We’d capped off his experience with a trip to the morgue, and a few looks at the unfortunate sons of bitches who’d been on the wrong side of a drive-by bullet had him puking up his lunch in a trash can.

That was the best way I could explain this life. If you want to live until you’re old and rocking on your front porch, your white-haired woman beside you, then don’t get in it.

But what did that mean for me? Fuck, I’d never intended to fall in love. Didn’t even see that shit coming. But I also couldn’t deny it. Couldn’t stop it. Didn’t want to change it. My path was filled with land mines. I couldn’t bring her down it. I couldn’t do that to anyone I gave a damn about.

So that left me with two options: find a new path or let her go.

Hennessy would be fucking waiting with open arms if I did it. Might be better for her, but I wasn’t about to give her up. No one’s future was final. I had plenty of power, and just maybe I could find a way to have it all. I liked that idea. Having it all.

As I made my way through the darkened yards of the Garden District to get into Valentina’s the back way, I moved slower than normal because of the pain in my side. Didn’t want to tear the good doctor’s stitches out. Maybe the first thing on my list of having it all would be a key to her place.

As I slipped through her back gate and up to the door I used routinely to break in, I laughed to myself. A guy like me didn’t need a key because you couldn’t keep me out anyway. I also needed to upgrade Valentina’s security system. It wasn’t much of a challenge anymore.

Making my way quietly through the house because I knew Trinity was sleeping somewhere, I headed for the stairs.

The girl’s voice stopped me. “Did you get an update on Derrick?”

Trinity had asked me more than once. All three times I’d forced the FNDs to let me talk to her to assure her safety, and then again after shit had gone down and we’d gotten out of there. I wasn’t the only one to catch a bullet, but my guy’s wounds had been superficial compared to the FNDs. We’d left two bodies behind when shit had gone south. Trinity didn’t know that either. She’d been a good kid and run when I’d told her to run.

But D-Rock. Fuck. I’d kept telling her he was recovering from the car wreck, which was true, but he was also recovering five states away and had been banned from coming back to NOLA because he’d pissed me the fuck off. She didn’t need him screwing up her life again. Because of the respect I had for Valentina, I’d keep D-Rock as far away from the girl as I possibly could.

“Not tonight.”

Her face fell.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed, girl?”

Shuffling her feet, she shrugged. “Yeah, but I wanted to talk to you first.”

“Okay. Talk.” My patience was running thin after the clusterfuck of a night, especially now that I was only steps away from Valentina’s bed.

“You’re going to tell her what happened, right? Because I didn’t tell her anything.”

Well, that was good at least.

“I’ll tell her.”

The girl finally met my eyes, and concern lined her face. “She’s good people. Please make sure you know what you’re doing with her. I don’t want to see her get hurt. She doesn’t know that I know, but she’s been through some tough stuff. She deserves her happily-ever-after.”

Getting warned off from another source wasn’t doing anything to improve my mood. But these two shared a bond that I didn’t quite understand, so I wasn’t going to question it.

“You’ve got my word.”

Trinity’s face lit up. “You’re going to make sure she gets that happily-ever-after, right? She needs it. She won’t ever admit it, but she wants to get married and have babies, and I know she’ll be the best mom ever.”

I held up a hand. “Whoa. Slow down, girl. One step at a time.”

Trinity’s smile didn’t fade. “You might not realize it, Rix, but you’re a knight, whether your armor is shiny or not. You saved me, and I know you’ll protect her. Sometimes the dragon is a better choice for the princess than a prince.”

Now the girl was talking in so many mixed fairy-tale metaphors, I didn’t even know how to respond.

“Go to bed, kid. Get back to your life, and keep an eye on Valentina when I can’t.”

“Done.”

She gave me another brilliant smile and spun before heading down the hallway toward the guest room.

I wanted nothing more than to go climb in bed with Valentina upstairs, but the studio drew me in. It was like a window into her thoughts and feelings, and one I knew I was never supposed to see.

The piece on the easel wasn’t finished, but seeing it rocked me all the same.

This one wasn’t of a person, it was two partial people, walking down a tree-lined path, holding hands. One tanned the color of my skin, and the other pale like Valentina’s.

Trinity’s words rolled through my brain. Happily ever after. Babies. Those things had never existed as a possibility in my world. Could they?

Something about the woman sleeping upstairs made me refuse to rule them out.

I crept up the creaky old staircase, avoiding the noisy treads. It was telling that I knew what steps to avoid when I wanted to be silent.

As much as I wanted to slide inside Valentina while she was still half-asleep, I didn’t wake her tonight as I climbed between her pristine white sheets. There was a kid in the house, and when I took Valentina again, I wanted her screaming my name.

THE SUN SHINING BRIGHTLY THROUGH the bay window in my bedroom woke me gradually until I registered the heat against my back and the arm wrapped around me. My eyes snapped open.

He was here.

And he hadn’t woken me.

I turned in his arms and found him wide awake. “How long have you been here?”

“A while.”

“How long have you been awake?”

“A while.”

I flipped the sheet back so I could get a look at his side. A clean bandage covered it. My hair fell into my face as my gaze darted back up to his and I asked, “Are you okay?”

Rix nodded and reached up to tuck my hair behind my ear. “I’m fine. Your girl’s fine. So I’d say life is pretty good.”

“You got hurt getting her out, though. Tell me what happened.”

The soft smile on Rix’s face faded a few degrees. “You don’t need to know anything except that she’s back and she’s fine. No harm to her.”