Chapter 2 #2
Yet guarding my fragile heart didn’t stop me from loving him.
That was the real reason why I’d pretended to be his wife in order to take care of him.
I’d done it, not because I needed an attack dog, or needed help to track down whoever it was that seemed to want us all dead.
My reasons for sticking by him had been so much simpler than all that.
I was still here because I loved Enzo. Walking away from him when he was in such a vulnerable state was impossible.
My heart hadn’t allowed me to even entertain the idea of leaving him after he’d ended up in hospital.
“You’ll forgive me for not just taking your word for it,” I finally shot back. “You took a gamble on me doing your bidding without question. You should have realized, Enzo, that I don’t do any man’s bidding.”
Enzo met my gaze. “You do your father’s.”
I inhaled sharply, completely at a loss for words.
Angry at myself for falling into such an obvious trap, I turned away from him.
My mind was clouded by all my emotions. That would just make me an easy adversary for Enzo to deal with.
I had to get ahold of myself or I’d just spiral out of control.
He’d see me in my weakened state, and he wouldn’t hesitate to use that against me.
I wanted to tell him that my father wasn’t just a man to me. He was a towering, immovable fact of life. He wasn’t a man—he was my father. My world. The beginning and the end of everything—the same as my mother. Loyalty to my parents was my entire identity. Without that, who was I?
But I didn’t say this to Enzo. He already had enough information to use against me.
Enzo knew everything about me and could bury me and my family at any time.
Our enemies armed with all that intel about us would be formidable.
Fighting him would be the fight of my life.
I couldn’t risk giving him more ammunition. I’d keep my emotional state to myself.
“I take it you want to go through with leaving the hospital,” I said, pivoting back to the topic of our earlier conversation.
“That’s the plan,” he said, his voice hoarse.
There were still so many things up in the air.
Like this hitman targeting us. Like our fast-approaching wedding.
While I was relieved that he was now well enough to attend the wedding in theory, I didn’t think either of us was ready for the wedding ceremony at all.
We might finally be physically ready, but emotionally? I had no idea if my heart was prepared.
I turned to face him then. “That doesn’t sound like much of a plan at all. You’ll leave the hospital, and then what?”
“I solve this. Figure out what this conspiracy against us is all about—”
“You mean take down my father,” I accused, interrupting him.
“I don’t have the strength to argue with you, Valentina,” he muttered.
That was a major thing to admit on his part. Enzo didn’t like showing his hand—not even if it meant a chance at manipulating me. That reminded me that he wasn’t fully healed. If he wasn’t healed, then I had the upper hand.
“But you have the strength to fight all this?” I demanded.
“I will,” he growled, his words hard as flint striking steel.
I shivered at that, coming undone as I saw that determined flash in his dark eyes.
Enzo wasn’t going to give up. He would never let this go.
Something had happened either during or after the fire in the woodshed that had strengthened his resolve.
Solving this conspiracy wasn’t just duty for him anymore. This was personal.
“Fine,” I said, deciding to seize the moment.
The only way to keep tabs on what Enzo was doing or thinking was to be where I could watch that happen.
This was the wrong time to rely on updates from him because he could simply lie to me like he always had.
“I’ll agree to this foolish scheme of yours on one condition. ”
He frowned, clearly hating this already. “Which is?”
“You can recover at my townhouse,” I offered.
Enzo narrowed his eyes, seeming to size me up. “Very generous of you.”
“It’s the least I can do,” I said, fighting to keep my words casual.
“You’re trying to keep tabs on me,” he said.
There was no point in pretending otherwise.
Now that I knew his true motives, I certainly wouldn’t be helping him out of the goodness of my heart.
I had an agenda the same as him. Only unlike his, mine wasn’t steeped in manipulation.
I was actually trying protecting my family.
From whoever was coming after us, from Enzo, from the entire De Luca family, if that was what it took to survive.
I gave a non-committal shrug. “Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I don’t think you’ll take your chances recovering on your own.”
There was, of course, another reason for wanting Enzo under my roof.
My love for him meant I couldn’t let him go.
Not yet. He’d betrayed me and I had no idea what to do about it.
My stupid, lovesick heart wanted to forgive him.
Wanted to go ahead with the upcoming wedding so that I could have him for myself forever.
Even if he didn’t love me. Even if he’d been using me for his own ends the entire time.
My love for him was that powerful. I was ready to sacrifice all common sense and dignity to call him mine forever.
But my heart didn’t reign over all of me.
I still had a brain and I still had instincts.
Both were telling me to make him pay for his deceit.
I’d have to make the punishment a violent, terrifying response to what he and his family had done.
Not only was it the right action to maintain my power, part of me also wanted revenge.
The De Lucas had played me. They needed to pay a heavy price for that and I needed to be the one to exact it.
So I was caught between my head and my heart. Caught between wanting to forgive and wanting vengeance. If Enzo was under my roof, I’d be able to bide my time and figure out which one I truly wanted. Not to mention, I’d be able to protect my father from him if I could watch Enzo’s next move.
“Regardless of your motives, it’s a generous offer,” Enzo finally said. “Plus, we have a lot of talk about. There’s the wedding, for one thing...”
“Yes, the wedding,” I said, lowering my eyes.
That was the other thing I’d been working on.
While I’d been there for Enzo during his stay in the hospital, I had also been planning the wedding.
Canceling it outright while Enzo had been recovering wasn’t an option.
It would have raised questions that I couldn’t answer and we needed to keep up appearances now more than ever.
We couldn’t have the criminal underworld see any weakness on our part or we’d have even bigger problems on our hands.
“Everything’s arranged,” I continued, my heart pounding. “Between me, my mom, and my assistants we’ve managed to get things done. And a lot of people owe us favors, so we called those in.”
He looked surprised by that, no doubt shocked that I would go through with the wedding in spite of his lies and manipulation.
“Looks like you kept things running smoothly in my absence,” he said finally.
I nodded. “I did my best.”
“I think you did more than your best, Valentina,” he said. “For one thing, you’ve managed to keep me alive. I ought to thank you for that.”
“Don’t thank me,” I said. I didn’t say it out of a false sense of modesty.
I truly didn’t want him to thank me for keeping him alive, because part of me was on the verge of changing my mind about that.
There was a very good chance that I’d kept him alive long enough to kill him myself.
Of course, I didn’t say that. No use in showing my hand when I was gaining the advantage.
He gave a nod, then pushed away from the hospital bed. “Time to get out of here.”
His sudden proximity made my stomach do flips. All I could manage was a single, “Yes.”
Enzo maintained eye contact, his gaze hard and unyielding. The next words out of his mouth made me quiver. “When we get to your place, you and I have a lot to talk about.”