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  "I did." Edenia beamed. "I told you he was a smart

  dog. You are, aren't you, Wiggles?" She bent down and Wiggles licked her face.

  "Trainable, yes. Smart, I don't know." Even covered with dog slobber, she was beautiful. Alvar forced himself to address her friend. "Stigr."

  "Alvar."

  Stigr didn't trust him. Good. He didn't trust Stigr either. "Add any numbers today?"

  "A few." Colorless lips thinned. "Beat anyone up today?"

  "No one yet." Alvar grinned. "But if you're offering to volunteer…"

  Edenia gave him one of her 'you-better-behave' looks as she pulled the overexcited Wiggles into his box. The door shut, there was a solid thud against it and Alvar winced. Wiggles had to be the dumbest beagle alive.

  Stigr sighed, studying the closed door. "Research says abused women go from abuser to abuser."

  "I would never hurt her." It would kill him.

  "You could."

  Everyone had that potential. Abusers weren't all big guys. "I wouldn't."

  "You better not."

  Or what? Alvar wanted to ask. He didn't. He wouldn't humiliate Stigr. Not for defending Edenia.

  "You want a coffee?" Edenia was back, brushing the dog hair off her hands, completely oblivious to the undercurrents.

  "Yes," both men replied at the same time, neither willing to be the first to leave.

  "Good 'cause I don't want to be alone." Although she smiled at both of them, she held Alvar's hand as they walked towards the house.

  "Stigr reminded me about something." Edenia glanced at her friend. "Wiggles likes shoes." A significant pause.

  What was she talking about? "The dog wears shoes?"

  A choked sound beside her.

  "No, no, he likes to chew on them. He ate a pair of my sandals." She grimaced. "Italian leather."

  "Sank his teeth into my best dress shoes. Prada," Stigr added. "They were ruined."

  "He likes the good stuff." Prada. Alvar examined his own serviceable steel toes. "We can…"

  Stigr stopped suddenly, his head snapping up.

  Trouble. Alvar reacted immediately, putting himself in front of Edenia. "What is it?" He saw nothing out of place.

  "You expecting a delivery, Denie?"

  "No." Alvar's back muffled her answer.

  He followed Stigr's line of sight. A piece of paper pinned to the door flapped in the wind. A piece of paper. Alvar relaxed. Mierda. Stigr's nervousness was rubbing off on him.

  He bounded up the steps, feeling foolish. Then he scanned the message and that feeling disappeared. "Dios."

  Edenia poked her head under his arm. "What?"

  "No." Alvar fastened a hand on her hip and swiveled on his heel, sweeping her along with him. "Don't touch it." He'd have the prints lifted. "Into the Hummer," he barked. It was his Boss' vehicle. The glass was bullet proof.

  "But…" Stigr protested.

  "Both of you. Now." Although he didn't like Stigr, his job was to protect. And that meant everyone. Edenia didn't argue, traipsing along silently by his side, her bright eyes on his face.

  Only when they were safely in the huge black Hummer, the doors securely locked, did she ask "What did it say, Alvar?"

  He swept his hand over his skull. "Leave the past in the past."

  "Leave the past… This is about you." Pale eyes blazed from the back seat. "Your past. You're putting her in danger with your investigation." A sarcastic twist on investigation.

  "Stigr." This truth Alvar didn't want to hear.

  "But no, you had to poke around," her friend didn't heed his warning, "and now Denie is…"

  "Shut. The hell. Up."

  There was stunned silence for a couple seconds, Alvar regretting his lack of control.

  "I'm calling the cops." Stigr pulled out his phone.

  "No." For this trivial threat, they'd send a rookie. "I'll have my people handle it." Mr. Santos employed the best security team in the world.

  "But…" Stigr wasn't backing down.

  He didn't have time for this. "Let me do my damn job, Stigr. You…" A soft hand covered his.

  "Alvar will take care of it." Edenia's brown eyes mirrored trust, the grumbling from the backseat ignored. "I know you want to take action but…" She squeezed Alvar's fingers twice.

  Give her friend something to do, the silent communication. Mierda. Alvar tapped his right foot, thinking. He could. He had to make calls. Look around. "You'll stay with Edenia. You'll lock the door after me. You won't open it for anyone but me. No matter what happens. Understand?" They both nodded. "Stigr, if I don't come back in three hours." Edenia's fingernails dug into his skin. "Then you can call the cops, yes?" A sullen yes from her friend. "If anything happens to her, Stigr…"

  "I'll protect her with my life."

