Hexed

Enzo and Scotty wait in the restaurant, Enzo suspecting that Venesa might be stringing him along. When Aria texts him, his mind drifts back to his parents’ tumultuous marriage. His father cheated while his mother found solace in alcohol and barbiturates. Enzo was helpless to intervene, and his mother died by suicide. He fears that being a mob wife might take a similar toll on Aria.

Scotty reports that the owner of the B&B shared some gossip about an influx of New Jersey Italians in town. Enzo orders Scotty to find out more about them. Then, Enzo has his cousin fetch Fisher. Enzo demands to see Venesa, so Fisher leads him to a secret underground space for illegal gambling. Its upscale appearance surprises Enzo. He grows jealous when he sees Venesa flirting with one of the poker players until he realizes that she is manipulating the man for some reason. When they leave the gambling parlor, he follows.

Venesa is frustrated by Enzo’s presence while she tries to extract information from a card-counting thief named Sean. She leads him to a vacant room in the basement, where she lays him out on a table and cuffs his hands. Enzo arrives to help cuff his ankles, which intrigues Venesa: “Originally, I assumed he was here to cheat me out of money, but that face he just made? That reeks of secrets he’d rather I didn’t know” (134). Venesa shows Sean a fish tank with two deadly stonefish named Jack and Flora, calling them her “pookies” and explaining that she distills the venom in their spines to create a neurotoxin. She injects some of it to make Sean talk. Enzo seems fascinated as he watches her work, and Venesa finds herself equally excited by his presence.

Venesa threatens to poison Sean outright if he doesn’t talk. If he does talk, she will merely cut off his hand. Eventually, he admits that the New Jersey mob sent him to Atlantic Cove to watch Enzo. Venesa then gives him the poison antidote but chops off his hand so that he can’t cheat at cards anymore.

Enzo finds himself even more attracted to Venesa’s violent streak because it matches his own: “She’s unhinged in a visceral way that makes her ruthlessness look like art, and I’m hypnotized by the sight of her” (141). Venesa tells Enzo that she will turn Sean over to Bastien, who excels at torture and will extract everything that Sean knows. Venesa promises to keep Enzo informed.

Afterward, the pair goes upstairs to Venesa’s apartment, where Enzo sponges the blood off her arms. Their physical closeness leaves them both uncomfortably aware of their mutual attraction, but Enzo resists the urge to act on his feelings and instead departs: “I turn and leave before I’ll do something that both of us will regret. Because it isn’t her I’m supposed to want” (147).

The following day, Enzo is sunbathing with Aria, who warns him not to trust Venesa. He finds himself less and less attracted to the spiteful woman he’s supposed to marry. Aria explains that Venesa acts like the Kingston fortune ought to be hers. Vanesa’s mother was the family favorite but squandered her position, according to Aria: “[S]he chose some deadbeat, alcoholic gambling addict instead of her own flesh and blood” (150). Enzo is shocked to learn that Venesa’s father killed her mother and disappeared.

Aria starts discussing other family members, such as her uncle, Frankie Bianchi, who lives in New Jersey. Enzo recognizes the name: Bianchi is connected to the mob. He immediately texts Scotty to find out all he can about Uncle Frankie.

That same morning, Venesa awakens from an intensely erotic dream featuring Enzo. She is disturbed that she can’t even keep him at bay when she’s asleep. After getting up, she goes to the Seven Seas Construction office building, where Trent conducts his business. His second-in-command, Bastien, is already there.

Trent says that he is proud of how deftly Venesa is handling Enzo, who has agreed to consider the hotel deal. He orders her to get to know Enzo better and keep an eye on him. Venesa agrees, provided Trent gives her the Atlantis picture he stole from her mother. He declines, “What kind of man—what kind of Kingston—would I be if I just gave it to someone else?” (166). Venesa agrees to spy on Enzo regardless, used to doing her uncle’s bidding.

Enzo is bored as he sits in a florist shop with Aria and her party planner, who are discussing the engagement party. Much to his relief, Venesa shows up with Fisher, supposedly to help. As usual, Fisher melts in Aria’s presence. Enzo soon pretends he has business to conduct with Trent and leaves.

Venesa and Fisher tail Enzo in their car. Venesa catches up with him on the beach by the boardwalk, where he is watching a happy boy frolicking in the surf with his family. As Venesa watches him, she thinks, “There’s a longing, one I can spot a mile away because it’s the kind I feel in my soul” (180). She approaches and persuades Enzo to relax and enjoy the evening outdoors with her, insisting that they should make a memory together as friends.

Venesa forces Enzo to wade in the water. After she splashes him, he picks her up and hurls her into the ocean, and they both end up laughing. As they walk and talk, Enzo confides that the sight of the frolicking little boy makes him think of the childhood he never had. He recounts his troubled family dynamic and his mother’s suicide. Venesa talks about her own abusive father. She confesses that she is unable to cry. As a child, if she cried, her father would beat her mother until she stopped. Enzo tries to break the grim mood that has settled over them by offering to buy Venesa some dry clothes.

On the boardwalk, Venesa selects a T-shirt and board shorts and then proposes that she and Enzo go to a water-gun shooting booth. Unfortunately, the man staffing the booth is Rusty, one of Venesa’s cruel classmates from school. He addresses her as “Urch.” Short for urchin, this is a name that Aria pinned on her the first day of school. Enzo demands that Rusty respect Venesa. Intimidated, Rusty backs down.

Enzo wins an enormous plush octopus for Venesa, which he sends Scotty to retrieve. Then, Venesa proposes riding the Ferris wheel. Enzo balks, clearly fearful, but Venesa reassures him, saying, “I promise I’ll keep you safe” (210).