Sasha

Victoria and I dress quick like bunnies and hop downstairs to make French toast before we go to work with Xander. I feel like shit tagging along, but it seems I don’t have much choice in things anymore.

Fucking Enrique. Fuck him and his perfect black, wavy hair and deep chocolate eyes that drew me in. Fuck his tall, lean body and his boyish charm that made me fall for him. And fuck him for being able to spot a weak, naive woman from a mile away to take advantage of.

There was a time when he took me to Mexico when he was so mean to me, that I thought he might have brought me there to sell me. It would have been so easy for him to do. There was no one who would come looking for me, no family other than my mom, and she thought Enrique was the shit.

But then he married me, and I thought oh well he’s weird and a little rude, but nobody’s perfect, right?

Wrong.

Xander Sullivan is perfect—as perfect as a man needs to be anyway.

The doorbell rings yanking me from my thoughts. My hands are in soapy water washing the breakfast dishes. I don’t like to put them in the dishwasher when there are only a few. Xander is at the top of the stairs when I look up.

“Got it. It’s Tito,” he says letting him in.

Ah, great, the bodyguard is here. I look at Victoria, and she’s looking up at her father who is greeting a handsome Hispanic man with salt and pepper hair.

“Tito, this is Sasha and Victoria or Tori. Girls, this is Tito. He’s going to be hanging out with us for a while making sure everybody stays safe, okay?”

Victoria looks at Tito and then at her dad and back at Tito sizing him up, and there’s a lot of him to size. Tito is at least six-foot-three or four, muscular, but not bulky like Calvin. Tito is lean and well groomed. He is impeccably dressed in a dark pair of jeans and black button-up shirt with shoes so shiny I could use them to put lipstick on.

“It’s nice to meet you, Tito. Sorry, I’m finishing up the dishes. I can’t shake your hand.”

“No problem, ma’am. It’s nice to meet you, too.”

I crank my neck to see Victoria behind me. “Psst, Victoria, say hello to Tito,” I whisper.

She’s still checking him out, but by now she’s made the decision to accept him and waves a small wave.

“Hey, little lady,” Tito says in a southern accent. I have a feeling those two are going to get along well. He sounds like a Texan right off of Dallas. Perfect.

Victoria and I exchange eyebrow-raising looks, and I drain the water from the sink. “You’d better go grab some things to do today while we’re at the clinic.”

“Okay. Why do we gotta go to the office if we got a Tito?” She says his name slow as if she’s not sure it’s a name at all.

“To be honest, I’m not sure. Maybe your daddy wants to be close to you today?”

“Huh?”

“I think maybe he was worried yesterday, so he wants to spend the day with us today. Maybe we can all go visit Zion after work?” I look at the stairs where Xander and Tito are coming down.

“Tito?” Xander asks Tito.

“At the hospital?” Tito asks.

“Yes.”

“We should be fine. I’ll have Matt stay here and keep an eye on the house,” Tito says.

“There you go. One visit to the hospital to see Zion coming right up,” Xander says.

Victoria cups her hand on the side of her mouth and whispers across the island, “Why’s Daddy asking that big man if we can go?”

I dry my hands on a towel and round the island. “Well, since Tito’s going to be keeping us safe, he’s going to make decisions on where we can go. It’s only for a while, don’t worry.”

“Daddy’s not keeping me safe anymore?”

“In a way. He hired Tito because he’s a professional. That means it’s his job to make people safe like it’s your daddy’s job to make people pretty.”

“I like Daddy keeping me safe. I don’t like strangers.”

“You like me, don’t cha?” I say crossing my fingers that she can accept Tito without a fuss.

“Yeah, but you’re like me.” Her eyes get big and round when she turns to Tito. “And he’s not.”

“Do you mean because I’m a girl?”

“No, because you know about the bad men and cuz my daddy made you pretty. He likes you.”

“You trust your daddy, don’t you?” She nods her head. “Okay then, I think if your daddy trusts Tito, then we can, too. Let’s give him a chance. Who knows, he might be fun,” I say faltering on the word fun. Tito looks strong and intimidating and handsome, but fun? I don’t know about that.

“Okay.”

“Great. Go get your stuff so we can get going.” She jumps down and takes the long way around the living room giving Tito a wide berth. I approach Tito and Xander who have been observing me talking to Victoria from across the room.

“She’s going to get her stuff. I think she’s okay with the bodyguard thing, but she’s wary.”

“That’s how she is with all strangers except for you.”

“Yeah, so she says.”

“Did she say why?”

“She says she likes me because I know about bad men and because her daddy made me pretty, and he likes me.” I roll my eyes, and he chuckles pulling me to his side.

“I did make you pretty hot, you have to admit.”

“You made me look like I did before my accident, and God was responsible for those looks, buddy.”

“Okay, you’re right. I still like you, though.”

“Thanks, I like you, too.”

“How’d she know you know about the bad men? You never told her about Enrique did you?”

“God no. I told her that I have nightmares about a bad man, nothing more.”

“That’s all it takes for a child to bond. A moment, a memory, a dream… they’re very intuitive,” Tito says. I’m impressed—good looking and smart.

“I don’t know a lot about kids, but that sounds right.”

“I’m from a family of ten. You have questions about kids, just ask,” Tito says.

“Ten? Oh my God. Victoria’s going to adore you. Did you know that’s why she loves Dallas so much? She wants to live in a huge house with all of her extended family,” I say to Xander.

Xander looks out the glass wall to the ocean, and his arm tightens around my waist. “That’s one thing I can never give her.”

“Why not? I mean I get that you can’t all live together in the same house, but you have four brothers and some with families. Why don’t you invite them out here?”

“At the moment, I’m trying to keep you both safe from a Mexican drug cartel for starters.”

I poke him in the stomach which hurts me more than him. “You know what I mean.”

“I do. We’ll talk about it another time. I need to get to the clinic. I have surgeries this morning that I had to push back.”

Victoria races down the stairs carrying her pink sparkly backpack that’s bulging at the seams. She’s getting used to packing up for the boring office, poor thing.

“Ready,” she says standing next to Xander and sliding her hand into his.

“Me, too. Let me grab my purse.”

Sometimes life is nuts, and you need a bodyguard named Tito.