Jack wrapped an arm around Lucia’s shoulders in a brotherly hug. “I will tell you everything, my sweet little runaway, just as soon as Holly and I get a room.”
And so, about twenty minutes later, Ryan found himself and his new wife in Jack and Holly’s suite on their wedding night.
He glanced over at Lucia who was perched on the edge of an overstuffed chair, looking adorably tired as she stifled a yawn. He could relate. Now that the adrenaline rush had passed and the desire had been given a cold shower, so to speak, he was ready to call this crazy day over.
Jack was fixing a drink for himself and Holly, who was still watching him in that disconcerting way. They still hadn’t answered Lucia’s questions and instead seemed hell bent on changing the topic, chattering on about everything from Holly’s niece to their upcoming trip to Asia.
At one point, just as Ryan thought he might lose the battle with sleep and pass out then and there on these strangers’ couch, Holly turned to him. “I left a suitcase in the car downstairs. Do you think you could help me bring it up?”
He noticed Lucia eyeing her friend with suspicion but Ryan agreed. How could he not?
Once in the elevator alone with Holly, she turned to him and all the sweetness and light was gone. Before him stood an avenging angel.
Oh no.
“So, Ryan Brentworth,” she said, drawing out his last name pointedly. “Want to tell me what the hell you’re doing with my friend?”
* * * *
“Okay, what was that about?” Lucia asked as she watched Holly usher Ryan out of the room.
Jack plopped down into the loveseat across from her with a weary sigh that echoed how she felt. The alcohol was wearing off and the day was catching up to her.
“What’s going on, Jack?”
He met her gaze and his was filled with understanding. “I was going to ask you the same question, Luce.”
Leaning back, she let her gritty eyes close for a moment before launching into the story. She left nothing out. At this point, it felt good to have a friend to confide in. When she was done, she opened her eyes to see Jack studying her. “If you needed money so badly, why didn’t you come to me?”
The hurt in his voice was a kick in the gut.
“It’s nothing personal, I just….this is something I wanted to do for myself. I knew you would give me money if I needed it, and so would Danny—”
“And so would your grandfather,” Jack pointed out.
Lucia nodded. It was true. Her grandfather would have relented and given her anything she’d asked for, even if he thought her dream was ridiculous. But that wasn’t the point. How to explain what it meant to her to do it on her own?
“My whole life, my grandfather has given me everything. He took me in when my mother couldn’t raise me on her own. He raised me almost single-handedly after my mother and grandmother passed away when I was a baby….”
“But?” Jack said.
“But I’m a grown up now and he doesn’t see that. He still sees me as a little girl who can’t do anything for herself.”
Jack looked like he was going to interrupt and she hurried on. “I know he means well but I need to do something on my own. Granted, I haven’t earned the trust fund money, but it’s still mine. And I need to stand on my own two feet or I’m going to end up…” She didn’t finish. She couldn’t.
“Like your mother.” Jack was looking at her with something dangerously close to pity.
Her head jerked with a little nod. She hated admitting that even to herself, let alone anyone else but it was the truth. She was terrified of making the same mistakes her mother made. Her grandparents and the rest of her extended family had gone to great lengths to protect her from the full story of her mother’s tragic story, but she’d been able to piece most of it together on her own.
Her mother had tried to stand on her own two feet. Like Lucia, she’d wanted to see the world beyond their Italian village, she’d wanted freedom and adventure. She was the “wild child” according to her aunts and uncles. So she’d gone off on her own…but she couldn’t make it. She’d made one mistake after another and finally, when she couldn’t take it anymore, she gave up on having a life of her own and came crawling back to Italy with an illegitimate daughter and nothing else. She’d died a year later of cancer, heartbroken and miserable…and a complete and utter failure.
That would not be her story.
Leaning forward, she tried to explain to Jack. “I know what I’m doing. I’m good at what I do. I know I can be a success if I can just have my shot. But I have to do it on my own.”
Jack nodded but he wiped a hand over his face and Lucia saw the dark circles under his eyes. “I get that, Lucia, I do. It’s not you I don’t trust.”
There was a heavy silence in the room as she studied Jack’s unusually serious expression.
“How much do you know about this guy?”
She answered with a question of her own. “How did you know I was here?”
Jack flopped back with a groan. “You look like I feel. What do you say we hold off on the interrogations until tomorrow and get some sleep?”
Her eyes felt like sandpaper and as much as she wanted answers, she was rapidly losing the battle with sleep. “I have to find Ryan.” Her husband. Who was currently off with Holly who had been acting odd as well.
Somebody needed to give her some answers. That was her last thought before sleep claimed her.
* * * *
Worst. Wedding night. Ever.
Ryan sat across the booth from Holly and watched her dive in to a pile of pancakes at the breakfast-all-day diner she’d found in the casino next to theirs. She’d insisted on eating before they could talk and so Ryan found himself sitting across from a woman who was not his wife when he should have been alone in a hotel room with Lucia.
To say that he was not a happy camper was the understatement of the century. Add to that the looming hangover, sheer exhaustion and the fact that this lunatic across from him had refused to tell him what she knew until she’d eaten a mountain of carbohydrates….
