Romero

  All week he kept going back to that, certain that if she had already questioned their future together what he’d done that night had only confirmed her doubts. Hearing her reason for why she actually said it now, although it wasn’t the greatest feeling to know she’d meant to hurt him, was still an enormous relief. “Wait here.”

  He startled her when he stood suddenly. So he leaned over and pecked her before walking away. “I’ll be right back.”

  He ran out to his car and took the bag out of his trunk. Feeling the nerves start up in his stomach he tried pushing them away. He hurried back to her apartment and walked inside. She was pouring herself a cup of coffee, but curiously eyed the bag.

  “Okay, don’t freak out. This could be whatever you want it to be. I just wanted to get you something nice.”

  Isabel leaned against the counter holding her coffee mug with both hands as he pulled the box out of the bag. Romero couldn’t make out her expression, but he did catch how her eyes grew wider when he took the box out. He walked over and held it out for her.

  She stared at him biting the corner of her lower lip then put her mug down on the counter. She took the box from Romero and opened it very slowly as if something might jump out at her. Now her eyes really opened wide. “Romero,” she whispered, bringing her hand to her mouth. “It’s beautiful. But I can’t accept this.”

  His heart dropped. “Why?”

  She finally took her eyes off the ring and looked up at him. “It looks so expensive.”

  “It is.” He smiled, feeling slightly relieved. “But you’re worth it, baby.”

  Isabel looked back down at the ring and then up at him again. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Just say you’ll wear it.” He pulled the ring out of the box and slid it on her left hand’s ring finger. Just as he imagined, it looked perfect on her. He kissed her. “And that you forgive me.” He kissed her again even deeper. “And that you love me.”

  “I love you,” she said, wrapping her arms around him. “God, I love you.”

  He groaned because he felt the sincerity in her kisses. She really did love him. Now that he had his second chance, he’d be damned if he was going to blow it. “C’mon.” He tugged her hand, pulling her behind him and practically sprinting to the bedroom.

  ***

  Last night hadn’t been the only night Romero had gone almost the entire night without sleeping during the past week. Isabel told him she’d been deprived of any sleep herself all week. So it wasn’t surprising that after only an hour of making up for the time apart they were both out. Apparently, he’d been more tired than Isabel because she was already up when he woke. He hadn’t even felt her get out of bed.

  He could hear her talking softly in the front room when he walked into the restroom. Obviously, she was on the phone because he heard no other voices. The sun was already heading south. Holy shit, how long had he slept? He had to admit it felt good. Everything felt damn good now.

  He ran into Isabel in the hallway. She held her phone in her hand and he attacked her against the wall, kissing her neck as she giggled. “Why didn’t you wake me?” he asked in between kissing her neck.

  She squirmed. “You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t have the heart to. I’ve only been up a little while myself. The phone woke me.”

  “Who was it?” he said, nibbling on her ear.

  She didn’t answer and he pulled his head up to kiss her when he saw her unnerved expression and he immediately thought of Max. “What’s wrong?”

  “It was Michael.”

  Romero stared at her, trying with all his might to slow the waves of heat that begun searing through him. “What did he want?”

  “To let me know about him dropping the charges against you. But…” Her eyes went down to her phone and stayed there. “I need to tell you something.”

  Her tone and the fact that she couldn’t look at him when she said it only made it harder for him to stay calm but he took deep breaths, hoping she didn’t notice just how deep. “Okay, tell me.”

  She told him about talking to her dad Sunday and how he said it would be up to Michael to drop the charges. “I called him the day after you were arrested.”

  He felt his eyebrows jump up along with his heart rate. “You called Michael?” It was becoming increasingly impossible to remain cool but he was determined to not blow it again.

  “I had to do something, Romero. I was desperate. I felt so guilty because it was all my fault.”

  Aware that he’d pressed up against her a little harder than he should, he pulled back but just a little, and he placed his hand against the wall above her head. “So what happened?”

  She glanced at him again but looked back down at her phone immediately. “I played nice. I told him I was calling to see how he was doing and I said I was hoping we could talk.”

  Romero swallowed hard, remembering how stumped he and Nick had been that the charges had been dropped. His heart was really going now and the hand above her head fisted. “What did you do?”

  “I went to see him.”

  “Did you now?” He tapped the wall with his fist, but not as hard as he really wanted to. “Where at?”

  “He didn’t want to meet somewhere in public because he said he still wasn’t feeling well enough. This was only a day after it had happened.”

  Romero almost didn’t want to ask. The whole breathing shit had gone out the window several questions ago. “Where’d you meet him?”

  She didn’t answer at first, then in almost a whisper she finally said, “In his hotel room.”

  His fist banged the wall and she flinched. “You went to his hotel room?” His insides were completely lit now and he panicked, moving away from the wall trying to hold it together.

  He felt her hand on his arm. “Nothing happened. That’s not what I went there for. I just wanted to talk to him.”

  Romero took a few steps away from her, both fists at his hips. Fucking breathe! He commanded himself. “So what did you do? Why’d he drop the charges, Isabel?”

