Chapter 7
Valentina
He was casting me out. Instead of letting me stay, Enzo was going to leave me out in the cold.
After everything I had just been through.
My heart twisted. Maybe it had been foolish to think he would want to help me after the accusations I’d made.
For heaven’s sake, I’d called him a murderer.
That must have angered him enough for him to want me gone from his apartment in spite of his earlier invitation.
“Mi casa es tu casa,” he had said earlier today.
Like a fool, I’d thought he meant it. The painful truth was, I wanted to believe that he meant it.
That we could work together toward finding my father’s shooter.
Without my father to lean on, I didn’t have anyone in my family to look to as a source of strength.
If anything, I had to be the strength with my father too injured to go on.
My family was looking to me now for leadership.
Somehow, I was going to have to summon that strength, but I’d thought that I would have Enzo to hold on to.
My enemy being my new source of strength had made me vulnerable, and now, it was clear how exposed and unsafe that left me.
“Kicking me out already?” I asked, maintaining a cool tone.
Better for him to think that throwing me out meant nothing to me.
Outside of it making me distrustful of his words from now on, why should I care that the man I hated didn’t want me around?
His promises should have been as inconsequential to me as spilling my enemy’s blood.
An adversary’s blood stains were nothing. The same as Enzo’s words.
“I’m taking you home,” he said.
“Taking me home?”
“Dammit, Valentina, do I have to spell it out for you?” he asked gruffly. “You can’t stay here while McClain has unfettered access to my apartment building. If he’s part of this hit, I have to get you out of here. I’ll act as your primary security when we get to your residence, and—”
“Are you inviting yourself into my home?” I demanded in shock.
At that moment, I couldn’t hide my emotions anymore.
This was something I hadn’t seen coming.
Enzo wasn’t throwing me to the wolves at all.
Instead, he was trying to protect me. Or so he claimed.
For all I knew, getting into my townhouse was part of some new scheme of his.
A plan to get as much dirt on me and my family as he could.
It was exactly what I had been doing the entire time I’d spent in his apartment.
From me paying attention to the safe in his living room, to taking in how he had things he could easily pack for a quick escape.
We had that in common. Easily packed supplies in case we ever needed to go on the run.
Only, whatever I had packed was shoved away somewhere I couldn’t remember.
That was how secure I’d felt as Don Romano’s daughter despite the war.
I had been scared, yet certain that we would win.
Now, it felt like nothing made sense. My formidable father was in the hospital and the one person by my side was a De Luca.
Even if Enzo was making a calculation by helping me, he was potentially putting himself in harm’s way.
The gunman had almost shot him last night as well.
“Well?” I demanded, impatient for his answer. “Are you trying to get into my home?”
“I’m trying to protect you.” He stopped then, granting me a slow, lazy smile. “Are you suggesting that I can’t be a gentleman if we’re unchaperoned in your house? I assure you, I know how to treat a lady. Unless you, my dear fiancée, had something else in mind?”
That last question made my face heat up. Damn it. Now he could see the effect his words were having on me. I was blushing like a brand-new bride. Just the thought of Enzo in my house after hours sent a shiver run down my spine. I squirmed uncomfortably in my chair.
It was always a problem when we veered off topic, because we inevitably ended up talking about the sexual tension between us.
A tension so heated that our past history of hatred couldn’t douse the flames.
“I wasn’t thinking anything remotely like that,” I snapped, managing to compose myself.
“I just want to make sure you aren’t trying to get into my house for the wrong reasons. ”
“The wrong reasons being...?”
He still had that arrogant smile on his face. Enzo was entirely too knowing. And he was clearly enjoying himself at my expense. I could tell that he liked getting me flustered on the rare occasion that he managed to do it.
“The wrong reasons being that you might want to spy on my family,” I said flatly.
“Spying? Really?” Enzo placed a large hand on his broad chest directly over his heart. Then he playfully nudged me with his shoulder. “You hurt me, Valentina.”
“Oh, please.” But my irritation melted away and I started laughing.
Amazing that I still had the capacity to feel any kind of amusement.
