“I didn’t bring my swimwear?” I ask, hurrying after him as he walks straight past the pool. Crap, I’ll need some for Monaco.
“I’m teaching you to fight, not to swim.” He stops at the second door and spins to face me, a frown cutting across his face. “You can swim, right?”
I roll my eyes, catching the twitch of his fingers like he’s restraining himself. “Yes, Drago. I know basic survival. And I can shoot. I just can’t fight. I was a ballerina, not a boxer.”
As I step closer, he swings the door open.
On the right, a punching bag and black padded floor mats wait for me. My stomach sinks. Mirrors surround the room.
I stay rooted to the spot while Drago heads for the shelving at the back. “Come on then, little fighter. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
My feet refuse to move.
His steps approach, and suddenly, he’s in front of me, solid and towering. “Lily, I will never hurt you. My job is to protect you.”
I swallow. “Then why do I need to fight if you’re my bodyguard now?”
He blinks slowly, dragging a hand along his jaw. “Worst case scenario planning. If something happens to me, I need to know you can survive. We’re heading out of the country. I need to assess your skill.”
My gaze drops to the floor as I tug my sleeves over my hands.
His palm settles on my shoulder. Anyone else touching me like this would have me flinching.
Not him.
I lift my eyes to his.
“Someone really wants to hurt me?” I whisper.
I cannot go through that again. I won’t always have someone to swoop in and save me.
“Not you directly. It’s more in case you get caught in the crossfire. The men we’re going after, they’re evil. They have no limits. Women. Children. They’ll harm anyone who threatens their empire. Your father is a person of interest to them now, which, by default, makes you one too. And I won’t let any of them hurt either of you.”
The sincerity in his voice knocks the breath from my lungs. He speaks about my father with reverence. And yet here I am, wanting him to do the most sinful things to me. In that respect, I don’t care about his friendship with my father.
“Why do you do so much for my father?” I ask, planting a hand on my hip.
“He’s the man who saved me. The man who gave me a second chance in life when my parents couldn’t.”
My chest tightens. Why couldn’t he do that for me? “How nice for you. I’m glad he could parent one of us.”
The anger burns hot, but I know it’s completely misdirected. It isn’t Drago’s fault. It’s my father’s.
Drago sighs, stepping back. “Your father loves you more than you realize.”
I scoff and stalk toward the mat. “I guess. It’s just hard to understand why both of my parents basically abandoned me.”
Drago pins me with a look sharp enough to cut.
“What?” I snap.
He shakes his head. “I understand you’re hurt. He did it out of a good place in his heart.”
I lift a hand to stop him. His eyes widen. “Hurt? He abandoned me and left me with my mom in another country. He never once showed up when it mattered.”
He looks away. “Maybe not in person. But he was there. He knew.”
A hollow laugh leaves me. “Sending a fucking mafia lackey to my graduation doesn’t count as being a good dad. Giving me his blood money to start a gallery after I was nearly ra?—”
