She channeled all of her anger, her lust, and her pride into that kiss. He was stunned, not touching or kissing back. When she teased the seam of his lips with her tongue, a shock jolted through him and she pulled away just as his arms came around her.
With the back of her hand, she wiped his kiss away. “You’re damn right she isn’t me.”
“What the hell is going on?” Grammy said, greeting her in the lobby. “I can’t keep track of you two running all over the damned place.”
Dori never once looked over her shoulder to see if Pete followed her from where she’d left him.
But her heart still galloped from that kiss. She had no idea where the idea to do such a thing came from. And she didn’t want to know. She needed to be in control, focused. She needed to find out what the hell her sister might be getting herself into.
“Do you know where Sela is?”
“No. They’re starting the first dance. You want to see?”
“Not—” Wait, she told herself. If Eric were still in the ballroom, maybe she could see for herself if what Pete had told her was true. “Come on.”
“Don’t you hustle me around.” Grammy yanked her arm free and dug her heels into the carpet like a horse about to balk. “Hold on. Who’ve you been making out with?”
Dori almost asked how she knew. “I’ll tell you when we go into the ballroom.”
She moved off, and Grammy hurried to keep up with her. When they made it through the doors, they were swept into a human tide pulling them toward the dance floor. Even in her heels it was impossible for Dori to spot Sela and Eric.
Frank Sinatra’s “The Way You Look Tonight” came on, and everyone cheered as the spotlight captured the newlywed couple. Dannie’s megawatt smile beamed down from the giant screen.
“Good Lord help us all,” Grammy groaned as they started their choreographed dance. Robert bit the tip of his tongue in concentration, and Dannie’s camera-ready smile never faltered.
Grammy smacked her arm. “Was it El Tigre?”
Dori shook her head.
“Pete?” Grammy yelped, and Dori smacked her back to shut her up. “What were you thinking?”
“He was trying to compare me to his, you know…”
Grammy gave her a quick nod of approval. “That’s my girl. Now your sister, she’s gotten El Tigre outside twice now. You’ve got some catching up to do.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen.” Just then she ID’d Eric at the bar. Dori swept her gaze across to the table. Sela’s wrap was still draped over her seat.
Wasting no time or explanations, Dori made a beeline for him.
Eric grinned when she approached. She ordered a Turkey and Seven on the rocks.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Just a little drama,” Dori said with just enough embarrassment to make herself less of a threat. She had always been good at faking.
He turned toward her. “So let’s pick up where we left off. How did you mark me?”
“It takes one to know one,” she replied.
His eyes followed her fingers as she reached into her jacket and pulled out her wallet with her badge. “San Diego PD,” she explained, then flipped it shut in the palm of her hand.
“I thought so,” he said with a genuine smile. He saluted her with two fingers held to his forehead. “So how long have you been on the force?”
“Three months here,” she replied, toasting him with her glass and then faking a sip. “Five years with Denver. And you?”
“I left about a year ago. My buddy and I started a private security consulting firm.”
She was getting warmer. “Do you miss it?”
He shrugged, his eyes falling downward. “The money’s better now that I’m my own boss.”
“So how do you know Dannie again?” she asked, deliberately using her sister-in-law’s name.
He tossed back the dregs of his drink. “I’m a friend of her brother.”
He slid his empty glass across the bar. His jacket fell open and she noticed something small and square shoved in the inside pocket. The bartender refilled his glass and Eric took another healthy swig. She glanced at the mirror. He stared straight at Dannie.
The muscles in his cheek ticked and his eyes seemed to sink deeper under his strong brow.
Holy crap. Pete hadn’t been lying. Then again, he never had lied to her.
The dance ended and Robert slid his hand around Dannie’s neck and kissed her. The crowd roared and a man shouted, “Take her upstairs!”
Dannie pushed Robert away, clearly embarrassed. He followed her, apologies clear from the way he held out his arms. But the delicate virginal bride couldn’t take his manly aggressions and melted into the arms of her mother and that nun who had been in the ladies’ room.
They escorted her to the door, patting her hand and probably assuring her that this first night wasn’t going to be as bad as she thought.
Dannie happened to look up then and see Dori and Eric at the bar. Horrified recognition bloomed on her face. With a cynical twist to his lips, Eric saluted her with his drink and tossed it back.
His glass snapped on the wood. He gestured for a third.
Dori’s hand landed on his arm, which was trembling.
“Hey, you’ve still got the cutting of the cake to go,” she teased.
He glanced over. The pain in his eyes was unmistakable.
Dori went in. “You know her, don’t you?”
He took a moment to answer, straightening up on his stool and erasing any expression on his face. “She reminds me of someone I once knew.”
He then slid off the stool and walked out.
“Time out,” Dori said to Sela when she caught her spreading gloss on her bottom lip. Her sister sat in one of the club chairs in the Babcock & Story lounge.
Sela jumped when Dori grabbed her arm and yanked her up to her feet. “Come on.”