I let the feeling wash over me, the laughter that shook my body felt like a healing I didn’t know I needed.
“Don’t act like you’re in this to be a knight in shining armor. ”
Suddenly, his hand was firmly but gently seizing my chin, forcing me to gaze into dark, obsidian eyes.
The darkness I saw terrified me. He’d been unexpectedly playful a moment ago, yet now, he looked like he was ready to kill.
Understanding in that moment that Enzo really could have destroyed me with his bare hands, sent a chill of pure terror through my entire body.
I hadn’t brought my gun with me to the control room.
All I had hidden in one of my pockets were the letter opener and the lighter I’d swiped from Enzo’s nightstand.
I figured that like me, if he got written messages that couldn’t be intercepted electronically, he’d want a convenient letter opener, and a way to burn the paper to get rid of evidence.
But I felt his calloused hand on my face.
The hand I knew he used to butcher animals.
Practice for the real thing. It should have scared and disgusted me.
And it did. But mostly, it just excited me.
The real, present danger of him. Enzo took up most of the control room.
Meanwhile, I might as well have been a butterfly in a giant’s hand.
Here I was, Umberto Romano’s daughter. Trembling before my enemy and loving every minute of it.
“I’m no fucking knight,” he growled. “Knights have a code of honor. They’ll protect you but only up until a point. I have no such honor, Valentina. I’m no hero. In this line of work, we don’t protect the weak or the innocent.”
“Enzo,” I managed to choke out.
He kept going, his dark eyes locked on mine. “My one and only concern is you. Fuck everybody else. I will destroy anyone who dares to threaten you. There’s nothing I won’t do to keep you safe. You are my code, Valentina. Do you understand?”
I nearly came apart right then and there.
Nobody had ever pledged themselves to me.
No man had ever made an oath like that. As much as Enzo rejected the knight in shining armor label, there was something medieval about the way he wanted to protect me.
The way he had pledged himself to me and me alone.
It was barbaric and terrifying. Everything I could have ever wanted.
My pulse quickened. Suddenly, I didn’t trust myself to behave in his presence.
“And if it’s your uncle that you’ll have to get rid of?” I asked, splashing cold water on the heated moment. “You clearly want to believe he’s innocent.”
For a second, Enzo looked taken aback by the change in subject, but overall, it didn’t faze him. “He’s innocent because deep down, he’s a sniveling coward. And a fool. He’s no mastermind.”
“What if he had another role in this?” I pressed, desperate to see how far my fiancé would go for me. How far I could push a De Luca to the brink. “What if he knew that gunman was coming after my father and your uncle said nothing? Did nothing to stop it?”
Enzo’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Mark my fucking words, if he is involved in any way, his missing hand will be the least of his worries.”
As it turned out, I really could push Enzo even further than I ever anticipated.
Useful information that I would keep for later.
While I still hadn’t figured out how to tell when he was lying, I was starting to understand when his words were genuine.
Even toned lies might have been difficult to sus out, but the passionate intensity of his promise to protect me couldn’t be faked.
He released his hold on me then, taking the heat of his calloused hand with him. “Whatever you think, I’m not trying to get into your house for any nefarious reason.”
There it was again. That even tone he deployed when he wanted the sexual tension between us to quiet down.
When he wanted the inferno to burn down to embers.
But that never lasted long. If anything, the more he tried to put the fire out, the hotter it became over time.
The sparks between us were undeniable. Too bad none of it helped me to figure out if he was lying.
“You could have more than one reason for doing something,” I said, my heart still pounding.
I could scarcely breathe, my entire body still trembling at his oath to protect me.
But I couldn’t let on how much he’d affected me.
Trying to appear composed and in control, I tilted my head to the side to study his reaction.
“Protecting me might be one reason while you also have another reason that you’re keeping to yourself. ”
“You’re too smart for you own good,” he grumbled.
“Smarter than your uncle?”
“Low bar,” he replied with a snort. “You’re probably smarter than McClain. And that cousin of yours, Frankie.”
“Our three main suspects,” I said, realizing who and what we were truly up against if we wanted to catch my father’s shooter.