Secrets and Seduction: 5 Romance Novels (87 page)

Charlie blinked back tears. “Sorry. We needed secrecy.”

“I figured that out. Gutierrez’s death made international news last night. Fuentes called and woke me when the story broke. We figured you might have had something to do with it.”

“We did. All of us.” Charlie indicated everyone in the room. Then he squinted, thinking. “It’s only been a few hours. How did you get here so fast?”

“Captain Sanchez and I flew to Los Angeles to help look for the two of you. So we only had to drive down.”

“Who is he?” Alfonso asked in Spanish, pointing at Rick.

“This is my brother, Rick,” Charlie said.

“The small family,” Rosita crowed with delight. “Come into the dining room, and I’ll make breakfast.”

“But cousin,” Jose complained, “we’ve only been asleep a few hours.”

“Get your lazy self to the table,” she ordered. “Can’t you see Alejandro and Charlie’s brother want to hear the tale? They are tired and hungry. Where are your manners?” She chased everyone to the dining room.

Charlie managed to extricate Juliana from her father’s arms and sit beside her.

For the second time in four hours, they relayed the tale, only this time Charlie and Juliana started from the attack on them in his apartment. Poor Rick understood only a smattering of Spanish, so one of the bilingual cousins translated for him.

“So you see why we needed secrecy,” Charlie said. “We needed Montgomery’s men fixed on L.A.”

“They caught Montgomery’s man staking out your apartment,” Captain Sanchez told him. “The California police tied him to Montgomery, so Montgomery’s under investigation for murder for hire.”

“What about the man in my apartment?” Charlie asked.

“There was no other man,” Rick reported, frowning.

Charlie looked at Juliana.

Rick sighed. “I’ll call Fuentes and tell him to look for a body. Was the blood in your apartment his?” He catalogued the bandages on Charlie’s body and the huge dark bruise on his chest.

“Some of it.”

Rick stared at him a long time, his expression inscrutable. “You didn’t look surprised when I said Hessler had been murdered.”

“We knew,” Charlie replied. “We saw him.”

Rick glared. “And you didn’t report it.”

“We needed to run. We’d already been shot at once that night. We weren’t going to stand around and let somebody else use us for target practice.”

“I don’t know you at all anymore, do I?” his brother asked.

“No. I told you I’d changed. But you can learn who I am now.”

“Yeah, I can.”

“Alejandro, you can settle an argument now that you’re here,” Rosita began. “We were discussing whether to hold the wedding here or in America.”

“Wedding?” Juliana’s father asked, frowning.

Juliana held up her hand and Charlie’s. “Surprise, Papá.”

“Those are wedding rings.” Captain Sanchez looked shocked, and then resigned. He ran a hand slowly down his face.

The younger cousins whooped with laughter. “They’ve been pretending to be married,” Alfonso explained. “Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez. But really they’re engaged.”

Charlie squeezed Juliana’s hand. Captain Sanchez didn’t seem too averse to having him as a son-in-law. “We could probably get a priest Rosita knows to say the vows over us today if you want.”

Rosita snorted.

Juliana poked him. “I want a big wedding. I want the whole world to know we were meant to be together.”

Her father sighed. “The priest can marry you today. Later we’ll have a big summer wedding. In America. We’ll invite everyone. I’ll pay.”

Rosita clapped with glee.

“And you,” Captain Sanchez pointed to Charlie. “I’ll sponsor you into the Police Academy.”

Rick looked stunned.

Charlie gaped. He thought of the Police Academy, and it sounded like the Army to him. Rules, regulations, schedules. He shuddered. “Thank you, Captain Sanchez, but no thanks. I’m a very
un
regulation guy. I don’t do well with authority.”

“How will you support my daughter and your children?” Captain Sanchez demanded.

“Papá, how old fashioned,” Juliana protested.

“I make a small living as a private investigator. My business is very young. Although I’d been counting on Jordan Hessler’s referrals to grow it. I can kiss that goodbye.”

The captain looked thoughtful. “I have an old friend, an ex-cop, who’s now a private eye. He gets a lot of business from Miami P.D., more than he can handle. I think he’d take you on as a partner.”

Move back to Miami? Charlie looked at Juliana. Her Sanchez relatives in Mexico were only three hours away, right across the border. Her Miami family was five and a half hours away by plane. Did he have the right to take her away from her family?

He glanced at Rick. Being with the Sanchez clan had made Charlie recall how good it used to be with his brothers. If Rick, his parents, and his older brother, Michael, were ever to get to know the new Charlie and accept him as the Sanchezes had, he had to see them regularly. There was nothing for him in California anymore. He inhaled a large breath. Yes, it was time to go home.

“I’d appreciate if you’d talk to him for me,” Charlie said.

“Tell him I’d like to work for him, too,” Juliana added.

Captain Sanchez looked like he wanted to protest, but he swallowed whatever he’d planned to say. “Fine.”

Rosita launched into plans to get them to the priest. The table broke up into excited chatter. Charlie used the commotion to take Juliana into his arms and kiss her breathless.

When they came up for air, Rosita was passing out glasses of tequila.

Felipe stood and raised his glass. “To the real Maya Hero Twins, Charlie and Juliana, who defeated their enemy through trickery.”

