by Leroux, Lucy
“I thought it was better to go by something else, just in case. I prefer Juliet. It’s what my mom and dad used to call me, but it’s too close to the real one.”
He pulled her close, settling her lax body against his hard one. “I like Juliet. That’s going to be my name for you.”
She stirred, twisting toward him. “But you might forget. Isn’t it better to always use Julie?”
Ethan tightened one arm around her waist.
“I won’t forget.” He flicked a hand at the windows. “Out there, you’re Julie. In here, your mine—you’re my Juliet.”
* * *
Ethan woke at dawn. He should have been tired. Yesterday had been grueling, but he was pumped and flooded with purpose.
He dressed before checking on Luna, resolving to buy a baby monitor at the earliest opportunity. Juliet hadn’t said so aloud, but, in his mind, she agreed to stay when she’d given herself to him in the shower. Now he needed to convince her the decision was already made.
Grabbing his phone, he texted Jason, thanking him again for wrapping everything up last night and informing his partner he wasn’t going to be in today. It was Sunday. The brass at work would understand if they didn’t hit the piles of paperwork waiting for them until Monday.
Then he went to his office, intending to toss out Juliet’s note without reading it. Whatever she’d had to say no longer mattered because she wasn’t leaving.
But it wasn’t a note. There was a small USB drive on his ink blotter.
The model was familiar. He checked his desk, confirming one of his stashes of new thumb drives was missing. Though it was verboten to use them to copy FBI case files, there was an overabundance of related manuals, case studies, and tech sheets he shuttled back and forth to the office.
Fishing out his laptop from the bottom drawer, he plugged in the drive and hit play on the movie file he found there.
At first, the only thing on the screen was white lace. He pursed his lips, deciding they were curtains. His guess was confirmed when they were pulled aside, revealing the view through an upper-story window.
The angle was bad and the view obstructed, but Ethan was able to make out the wide expanse of a spacious lawn and part of a driveway.
Three men argued next to the hood of a black SUV. As he watched two push the third man to his knees, another man appeared on the screen. He was well-formed, not tall but lean with obvious strength. And he was in uniform.
Alvaro. He knew it without being told.
Ethan didn’t recognize the uniform, but he would have bet his life savings it was a Mexican cop’s. He couldn’t see a shield or any insignia to denote rank, but he didn’t need them. This guy was high up. It was all in his bearing, in the way he held himself.
Alvaro’s lips moved, and a gun appeared in his hand. The blast of the bullet sounded tiny and distant. The gasp of the person holding the camera was much louder…and remarkably familiar.
Juliet had taken the video.
On screen, the image whirled as the camera fell to the floor. Ethan caught a glimpse of dark hair flying past the white paint of an unidentified ceiling. Then the video ended.
Ethan took a deep breath. No wonder she ran…
Alvaro was a murderer. After everything Ethan had seen on the job, he wasn’t surprised. No, what had blindsided him was the fact Alvaro was a cop. A memory came back—the way Juliet had reacted to Ethan’s gun. Or had it been to his shield?
Both. It had been both.
Well, fuck.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Groaning, Ethan sat back in the chair. Juliet must have freaked when she found out he was an FBI agent.
I was so stupid. I thought he was going to save me from my family—that he was so much better than them. That was what she’d said. And here he was with his own shiny badge, a representative of the same rule of law Alvaro was perverting.
Humorless mirth bubbled up, and Ethan laughed sardonically.
“Laughter is not the reaction I was expecting.”
Juliet stood in the dooryard. She wore one of his shirts again. An inappropriate surge of lust distracted him.
All of her stuff is still in the suitcase, his brain helpfully reminded him. The wave of desire retreated, although it didn’t go far.
“I was replaying the moment when you saw my badge and gun. I severely underestimated how terrified you must have been.”
She twisted the front of the shirt she wore in her hands. “You have no idea.”
He rose and took her hand, leading her out to the living room so they could sit on the couch. She curled up, clutching one of the pillows Maggie had insisted he order when she had picked out the couch for him.
“When I realized you were a police officer, or rather an FBI agent, I thought I was going to pass out. It felt as if I’d made the same mistake—only ten times worse.”
“Alvaro, your former fiancé, is the trigger man in the video, right? He’s in law enforcement.”
Juliet nodded. “I know you’re not anything like him. Not now. But, in the beginning, I was scared.”
Understandable under the circumstances. “I’m going to make some coffee,” he said, getting to his feet. “Then you’re going to start at the beginning. I want you to tell me about your family.”
Her sharp intake of breath betrayed her anxiety, but he didn’t call attention to it. The best thing he could do was act matter of fact, as if there were no other option but to tell him everything.
Ethan waited until the mug of coffee was ready. He handed it to her. She added cream, took a sip, and grimaced.
“More sugar?” he asked.
She added it gratefully, mixing in extra cream as well. Then she put the mug down, appearing to forget about it as he studied her.
Juliet lifted her hand, pushing her hair behind her ear.
“I, uh, I didn’t know what my father did,” she began. “He wasn’t a cartel lieutenant or anything like that. He was a lawyer with a degree in finance. All I knew was that we always had money. We owned multiple homes, and my parents drove the newest model car.”
