seemed in order, though, so she turned to the second SUV that was pulling to a stop next to them.
“Angelina, dear. Where are your shoes? Did you leave them in the SUV?” Mary asked as she stepped out of the vehicle and moved to join them.
“We forgot them at home,” G.G. answered for her.
“Oh dear, I was so worried about this meeting I didn’t even notice. I should have checked you over before we left,” Mary said with a frown and Ildaria found another smile lifting the corners of her mouth that everyone seemed to want to take responsibility for dressing her now.
“Well, of course we do,” Mary said, obviously reading her thoughts. G.G.’s mother gave her a quick hug, and added, “You’re family now, dear. And family take care of each other.”
Family. Ildaria swallowed a sudden lump in her throat. She hadn’t had family in a very long time and now she had them everywhere.
“Are you ready?” Robert asked as he joined them. His expression was as concerned and compassionate as G.G.’s when he met her gaze. They may not be related by blood, but he had obviously influenced his stepson. They shared a lot in the way of personality and mannerisms.
Straightening her shoulders, Ildaria nodded and then found herself surrounded by people and escorted up the short walkway to the door of the Enforcer house.
The door was opened by Mortimer’s wife, Sam, before they even reached it. The woman offered a tense smile of greeting, her concerned gaze sliding from Ildaria to G.G. as she stepped back for them to enter. That smile and look, worried Ildaria.
“Angelina left her shoes at home,” Mary said as Sam started to close the door. “You don’t happen to have any here that she could borrow, do you?”
“She does not need shoes to talk,” Lucian announced, appearing in the doorway of the living room just ahead and to their left. “Come, Angelina. The rest of you can wait in the kitchen with Sam.”
Ildaria’s heart stopped at the thought of meeting Juan alone without her new family to support her. But she raised her chin and acted like the idea didn’t bother her. She’d be damned if anyone was going to see how afraid she was in that moment.
It was G.G. who protested, “Not gonna happen, Lucian. I’m coming with her.”
“As am I,” Robert added, and then when Mary elbowed him, quickly changed it to, “I mean we. We are coming too. Angelina is part of our family now. We will be there to support her.”
Lucian scowled at the Guiscards, but then relented. “Fine. You can be in the room, but no talking. You’re to sit where I say and listen. This is between Angelina and Juan.”
She felt G.G. stiffen beside her at those words. Apparently Lucian noticed it as well, because his gaze turned stern on the man. “This is immortal business, Joshua. You are not immortal. I’m allowing you to be there only because you are a possible life mate to Angelina. I will not have you interfering. If you do, I shall remove you myself. Understood?”
G.G. grunted in the affirmative, and then Lucian took Ildaria’s arm and walked her into the living room across from the kitchen. After one quick glance over her shoulder to be sure the others were following, Ildaria turned her gaze forward and scanned the room for her nemesis.
The first man she spotted was not Juan. Standing in the center of the room, the man had long hair that was a combination of deep red and chestnut. It was pulled back into a ponytail. He was tall, and built like a construction worker or a medieval warrior of old with broad shoulders and strong upper arms bulging under the black T-shirt he wore. He looked like he would have been comfortable wielding a heavy broadsword.
Scotty, the head of the UK Council, she thought before continuing her search of the room for Juan Villaverde. Ildaria didn’t see him though, and was about to turn a questioning gaze to Lucian when Scotty suddenly moved to the side, drawing her gaze to the man he had been blocking from her view. Juan Villaverde had been seated on the couch, but now stood up, his eyes hot and hungry as they roved from her bare feet to her untamed hair.
Ildaria stumbled under the weight of that look, the old confusion and uncertainty returning to her as if she were fourteen again and seeing him for the first time. She would