Her heart clenched hard at the image he created. The idea of Zale staying in his current job endlessly, just waiting for death, was too much for her. On the other hand, she didn’t want to be blackmailed emotionally into an unhealthy relationship.
“Zale, only you can be responsible for your life choices and your own happiness. Another person can’t provide that for you.”
Those dark eyes of his seemed to pierce right through her soul. “I’m not making you responsible, Vienna, although I can see where it sounds like that. I was coming back for you on my own. You don’t have to believe that, but it’s true. I thought about you day and night and the problems we’d face together. I thought about the risks to your life because of enemies I may have made along the way. I still had another year on my contract. Through all of it, I knew I was going back to you because there was no staying away.”
The sincerity in his voice, in his eyes, convinced her he was speaking the truth. What reason did he have to lie to her anymore? She already knew about Blom. Zale was never going to be hard up when it came to finding a woman who would want to have sex with him. The things he said lightened some of the terrible heartache she had been feeling since she found out his assignment had been to guard her.
“I kept tabs on you through Sam. Maybe if you’d found another man I would have stayed away, but most likely I would have come immediately.”
“How could you do that if you were on an assignment?” There was more curiosity than challenge.
His strong fingers began to massage her calf. It felt like heaven when her ankle was still throbbing with pain if she moved it too much.
“All of us have favors owed to us. I would have called in as many as I needed to. I want you to know I was already completely gone on you. I knew you had to be in my life. I just didn’t know how to safely get you there.”
“Did you tell Blom about us when he gave you the assignment to protect me?”
“The original assignment was to back up our other agents in the hotel. We had three placed in various positions. Wilder managed to get onto the security team assigned to Wallin, and there was never any suspicion falling on him. We have two other agents placed on hotel staff, not quite as effective, but they’re backup. I was telling you the truth when I said we were trying to find out who was killing our agents. I just didn’t give you the entire story.”
That reminder upset her more than she wanted to admit. “I don’t like lies, Zale. If you’re going to be half a world away where I can’t even reach you to talk to you, I have to be able to trust you implicitly. Lying about anything erodes trust, and I already have too many trust issues.”
“I realize that,” he agreed. “I knew it every single time I talked with you about what I was doing in Vegas. Elliot gave us the assignment once you made it into the semifinals and your picture was everywhere. He told us about the bet between Liam Gram, his father, and Daniel Wallin. He said he believed Wallin was trying to determine if you were Gram’s granddaughter and possible heir. At that point, he admitted to us that you are his daughter and he wanted you protected. When I told him I was involved with you, he absolutely forbade either of us to tell you the truth about who he was or that he wanted us protecting you.”
There was a tinge of anger in his voice, something she didn’t associate with him when it came to his work. Vienna fought back the urge to soothe him. She needed to hear what he had to say. It was important, and both of them were easily sidetracked because they weren’t used to having to explain their actions.
“I explained to him that my omitting information and keeping it from you could very well put my relationship with you in jeopardy. He was adamant and said then we didn’t have a very strong bond if it could be broken so easily. He’s never been in a real relationship and has no idea how difficult it can be when you’re someone like me with no background in relationships.”
“Partners don’t lie to one another, Zale,” she said. “Having been lied to for my entire life, it’s even more distasteful to think my chosen partner would choose to lie to me.”
“Lying is a part of our job. Misleading and misdirecting. That’s how we stay alive, Vienna, so Elliot acted like it was no big deal.” He ran his fingers through his hair and looked at her with his dark eyes filled with trepidation. “I knew it was. I didn’t want to deceive you, but we were under orders, and the one thing you don’t do is disobey a direct order from Elliot unless it’s a matter of life or death.”
“Lying can’t be part of our relationship, Zale.”
“There will be things I can’t tell you about my work when I’m going out,” he said.
Vienna nodded. “I can accept that. Just don’t lie to me. Tell me what you can and say up front that you’re not allowed to divulge anything else. I’ll understand.” She was silent for a moment, biting down on the corner of her lower lip. “Are you ever involved with other women as part of your job?”
His dark eyes jumped to her face. “As in sleeping with a woman? Or having a female partner? What do you mean?”
“You have female partners?”
“There are a few female operatives. I’ve never partnered with any of them. Rainier has. I think Rush may have. We didn’t have any at the hotel, although I think we could have used one. But no, Vienna, I don’t sleep with women as part of my job, and if Elliot ever asked that of me, I’d break my contract.”
“Was he using me as bait to draw out Wallin?” She paid close attention to Zale’s eyes. They narrowed, and for a fleeting moment she could see the killer in him blazing back at her.
“Had I thought he was deliberately using you as bait, that would have been an issue that he wouldn’t have overcome. I would have stashed you somewhere safe and hunted him down. He may have known all along that you were his daughter, but I’m not certain he ever looked that hard for you. When it became apparent Wallin was hunting for you, you were already entrenched in that tournament. Elliot didn’t think Wallin would make a real attempt to murder you because he had to establish beyond a shadow of a doubt that you were one of Liam’s heirs.”
“So, he really did change his orders from finding out who was killing the agents to guarding me?”
“Yes. Although the original order stood. We thought only Rainier and I were at high risk, not you. Not until those men showed up in your room posing as security. That’s when we realized you were in real danger. Rainier and I both talked to Elliot about getting you out of there. In the end, he said to try to see it through until the end of the tournament. He knew Wallin would play cards with you if you won—and you won.”
Vienna nodded. “I did win, and a great deal of money our Search and Rescue team needs, as well as our hospital.”
“The bottom line to all of this is simple.” Zale slipped around the side of the bed so he was sitting close. “I love you. I don’t want to be with anyone else. It won’t be easy learning to live together, but I don’t make the same mistake twice. You want children, we’ll have them. I’ll get out when my contract is up. Those are things I can promise you. I’ll stick with you to the end of our days and work hard to keep you happy. I want you to make that same commitment to me, Vienna.”
“I know I love you, Zale,” she admitted. “And I realized I didn’t want to live without you. If you can put up with my trust issues, which I promise I’ll work very hard on, I can put up with you. I do want children, and I want you out of that business. Having said that, if you aren’t happy here in Knightly and you need to go back to it, I’ll do my best to support your decision.”
He pulled a small jewelry box from his pocket. “I want it official.” He snapped open the lid with a push of his thumb, revealing a blue diamond in a princess cut. It was small and simple, nothing showy, but it was exactly what Vienna would have chosen for herself. “Marry me, Vienna. I’m done with worrying about losing you every time I make a mistake. I’m going to make a lot of them. I need to know you’ll stick with me. The one absolute I know about you is your unwavering loyalty.”
She looked at the ring and then up at his face. There was sincerity there. Love. She saw it smoldering in his eyes. She nodded, her heart nearly bursting with both trepidation and absolute, overwhelming love for him. “I’ll marry you, Zale.”
He pushed the ring on her finger and then kissed it. “We may be in for a rocky roller-coaster ride, but we’ll make it.”
She believed him.