“That’s it.” A few patrons looked their way and Ryan lowered his voice. “We got you your pancakes so tell me what you’re doing here.”
Holly took another bite and continued to stare. If she was trying to psyche him out, she was succeeding. She hadn’t said anything more about his last name or how they’d tracked him down but she’d been eyeing him like he was some sort of criminal mastermind since they’d met.
“Daniel called us,” she finally said. “You know Daniel, don’t you? He is your boss, after all.” There was a tense silence before she added, “And the man who bought your family’s company when it went under.”
Ryan stiffened. There it was. A million responses seemed to rip through him at once. The urge to explain himself battled with anger at her presumptuous tone. As if she had any clue.
Family pride won out, like it always did. “The company didn’t go under, it was a hostile takeover.” He struggled to keep calm despite his brother and mother’s voices screaming in his ear. Daniel Gladwell had ruined everything. That had been his family’s motto since he was a kid. “My family would have recovered and kept the company running if it wasn’t for Daniel.”
Holly seemed nonplussed by his anger. “Uh huh.”
Of course she didn’t understand. He was her brother-in-law, after all, a fact he’d pieced together on the way over here. Somehow over the past few years Daniel had become a sort of saint in the press. They covered his wedding and his daughter’s birth and the launching of EverTech…but no one talked about the people he put out of business when he swept in to companies that were down on their luck. No one ever talked about the failures who were left with nothing after Daniel stole it all from them.
“I’m going to ask you again,” Holly said. “What are you doing with my friend?”
“Aside from marrying her?” He was oddly pleased that his joking comment made her slam
down her coffee mug. Good. He was tired of being the only one pissed off around here.
She leaned over so far that her T-shirt came dangerously close to taking a dip in the whipped cream atop her pancakes. Jabbing her fork in his direction, she said, “You clearly have a grudge against Daniel and I really don’t care why. That’s not my business. Daniel can handle himself. But Lucia…I swear to God, if you hurt that girl—”
“I’m not going to hurt her.” His entire body tensed with conviction. She must have seen that he was being honest or maybe she’d caught the fear in his voice. Not that he was afraid of her—it was difficult to be afraid of anyone who was eating pancakes, no matter how fiercely they were stabbing the air with utensils. But the idea of hurting Lucia, whether intentional or not….well, this woman had hit a nerve. He was overly defensive and he knew it. Keep it together, Ryan.
He tried again. “I’m not going to hurt her.”
“Lucia has nothing to do with Daniel’s business deals—”
“I know that.” His interruption went unnoticed.
“She’s a sweet kid—”
“She is not a kid.”
“And she deserves better than this,” Holly continued.
“Better than what?”
That question seemed to stump her and he took advantage of her momentary silence. “I agreed to go along with this marriage plan because it’s what Lucia wanted. This was her idea.”
Holly’s eyes widened but then she scoffed. “So, what? You’re not getting anything out of this deal? You’re just going along with this crazy scheme out of the goodness of your heart?”
“Of course not.” Now it was Ryan’s turn to scoff. “I’m getting money out of this ‘crazy scheme.’ Lots of it.”
“Oh.” Holly didn’t sound convinced and she stabbed at another bite with far more force than necessary. She glared at him while she chewed and Ryan resisted the urge to walk away.
One thing was clear. This woman knew enough about his past to cause him trouble. She could go to Lucia with this and he would never have a chance to explain. She would twist everything and Lucia would think….
Oh no. Lucia was alone. With Jack. If Holly knew his secrets than Jack almost certainly did as well. “Is Jack telling Lucia about me?”
God, he hated how that sounded. Like he was in grade school and afraid of being ratted out to the principal.
Holly looked too smug for her own good and she didn’t answer. Instead she continued her interrogation. “Are you going to sit there and tell me that it’s all a coincidence? That you just happen to be lying about your last name and working for a man you clearly despise….”
“Of course not.” He spit the words out in annoyance. “But Lucia has nothing to do with my issues with Daniel. I won’t let her be dragged into it.”
She eyed the gaudy plastic ring he wore with impossibly wide eyes. “Are you kidding me? Something tells me your wife is already in this, whether she knows it or not.”
Guilt gnawed at him.
Like an animal that senses blood, she went in for the kill. “Are you telling me you have no intention of using Lucia’s relationship with Daniel against her?”
Dammit. “Not against her…” he started. And even he could hear how weak that argument was. He tried again. “Look, I like Lucia.” Not that was the understatement of the century. “I care about her,” he continued. Better.
Holly raised a cynical brow but she didn’t interrupt.
Ryan raked a hand through his hair. How to explain? To Holly, but also…how would he explain to Lucia? The fact that he’d thought he could get through this without her learning the truth about him and his family….what a fool.
He let out a loud sigh. “Has Jack told Lucia about me?”
Holly’s expression went from fierce to something disturbingly close to pity. “Not yet. We wanted to see what the situation was first and give you a chance to explain. This right here? This is your chance so try not to blow it.”
His eyes narrowed as he studied her. They never had answered his earlier questions. “How did you know we were here? Lucia didn’t tell anyone what we were doing.”