Avoiding the ladies’ room and taking a quick look around the busy lobby for Eric, Dori hustled Sela to one of the side staircases that were part of the original labyrinthine Victorian design.
“What has Eric told you about himself?” she asked.
“Not much,” Sela answered. “We haven’t been talking to get to know each other…if you know what I mean.”
“Pete told me that he’s Dannie’s ex-boyfriend.”
Sela’s blood iced over.
“We need to get him out of here,” Dori continued.
“Wha—Why?” Sela asked, still trying to process all that Dori was saying.
“I know you hate Dannie, but we can’t let Eric ruin this wedding.”
“But that would be perfect!”
“Sela! What about Robert? Or Mom and Dad? Stop thinking about yourself and think about what’s best for our family.”
“Not having Dannie as a sister-in-law is a good start.”
“If anything goes down that ruins this wedding, Mom and Dad will never forgive you or me. Ever. Do you want things to be worse between you guys?”
“I can’t see how they could get worse.”
“But do you want things to get worse, Sela? Over sex?” Dori let her think on that, and then she went in for the kill. “I know how much it hurts you that they give all this attention to Robert. But this could be your cha—”
“Do you really think Robert would ever protect us? We’re an afterthought to him, or else we wouldn’t be sitting at the table in the back of the room.”
“We’re better than Robert.”
“I can’t believe you’re taking his side now.” Sela pushed by her.
Dori made a grab for her arm and then saw the marks there. “Who did that?”
She didn’t have to ask again as Sela debated whether to tell her the truth. Dori knew it was her father who had left the marks. Anger filled every molecule in her body with blistering heat. She struggled to speak. “If you let Eric ruin this wedding,” she said, “Robert will not just walk away from Dannie. And she’s going to be that muc
h more entrenched with him, making your life miserable.”
“Mom would stand up for me. Eventually.”
“Did she see that?” Dori pointed to Sela’s arm, hating the look on her sister’s face. “She never has, never will. We have to stop this.”
“How?”
“First, we need to see if Eric is still in the hotel. If he is, we’re doing this quietly with hotel security, to make sure he doesn’t disrupt anything. If Eric wants to confront Robert after the wedding, fine. But not here.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“I want you to find Eric and keep him busy.”
Sela’s eyes lit up.
“Not like that. Just keep him in one place where I can find you with Security.”
“I’m supposed to meet him in the bar. He’s probably looking for me now.”
Chapter 7
Sela tried to tell herself she wasn’t backstabbing Dori. This had nothing to do with Dori. This had everything to do with her family casting her to the shit pile in favor of Dannie. She was going to tear the curtain down so they would see that little bitch for exactly what she was.
It wouldn’t be a huge loss if her parents tossed her out of the family. Today showed that they loved Dannie more than they did their own daughter. Why shouldn’t she hurt them as much as they had hurt her?
Sela stopped short when she found Eric talking to Dannie’s maid of honor, Mackenzie, who held out her hands as if begging. She couldn’t see Eric’s face. Her skin chilled with fear as to what kind of man he was. Had he played her with that kiss, or had he genuinely liked her?
Wanting to hear what they were arguing about, she slipped into a wicker chair that was hidden from them by a potted palm tree.
“Stay away from her,” Mackenzie said. “She wants you out of her life.”
“Oh really? Then why did she spend the night with me two nights ago?”
Sela didn’t know whether to laugh or cry; whether to cheer with joy that she had found the chink in Dannie’s armor, or howl that she had contemplated sleeping with her sister-inlaw’s leftovers.
“You are such a dick,” Mackenzie spat, and then walked away with a swish of her skirt.
When Mackenzie made off for the ballroom, Sela couldn’t move. Her fingers wrapped around the edges of the chair’s arms. If she glanced down, would she see the imprint of her heart beating against her chest?
She swallowed the saliva pooling in her mouth and tried to loosen the tightness of her face.
“Wait,” she called to Eric’s back. But he couldn’t hear her.
When she caught up with him, she didn’t mean to blurt out, “I know about Dannie.”
He jerked to a complete stop and then turned to face her.
Okay, now what was she supposed to say?
“I think we can help each other,” she said.
She searched for the sexy, charming stranger at the bar but only found a mean, angry man whose pride had been destroyed by the woman he loved.
She momentarily considered turning and hiding in the ladies’ room for the rest of the wedding. But that’s exactly what Dori would expect from her. “How were you going to tell my brother about you and Dannie?”
He stared at her.
“Do you still love—”
“No.”
“Then why are you here, Eric?”
He stared at her, working his jaw.
Not quite comprehending the hypocrisy of her feelings, her breath got shaky in her chest. She had wanted to use him, and yet the idea that he tried to use her made her sick. “Did you come here to pick up some girl and rub her nose in it? Or…”
His face softened. “And I thought your sister was the one I had to look out for.”
Sela backed off when he reached out to touch her. He got the message and kept his hands to himself.
“I want your brother to know the kind of girl he married,” he said.
“Then go tell him.”
“And yet, I have my pride.” At the doubting lift of her eyebrow, he laughed softly at himself. “Or what’s left of it.”
