Page 120 of The Enforcer

“And in a week, a month?”

“You’ll always be safe with me.” He peered down at Magnum with a look that could only be described as loving before walking out of the room.

“I hurt him.” I don’t know why I’d admitted the words out loud other than I remained angry with myself for lashing out.

“Are you talking about Christos?” Willow asked. While Cora was in her element, cooking a welcome home lunch for the family, I was outside on the veranda with Willow and Kara. The kids were sleeping, or so the ladies hoped.

“Yes. I don’t know what I’m thinking or doing any longer.” That was certainly the truth.

“Being in love with powerful men isn’t easy, Valencia. I had no desire to care about Havros. None. I didn’t want to be with him,but I couldn’t stay away.” Kara laughed. “They are enigmatic and the draw to them is gripping.”

“I don’t think I’m in love with him, but the draw to the man is certainly true.” I could barely stomach the wine I’d accepted. I instantly noticed the look they shared between them. “Do not go there. I’ve known him what, a week? You both knew the men you care about much longer. You can’t fall in love that fast.” As soon as I made the statement, the ache I’d felt in my stomach all morning long increased.

“You might say I knew Dimitrios my entire life, although I only saw him three times as a child. However, as an adult? Well, even though he pretty much kidnapped me after accusing me of having something to do with his brother’s murder, you’d think I would hate him. Wrong. Within days, I knew. I hated admitting the way I felt, but I knew.”

“I was the same,” Kara said with a smile on her face. “One interview and I thought the sun rose and set on the man. Yes, we bickered and he drove me insane with his demanding ways, but within days, I knew I never wanted to leave his side. What do you have to lose if you eliminate the armor suffocating you?”

One thing I adored about both women was just how strong they were. They had no issue speaking their minds and in truth, the two men they’d fallen in love with seemed to respect everything they said.

“I don’t know. My job. My home. My heart?” I laughed bitterly because I knew the armor Kara had mentioned was already rusting, prepared to crumble.

“Let me think.” Willow tapped her finger across her lips. “Correct me if I’m wrong about any of this. Christos knew youwere missing your dog, so he had a private jet flown to and from New York bringing him to you as a surprise. Yes?”

“Yes.”

“He purchased you a bracelet to honor the pup you love, a little bobble that likely cost several hundred thousand dollars. He jumped across your body to keep you from being shot during a near massacre. Correct?” Kara added. Damn if both women weren’t having a good time with this.

“Fine. Okay. He has also forbidden me to return to New York,” I told them.

“Yes, because he is willing to do everything in his power to protect you.” Willow was staring at me.

“He kills people.”

Both women groaned. “I know what I’m about to say goes against common sense, logic, and morality, but it’s rare, and when and if one of them need to, it’s because someone has attempted to hurt their family and those they care about. Let’s face it, some of the people they’ve… eliminated weren’t cream of the crop if you know what I mean. Does that make taking a life right in any regard? No, but there are reasons and they were all born into a life they’d been predestined for. A legacy.” Willow wasn’t making light of the fact all of them had been judge and jury one time or another. But…

“I got it. Okay? I do. I just feel so lost.” That wasn’t a lie.

“I don’t think you’re lost, Valencia. I think you finally found yourself. I was lucky in that I not only gained an amazing man as a husband, but I also was determined to keep my career. He didn’t try and stop me. I have the best of every world andI wouldn’t change a thing. That doesn’t mean there weren’t sleepless nights. That doesn’t mean I didn’t fight the way I felt about Havros or that I didn’t second guess my sanity. I can tell you’re doing the same thing.” She looked down at Magnum who’d come along for the homecoming and sighed. “Why don’t you ask your pup what you should do? Isn’t it true that dogs know a good person from an evil one?”

I nodded, placing my wine on the table. “This is just so… I need to work.”

“You can find out what you need to do to get your license in Greece. You were trained in the United States at the best medical school in the country and possibly the world. That will hold its own. If that’s what you want to do.” Willow was making far too much good sense.

“But the anger,” I continued pushing.

Kara cocked her head. “I know you’re heard this before, but if you live your life always looking over your shoulder anticipating the worst, is that really living?”

Now she had me chuckling. “No, it isn’t.”

“The one thing my mother taught me and I’ll remember this until the day I die. Love isn’t easy nor does it come around often. When it does, you have to fight with everything you have to keep something so special.”

“And sometimes that means fighting with every ounce of common sense or what you’re used to doing. But I think I can speak for Willow as well by saying fighting to keep what you want is so worth it.”

I looked from one woman to the other. They were tough and amazing and I wanted very much to be able to call them my friends.

“Now, the question is, and you can’t ignore it and we want an answer. Do you love Christos?” Willow asked. She had both her eyebrows raised as if prepared to chastise me.

I closed my eyes, feeling the press of Magnum’s head against my leg. I laughed even as a single tear trickled past my lashes. “Yes.”

---