“Daniel.” Holly toyed with the whipped cream that was rapidly melting.
Of course it was Daniel. He swallowed back the bitterness. “He knows who I am?”
Holly nodded. “He took an interest in you when you tried to stand up for Lucia when you thought she was going to be deported.” Suddenly she was beaming at him over her steaming mug of coffee. “That was really sweet, by the way.” She waved her fork like a fairy godmother would wave a wand. “That’s why we decided we should hear your side of the story first. See, we know you’re not all bad.”
“Gee, thanks.”
She ignored his sarcasm. “Once Daniel realized you were using a fake name, he got suspicious so he had you followed. When he found out you two were headed to Vegas together, well….just be glad he called me and Jack and not the National Guard.”
Holly’s phone vibrated on the table between them. She glanced at it and then back up at Ryan. “Seems your wife is passed out cold in our hotel room.”
Ryan’s heart actually ached. He wanted to be with her more than anything in the world. If she was sleeping, he wanted to be by her side. He wanted to hold her and tell her that they hadn’t made a mistake and that it would all be okay. He actually wanted to come clean about everything so he could make it right.
What the hell was wrong with him? Their marriage was in name only. Putting a ring on her finger didn’t magically make love appear.
Maybe it had been there all along. His heart started to race despite his exhaustion. “I have to talk to her. I need to see her.”
“Oh no you don’t. I’ve booked you a separate room. There’s no way in hell I’m going to let Lucia get any more involved with you than she already is before she knows the truth.”
Ryan nodded and signaled to the waitress for the check. Much as he might hate the situation, he couldn’t fault Lucia’s friends for trying to protect her. So he would go back to their room. Alone.
Yup. Worst wedding night ever.
Chapter 10
Lucia woke up the next morning feeling like hell, groaning as the full force of her hangover hit her. Her head pounded, her mouth tasted like something had died in it, and her stomach churned. And then her brain started to wake up and memories of the night before came back with a vengeance.
Had she really…? Gotten married? Yes, she had.
And had she actually…? Tried to seduce the man who married her for her money? Yup.
Well done, Lucia.
Her next groan was met by Holly’s disturbingly chipper voice. “Morning, sunshine.”
Lucia opened one eye slowly and found that she was sprawled out on the couch in Holly and Jack’s suite. Jack was already eating breakfast at the little table by the window and Holly was leaning over her with a steaming mug of coffee.
Thank God for coffee. What actually came out of her mouth was more of a mumbled groan than actual words.
“Sleep well?” Jack asked. Or rather, that’s what she assumed he asked, his words were somewhat garbled as he chewed a bagel.
Lucia moved her feet so Holly could plop down beside her. Holly….where had Holly gone last night? Turning to her friend, she was about to ask when Holly cut her off. “Uh-uh-uh. Your husband will be here in a bit and he can explain everything…including why we’re here.”
The word “husband” had a strange reaction on her insides. Part of her quivered in fear while the other part quivered in….something else. Excitement, maybe? Lust, definitely.
She stopped herself from groaning aloud again at the thought of how close she’d come to satisfaction the night before. Sure, she’d been drunk. And yes, sleeping with one’s husband-of-convenience would probably muddy the waters a bit….but still. It would have been worth it to finally give in to a desire the likes of which she’d never come close to exper
iencing before.
Her sigh had Jack coming to sit on the loveseat beside her and Holly watching her with a concerned frown.
“Where’s Ryan?” she asked, hoping to squelch any and all questions before they had a chance to start the interrogation.
“In his room.” Was it her imagination or did Holly and Jack exchange a look.
“Okay, spill.” She took another sip of her coffee and watched with some amusement as her friends had a silent sparring match over who was going to talk to her. Apparently Jack lost.
“We’re not saying Ryan is a bad guy….” he started.
“Definitely not.” Holly nodded for him to keep going as though she hadn’t interrupted.
“But we don’t think you know the whole story,” Jack continued.
Nerves made her already queasy stomach a sloshing pit of acid. “What do you know?” She took a deep breath to try and calm her breathing. “I mean aside from the fact that we’re married. What aren’t you telling me about Ryan?”
They exchanged another look that had her wishing she could strangle them both. “Just tell me.”
“Lucia,” Holly started. She shared another look with Jack before ending, “Your new hubby is not what he seems.”
Alarm bells went off. Like…literal alarm bells.
“Oh crap.” Holly reached over to grab her phone and tapped something to turn off the alarm.
Before she could ask again, there was a knock at the door.
Ryan.
Jack sprang up to get the door before she could even move to set down her mug and she was glad she hadn’t rushed. It wasn’t Ryan.
It was him. The lowlife private detective her ex had hired to find her. Tracking her down and exposing her secrets hadn’t been enough, evidently. Now the smug, squirrely looking man was in their doorway. With a little glance toward Lucia that put her last nerve on edge, she heard him mutter something to Jack, who nodded before closing the door.
“You’re working with that guy now?” Lucia accused.
“No.” Jack took back his seat beside her. “But when we needed to figure out where you were. He…helped.” After a second he added, “For a price.”
The Accidental Elopement Page 12