“I can try to arrange for my brother to meet you in the bar.”
He shook his head. “I’ll do what I have to do.”
Chills raced up the backs of her legs. “Like what?”
He stepped back. “I’m going to show everyone at this wedding something they’ll never forget.”
“Hey, there’s my little policía,” Dad yelled when he saw her approaching him and his circle of cronies. Pete stood among them. He met Dori’s brief glance.
She needed to stay focused on Dad. He was well on his way to drunk, and in front of his friends he had a super macho image to maintain. This would not work in her favor unless she could get him alone.
“You arrest anyone today, mija?” her cousin Rudy asked with a chuckle. They all thought “girl cops” were a joke. But Dori knew that Rudy currently lived with his mother and was hiding his assets from his last wife, who wanted support for their two-year-old daughter.
She ignored him. “Hey, Dad, can I talk to you for a second?”
“I just started my cigar. Rudy brought some Cubans from Tijuana.”
“Yeah, so don’t arrest me, okay?” Rudy chided.
She glanced down at his meaty hand, which was patting her arm. She’d have to tell her cleaners to pay extra attention to that sleeve. When his eyes ventured to the neckline of her blouse, she decided to give his license plate to her friends at Border Patrol and consider it justice for his daughter.
“Would you gentlemen mind giving me a minute or two?” she asked.
“Hey, you don’t talk to my friends that way.”
They leered at her, waiting for the uppity little female to step back down into her place.
Pete spoke up. “Did you see that girl in the purple dress?” He jerked his head toward the ballroom.
Dad gave his friends a “What can you do?” look and then turned to her, flicking ash off his cigar by her feet.
They herded over to see what Pete was talking about.
“Dori, go take this to your mother,” Dad sighed, rocking back on his heels. “I don’t have time right now.”
“This isn’t something Mom can help with,” she said, hoping that would appeal to his male ego.
“I’d expect this bullshit from your sister, not you. What do you want?”
“Dannie’s ex-boyfriend snuck into the reception,” she said. “I’m getting Security involved to make sure he doesn’t cause trouble.”
Dad muttered in Spanish, “Women. Always stirring up trouble.” He downed what was left in his glass.
“So you just want me to let him run around?”
“You wouldn’t be doing this if you’d brought a date,” he said.
Frustration made her sick to her stomach. “You think I’d make this up? Why don’t I just leave it be and let him embarrass you and your new daughter-in-law?”
“Ack, get out of here,” he said, and then sauntered over to his friends.
Dori refused to look at Pete as she returned to the ballroom.
Sela came running up to her.
“Why aren’t you with Eric?” Dori asked. Then again, why should she care?
“I was, and he—” Sela stopped to catch her breath. “He said he’s going to do something. He said that Robert should know the woman he married.”
“I could care less,” Dori said. “I’m out of here.”
“Oh.” Sela shrugged. “Well, guess that’s that.”
A hand smacked Dori upside the head, and then Sela got one too. “What the—”
“I’ve been watching the both of you,” Grammy Cena started, “and when my sister and I were your age, one of us would’ve had El Tigre upstairs or at least in the ladies’ room!”
“Did you turn your ring around to give us concussions?” Dori asked while the back of her head stung.
Grammy righted her diamond ring, working her lips as she prepared another verbal assault.
Grammy blinked and her mouth dropped open. “No!”
“I overheard Mackenzie telling him to stay away.” She then told them everything.
“What does he want you to do?” Dori asked.
“Nothing. He just said that everyone would know what kind of woman Dannie is.”
Dori remembered that square bulge in his coat pocket, the trip to Cancun where his girlfriend got caught on the phone with another man. Dannie started dating Robert last year, and that square bulge was the same size as a minidigital videotape.
Suddenly, a light seared the surface of her eyeballs, and a guy squinting into the viewfinder of a camera said, “What do you have to say to Dannie and Robbie?”
Dori looked over her shoulder. The three of them were deer caught in the headlights on the huge screen behind the DJ.
“Oh fuck,” Dori said. “He has a tape.”
“Hey, this is live,” the camera guy barked.
“How did you know?” Sela asked.
But Dori didn’t hear them. She watched Robert kissing his bride’s hand, looking worshipfully into her eyes. Dannie’s smile was, for lack of a better word, tolerant.
Robbie glowed with happiness because he had no idea what he’d gotten himself into. Even though her brother had the emotional capacity of a gnat, he’d worked hard for his career and he took their parents to lunch every Sunday. But he had never shown affection to her or Sela, she thought, so why should she care?
But Dad had seen Sela with Eric. And when Eric did what Dori suspected he wanted to do, Sela would suffer.
For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, Sela was her little sister.
God damn it, Dori thought, knowing what she had to do.
“Where is Eric?” she asked Sela.
Chapter 8
“Go with her!” Grammy demanded, giving Sela a push after the camera crew left them.
“What for?”
“The tape.”
Sela shook her head, trying to clear it. “What are you talking about?”
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