Valentine's Day (Second Skin Book 3)

by Ophelia Bell

  “Mr. Stavros has well-paid cleaning staff,” he says.

  The ride is interminable, and halfway up Toni reaches for my hand. I take it and squeeze.

  “Are they even going to be awake?” she asks.

  “Evidently so,” he replies. “It’s been a long couple days, waiting for Mr. Stavros to make arrangements to bring you home. Everyone was worried.”

  “Is my mom here? Does she know what happened?” I hope they spared her the worry at least. It’s only been a few months since the hospital released her after her stroke, and she’s still recovering.

  “That I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know all the names or who may have arrived overnight. We’ll be there shortly.”

  Finally the elevator dings and the doors open onto a vast foyer decorated in sleek metal and dark wood. The interior is an open-plan design that allows a view clear across a balcony to high windows overlooking the bay, over which the night sky has just begun to fade into the pale gray of dawn. The lights of the naval ships on the water still blink serenely in the distance, and I abstractly wish my brother Marco could be here to run interference, but I know he’s likely deployed on some top-secret SEAL mission on the other side of the globe.

  “Right this way,” Duffy says, directing us to the top of a staircase at one end of the balcony. From below I hear voices growing more excited. Footsteps rush in from somewhere out of sight. When I peek over the edge of the balcony before descending the stairs, I see Mad and Mason standing near the window down below, and for the first time it hits me that we’re home.

  “Here goes,” Toni mutters, tightening her grip on my hand so I have no choice but to walk down beside her—not that I would have it any other way.

  Mad and Mason reach us first, and I’m yanked into a rough embrace by one brother, then the next. “Thank fuck you’re okay,” Maddox says. He pulls back and turns to Toni, hesitating for a split-second before sweeping her up in a bear hug, which elicits a small squeak and a laugh from her.

  Then we’re facing them together, and both my shitbird brothers look at each other, then give us knowing smirks.

  “Just keep your mouths shut, okay?” I mutter.

  “Sorry, brother. We have a right to be impressed,” Mason says, then smacks me on the back. When I let out a hiss and flinch, he holds up both hands. “You injured? Please tell me that asshole didn’t hurt either of you.”

  “He has a few new tattoos. That’s all,” Toni explains. “Otherwise, we’re both fine.” She lets out a long sigh. “Just exhausted and stressed.”

  She leans into me, sliding her arm around my waist and I hug her tight to my side, ignoring the grins both my brothers can’t seem to wipe off their faces.

  “Is Mom here?” I ask.

  Mason shakes his head. “Callie agreed to take the day off and stay home with Zoe and Mom while we came to meet you. She knows what’s going on though, so you should call her later.”

  For a moment I think he’s telling me to call Callie, but that’s the last conversation I should have after promising Chris I’d hold onto his secret. Mom definitely deserves a call, though.

  I nod, wishing I could use it as an excuse to disappear now, but I can’t avoid the expectant looks of everyone else in the room. The second my brothers step aside, Elle tackles me, winding her arms around my neck in a hug so tight she nearly strangles me.

  “I was so worried! You promise you’re okay? Both of you?”

  Toni nods, but doesn’t speak, and when I look down at her, she has tears in her eyes and is covering her mouth with one hand. Elle faces her, and in a hushed tone says, “You found out, didn’t you?”

  Another nod and Toni grabs my sister, the pair of them hugging and sniffling.

  “Found out what, exactly?” comes a tense voice from behind me. I turn to see Baz Quiñones saunter in, his twin Benny at his side. The pair are built like linemen and have gotten bigger since the last time I saw them, if that’s even possible. They also both have more ink, dark patterns creeping up their necks from beneath the collars of the snug T-shirts they wear. They’re otherwise clean-cut, and the few times I’ve seen them within the past few months, they’ve worn tailored suits and trailed after Arturo Flores like a matched set of guard dogs.

  Baz crosses his arms and glares daggers at me, his stare sharpening when Toni releases Elle and returns to my side, threading her fingers into mine.

  Here we go.

  “Mom didn’t tell you, did she?” Toni asks.

