Page 76 of The Sting of Love
I landed myself in that one, but I kind of had an answer prepped. “He works for someone important. Very rich. He runs his business for him and it can be dangerous.”
Lurlene stares at me and I almost think she might know what I mean without saying.
“So… he’s worried his job is dangerous?” She looks me over carefully.
“Yeah.”
“There’s a lot of men here like that…” she states and continues to give me that cautious stare. “Willow, I can see that maybe there are some elements to this you don’t really want to tell me, and I’m old enough to know when certain things can’t be spoken about. I think I also know you well enough to know that you’d be more open with me if you could.”
Thank God for that. “Yeah, it’s a situation like that.”
“Tell me this… is he a good person? Answer me honestly and truthfully. Because if there’s any doubt in your mind about that then my advice is to leave well enough alone. Sometimes men with dangerous jobs are dangerous and evil. I would be insane to encourage you to be with someone like that. So please push aside your feelings and think about the question. Is Donny a good person?”
Donny is in the mafia, does that make him bad?
The whole upheaval happened because he tried to do the right thing. He tried to stop something evil. When he told me about the human trafficking I nearly fainted because I couldn’t believe I was with someone who knew such a thing was going on.
He went through hell for trying to do something good. Then there was me. The man locked me away to keep me safe, trusting only his father with my location. Donny didn’t just tell me he loved me, he showed me.
“He’s a good person Lurlene. I’ve seen his heart,” I answer and she looks visibly relieved. “He’s a good person. Something happened and he tried to do the right thing that some people didn’t like. It caused a big stir and highlighted the fact that what he does could be dangerous enough that I could get hurt.”
The ease of tension in her face shows I’ve explained enough for her to understand.
She comes over and sits next to me. “Willow. I don’t talk about this much, if at all… but my Eddie did a dangerous job too.”
Eddie was a close protection security guard so I can just imagine his work would have been dangerous. It was what killed him.
“I know. I think his was perhaps a little different.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes he worked for men that weren’t always classed as law abiding citizens,” she says.
I narrow my eyes and my interest piques. “What do you mean?”
“Sometimes he did work for men outside the law. Men who might run certain operations for others. He would always assess to see who he was working for, but that wasn’t always a given. Or, something he could always trust. Many of the people he worked for had enemies.” The second she says that I straighten up. “Some would kill for fun, kill you for the slightest thing if you looked at them the wrong way. We had several situations where my life was put in danger. There were so many before we got married that your grandparents forbid me to marry him. They thought he was bad too, a troublemaker who would eventually get me killed.”
My eyes go wide. “I didn’t know that.”
She nods and smiles. “I upset a lot of people when we got married, but I knew he was mine no matter what.”
“Lurlene, what kind of people did he do work for?”
She gives me a kind smile. “I think it could be the same sort of people your guy might work for. The kind we can’t really talk about.”
Her gaze clings to mine and she nods as realization fills me. “Oh… my.”
“Yeah.”
“Weren’t you scared something would happen to you?”
When Lurlene nods her confirmation my heart squeezes. “I was. And sometimes you can sense when something’s not right. That last job of his was something like that. I had a bad feeling about it and I even asked him to skip it. He didn’t listen. It turned out I was right, and he trusted the wrong people, sugar.”
“I’m so sorry.” I bring my hands up to my cheeks.
“Thank you. It’s taken me awhile, and two more marriages but I think that maybe I might have found another keeper.” Her face brightens and the sadness leaves her eyes. “Eddie really loved me Willow. I mean truly, and he didn’t want me in danger. You can’t help who you love. I think love like that is rare that you just have to seize it and take it when it comes to you.”
“That sounds nice. Beautiful. Donny and I haven’t known each other long at all and I feel like a crazy person for even having this conversation with you.”
She shakes her head at me. “Time is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter. What I’m talking about happens at hello. You know from the first time you see him, before he even speaks to you how you feel. That is what I’m talking about. Time just solidifies it. That’s all it does. Nothing more.”
