Latin Lover [Del Fantasma]

by Tina Bendoni

  Forcing herself to answer, she turned around and looked at him. “No, that's okay, really, I don't mind. I can get a taxi—"

  "That's ridiculous, Grace. If Eduardo is willing to take you home, then it would be for the best. You'll be fine with him.” Cody walked away and turned back as he swung open the door leading into the main area of the bar. “If you need a ride into work tomorrow night, give me a call an hour before your shift, and I'll make sure someone is there to get you."

  Grace looked Eduardo with a nervous smile. “Really, that's okay. It's not a problem. Don't feel obliged—"

  His smooth tone cut her off mid sentence. “Grace, I told you I would take you home. Cody assured you that you're safe with me. If you refuse, I'm going to wonder if you're afraid of me."

  Grace glared. She wasn't afraid of any man, or vampire, dammit. She'd lived enough of her life afraid. That was how she had let herself get suckered in by Hank. Never again.

  "Fine.” Her agreement was far from courteous. “The car's already locked up, and the extra keys are in the wheel well. Let's go. We don't want you to be caught by the sun, now do we?"

  Eduardo didn't say anything, and she couldn't see his face as she preceded him out the door, only to stop short, unsure where to go.

  "This way.” He led her to a silver Mercedes Benz SLK Roadster.

  "Nice."

  "It gets me around."

  Grace raised an eyebrow at him as he opened the door for her. Must be nice not to be awed by a car that cost more than she had earned in two years back in Wisconsin as a social worker.

  He saw her settled in, and then went around to the driver's side of the car. She looked over the interior of the vehicle with its leather seats, fancy console, and sophisticated controls. Impressive, was the word that came to mind. It made her ten year-old Corolla look like junkyard fodder.

  "Where to?"

  Grace gave him directions to her home in the North Park section of town. It wasn't a bad area, and she considered herself lucky to have found a place when she moved here two years ago that was reasonably priced. At least reasonable for California. But still, his car would definitely stand out.

  No biggie, he'd only be dropping her off at her townhouse. Not like he'd be staying the day. They passed the North-East end of Balboa Park, and with a couple more turns, made it to her street.

  "That's it, the fourth unit.” Grace nodded, and then turned her head. It looked like her garage door was open. That was weird—she never left it open. Hell, she rarely used it.

  "Do you normally leave the house wide open?” Eduardo's voice sent shivers down her spine, both from fear of what she was going to find in her house, and from desire that he seemed to rip from her very soul.

  "No. Never.” Her voice was small and worried as she bit her lower lip.

  He pulled in front of her place and parked. “Stay here, let me check it out."

  "No, Eduardo, you don't—"

  He smiled coldly. “Grace. Stay. It's not like anyone is likely to hurt me, remember?"

  He climbed out of the car and was gone in an instant. Damn those freaking vamps. They could move so quickly, it drove her insane.

  After about five minutes without Eduardo returning, Grace began to get worried. Even though he was a vampire, that didn't make him invincible. She bit at her bottom lip wondering if she should go after him. A quick glance at the lightening sky decided her. The sun would be up soon, and if Eduardo didn't need help now, he would soon.

  Decision made, she climbed out of the car and slowly walked toward the doorway at the back of her garage. It was the door that Eduardo had gone through, and since it was open, it made sense to her to try it, as unlocking the front door would just make too much noise. And if anyone had been waiting for her there, they would have already met up with Eduardo.

  Grace walked in and stopped short. What the hell had happened here? The laundry/mud room looked like a tornado had come through. Powdered detergent was tossed everywhere and her laundry supplies were strewn all over the floor. It looked like someone had even tried to tip over her treadmill in the back corner, but they hadn't had much success.

  Walking through to her living room, Grace gasped as tears sprang to her eyes. The place was a mess. It had been torn apart. Someone had obviously been looking for something.

  Her closets and shelves had been emptied, things thrown everywhere. Broken crystal lay throughout the living room, swept off the shelves into destroyed bits.

