“Josh,” Robert said in a warning tone.
Ildaria blinked in surprise at the name. It just sounded so odd to hear G.G. called that. Between Lucian, G.G.’s mother, andher own thoughts, she was used to Joshua, but this was the first time she’d heard him called Josh out loud.
“Angel?” G.G. asked, ignoring his father.
“I don’t think we have much choice,” Ildaria said finally.
G.G. didn’t look pleased, but he nodded grimly and promised, “I won’t leave your side.”
“Neither will I,” Robert assured her, some of the tension leaving him now that he knew they wouldn’t refuse to go. “I willbe right there with you both. I will not let anything happen to you. Anything at all,” he stressed firmly, and then added,“But this is why we are here, to deal with the matter, and I trust Lucian and Scotty. If they think you need to be there,there is a reason for it.”
Ildaria didn’t know this Scotty person, but she did know Lucian. He had been nothing but fair with her about the incidentsat the university here in Toronto, and more than fair about her vigilante activities in Montana. He could have had her executedtwice now and hadn’t. She would just have to hope that fairness continued in this instance.
Straightening her shoulders, she nodded. “Let’s get it over with then.”
Fourteen
They were halfway to the Enforcer house before Ildaria noticed that she wasn’t wearing any shoes. She also hadn’t put on stockingsor even brushed her hair, she realized. She supposed the hair was forgivable; she was stressed out and anxious about meetingthe man who had hunted and haunted her for two hundred years. But she had to wonder how she could have left her apartment,walked out to the car and got in without stockings or shoes on.
“I’m sorry,” Mirabeau said suddenly from the front passenger seat. “I was so busy watching to be sure Villaverde hadn’t senthis men to snatch you in transit, that I didn’t notice what you were or weren’t wearing.”
Ildaria glanced at her with surprise at the comment. The woman had obviously read her mind again, but had no need to apologize for not noticing her barefoot state. She herself couldn’t have said what Mirabeau was wearing on her feet right now. She just didn’t look at people’s feet very often and doubted if many people did. Besides, this situation was a tense one. She, G.G., and his parents were all very worried about the coming meeting, and the Enforcers were all concerned about watching for possible attacks. Ildaria wasn’t surprised that none of them had noticed she was shoeless.
“No bare skin to bare skin,” Mirabeau said suddenly and Ildaria followed the Enforcer’s gaze to where G.G.’s hand now hoveredover hers. Obviously, he’d been about to hold her hand to offer her comfort and been stopped just before clasping it. Nowhe rubbed her arm there through her blouse instead. Ildaria smiled at him in gratitude, but it really didn’t have as muchimpact as his holding her hand would have had.
“Here.”
She and G.G. shifted their attention to Mirabeau to see her holding out a pair of gloves. They were bright blue and made upof some kind of thin material, either rubber or silicone, it looked to her. Obviously meant for the Enforcers to use whencleaning up blood or any other wet work they encountered.
G.G. accepted the gloves and managed, with some effort, to pull one on over his large left hand. He then reached out and claspedher ungloved hand, his fingers threading with hers.
“Sam will have shoes at the house you can borrow,” Mirabeau said now.
“Shoes?” G.G. peered down at her feet, and then back up to her face with amazement. “We forgot your shoes.”
Ildaria smiled at the “we,” as if it was his responsibility to see she had shod feet. “It’s fine,” she assured him, and then asked Mirabeau, “You don’t happen to have a brush, do you?” Glancing to G.G. she added, “I forgot to brush my hair too.”
“Your hair looks beautiful,” G.G. assured her.
Ildaria doubted that, but didn’t say as much and simply looked back to Mirabeau hopefully.
“No,” the woman said apologetically. “I don’t fuss much with my hair when on the job.”
“Like you, Beau’s a natural beauty and doesn’t need to fuss,” Tiny said, meeting her gaze in the rearview mirror, and thenadded, “You look good. You have that sexy tousled look going on.”
Ildaria smiled at him for the kind words.
“Crap,” G.G. said suddenly and pulled out his cell phone.
“What is it?” Ildaria asked with concern.
“I forgot about H.D.,” he muttered, thumbing through his contacts. “I should have let him out to relieve himself before weleft. I’ll just call Sofia and ask her to do it now and to keep an eye on him while we’re gone.”
“She doesn’t have keys to my place,” Ildaria told him with a frown.
“Damn,” G.G. breathed, pausing with his thumb hovering over the phone face as he considered the problem, and then he nodded.“I’ll have her grab my spare keys out of my office. There’s a master key on it that opens every door. She can use that. Ifthat’s okay with you?” he added, giving her the opportunity to say no.
“Of course,” Ildaria said at once. “We can’t just leave the little guy there alone and hungry.” Clucking her tongue with irritation, she added, “I can’t believe we forgot about him.”
G.G. smiled faintly at her using “we” too, and then finished placing the call and raised the phone to his ear.
Ildaria listened absently as he spoke to Sofia, but her attention was on the road. They were close to the Enforcer house now.In just minutes she would be facing Juan. Ildaria would rather face a hundred Enforcers out for her blood than this man. Sheliked to think she was brave and strong, but when it came to Juan Villaverde, she was still that confused and terrified fourteen-year-oldgirl trembling and weeping on