She shrugged. “Dad was successful. People always wanted to speak with him or were badgering him for appointments. Actually, both my parents had hangers-on. My mom was a starlet.”
Ethan took a premature sip of his black coffee, burning his tongue. “Starlet? She was an actress?”
“Yeah.” Juliet reached for the mug, but she just wrapped her fingers around it instead of picking it up. “I was born in Los Angeles. My mom was doing a Spanish-speaking soap opera there at the time. My older sister Daniela was born in London during one of Mom’s theater runs. But our primary home was in Mexico because my dad’s work was there.”
Ethan held his breath. “So, you’re a US citizen?”
She nodded. “Dual. So was my sister. My mom insisted on getting our American passports. She wanted to be able to fly to L.A. or Miami at will to do commercials or plays. Or to go shopping in New York. We did that a lot.”
He leaned back on the couch. “Do you know that’s what I thought our biggest problem was likely to be? I thought you were undocumented.”
“Does it matter when I can’t live under my own name?”
She had a point. “What about Luna?”
Juliet shook her head. “No. My sister Daniela…she wasn’t a planner. Luna was born in Mexico.”
Okay, that wasn’t the best news. He passed a hand over his face. “We’ll worry about that later. When did you realize your dad was a cartel lawyer? Or did he use the law degree for something else?”
“It took a long while. I had finished college a few months earlier.” She raised her hands in a helpless gesture. “It wasn’t like he spent his days getting low-level dealers out of jail. But he was always in meetings. He used his legal expertise to broker deals that somehow ended with lots of dirty money being cleaned.”
“Ah.” A money launderer with a law degree. If he were as smart and capable as his daughter, then the man must
have been extraordinarily successful indeed.
“What about Alvaro?”
The question hung in the air. Juliet’s eyes were distressingly blank for a long while she gazed into the past.
“Juliet,” he prodded.
She gave herself a shake. “When I said I thought Alvaro was going to save me from my family, I didn’t mean literally. They were never a danger to me. But I had discovered my father’s real profession. From that moment on, I was on a crusade. I wanted my father to cut ties with his employers or retire.”
She hung her head. “I was foolishly idealistic, crammed full of ideas and morals…only some of which were mine.” Blinking rapidly, she gave him a sad smile. “I thought I could convince my father to do something else. But whenever I tried, he would look at me with this resigned superior look. However, I didn’t let up. I even threatened to tell my mother, thinking I could get her on my side.”
“Let me guess,” Ethan broke in. “She already knew, and she was on board with it.”
“Yes. Both were accustomed to a certain lifestyle.” She rubbed her temples. “My older sister was a carbon copy of my mom in looks and attitude. Daniela didn’t go to school abroad like I did. Instead, she married a musician at nineteen, divorced at twenty, and partied for the next six or seven years until she married a second time—to a much older man with even older money.”
He wanted to push her on the subject of her ex, but she came back around to it herself. “My sister liked to throw extravagant parties. I met Alvaro at one.”
Ethan made a noncommittal noise.
“I should have wondered more about what he was doing there, but I confess I didn’t think about that. At first, I didn’t know who he was, but it didn’t take long to find out. The local papers were starting to cover him, you see. They painted Alvaro as a crusader. And a lot of people went to my sister’s parties.”
She picked up the cup of coffee. “We didn’t get together right away. I was finishing college abroad, then I started law school.”
He had chosen the wrong moment to sip his drink because her words made him spit it back out. Hastily, he stood and got a paper towel to wipe his mouth and chin. “A lawyer? You’re a lawyer?”
A small shrug. “I know you don’t like them. If it’s any consolation, I didn’t finish.”
“I like them fine,” he lied.
She laughed before subsiding. “You’re a good liar, but you forget I have receipts.”
He suppressed a groan, wishing he hadn’t been quite so honest about his feelings toward those in the legal profession.
“I’m more than willing to make an exception for you even if you decide to go back to law school,” he said magnanimously.
“Thanks. Although, I’m not sure I’m going to do that. When I left, I was studying contract and international law, like my father wanted. I told myself that didn’t mean anything—I wasn’t going to follow in his footsteps.”
“Of course you weren’t. You would never do that.” Ethan was sure.
She smiled. “I know. After my first year, I told my father I was going to switch to environmental law.”
“How did he react?”
“He said great, pay for it yourself.” She sighed. “Unless I switched back, of course.”
“Which you refused to do,” he guessed.
“I dropped out, then took a job as a waitress at a local café instead.”
“Good for you.”
“Or not,” she said flatly. “You see, that’s where I got to know Alvaro better. He found out I was working there, so he started coming in to eat. He was a regular at lunchtime.”
Ethan grunted. “And how did your family react to your new job?”
“My father was furious, especially when I moved into this crappy studio apartment. My mother was the same. A daughter who worked was bad for her image. My sister was amused. She said a menial job would force me to grow up really fast.”
“But Alvaro wasn’t like that, was he?” Ethan didn’t need to be told how easy it would have been for a predator like Alvaro to cast himself in the role of hero. “I’d bet he was supportive. He probably repeatedly told you how much he admired you for not taking their money.”