  "I'm sorry. Whoever it was is long gone."

  Grace jumped at the sound of Eduardo's voice. She turned to face him with tears in her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. All she could do was shake her head as the tears flowed down her face.

  "Shh, Grace, don't worry.” He was by her side before the first tear had fallen off her cheek. He held her against his chest, stroking her hair as she shook in his arms.

  "They're gone, querida. No one will hurt you."

  "It's not that.” Grace snuffled against his chest. She wasn't worried about her personal safety. She understood whoever it had been was long gone. But for the first time in her life she understood why people that were victims of home invasions said they felt violated.

  "You will need to call the police, Grace."

  "Later. Not now."

  "Grace."

  Grace took a deep breath before moving away from him. “Let me check the place over first, please? Let me see what they've done."

  Eduardo nodded, and followed behind her as she went from room to room. The destruction wasn't total. In fact, it looked more like someone had had a temper tantrum more than tried to rob her. Things of obvious value were broken rather than taken, or even left completely intact.

  Her living room was on the main floor, connected to the garage through the laundry room and seemed to have received the brunt of the destruction. The gauzy curtains were drawn on the picture windows at the front of the room, hiding the room from casual view, but she didn't know how this could have been done without anyone seeing the bastard.

  Climbing the stairs to the second level, she assessed the damage in the kitchen and the guest bedroom she'd made into an office to pay bills and use the computer. The kitchen survived relatively unscathed, with only the few things she kept on the counters brushed onto the floor. The other room, however, had been fairly well trashed. Amazingly her computer was untouched, but many of her personal items had been thrown across the room to lay broken on the floor.

  Eduardo picked up a vase that lay on its side, unbroken, and raised an eyebrow.

  "Yes, Murano. That's what's not making any sense here.” Grace shook her head as she looked into the guest bath. Not much for anyone to destroy in there.

  "Whoever broke in either didn't know the value of some of your things, or just didn't care.” Eduardo agreed with her unspoken conclusion.

  "Exactly. There are things here they could have hocked for some decent money, and they just left them or destroyed them. That vase retails for over three hundred dollars. I won it in a charity auction last month."

  "How much is actually missing?” Eduardo continued to follow her to the room at the top of the house. The master suite was the only thing on the third floor, and she was glad he was with her. She wasn't sure what would be waiting for her there.

  Grace felt a shiver go through her body as she stood in the door to her bedroom. It had been torn apart. Everything from the sheets and comforter on the bed, to the mattress itself had been slit open with a sharp instrument of some kind. The matching curtains had been partially ripped down and shredded.

  She felt laughter bubble up from the bottom of her throat. “At least I can finally get rid of this horrible bedroom set."

  At Eduardo's concerned look, she assured him she wasn't going hysterical. “My boyfriend bought the entire thing for me last Christmas. I hated it from the get go, but he was so proud of having picked it out, I didn't have the heart to tell him how atrocious it was."

 
; "Boyfriend?"

  She grimaced. “Ex. Very much so."

  At his raised eyebrow again, she continued. “He fucked around on me, and borrowed money from some shady characters. I've been paying them off for the last three months. It's why I got the job at Del Fantasma."

  "And why you?"

  "Because Hank disappeared. The man who visited me assured me they were going to get their money one way or another. It was up to me."

  Eduardo growled. Grace's stomach flipped at the sound. It sounded predatory and protective, and warmth flooded her body.

  "It actually was very civil."

  "They threatened your life, and you tell me they have been civil?"

  Grace smiled sadly. “Don't get me wrong, they want their money. And I think it best if I pay them off, but I've been doing that. There isn't any reason for them to have done this. It would only make it harder for me to pay them."

  Eduardo frowned. “No, you're right. If you were paying them off as agreed, then there would be no reason for this. So then perhaps a standard robbery, only done by someone very stupid?"

  "I don't know what else it could be."

