Ildaria shifted slightly, her gaze sliding between the two sets of men, and then muttered, “No. I handled it.”
“Yeah. Good job,” Tybo said. “Ever consider becoming an Enforcer? We could use you.”
Ildaria started to shake her head, but then paused. “Would becoming an Enforcer mean they couldn’t drag me back to the Dominican?”
“You do not need to be an Enforcer for that,” Valerian assured her firmly. “Lucian already told them they were not allowedto force you out of the country.”
“Lucian knew they were here and didn’t tell me?” Ildaria squawked with a combination of shock and anger.
“He called to warn you, but you didn’t answer the phone so he left a message and then had us follow these guys to make surethey didn’t cause trouble,” Tybo explained patiently.
Ildaria scowled at this news. She hadn’t answered her phone because it was presently up in her apartment in a Ziploc bag fullof rice. She’d stuck it in her back pocket while she and G.G. were bowling, and forgot about it . . . until she went to usethe public washroom and it had tumbled out of her pocket into the toilet. She’d been having such a good time on her date thatshe’d laughed at it at the time. She wasn’t laughing now, and made a mental note to herself to keep her phone safe and onher person at all times. It was an important lifeline now that her past had caught up to her.
“Sadly, it appears they decided to ignore Lucian and come after you anyway,” Valerian commented, drawing her attention backto the men as the one with the shoe in his mouth tried to talk. The shoe made his speech too garbled to understand.
“Can you read him?” Tybo asked Valerian, obviously curious about what the South American was trying to say.
The blond shook his head. “With the pain he is in I am not even going to try.”
Tybo grunted, looking disappointed, but then shrugged. “Well, I guess we’ll find out once we get him back to the Enforcerhouse and heal him up.”
Nodding, Valerian glanced at Ildaria. “Are you all right?”
“Si,” she murmured, but didn’t mention that the two men hadn’t got the chance to lay a hand on her.
Valerian hesitated and then asked, “Are you done out here?” When she nodded, he suggested, “Then perhaps you should take H.D.inside. We do not know how many of them are in the city and will not be here to watch you until we deliver these two to Mortimer.”
Ildaria stiffened at that. She hadn’t even considered that there might be others. Now her arms tightened around H.D. and herwary gaze slid over the dark parking lot. She didn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone there, hidingbehind a vehicle or something.
“There could be others inside,” Tybo pointed out.
Valerian clucked with irritation at the suggestion and then turned back to Ildaria. “On second thought, wait until we knockthese two out and truss them up, then one of us will walk you up to your apartment and check it out before we go.”
Ildaria considered refusing the offer. She’d been alone a long time with no one to turn to for help before Vasco and Cristo had entered her life ten years ago. And she hadn’t turned to them so much as they’d looked out for her, whether she liked it or not. Jess and then Marguerite had followed, both insisting on helping despite her best efforts to avoid it. But that didn’t mean she was used to accepting aid.
On the other hand, she didn’t really feel like having to fight again if a compatriot of one of these two was waiting inside.Besides, she was out of shoes.
A hissing pfffft of sound caught her ear, and she glanced around to see that Tybo had just shot the man who presently had her shoe heel buriedin the side of his face. Once he fell, she saw that the heel had entered through his maxilla—the bone that forms the upperjaw. It had entered at a slanted upward angle too, going in just below and to the side of his nose and she suspected hittingand piercing his nasal bone at the top between the eyes. At least, there was a lump there that could be the end of the shoeheel.
Ildaria eyed the shoe now stuck to his face and felt her shoulders droop unhappily. They’d been super expensive because ofthe metal heels, but she hadn’t been able to resist buying them. She’d really liked the little black bows on the back. Sohad G.G. At least he’d had her wearing them, or a version of them in every dream they’d shared. Sometimes, they were all hehad her wearing.
“We’ll get the shoes back to you,” Valerian said beside her.
Ildaria watched Tybo move on to shoot the man with her other heel in his groin and grimaced. She didn’t really think she wanted them back now, but she didn’t say that. Valerian was already moving to pick up the shoe-faced man while Tybo bent to the other one and heaved him over his shoulder.
“Fortunately, we parked back here,” Tybo told her as he and Valerian carried the men to a black SUV parked next to G.G.’spickup.
“Convenient,” Ildaria murmured, petting H.D. soothingly as she watched the Enforcers dump both men in the back of the SUV.
The two men didn’t debate who would do what, Valerian simply told Tybo to wait with the vehicle and shoot the men again ifthey stirred, then returned to Ildaria.
He took her elbow to lead her to the door, but pulled her behind his back and took the lead when they reached it, so thathe could check inside first and be sure the way was clear. He then led her up to her floor and did the same there.
“Which one?” he asked glancing toward the two
