Accidentally Yours (Merffy Kizzmet) novel Chapter 183

Chapter 183

Enzo

Her sobs felt like percussion against his ribs, small and jagged. Enzo smoothed his hand along her spine, mouth at the crown of her head, and let the steady pressure he’d learned to give in the work. He’d hied for her. He’d broken men for her. He could not–would not–let a ghost from her past pall the world out from under her now.

“Shhh, amore,” he breathed into the wet hair at her temple. “Guardami look at me. I’ve got you.”

Her lashes fluttered, raw. “It was real,” she rasped. “My name–Lolan Witmore. They were going to send me to the Academy. They were going to sell me.”

His chest collapsed inward for a second, the way an old wound can catch when you don’t expect it.

They tried to cage your.

Tried to sell you like something to be owned but you were never theirs to sell.

He kissed her, slow and careful until the tremors in her shoulders eased. Her breathing settled into uneven territory. He watched the rise and fall until sleep finally took her back, and only then did he slide out from her hold and dress quietly.

Nico was at the kitchen counter when Enzo came out, the light low and the coffee machine sputtering. He looked up the way men do who have already rehearsed the worst and hoped it wouldn’t come.

“What happened?” N

Nico asked without preamble.

Enzo handed him a cup and kept his voice flat. “Nightmare. She woke up saying her name is Lolana Witmore. That her parents tried to sell her. That she was almost sent to something she called the Academy” He watched the words land, measured. “She can.”

Nico’s fingers tightened around the mug until his knuckles paled. He didn’t reach for some grim recognition. Instead he let the anger and disbelief crack out raw. “Who the hell sells their own kid? To a school?” he snarled. The question hung between them, half accusation, half a demand the world answer for itself.

Enzo didn’t need to answer. The look they exchanged said everything: she had hidden the worst, and now it was part of their job to make sure it never came back.

She trusted me with this. She told me first. That means it’s mine to fix. I don’t drop things she hands me. Ever.

By daylight the den smelled of old coffee and planning. The men had emptied the suite for the war room–maps thrust onto tables, phones fit, a dozen low conversations folding into one hum. Enzo moved through it all the way a predator moves through a field of prey: quiet, hungry, precise.

Jake’s bank of monitors glowed like a set of watchful eyes. Enzo planted himself at the edge of the desk, the mug still warm in his hand. “I need you to pull everything you can on something,” he said.

Jake didn’t look up immediately–he’d learned that nothing that started like this

finished quickly. “Name?”

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11:24 Thu, Oct 9

Chapter 183

“Academy.” Enim stid. “That’s what she called It”

Jake’s hands finte, then went to the keys. “You mean- He stopped, audible exhale. “We’ve heard rumors. Urban legend type stuff. Old alumni who disappeared into politics and finance. A handful of whispered Tiles about kids groomed for cushioned power–senate, DO, corporate seats. People joke about the assassin–school angle, but nobody’s ever produced a clean trail. It’s always smoke and myth.”

Enzo’s jaw set. “She called it that. So it’s not a jake for her,” He pushed the mug aside and leaned in, voice hard and quiet. “If she’s been there, it’s reachable, I want everything. Names, logs, purchases. If there’s a trace of a place, find it. If there’s a shadow, I want to step into

Jake’s fingers moved faster on the keyboard. “Understood. I’ll cross reference education records, charitable foundations, shell corporations. If anyone anywhere ever paid for access to something like that, we’ll find a breadcrumb.” He met Enzo’s eyes. “If she’s saying it–boss- then it’s not guilt rumor. It’s a place. That changes things.”

Enzo nodded. He felt the familiar map of anger unroll in his chest–sharp, hot, practical. They thought they could take her; they thought they could catalog her life and offer it to the highest bidder. They were wrong. He had men with accounts, men who handled disappearance as easily as dinner, and men who could turn balance sheets into weapons-

He turned his head slightly and caught Nico’s profile in the doorway: closed jaw, hands bunched at his sides. The man was already moving -his face had the look of someone who’d chosen a target and wouldn’t rest until it bled. Enzo didn’t have to say the part about Ballandi: Nico would chase that thread until it either choked him or paid out,

“Start pulling.” Enzo told Jake. “Hard. Quiet. No flags. If the Academy’s in the light, I want to see every part of it. If it’s in the dark–then we shake it until something falls.”

Jake’s fingers flicked, the room sliding into a new order. Men murmured as leads appeared across screens. Somewhere, data woke and spat breadcrumbs.

Enzo took a slow breath, tasting coffee and cold resolve. He pictured Lolana as she’d looked in his arms–shivered into sleep, fragile and Berce–and he let the promise carve itself into him.

I’ll find it. I’ll find them. I will burn any ledger that tries to put a price on her life.

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