  "Grace, how many people have a key to your front door?"

  "Just me.” She continued walking around the room, checking for damaged articles, picking up things from the floor as though in a daze.

  "Do you have a spare around where someone can find it?"

  "No, there's no need. I can always punch in the code at the garage door to get in if I lost the key."

  "What about your ex?"

  "I made him give me back the key when he left. Hell, I even changed the locks."

  "And his code?"

  "I deleted it.” She frowned. “But I didn't change my code. I didn't think he knew it, but the bastard might actually have figured it out."

  "I didn't see any sign of forced entry. No broken windows, no busted doors. Whoever did this had a way of getting in without you knowing."

  Grace nodded as Eduardo talked, agreeing with him. “God Damn it!” she yelled as she got into the bathroom. Eduardo was there before she was even done cursing.

  "It was Hank."

  "Your ex?” At her nod, he continued. “Are you sure?"

  Grace gestured to the mirror. Sprawled across the shiny surface were the words, “I'll be back, you ice cunt bitch."

  Eduardo sucked in a breath. He obviously hadn't seen that in his earlier sweep of the house.

  "That was Hank's parting name for me when I kicked him out."

  Eduardo's eyebrow rose once again. “You dated a man like this?"

  Grace sighed as she ran a hand through her hair. “Don't remind me. It was a low point in my life. A very low point. I'd been out here for a couple years, and I wasn't doing too well. At least not emotionally. My family was all gone, I had just lost my aunt—the last relative I had left. My job was sucking me dry. I didn't seem to connect to anyone out here.

  "He was from Madison originally, and he seemed to be a bit of home when we first started dating. I'm still not sure how the hell he managed to get me to go beyond the first date or why I allowed him to move in with me. I knew it wasn't what I wanted, but..."

  Eduardo grimaced. “Sometimes when we are in pain, we do things that make little sense later."

  "Tell me about it.” Grace barked out a harsh laugh. “And then we pay for it in more ways than one."

  "Is he likely to do you physical harm?"

  "Honestly? I don't know.” Grace shrugged. “I never would have assumed he would do this, so I guess my character judgment isn't that good."

  "You want to call the cops?"

  "No, I don't think so. I have no proof it was him, and it doesn't look like he actually took anything, just like he was pissed about something.” Grace shook her head as she walked out of the bathroom.

  "Why?"

  "I have no freaking ide ... oh shit!” A thought occurred to Grace and she ran across to the closet. The door was off the tracks and she pushed it out of the way before squatting down to reach for something.

  "Dammit!"

  "What? What is it Grace?"

  "The bastard stole the money."

  At Eduardo's look of confusion, Grace explained. “I kept money rolled up here.” She held up a Tigger slipper that looked like it had to be a couple decades old. “It was my emergency money. My mom always used to keep enough for emergencies on top of the fridge in an old cookie jar. Even with ATMs everywhere, it was a habit I couldn't break. Shit!"

  "And this guy knew your hiding place?"

  "Yeah. He'd lived with me for almost a year.” A hollow laugh escaped her lips. “I never thought he remembered anything I told him. I guess I was wrong. My sister used to hide things from me in her slippers because she never wore them. She hated anything on her feet, so her slippers were more useful to her to hide things in than to wear."

  "I thought you said you had no family?"

  "I don't. Susan died at seventeen from leukemia. Those are her slippers.” Him messing with Susan's slippers felt worse than anything else she'd seen in the apartment. Grace fell back on her ass and more tears seeped out.

  Eduardo sat behind her to wrap his arms around her and hold her tight. She didn't know this man from Adam, but being held in his arms felt right. As though he would protect her from all the bad things in the world. There was something about him that made her feel safe.

  Grace wanted nothing more than to sink into his arms and take the oblivion they seemed to promise. But she couldn't. She had things to do.

  Pulling herself away regretfully, she grimaced. “I assume he was pissed because there wasn't that much there. Less than a thousand dollars. And knowing what I now know about him, I'm sure he was hoping for more."