  There was a pained look in her eyes at the sound of her name, but she spoke fast, explaining how she’d laid it on thick about the news reports and how worried she was about it affecting her dad’s campaign. And then she told him about how she’d pretended to be considering breaking things off with him in hopes that if Michael thought she was available, he might drop the charges as a way to get on her good side. “We just had dinner and some champagne. Then I left. That was it. It was a long shot but it worked. I hadn’t heard from him until now.”

  Romero walked back to her flattening his hands against the wall on either side of her face and leaned in. “And he didn’t try anything?”

  “He tried to kiss me goodbye but I didn’t let him. I said it didn’t feel right since technically I was still with you.”

  His heart still hammered, even though he felt just tiny bit more in control. Still, he had to know. “What else did he have to say just now?”

  “He asked if I’d broken things off with you yet.”

  “And you told him?”

  She placed her open hand on his bare chest. “Don’t get mad but I still played it off like I’m unsure.” Romero clenched his jaw. “Only because I want to make absolutely sure he doesn’t change his mind about dropping the charges.”

  “You know even if he does change his mind you’re not going back to see him again. I’d rather do the fucking time.”

  She nodded, then smiled almost guardedly. “I don’t think he can. At least that’s what my dad said. Once the charges are cancelled, it’s irreversible—unless you assault him again.”

  Romero leaned in and kissed her, feeling the tension in his muscles begin to settle. “Yeah, well make sure you don’t even think about meeting up with him again or that just may happen.” Even though she smiled at that, he had to wonder if she knew he’d never been more serious.

  She ran her hands up and down his bare back. “So tense.” Her hands moved down to the wai
stband of his briefs and she tugged on it. “Let’s go do something about this.”

  Finally, she’d said something that didn’t make him want to punch a hole through the wall.

  ***

  Neither of them had exaggerated when they said they’d hardly got any sleep that week, because after Isabel finished relieving Romero of the tension he’d worked up, they fell asleep again.

  When they woke again, it was early evening and they were ravenous. They showered, grabbed something to eat and headed back to the hospital.

  Isabel stared at the ring on her finger. Romero had said it could be whatever she’d wanted it to be, though that wasn’t exactly a proposal. At this point, she wasn’t sure she would’ve wanted it to be. There was still the matter of her father saying Romero wasn’t welcome around the family.

  Pat had also made it a point to call her that week just to remind her how worried the family was about her safety, calling Romero unstable and insinuating she was delusional for thinking he would never unleash his wrath on her.

  Isabel had seen it today. She couldn’t think of a single thing worse than telling Romero she’d gone to Michael’s hotel room, and though she’d seen and felt how difficult it had been for him to not explode, she’d also taken note of the effort he made not to. Something like that would be hard for any man to hear, but she knew how much stronger things of this nature affected Romero and he’d done it. He got through it. He may not always but in her heart, she knew they couldn’t be more wrong about him. There was no way, no matter how angry, that he would ever harm her.

  Her phone rang just as they reached the hospital. It was Art. He didn’t make it to Charles’ party and Isabel hadn’t been surprised. Even before the party, Pat had mentioned to Isabel the comments she made to Art about his fiancée, Sabrina and as usual, in very off-handed Pat like style, they were rude.

  “Hi, Art.”

  “Bellie Bell, you busy this weekend?”

  Isabel thought about it. She didn’t have plans but after the week she’d spent away from Romero, she was hoping to spend the entire weekend with him. “Not really, why?”

  “Me and Sabrina were going to drive down there on Sunday. I was hoping to get everyone together for brunch… we have an announcement to make.”

  Isabel smiled. “An announcement? Oh my God did you guys set a date for the wedding?” As excited as she really was, Art had always said they’d wait until Sabrina was done with school. The last time he’d mentioned it she still had at least a year to go.

  “I’m not saying, Bell. You have to wait. But I’m calling to make sure you leave the day open. I know it’s kind of last minute, but that’s just how things worked out.”

  He sounded excited and that excited her as well. Finally some good news, even though to some, mainly Pat, it would be anything but good. “Sure. Let me know where and when and I’ll be there.”

  Romero took her hand after coming around the car in the hospital parking lot. Just like that, the good vibes she was feeling deflated. Either she told Romero he couldn’t come with her Sunday, that he’d been banned from all her family functions or she took him, going against her family’s wishes.

  “Your brother’s gonna be in town?”

  Isabel nodded, smiling. “This Sunday. He’s got an announcement to make, I think he and Sabrina set a date for the wedding. And it must be soon if he wants to get us all together so fast.”

  “Really?” Romero smirked. “This should be interesting.”

  Isabel took a deep breath. Romero didn’t know the half of it.

  CHAPTER 25

  Lies

  The next morning Romero drove back to his uncle’s house to pick up some of his things, most importantly his laptop. His battery was completely dead. He’d left the laptop on when he got the news of Max and forgot all about it.