  Alvar believed him. "Oh, you are. Trust me. Because if she's harmed, death will seem like a pleasant alternative."

  For some reason, that made Edenia smile. She leaned close to whisper, "Thank you."

  Alvar gently cupped her sweet face in his hands. "You'll be safe, love." The endearment slipped out. "No one will harm you. I won't let them." He kissed her forehead.

  "I know." No hesitation, no doubt.

  He brushed her lips with his and reluctantly released her. He had to do this. She'd be safe in the Hummer. Alvar met Stigr's gaze in the rearview mirror, nodded, and opened the door.

  ~ * ~

  "This house is not secure at all." Alvar paced back and forth. "We'll have to install an alarm system, motion detectors, and cameras." He counted off on his fingers.

  "No cameras in the house." This was her home, soon-to-be their home. She didn't want some creep in a monitoring station watching them.

  "Edenia, love." He stopped. "The Boss has…"

  "I don't care." Alvar had told her about his super paranoid Boss, but she wasn't some crime lord and she wouldn't live like one. "No cameras inside."

  "It…"

  "You can have as many as you want outside," she compromised.

  He narrowed his eyes at her. She narrowed hers right back. "Dios." Breath blew out through flared nostrils. "I'm clearing the trees around the house."

  Her beautiful trees. "You're moving them."

  "Far away." He turned to the front window, flinging aside the lace curtain, yanking at the frame. There was a crack and the pane slid up. "This will have to be replaced."

  Because he broke the latch. Not everyone had his strength. Edenia watched with trepidation as a huge hand covered the front doorknob. He had to be distracted from his security check or she wouldn't have much of a house left.

  "There's another window in the bedroom." Without waiting for his reply, Edenia hurried down the hallway.

  She knew this was coming. It was part of the trade-off in a relationship. Alvar was a man, men expected sex, and if she could take the pain with Dimas, she could take it with the man she loved.

  "A two story house is more secure." Alvar's warm breath fanned her neck, he was that close.

  "I'm not moving." She liked this old ranch house, as similar to their dream house as she could find. "You don't like it?" She waved a hand in the direction of her window.

  "It's not that." He was more careful with the silk curtains, a sign he was calming down. "It's about your safety." Another crack. "This will have to be replaced also."

  "Then it won't be secure tonight." She stepped towards him, uncertain. She had never been the aggressor with Dimas. He had simply flung her on the bed face down, ripped off her clothes and… She shuddered.

  "No." Alvar looked over his shoulder. Seeing her proximity, he turned.

  "Maybe you should stay." Her hand shook as she touched his shoulder. This was Alvar, she reminded herself, she could do this.

  "Maybe I should." He folded her into his arms, pressing her against his chest. "Are you scared, love?"

  "Yes." She was. Would she love him after this? After he inflicted pain? Edenia couldn't look at him. She let her hand drift down.

>   Alvar sucked in his breath. "No one will hurt you, I promise."

  He would and she didn't want him to feel guilt. "I know pain is a part of it, Alvar." She undid his top button. "It doesn't matter." Another button. "I want this."

  "Pain?" Alvar stared at her bowed head, frustrated and confused. He couldn't think clearly when she touched him.

  "You know." She glanced at the bed as her fingers worked on his shirt. "Pain."

  Pain. Robano, that bastard. Alvar gritted his teeth to keep from exploding.

  "But that's okay," she soothed. "I can take it. I want to do this. For us."

  Dios, he was unworthy. "There won't be any pain, love." He hoped. He was a large guy and it had been fifteen years.

  "You'll do your best, I know." She gave him an indulgent look. "But if there is…"

  He couldn't bear to hear more so he kissed her, showing her with his mouth how it would be between them.

  "Oh, Alvar, " she sighed, sagging against him, her arms around his neck.

  "Yes, Alvar." He wasn't her late husband, he would assure her of that. Alvar peppered her glowing face with noisy kisses until she laughed. He then kissed under her chin. She tilted her head back so he could nip on her neck.