  “Tell us what? That you’ve suddenly developed shit taste in boyfriends?” Benny says.

  Elle rounds on him and snaps, “That’s my brother, dickhead. And for your information, he’s loved her his entire life, so lay off!”

  Both twins’ heads snap back as if she just smacked them. I’m a little shocked myself at their reaction, though less shocked at Elle’s outburst.

  Baz clears his throat and Benny glances at his shoes, his jaw clenched. He doesn’t apologize, but his demeanor shifts and he’s more deferential when he asks, “What’s the secret? Mom and Papá Flores have been locked in Stavros’ office and won’t tell us a fucking thing. Celeste and Leo don’t have a clue either, so if you know something, tell us. Does it have anything to do with why you were taken?”

  “Ben . . .” Toni says, then glances up at me. Finally she shakes her head. “It isn’t for me to tell. It’s for her to tell.” She points past them to a corridor where Elena Quiñones has appeared with Arturo Flores just behind her.

  The middle-aged woman clutches her hands together in front of her, her face tight and worried as she approaches. “I’m so sorry, mija. I should have told you the truth so long ago. Please understand I didn’t keep it from you to hurt you.”

  “Then why? All these years. My life would have been so different . . .”

  “Let’s sit down and talk,” Arturo says, urging Elena toward one of several sleek leather sofas facing each other in the center of the room. “Celeste needs to be here for this too.”

  I realize Maddox has disappeared. He returns a moment later with a sleepy Celeste at his side, Leo not far behind. Toni releases my hand long enough to accept tearful hugs from the two of them, then leads me to sit facing her parents.

  Celeste and Leo take seats within the circle while my brothers and Toni’s find seats at the nearby kitchen bar, where someone has put out a spread of breakfast food. I eye the bagels, wishing I hadn’t sat down before grabbing one, but it’ll have to wait.

  “Papá, what is this?” Celeste asks. “Surely we can debrief them after they’ve gotten some sleep.”

  “This isn’t about Amador,” he says. “It’s about our family. You already know about Elle.”

  “What about Elle?” Baz interjects before Arturo can continue. My sister blanches and her cheeks flush.

  Arturo presses his lips together and rises, walking to the wet bar near the wall and pouring himself a drink. He takes a swallow, then looks around the room at each of us, finally resting his gaze on Toni and Elle. When he returns his gaze to Celeste, I realize I’ve been holding my breath.

  “Mija, you don’t have just one half-sister—you have two.”

  43

  Toni

  Celeste’s eyes go wide when she looks at me after her father’s announcement. Then she turns to Maddox and glares. “You knew, didn’t you? You knew all this time and didn’t tell me?”

  “Not my secret to tell,” Maddox says with a shrug, but the reproachful look Celeste gives him makes him shift uncomfortably on his stool.

  “This is fucking bullshit,” Benny says, leaping from his seat. “All of this. What the actual fuck? Did all of you know? Did you know what a two-timing old bastard he was all along?” He stalks over and glares at Mom, pointing a finger at her. “You . . . Did it happen when Dad was alive? Wait . . .” He turns and looks at Baz, then at Elle, his gears turning.

  “He’s not your father too, Benito. You and Baltasar are both Hector’s sons,” Elena says, standing and holding her
hands up to try to appease my angry brothers. “This happened before I met your father. It was a long time ago. Lola was still alive. She was my friend.”

  “Mamá knew?” Celeste asked, her voice far more reasoned than Benny’s, as if she’s only looking for confirmation of a truth she already suspects.

  “I never lied to your mother about anything. I’ve told you about our arrangement,” Arturo says.

  “So Elena was part of it,” Celeste says. “Your arrangement. Papá, why didn’t you ever tell me? All this time I had two sisters and I never even knew! I grew up with her! If I’d known . . .”

  “We hoped it would be enough for you two to grow up together,” Elena says. “But now it is too dangerous for you not to know. We have to keep you safe . . .”

  “Safety? Is that’s all that’s important now?” Benny says. Beside him, Baz is red-faced with matching fury.

  “What about fucking trust?” Baz snaps.

