Page 96 of The Enemy Protector
"Maybe.”
"Why didn't you?"
“I’m your father’s enemy.”
She looks at me for a long moment. I can see her deciding how many questions to ask right now versus how many to hold. This is one of the things about her that unsettles me most, that incredible self-control. She has a young woman's instincts and a much older woman's patience.
She doesn't push.
I'm grateful she doesn’t. I have things I still owe her. Tonight is not the night. Maybe after her father dies.
"That night in the alley," she says slowly, like she’s tiptoeing into the memory. "You carried me."
"Yes."
"You apologized."
"I was late. I should have had better eyes on you."
"You said you'd promised her."
I remember the words. I remember the fear I felt at the thought I failed Elena. Sofia had felt so small and fragile in my arms. Vulnerable.
"I know what I said,” I say.
She nods slowly. I see the realization dawning. She had no one to ask about that night. I’m giving her the pieces she didn’t have.
I find myself wanting to go to her again. I want to pull her into my arms and make her feel safe. I see that fear in her eyes as she relives that night. Her bottom lip trembles. It’s barely noticeable, but I see it. I see her hands clench.
And then the Sofia of today is back. Her chin tilts up. Her shoulders go back just a touch.
"Thank you," she says finally. "For that night."
"You were reckless."
Her face goes from steely resolve to surprise in the blink of an eye.
“What?”
"You were eighteen years old with a fake ID and you went somewhere you had no business being. You allowed yourself to get drunk. Took drinks from strange men. You allowed men close enough to put their hands on you." The anger I have felt over that night bleeds through my words. Three years of knowing how close it came and what another sixty seconds would have meant. "Reckless. Foolish.”
Her chin comes up. "I was eighteen."
"And now you’re twenty-one and still making foolish decisions.”
"I went toclassthis morning."
I get to my feet and round the desk, but I don’t close the distance. I don’t trust myself not to grab her and shake her.
"You went to class with a target on you and then went to see your father while Yuri is still unaccounted for. You walked into the lion’s den.”
“Youletme,” she sneers. “Remember?”
“You would have gone anyway.”
“Because I’m a grown ass woman and I can go where I want—including my house!”
“That’s your father’s house.”