  "Did you used to keep more?"

  "Not really. But I don't think he ever knew for certain how much I had in there. I'll grant him this; while he was here, he was subtle. I never realized how bad he was until he was gone."

  Shaking her head again, she said as she walked out of the bedroom, “I guess you're right, I probably should call the cops. Do you need to leave before they get here?"

  "No, we still have a while before full daylight. I doubt they'd ask me to step outside in the light of the sun.” The smile that flashed across his face had her responding warmly for just a second, until she remembered where she was, and what she was, and why she was there.

  Sighing she stood up to get to work.

  Grace took a breath. The cops had left, phone calls had been made and codes were changed. The cops had noticed that her windows on the third floor weren't wired, so arrangements were made for the alarm company to come by the next day and wire them with sensors. She looked around. Eduardo had disappeared sometime in all the mess and she'd never even realized it.

  He couldn't have gone home, could he? If not, though, where had he gone? She remembered the last time she saw him he'd been walking toward the living room while she answered the last of the cops’ questions. Heading that way, she stopped short and looked around. She didn't know how he'd done it, but in the time she'd finished with the cops and called both the alarm and her insurance companies, he'd managed to clean up the entire room. Everything was back in its place, or in one of the large trash bags on the floor in the corner, but he was nowhere to be seen.

  Grace turned and walked up the stairs to her bedroom where she found more evidence of his hard work. He'd stripped the bed and stuffed everything into another trash bag, as well as straightened everything up. Her closet door had been repaired and hung on its glide as neatly as it had last night when she'd left. Hell, her clothes were even more organized than she'd had them.

  Noises from her ensuite bathroom had her heading that way and stopping in the door to watch him. He'd just finished washing the mirror and all traces of the nasty message away. If she hadn't seen evidence of it with her own eyes, she never would have known her house had been in shambles earlier this morning.

  He turned and looked at her as he tossed th
e paper towel in the trash basket. “I called Cody and told him you probably wouldn't be in this evening, he said to take a couple days off. They're delivering your new bed any minute, along with all the bedding you will need."

  Grace started at him. Unsure of how to answer him, she just stood there.

  He walked up to her and pushed her chin up to close her mouth. “Please don't protest. You've had a tough morning and need your rest. It's Monday. Cody can handle the crowd without you. If not, one of the regulars will help out.

  "That's my job, dammit. You have no right to do that."

  "You're right. I don't. But it's done. Deal with it."

  Grace fumed. She had never been as speechless as this man seemed to make her. It was beyond frustrating. She turned and watched him walk into the bedroom and lift the mattress like it weighed little to nothing.

  She frowned, realizing it was dark in the room. She'd left a brightly lit kitchen just a minute ago. The sun. Eduardo must have closed the blinds. Hank hadn't touched them in his swath of destruction through her house.

  "Shit, shouldn't you be asleep in your coffin or something?"

  Eduardo laughed. “I will need to rest soon. But I don't sleep in a coffin."

  Grace realized that this was the only room that she could close up completely from the sun. It was too late for him to go anywhere else.

  Before she could say anything the doorbell rang.

  "That's probably the new bed."

  Grace frowned again before opening her mouth to tell him she would pick out her own bed, dammit. She didn't need his help. The doorbell ringing again changed her mind temporarily and she walked out of the room in a huff.

  Grace shut the door behind the men as they walked out with the remains of her old box spring. Now it was time to talk to the arrogant, full of himself vampire. Who did he think he was? He'd ordered the mattress set with adjustable firmness and dual controls. Not to mention a pillow top and a small forest of pillows.

  How the hell did he expect her to pay for that? The total was more than she paid in three months for her mortgage. She'd be damned if she was going to make payments for a freaking bed. She'd tried to argue with him before the guys had left, but he'd signed the paper and did his best to ignore her. Which seemed to be right up his alley, because the delivery guys had ignored her protests and set up the bed.