  “Boys, this isn’t about you,” Arturo says.

  “The fuck it isn’t! It’s about family—you said it yourself. All this time you lied to us,” Baz says, rounding on him. “¡Nunca te perdonaré tus mentiras, desgraciado!” he yells, then taps Benny on the arm, and they both storm out.

  “Ay Díos,” Mamá says, rubbing her temples and sitting back down. “I knew they’d have a hard time with this.” She looks at me again and gives me a weary smile. “Thank you for understanding, mija.”

  I lift my eyebrows. “Honestly, Mom, I don’t understand, but I’m too fucking exhausted to fight about it. I was just kidnapped by a psychotic cartel boss over this. Which, by the way, allowed me to learn that he’s really after Celeste. If I hadn’t escaped, he’d have forced me to call you to convince you to give yourself up in exchange for my life.”

  I look at Celeste, whose eyes widen before she closes them and grimaces.

  “He thinks I’m his,” she says.

  “No, I think he knows that you’re not his biological daughter. But that doesn’t matter to him.” I look at Arturo. “You and Lola were with him when she was conceived. You were in a committed relationship. That’s why he considers her his, not because he thinks there’s any question about paternity. He loved you both, so any child conceived within the bounds of that relationship belonged to all three of you. Crazy progressive of him, if you ask me, but the man is evidently jonesing for an heir now.” I glance at her again. “Lucky you, I guess? Never saw yourself as a cartel princess, did you?”

  I’m painfully aware of my acid tone, and everyone left in the room has gone pale listening to me. Arturo’s jaw is clenched. My mother looks horrified, and I soften my gaze when I look at her.

  “I’m sorry, mami. I don’t blame you for it, really. It just would’ve been nice to not be blindsided by it this way, you know? It wasn’t fair that Sam had to hold onto the secret. You should have told me.”

  Arturo clears throat. “How the Santos family knew to begin with is a matter I will need to discuss with them, but you are right.”

  Mason raises a hand. “You’re forgetting I had the intel. You didn’t think I’d just hand it over without memorizing every last detail, did you? As long as my family’s tied up with yours, I wanted to make sure we all had enough ammo to take you down if we needed to.”

  “Not that we would,” Maddox interjects, shooting his brother a warning look, then muttering, “Watch your step, asshole.”

  “Balls of fucking steel,” Sam whispers beside me, then chuckles. I glance at him and see him regarding Mason with amusement.

  Arturo throws back his drink and sets the empty glass aside. “It’s irrelevant now. What matters is that we’re under attack. Under no circumstance can Amador get to you girls, and he will try even harder now that he’s lost what leverage he thought you gave him, Antonia. All three of you are at risk, which is why I’ve already made arrangements with Drake to allow you and Elle to move in here until the matter is dealt with. You’ll be able to continue work and will have a security detail with you at all times when you’re outside this building.”

  Sam hisses, and it takes a second to realize it’s because I’m squeezing his hand so tight my knuckles pop. I release him and look at Elle. “Are you okay with this? The fact that he’s unilaterally decided to control your life? Because I’m not.”

  She shrugs. “I work in the building so it’s easy, and rent-free.”

  I look at Arturo, this man whose world I painstakingly worked to keep away from for most of my life. Now he wants to drag me into it, and I refuse to go without a fight, daughter or not.

  An unfamiliar man appears from the staircase; he’s about my age and as tall as the Santos brothers, with olive skin and dark hair, wearing suit pants and a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to reveal muscular forearms. He sips from a steaming coffee mug.

  “There’s room here. You’ll be comfortable, but more importantly, you’ll be safe. You can have the room next to Elle’s.” His gaze slips to Elle and lingers before returning to me. “I’d offer to let Celeste stay too, let the three of you catch up, but I gather she feels safe enough in your father’s house. But since both you and Elle already live and work in San Diego, Mr. Flores wanted you to have a safe place here . . .”

  “No offense, but who the fuck are you?”

  “Drake Stavros. I own this tower and the airline that flew you home.”

