"It wasn't your fault. You left me in a place that should have been safe. With someone to keep an eye on me," I reassured him, willing him to see the truth to my words. I couldn't have been more protected unless I'd been at the Bellandi Estate.
"You were still attacked," he sighed.
"Did you know him? Was he an employee who turned or something?" I asked, moving to the fridge and glancing in at the stash of food that hadn't been there that morning. "You still never told me when you go shopping."
"We pay a shopper to do it for a bunch of us in the community. I give her a list every week and she delivers. She's married to one of the dealers, so she knows to keep her mouth shut," Enzo answered, leaning his ass against the counter as I dug through the fridge and considered the ingredients. There was a ton of food at my disposal, but without scouring his cupboards, too, I wanted something simple. Few ingredients but just flat out good food. Grabbing the ground beef out, I set it on the counter and opened the pantry. The container of oil I'd seen the night before was exactly what I was looking for. Grabbing the dutch oven from the rack in the pantry, I carted both over to the stove and filled the pot with the oil. "What are you doing?"
"Cooking you dinner," I said, giving him a shy smile. In all our nights together, we were typically so busy we had food delivered to the gym or the club or the house and then passed out in exhaustion. Having to do everything together wasn't practical when we both lived busy lives. There was a reason that Matteo had Scar protect Ivory. Why Lino had Ciro protect Samara. Why Calla had Dante.
I just wasn't ready to suggest that maybe it was time to resume our individual schedules, or insinuate that I'd need a bodyguard for the rest of my life. Still clinging to that trace of hope that when the war was over, just maybe I could return to being on my own again.
"What are you making?" he asked as I set a second pan on the stove and threw some ground beef into it. Grabbing spices from the cupboard, I added them liberally.
"I may not be Ivory," I laughed. "But I can make a mean empanada." While that cooked, I moved on to making the dough.
"You're going to make empanadas? You can cook?" he asked, giving me the face I'd grown to expect.
"Yes, I can cook," I laughed, but unease slithered down my spine. I'd never cooked for Patrick or anyone else. It was one of those activities that revealed too much about my compulsions to risk it, so I avoided it entirely like the coward I was. Enzo grabbed a wooden spoon, stirring the beef as I added ingredients and worked butter into the dough with my hands.
Rebel moved to her bed when she realized more steak wasn't coming, settling down with a full tummy and having a well-deserved nap. It must have been exhausting to kill a man. I knew I felt dead on my feet, but drawing Enzo away from the melancholic place I could feel him retreating to felt more important than sleep in that moment.
Between attacking me in his nightmares and the attack at Tease, for Enzo the blows to his confidence in his ability to keep me safe just kept coming. He sighed finally, checking his phone for an update from Ryker. "He didn't work at Tease. Or anywhere for the Bellandis."
"So what the fuck was he doing back there?" I asked, furrowing my brow.
"Looking for someone. One of the guards was distracted by a pretty piece of ass. We won’t know anything about whether they were there for you or Yavin or someone else and just took what they could get until we find the woman. Yavin is the most likely target considering he’s marrying Murphy’s fiancé, but I also put a gun to the man’s head at the meet.”
"He was probably actually there for Yavin," I murmured. "Why would anyone have a plan to infiltrate Tease when I've only been there once before? It wasn't your scheduled day to go either, so it's not like someone could have learned our schedule and predicted it," I said. Enzo grinned as he listened to me speak. "He was there for Yavin, but he saw me and decided I'd probably be an easier target but still make Tiernan happy."
"Exactly," Enzo agreed. "It was a mix of a personal vendetta against me and just you being in the wrong place at the wrong time." The ground beef finished cooking as I washed my hands, and Enzo flipped the stove off. I stepped up to him, cupping his face and pulling him down to kiss him.
"It's not your fault," I said.
"But it is somewhat. My shit is blowing back on you already."
"I'll be fine. I always am. We just have to trust each other," I murmured, biting his bottom lip and teasing him into a deeper kiss.
His tongue met mine, accepting what I offered. There would be no better way to celebrate being alive than losing myself in Enzo.
And there'd be no better way to distract him from the guilt plaguing his soul.
He wrapped his arms around me finally, taking the kiss deeper and feeding into everything I wanted to give and take from him. With nothing more to stand in our way, he lifted me into his arms and set me on a clean part of the kitchen island. I broke away, smiling against his cheek as his teeth bit into my neck sharply. "This will need to be disinfected."
He laughed, "Don't care."
For just a few minutes, neither did I.
29
