Page 15 of Treasured By 3

I rub my arm and Lief kisses my shoulder. He clears his throat and everyone stops talking. Sophia shrinks back. Lief rubs my knee. “We can’t have everyone knowing what we do. Of course, Valerie had to keep it a secret, to protect us, to protect you, to protect herself. The more people that know, the more potential danger those people are in. She was doing us all a favor by being lonely and keeping this to herself.”

Sophia sucks her bottom lip and tears fill her eyes. “Valerie, how could you do something so dangerous? This isn’t skydiving or bungee jumping or anything else we talked about.”

“Believe me, I know,” I whisper.

Chase shakes his head and walks upstairs, stopping halfway. “For the record, I don’t like this conversation at all.”

“Too bad we don’t have the Men in Black mind eraser,” Hunter snorts before going to the kitchen. “These are going to burn.”

He takes everything out of the oven and Sophia shakes her head again. “What are you doing?”

“Well, after the first kidnapping, everything seemed easy,” I try to joke.

Hunter shakes his head once. I swallow. “Not everything. But the kidnapping was easy compared to seeing my men hurt, thinking about losing them, trying to stay away from them when I loved them. Logic doesn’t have a place in love, Sophia. You showed me that.”

“Don’t you turn this around on me,” she hisses. “I married four good men, goodbusinessmen. Sure, they’re older and it’s not conventional, but I was never in danger!”

“Valerie’s the danger,” Hunter says, staring at the food. “Talking her way out of death twice. Mocking someone ready to kill her just to buy time and keep me alive. Trying to throw herself into everything so we’re not hurt, then facing down a half-crazed ex member just to disarm him, break his arm, and declare herself queen.”

There’s pride in his voice, even if he won’t look at me. Lief nods and squeezes me tighter. “A viper, strong and smart. Refuses to be locked away in a safe room without lashing out when I come back for her.”

“Do that again and I will cut you,” I say.

Lief kisses me, not caring who’s watching. When he draws back, I smile at him. Hunter takes a slow breath. “Valerie came into our life and we hid everything from her until she saw the wrong thing. She wanted to leave us; we knew she needed protection.”

“Yeah, the safe house had nothing to do with it,” I grumble. Shaking my head, I refocus on Sophia. “If my men had their way, I’d never touch the mafia business. I’d never go to the mansion. I wouldn’t be involved in the business at all. Sometimes they need me to psychoanalyze from a distance or up close, but I insist on being there as often as possible.”

“Why?” Sophia asks.

“Because I love them. If you could stand by letting your men do everything for you–everything–knowing they were risking their lives, knowing that if you were there, you could help, you could change the odds, could you just stay home?” I ask.

She looks at her men and shakes her head. “No. I couldn’t.”

“You stayed with them through every argument, through every bit of stress, even when you knew it was a risk to your relationship with your dad, when you knew people wouldn’t understand, when you weren’t sure how it could work,” I remind her. “I’m doing the same thing. I love them, Sophie. I love them enough to propose to them and you know how I’ve always felt about marriage.”

She nods once.

“I wouldn’t give up a single terrible moment, a single injury I’ve endured if it meant losing them. I don’t have any doubts about being with them. They’re wonderful to me, they’re good for me, and we bring out the best in each other,” I insist.

“You’re overselling, Dorogaya,” Hunter says. “We only make you more lethal.”

“You make me strong enough to face my father, to deal with my mother, and support me so much I feel like I could run for president, so don’t you dare minimize. I’ll have to talk to you and Chase about that in counseling,” I say.

Hunter takes a slow breath and nods.

Sophia shakes her head. “And Holden, you knew the whole time?”

“I did, but what was the point of saying anything? It won’t change what they were born into or that Valerie loves them, baby.” He shrugs.

I can see she’s worried about something. She touches her stomach and I perk. “Areyoupregnant?”

She nods. “Yes. And now I’m wondering how the hell I made you godmother when you’re involved in the mafia.”

“Because you know that I’d protect your kids with my life and so would my fiancés. In fact, we’re more equipped to do that than anyone,” I growl.

Roman smirks. “That’s an excellent point.”

“Aren’t mafia’s pretty ... traditional?” Gunner asks. “I mean, it was passed down to Chase, bypassing Hunter, but you being involved with three guys in the mafia, you being ... your normal prickly self, how is that working?”

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