  “I’m sure your fancy penthouse is lovely, but I have no intention of staying. I’ll have my brothers put an alarm on my house. Plus Sam’s moving in, and I plan to get a dog too.”

  Sam sits up a little straighter and looks at me. I turn and give him a sheepish smile, aware that I didn’t exactly have time to ask, but I already know this is what he wants. He grins.

  “I’ve got your back,” he says. “Always.”

  Ultimately both Mom and Arturo convince me to compromise. I refuse to back down on the idea of moving, but once my brothers cool off enough to return, they’re more than happy to agree to install a state-of-the-art security system at my house.

  I agree to the security detail while I’m at work, but insist that my brothers are not an option as my bodyguards. They won’t chill out about the idea of Sam moving in, and I’m not interested in having to run interference between my brothers and my boyfriend whenever they’re around each other. The rift our mother’s secret put between them and Arturo is evidently too vast for a simple conversation to repair, so in the end he agrees to assign them to Elle’s detail instead. Drake claims to need a new head of security for his tower, and after hearing the two of them spout off about all the flaws in my own security, he offers them the job.

  We still spend that first day in one of Stavros’ many luxurious spare bedrooms, and it’s probably the first time Sam and I have done nothing but sleep in the same bed for eight hours straight since our first night in Cancún.

  By the time we make it home the next afternoon, my brothers have already done their thing, and I arrive to a new lock on my door and fancy sensors on all the windows, along with an annoying keycode I need to punch in every time I enter or leave my house.

  Sam looks a little out of sorts when we walk in. He stands in the middle of the living room, staring out the window at my backyard, where the purple daisies are in full bloom between the roses and lavender.

  “Everything okay?” I ask. “You’ve been to my place before, haven’t you?”

  “Never had the pleasure. I heard you used to throw parties, but that was before my time.”

  I wince, realizing that I haven’t had a Tendrils barbecue since before I met him.

  “We’ll have to remedy that soon,” I say, returning from the kitchen with a glass of water for each of us. I push open the French doors leading to my covered terra cotta-tiled patio. It’s a gorgeous day, and I just want to sit and enjoy my little corner of the world with the man I love.

  He walks to the edge of the patio and stops, staring at the trellis of blooming morning glories that covers the entire wall on one side of a ti
led fountain. Sam takes a sip of his water, then glances at me, his brow furrowed.

  “Did you mean it? Am I moving in for real?” he asks. “I mean, I get it if you were just trying to appease your parents. If this is a temporary arrangement, I want to know. I need to know how long I’ll be here so I can mentally prepare not to be.”

  I set down my water on the glass-top table and walk up to face him, slowly unbuttoning the front of my blouse as I stare into his eyes. His eyebrows twitch and his eyes brighten with hopeful look that makes it clear he thinks he’s about to get lucky, but he has no idea how lucky he already is.

  I spread the sides of my shirt apart, revealing the ink he gave me on our last day in Cancún. It was only two days ago, but still feels like a lifetime has passed after all the wonderful things I’ve learned.

  “Does this look temporary to you, Sam Santos?” I ask, then lift his T-shirt and gently rest my palm against his still-healing tattoo. His skin is hot and smooth, the fresh design still slightly textured beneath my palm. “Or this?”

  “No.”

  “And neither is how I feel. Yes, I said you were moving in to appease my mom and Arturo, but I also want this. Ever since I first considered asking you to be my partner, the idea of you being a permanent fixture in my life has felt right. The more I imagined you at my side at Tendrils, the more I loved the idea—the more you just seemed to be the perfect fit. It didn’t occur to me until our trip that you and I fit together, not just as business partners, but in every way. I fucking adore you, Sam Santos. You are indelibly etched onto my skin, and into my heart. I absolutely don’t want this to be temporary. Not any of it.”

  He stares into my eyes and lets out a slow, relieved breath. “Thank fuck, because I don’t think I could keep faking it for much longer.”

  I take the water glass out of his hand and set it next to mine, then stretch up on my toes and wrap my arms around his neck. “No secrets, no lies, and definitely no faking allowed. Now before you get too comfy here, I think there’s the small matter of my birthday gift. I only got to see a photo.”