She snorted lightly. “And I fell for it. I believed everything he said. When he started to paint us as allies—as if it were us against the world of corruption—I was filled with self-righteous vindication. This was despite the fact I still saw my family. I used to go over for dinner two or three times a month. In my mind, it was justified, as if being a good example would sway them somehow. Like I said, I was stupidly idealistic.”
Ethan didn’t want to know the answer to his next question, but he needed all the facts. “When did things become romantic?”
Her brow furrowed. “It took a lot longer than you would think.”
“I’m actually trying really hard to avoid thinking about it.”
“Oh.” Juliet flushed. “I simply meant his courtship was slow—so slow I was convinced he wasn’t interested—until he finally kissed me almost six months after he started coming by the café.”
Ethan pictured the Alvaro from the video kissing his Juliet. Then he pictured himself breaking both of the man’s arms, and he felt better.
“I had no idea he was involved in the drug trade, either. He had this image, you see. He was part of the new incorruptibles that were going to take down the cartels and corruption in our town. He made quite a name for himself as a crime fighter. There was even talk of Alvaro running for mayor. It was something he took seriously, too. He had money, respect, and could command an audience. A career in politics seemed like the next natural step.”
Juliet picked at the pillow’s cover. “It was all a set up. Alvaro was using me. Word had gotten around that I was refusing to take my family’s money. Not everyone knew where that money came from, but it didn’t matter. I was a story he could exploit. As long as I was on his arm, Alvaro could point to me as proof of his incorruptibility when, in reality, he was part of the drug trade.”
“How did you put it together?” he asked quietly.
Juliet looked up, startled. “I…I didn’t.”
He frowned as she laughed humorlessly. “I really didn’t. I was oblivious up until the moment Alvaro killed that man.”
“Do you know who he was?”
She nodded. “I read his name online—on the web page of the local newspaper. It was Sagrado Juarez… He was supposed to be one of the men who gunned down my family.”
“Fuck.”
“My sentiments exactly.”
“So, you were in the dark until Luna’s christening?”
“I wasn’t even sure I was going to go. My sister hadn’t included me in her pregnancy. I mean, we used to fight, but, after Alvaro and I got engaged, she barely spoke to me. However, there was a new baby. I wanted to at least be there for her, even if it was uncomfortable. That…and my mother said she’d never speak to me again if I didn’t go. And then, after the church service, Daniela and I got into a huge fight.”
Juliet covered her eyes with both hands. “I can still hear the things she said…the poison.” There were tears on her cheeks when she raised her head. “I don’t want to repeat the comments, but the fight is why I ran upstairs instead of partaking in the party. I stayed up there long enough for the nanny to come up with the baby. She put Luna down for a nap, then went downstairs to her quarters. I stayed to watch Luna sleep. Outside, the party was winding down.”
“Did you see any of the shooters?”
“No. Like I said before, I took Luna from her crib and hid. The baby slept through the whole thing. When it was over, there were six people dead—including my parents, sister, and her husband.”
“Who were the other two?”
“One was a guest—another lawyer who worked with my dad sometimes. The other was a valet hired to park cars for the day.”
This was where things got murky for him. “What happened afterward?”
“The police
came. I went downstairs with them, where I saw the bodies. But then Alvaro swept in and took charge, making sure I didn’t have to identify the bodies at the morgue.”
Fat lot of good that did. She’d still seen the victims at the scene.
“How long after that was the video shot?”
“Not long…there had been no suspects. All I was told was the shooting was retaliation of some kind, but no one was arrested.” She broke up, peering up from under her lashes. “I was living at Alvaro’s by then. He told me that my studio apartment wasn’t secure enough, not when I had Luna with me. So I moved into his house at the edge of town. It was very private. According to him, it was also more secure.”
I’ll bet. “And then he shot the suspect.”
“That was several weeks later.”
He tried to pitch his voice to sound casual. “So how long did you live with him?”
Ethan didn’t fool her. “Almost a month.”
“And you never slept with him?”
She shook her head. “After my family was gunned down, he generously gave me time to myself to recover. Luna and I had our own suite. I was touched by his consideration, although other things started to get my attention.”
“What kind of things?”
She ran her teeth over her lip. When she spoke, it was as if she were peering through a veil he couldn’t see.
“It took me a long time to realize what was really going on in my family. Once I did, it was all around me. Afterward, I couldn’t help but see the signs. It was in the company Alvaro kept—the phone conversations he didn’t want me to hear. One night, his men came and roused him, but they weren’t in uniform. He didn’t want me to see them. Instead, he shooed them away as soon as he saw I was awake. After that, I decided I wasn’t going to fly blind or be a trusting idiot. I went online, then bought a bug and a nanny cam disguised as a bear.”
He hadn’t expected that. Ethan snapped his fingers. “The vent downstairs.”
“It’s where I hid the bear, but you already saw what it recorded.”
“And the bug in his office?”
“It didn’t catch enough to be incriminating in the legal sense—at least, I don’t think so—but it was enough to convince me that he knew all about the drug trade because he was on the inside.”