  She tensed when he picked her up but relaxed again as he laid her gently on the bed. He hesitated, his gut seizing when she turned onto her stomach, her perky ass in the air. Robano, that perverted bastard. He would make her forget him. "You're so lovely, Edenia." He rolled her back so she faced him.

  "But?"

  Alvar kissed her bewilderment away, laying down alongside her. "Let me love you." He ran reverent hands over her clothed form, well aware of the gift she was giving him. "So beautiful." He cupped her breasts and her eyes widened. He circled his thumbs over her nipples and she arched.

  "Alvar?" Her own hands hovered, unsure.

  Alvar wanted those soft hands on his bare skin. He shrugged out of his shirt. Edenia sat up, following his lead, pulling her tee over her head, exposing golden curves. She was so, so… Words left him as she shyly unhooked her white cotton bra, her dark curls falling forward. He kept his eyes on her down turned face, tucking a soft lock behind her ear. She gave him a nervous smile.

  "Touch me, love." He kissed her again, to reassure her, reminding her of who he was, of how he felt about her. The pads of her fingers fluttered over his bare shoulders, like butterfly wings. Then as his rough hands caressed her breasts, fingernails pressed into his skin.

  His mouth on hers, he caught the hiccup in her breathing as he unbuttoned her jeans, unzipping, sliding the faded denim down. "Edenia?" He paused. Although it might very well kill him, he would only go as far as she wanted.

  She broke their kiss and his heart sank. "I want to do this, Alvar." She reached down, her hands trembling so badly, she needed both to unbuckle his belt. "I have to do this. Help me."

  A plea he didn't ignore. Alvar stripped off the rest of his clothes. She inched back, those big brown eyes widening as they roved his body. He flexed under her perusal, waiting for her reaction.

  "Am I supposed to?" Her palms turned upwards.

  "No supposed to's." He gave her another kiss to bolster their courage, exploring her body with his hands, lower and lower, until he was stroking her.

  Edenia was lost. She didn't know what was happening, what she was supposed to do, so she lay back, eyes closing, giving herself over to Alvar's touch, to the puzzling feelings he was drawing from her, the unbearable itch. She needed something. She didn't know what. Her hips moved of their own volition, as though he could give it to her.

  The movement increased the need until she couldn't bear it anymore. "Alvar!" Her body seized and her world exploded, fireworks bursting on her closed eyelids in a kaleidoscope of color, a flush of pleasure bathing her skin.

  "Alvar?" Bemused, she opened her eyes. He grinned down at her, a smug smile on his face. "You?" He nodded. He had given her this. "That was wonderful." He was wonderful.

  His eyes danced even as he frowned. "Could have been better, love."

  Better. "It couldn't." Better would kill her.

  "Those were my fingers. Now if it had been…" He looked down.

  She followed his gaze. Was it possible? She bit the inside of her cheek. Could the part of the male anatomy she always associated with pain give her pleasure? Dimas had hurt her. But then, she lined up her palm with Alvar's, he had also used his fingers to hurt her, while Alvar, she shuddered as another tremor rippled through her body, Alvar had used his to give her such joy.

  Decided, she gripped his hand tightly. "Show me how it could be better."

  ~ * ~

  "Where the hell is that friend of yours?" He said he'd be there by six and here it was five minutes after six. Alvar was trusting the unreliable Stigr with the most precious thing in the world, Edenia's life. Dios. He paced. Why was he doing this again?

  Because Stigr cared for Edenia. Alvar recalled the devotion on the man's face. Because he hadn't anyone else. Because he needed the Boss' resources to track the killer down.

  "He'll come," Edenia soothed. "And if he doesn't, I have Blue for company." She snapped her fingers to capture the hound dog's attention. "Go to work. I'll be okay."

  "You'd be better off with Wiggles." Blue wasn't protecting anyone. He could barely make it up the stairs.

  Edenia drew the struggling dog up into her lap. "I wouldn't have a shoe left with Wiggles."

  "You'd be…" Alvar stopped as Stigr's sleek silver Mercedes pulled into the drive. "Finally." He strode towards the car. "You stay there." He didn't want Edenia to hear this.

  "But…"

  "Stay." Blue sat in Edenia's lap, drooping eyes expectant. "I have things to say to Stigr."

  "Play nice," she called after him.

  Play nice? A killer was after her and she wanted him to play nice? Hell. He twisted his mouth up into a smile, and heard her laugh.