  Max was doing a lot better now. There were no signs of fluid in his lungs, and he was able to talk a little the night before. The unlucky bastard had been the only one hit that night, but they’d at least arrested the guy who’d fired the shot. It appeared to be unintentional. A stray bullet and Max was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but they were still investigating.

  Romero plugged in his laptop to let it charge while he showered and got ready for the day. Isabel had left early to work. He felt bad that she’d called in sick the day before on account of him. Since he didn’t have anything at her place he left with her in the morning and decided to get ready at his uncles’. By the time he’d finished getting ready and made himself something to eat, his laptop had a good enough charge. It had saved his work and took him directly to the last thing he’d been working on, reminding him of Charles.

  He logged back into the software and it went directly to the last records he’d looked up—Charles’s secret bank account. There were an awful lot of hefty deposits in the last few weeks and suspiciously large amount of transfers to another bank account. Romero clicked on the account the money was being transferred to. The account was registered to a Nicole Herrera in Miami, Florida. Interesting.

  He got caught up snooping for about an hour. In that time he uncovered the hefty deposits to Charles’ account all matched the same amounts of withdrawals from another account Charles had only that account was registered under the LLC name Montenegro for Mayor Campaign. Could Charles be stupid enough to be taking campaign donations and funneling them to his girlfriend’s account? Didn’t he know all this shit could be traced? Unless he really thought that no one would ever suspect.

  Romero remembered Pat bragging at the announcement dinner about how most of the donations to the campaign were coming from Charles’ connections. If that was the case, Charles could be reporting smaller donations than were actually being made and pocketing the rest. All he had to do was deposit the actual amount and withdraw the difference, but it was still a risk.

  Deciding this was just too interesting to not look into further, Romero put in a few calls to some of his own connections.

  Pissed that he’d wasted an hour on this, he got his stuff together and headed out to meet a client.

  By the end of the day, he was anxious to see Isabel again. He called her on her way to her apartment but she hadn’t answered. As he drove in, he noticed more cars in the parking lot than usual. If he wasn’t mistaken, one of them was Pat’s car. Fuck. He hoped she wasn’t there.

  The door to the apartment opened just as he walked up to it. Isabel walked out and closed the door behind her. “What’s going on?”

  “My family is here.”

  “Why? Something happen?”

  “No, they just decided they wanted to speak with me… alone.”

  Romero stared at her confused. “About what?”

  “About what happened with you and Michael, among other things.”

  “What’s there to talk about?”

  The door opened behind Isabel and Pat stood there hand on hip. “Bell, we’re waiting.”

  Romero caught a glimpse of who was there. Both her parents, even Charles, and then he saw him—Jacob. Immediately it spiked his senses. Fucking Pat. She was never going to give up.

  “What’s he doing here?” His question was directed to Pat not Isabel.

  “He’s here as a friend who’s as concerned about Isabel as we all are.”

  Romero glanced at Isabel, who closed her eyes for a moment, then back at Pat. “Concerned for her? Why?”

  Then it hit him and he almost laughed, though he wasn’t amused at all. It was so stupid but it didn’t surprise him that Pat would do something like this. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  Her father was at the door now, behind Pat. “Is there a problem, Isabel?”

  Romero stepped back but glared at Pat. “You put an intervention together to get Isabel to drop me?”

  “You’re dangerous,” her father said. “We’re just looking out for one of our own. You’d do the same.”

  “And what does bringing her ex-boyfriend along, have to do with me being dangerous, P
at?” He practically spit her name, feeling the anger begin to take over. Before she could answer, he turned to Isabel. “Are you seriously buying this shit? Do you really believe for a second that I could ever hurt you?”

  “No!”

  “Be reasonable, Bell,” Pat insisted. “He says he won’t now but look how quick he is to get violent. Believe me I know the signs.”

  “You don’t know shit!” He turned back to Isabel. “Are you really gonna do this Isabel? Go back in there and listen to all her bullshit and have your fucking ex-boyfriend tell you why I’m no good for you? Don’t you see what she’s doing? ”

  “I don’t think I like the tone you’re taking with either of my daughters.” Her father stepped in front of Pat. “This is why we’re concerned, honey. If he speaks to you this way now how can we trust that he won’t get worse?”

  Charles stood behind Pat now. Romero smirked. “No disrespect, sir.” His eyes met Charles’. “But I’d say Isabel is not the daughter you should be worried about.”

  “How dare you!” Pat moved herself in front of Charles.

  “Romero!” Isabel finally spoke up.

  “It’s okay,” her father said, putting his hand on Pat’s shoulder. “I think I know exactly who I need to be concerned for and it’s not Pat.”

  Charles hadn’t stopped staring at Romero. “Go back to your little intervention, Isabel—back to Jacob.”

  Isabel called out for him as he walked away. He had to, and he wasn’t looking back either. If he stayed there even a minute longer, he might help Pat prove at least one part of her points. Things could get violent very quickly and he wasn’t about to put on another show for her sister to use against him.