced over at me and explained, “She was my sister.” The look in his eyes told me that he’d loved her deeply, that it had nearly destroyed him to lose her.
And my father was responsible for the way he felt.
I tried to imagine how I would feel if Demetrius were to ever try to kill Zoe. Just the thought sent an angry red heat to my cheeks and fury flooded my veins. I would’ve felt the same way as Enzo. I would’ve wanted revenge.
Pft, I already wanted revenge and he hadn’t even killed anyone I was close to. Not literally, at least. He’d just killed the chances of Zoe having a normal future.
If it hadn’t been for him, my sister wouldn’t have walked down that aisle today and she wouldn’t have been who knew where for the next four days. The whole thing infuriated me the more I thought about it.
Enzo was right. We needed to take down Demetrius.
I turned to Enzo. “You can count me in.”
“Really?” His eyebrows arched in surprise. “You’re his daughter.”
“Biologically, maybe,” I replied. “But he’s never been a father to me.”
Enzo studied my face for a moment, as if he was trying to decide if I was being honest or not. After a moment, he nodded.
“Okay. What about you?” he asked, turning to Jax.
“I, uh...,” Jax hesitated.
The look on his face told me that he thought it was a bad idea. And he was right. Even I knew it wasn’t a good idea. Demetrius was powerful. For us to take him down... well, it was an even crazier plan than torching the whole compound. I wasn’t sure how we would do this.
But at the same time, it was something that needed to be done. We couldn’t just let him think he could get away with taking lives and forcing people to do things they didn’t want to do. He’d gotten away with it for too many years now – centuries, even – and it needed to stop.
“It’s a simple question. Are you and your pack in or not?” Enzo pressed.
“I can’t answer for my pack,” Jax replied. “I’ll talk to Elias about it.”
“Elias is still the Alpha of your pack?” Enzo sounded surprised.
Jax nodded.
“How is he doing these days?”
“He’s fine.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Enzo said.
Jax scoffed. “Since when? The last I knew, you wanted him dead. If I remember correctly, you even tried to kill him.”
“That was then, this is now – and right now, I need his strength if there’s any shot in hell of me beating Demetrius.”
“Well, the thing about Elias is that he holds grudges. Once someone double-crosses him, he marks him or her off his list of people to help out in the future. You should know that Elias is going to take you trying to kill him into consideration when he makes this decision.”
“Let him know I’d like to apologize, whenever he’s ready.” Enzo pulled something out of his pocket and then handed it to Jax. “Here’s my business card. You talk to Elias and then have him give me a call once he makes a decision. But the sooner he decides, the better.”
Tucking the card inside his pocket, Jax nodded. “I’ll do that.”
Enzo nodded and then climbed back into his car. A moment later, he pulled out of the parking lot.
The car that had been parked behind us drove away, too. I didn’t know who was inside, but I figured that it must’ve been Enzo’s back-up. Apparently, he must’ve considered the possibility that we would try to do something to hurt him, which was ridiculous to me. We were harmless. At least, I was. I wasn’t really sure what Jax was capable of.
Jax walked back towards the car.
“Aren’t you going to get something to eat?” I asked, recalling that was why he’d pulled into the gas station in the first place.
He shook his head. “No, I’ve suddenly lost my appetite. Enzo has that way about him.”
Apparently, Enzo didn’t have that effect on me. As we climbed into the car, I felt an ache inside of my belly. I couldn’t even remember how long it had been since I’d last eaten.
Trying to ignore the feeling, I reached out and turned up the radio. Music was always a good distraction.
A Taylor Swift song came to an end and then a male deejay’s voice came over the speakers.
“This just in: breaking news, straight out of Cedar Falls. The remains of Isaac London, who’s been missing since June third of this year, have been uncovered. His body was found buried in a cornfield. Police investigators say that they’re currently ruling the death as a possible homicide. The body appeared to be mangled—”
I reached over and changed the station, unable to listen to whatever he was going to say next. I didn’t want any more mental images of what Isaac’s body may have looked like, even though I knew that it might have pointed to the cause of his death.
My eyes filled with tears as the reality hit me then. I already knew that Isaac was dead. Jax had told me that Isaac was dead, that he and Mila had buried him with my shovel. But it still hit me to hear that his death had officially been confirmed, that the body was really his.
Jax glanced over at me, probably sensing that I’d gone quiet. “Are you okay?”
Half-tempted to question how he remembered Isaac, but that he didn’t remember anything about us at this point, I simply nodded and glanced out the window. “I will be.”