Keep Her From Harm (The Denton Family Legacy 4)

Leaving the closet and then the bedroom, she found Damian between their children, feeding them.

“What do you think?” she asked, getting his attention and giving him a little twirl. “You don’t think it’s too much?”

“You look stunning.”

“I’m going to go and put everything else away so it doesn’t cram your sitting room.”

“That’s fine. Kids are eating, which makes a change.”

She chuckled, and made her way toward the sitting room, gathering boxes. She repeated the same thing. Taking the boxes to her closet, putting the clothes on the rail, and then dumping the boxes to one side. Three trips it took her, and she also put the boxers that she had ordered for him on his bed.

Entering the dining room, she saw that Damian had finished feeding Reese, so placing a towel over her shoulder, she picked him up, and began to burp him, rubbing his back.

Martha was a little older and didn’t need burping.

“My mother is doing a large lunch on Sunday, and she would love it if we go.”

“I like Charlotte.”

“I think she likes you, and that’s a good thing. My mother can be a bit of minx, or is it tiger, protecting her cubs.”

While Damian had been gone she had done some searching online about the Denton family, and it had only given her more questions. From what she had learned, they were a crime family, but that had never been proven. She didn’t know what to think, and as she was reading through some of the media that was attached to their name, she’d been alarmed. The moment she saw Damian, all of those worries had been pushed to one side. He wasn’t a monster. She couldn’t believe it, and yet he’d known Ivan.

“What’s wrong?” Damian asked, drawing her attention toward him.

“Sorry?”

“You’re looking all troubled. Is there anything I can do to help you?” he asked.

She smiled. “It’s nothing. Not really.” She stared at him and rubbed Reese’s back. “Well, I kind of did a little snooping on the net about you, and I guess I have a lot of questions.”

Damian smiled. “I take it some articles are not too kind about us. I told you that I’m in similar work to Ivan. I’m not like him, and neither is my family. We look after our own, and you’ll be protected here. You won’t have to sell your body, or an organ. I just want you to take care of Martha.”

She nodded her head. “It’s just so surreal.”

“I know. It’s a lot to take in so I won’t be telling you all about everything. You don’t need to hear that stuff.” He smiled, and she found his dimples to be the cutest thing. Quickly averting her gaze, she stared out of the window, rubbing Reese’s back as she did.

“How did you come to know Ivan?” he asked.

She blew out a breath. “He came to the neighborhood when I was just a teenager in school. It’s hard to know exactly what went on to be honest. One moment the neighborhood was fine. We didn’t have a lot of job opportunities, but we got along. Then Ivan turned up with his crew, and the drugs started flowing. I never took them as I’d seen what they were like on my mother. I knew I wouldn’t be an addict. Then one day it was like Ivan saw me and decided that he wanted me. I was on a date with another man. We’d been dating for about a year, and I think I loved him. I don’t know. Two weeks after that date, they found his body floating in the river. His dick had been cut off.” The past few years violence had been something she had been accustomed to. “Ivan would come around, and he’d flirt, and make my skin crawl, and it was a nightmare. Then I was at a party. I don’t know why I went. I was feeling miserable. I’d lost my job, only now I know he’d paid for them to fire me. I was drinking, and somehow I got lost. Ivan was there, and I couldn’t get away.”

“You’ve been very brave,” Damian said.

“I’ve not been brave. I had nowhere else to turn to. No money, no prospects. I couldn’t go to anyone because Ivan owns the whole damn town.” She turned to look at him. “Then of course I thought I would hate my baby, but the moment the nurse placed him in my arms, I knew that I loved him. That he was mine.” Tears filled her eyes and fell down her cheeks. “How is that for crazy?”

Damian got to his feet, and moved toward her. He cupped her cheeks, and she didn’t flinch away from his touch. “You’re a fighter, Mia. You’ve done everything you had to do to protect yourself.”

“I vowed that I would never ask him for help. I went to him anyway.”

“You had no choice, and ta-da, you found me.” He pressed a kiss to her head, and she relished the comfort that he was offering her. “You’re a strong woman, Mia Banks. Never forget that, and don’t ever let anyone else tell you different. You’re a fighter through and through.”

Her stomach twisted, and her heart fluttered at his kind words. For so long she had been fighting where everyone, even Mary, had told her it couldn’t be that bad to belong to Ivan. She saw past the ease of having a small king like that who wanted her. The moment he had his fill, he’d toss her aside, and she wasn’t about to succumb to the bastard.

Even though her mother had been hard and at times vacant, she had always told Mia to fend for herself, to rely on herself. She’d begged her not to give in to the temptation of drugs, to be a good girl. That was exactly what she had done.

She’d been good.

Chapter Six