  Stigr wasn't laughing. Exiting the car, he looked as serious as Alvar felt. "Alvar."

  "Stigr." He nodded. "Jack will be here in a half hour." Another person looking out for Edenia. "Dark guy, this tall," Alvar indicated a couple inches shorter than himself. "Walks with a limp. He'll be driving a black Escalade, bullet proof glass. If there are any problems, you get Edenia in there. And I don't want you to leave her alone for a second, you understand? Not until we put this bastard behind bars."

  Pale eyes flickered. "You think he deserves jail time for killing Robano?"

  "Hell no." Alvar snorted. "If he wasn't after Edenia, I'd thank the man myself, but since he is…" He shrugged. Alvar looked over his shoulder. Edenia watched them. Mierda. He loomed closer. Stigr nervously stepped back, pressing against the car, his hand on the door handle. "Look Stigr, I want you to have this." He took the gun out of his pocket, shielding it with his hand. "In case."

  Stigr glanced at Edenia and turned slightly so Alvar blocked her view. "No need." He raised his black leather jacket. "I have my own."

  A Glock. Alvar grunted, surprised. "You know how to use it?"

  "I wouldn't carry it otherwise."

  Maybe Stigr wasn't as inept as he looked. "Regardless, you stick close to Jack." Jack knew what to do. "I'm counting on you, Stigr." His voice broke, the weakness irking him.

  "Nothing will happen to Edenia." Stigr tilted his head, sizing Alvar up. "You love her, don't you?"

  "Always." From that first meeting.

  "Then why didn't you stop him?"

  They were no longer talking about the killer. "Robano was a powerful man." Connections everywhere. "I didn't know how, not without risking Edenia." And in not knowing, Alvar had failed her. Serving her prison time was the least he could do.

  "Edenia wasn't the only one he hurt."

  As the bastard's bodyguard, Alvar knew that. "She was the only one I cared about."

  ~ * ~

  "Fuck, finally." Mr. Santos waited for him at the breakfast table, an untouched place setting to his left. "You deliver it?"

  "Yes, Boss.
" As instructed, he had placed the watch box in the locker.

  "He pick it up?" His Boss spun a purple envelope on the wooden surface.

  "Yes, Boss."

  "Good." A glimmer of life sparked in those dead eyes. "You're not a complete fuck up, Alvar." Alvar drew himself up proudly. From the Boss, that was the highest of compliments. "Sit the fuck down."

  He pulled out the chair in front of the empty place setting.

  "Not there," Mr. Santos roared. "Fuck."

  His Boss was insane. Well and truly. Alvar kept his opinions to himself and his mouth shut, moving to sit on his right.

  "Your information." Mr. Santos slid a stack of papers five inches thick his way. "A world class collection of scumbags. Makes me look like Mother fuckin' Teresa." He took his knife out, the big blade glistening. "Patron saint of fuckin' old ladies," he grumbled.

  "Boss?" Alvar was only half listening as he flipped through the mug shots. Hong Kong Triad, Italian Mafia, Russian… Mierda, who hadn't Robano dealt with?

  "Fuck. And, clearly, of jackasses too. You move in tonight." The knife twirled so fast, it was a silver blur. "Marie is getting your fuckin' room ready."

  "Edenia…"

  "Will be pissed. Shit. Grow a pair, Alvar. This is the safest place in the fuckin' city."

  Mr. Santos was one to talk, Mrs. Santos who knows where. "Jack is putting in cameras."

  "Fan-fuckin'-tastic." A twist of grim lips. "We'll have your throat slittings on video." He made a slash with his knife an inch from his own throat. "And I'll have to replace another fuckin' bodyguard. Dios, Alvar, don't fuck with your Edenia's life." Mr. Santos pointed the blade at him.

  Dios indeed. Alvar skimmed his skull with a moist palm. His Edenia. Dead. Mierda. He'll bring it up again but when she decided upon something, it was hellishly hard to change her mind. "I'm going to find this bastard." That would solve everything.

  "Once Jack is through installing your fuckin' entertainment system, he'll compare the faces to the videos. Killers like to scope out the territory before making a move." Mr. Santos sounded certain about that. "You have a look too. If the asshole is a professional, he'll know about the fuckin' cameras and avoid them."