“
Salute
,” the cousins endorsed the toast.

Charlie kissed Juliana again. He’d triumphed over a lot more than Gutierrez to claim his soul mate, the other half of himself. They’d make every moment together count from now on. He thanked that damn sculpture for bringing them together once more.

Multi-published author Shay Lacy lives in northwest Ohio with her photographer/graphic designer husband. She loves following the man of her dreams with a camera in hand and a pen and notebook in her backpack. Sensible secretary by day, romance author by night, when not lost in her imagination or reading a good book, she is likely researching her next book with a SWAT team ride-along or a visit to a DNA lab.

For more information about Shay or to see the books she’s written, please visit her website at
www.shaylacy.com
.

Avon, Massachusetts

Copyright © 2014 by Shay Lacy.

All rights reserved.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

Published by

Crimson Romance

an imprint of F+W Media, Inc.

10151 Carver Road, Suite 200

Blue Ash, OH 45242. U.S.A.

www.crimsonromance.com

ISBN 10: 1-4405-6713-1

ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-6713-1

eISBN 10: 1-4405-6714-X

eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-6714-8

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author's imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.

Cover art © istock.com/MaxFX; 123rf.com/Yuriy Kirsasnov; 123rf.com/subbotina

This book is dedicated to the man who has stood by my side for more than thirty years, the original Michael. I base most of my heroes on him because I want them to embody the traits I love in him. It makes it easier to fall in love with them. Honey, I can’t thank you enough for the best summer and fall ever as we walked for health while plotting my next novel together.

To the other people who stand by me: my ACC friends, the members of Maumee Valley RWA, my fellow Panera Prison inmates, my critique partner Ray Wenck, and to my squeezable friends Constance Phillips and Jenna Rutland.

Life isn’t just about taking delight in the journey, but in the people who share the journey with you.

1. Title Page
   
2. Copyright Page
   
3. Dedication
   
4. CHAPTER 1
   
5. CHAPTER 2
   
6. CHAPTER 3
   
7. CHAPTER 4
   
8. CHAPTER 5
   
9. CHAPTER 6
   
10. CHAPTER 7
    
11. CHAPTER 8
    
12. CHAPTER 9
    
13. CHAPTER 10
    
14. CHAPTER 11
    
15. CHAPTER 12
    
16. CHAPTER 13
    
17. CHAPTER 14
    
18. CHAPTER 15
    
19. CHAPTER 16
    
20. CHAPTER 17
    
21. CHAPTER 18
    
22. CHAPTER 19
    
23. CHAPTER 20
    
24. CHAPTER 21
    
25. CHAPTER 22
    
26. CHAPTER 23
    
27. CHAPTER 24
    
28. CHAPTER 25
    
29. EPILOGUE
    
30. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    

Miami 2006

Ileana Alvarez Calderon came face to face with the man fated to be her lover, a man she’d seen only in a dream.

As she stepped out of the tropical Miami heat and into the dim warehouse, her body came alive and achingly aware of him. He stood talking to a young African American woman, turned slightly away from her. Ileana used the opportunity to catch her breath and study him, this familiar stranger. His navy slacks and light blue dress shirt showed off a long, lithe runner’s body. There was an aura about him of ruthless control, from his cropped sable hair to the suit and tie he wore during Miami’s sweltering summer. Whatever the woman was saying displeased him because his lips were pressed together, his jaw muscles bunched, and his posture rigid.

Protestations of denial surged inside her. This uptight man was not who she’d seen in her dream bed last night. That man’s fierce passion had driven them both to a shattering climax. Of course, that had only happened in her vision. But she had the
Sight
. All her dreams came true.

Even if they defied logic and reason.

In the darkened bedroom of the dream, she’d assumed her lover was Cuban like her, but this man was white, a man her immigrant Cuban parents would not tolerate touching her. Why had the Sight selected someone so unsuitable? Who was he?

She’d come to Citadel Import-Export to procure merchandise for her family’s chain of souvenir shops, not to ogle the man of her dream. If she could slip by him, maybe she could delay their meeting.

But that chance evaporated as someone entered the building behind her and she was forced to step away from the doorway.

“Excuse me.” A man squeezed past her and disappeared into the cavernous building.

Her dream man’s face swung her way and his dark eyes assessed her in a glance. She felt it as a physical touch. “Can I help you?” Her would-be-lover had a smooth baritone that played up her spine like an instrument.

Ileana swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. “I’m from the Calderon Consortium. I’m here to look over the newest tourist merchandise for our retail stores.”

One dark eyebrow lifted. “I usually deal with Esteban Calderon.” He moved towards her, his stride easy and assured.

“My father is retiring. I’m in line for succession.”

He held out his hand to her. “I’m Michael Ziffkin. I own Citadel Import-Export.” He was the top man himself.

“Ileana Alvarez Calderon.”

She took his hand and anything else she might have said was lost as an electric thrill ran through her. The warmth of his body traveled through his hand to hers. She inhaled his clean male scent. Her head buzzed with white noise. Michael’s hand tightened on hers, his chocolate brown eyes widened fractionally and his nostrils flared.

She knew she would make love with him. And she wouldn’t lie docilely beneath him because the Sight decreed this was meant to be. Instead, she’d revel in his passionate loving,
yin
to his
yang
.