Forbidden Lovers

by Kimberley Troutte

  So, she was in trouble.

  “Listen, Cristina, don’t take any chances. Take your little boy and get out. Come here. It’s safe and quiet.”

  “Nuh-uh. You’re not hearing me, Angel. I said it’s too late.”

  The tone in Cristina’s voice rang layer after layer of danger bells in her body. If they find me...

  “Why?” she whispered.

  “That cop dude is dead.”

  Ohgodohgodohgod. The floor dropped out beneath her feet. She knew. Cristina didn’t have to tell her that the gang had tortured the man for information before killing him.

  Now they knew about her.

  They were coming.

  * * *

  RW knocked on Angel’s door. He had flowers and a bottle of wine. She didn’t answer. He heard a noise around the back of her house and followed the sound.

  Angel was in the shed. He took a few seconds to watch her reach up to get something on the top shelf. He loved her womanly curves.

  “Can I help?” he asked.

  She screamed and spun around, holding the gardening hoe like a weapon.

  “RW! You scared me.”

  “I can see that. Safe to approach?”

  She put the hoe down. “Sorry. Yes.”

  But he didn’t see the glorious smile he was used to, or the light in her eyes. In fact, she had worried wrinkles around her mouth. He dipped his head and kissed each line.

  She sighed. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she pressed her lips to his and kissed him deeply. It was an amazing kiss that both charged him up and scared the hell out of him. Something was wrong.

  After a while he pulled back and looked into her beautiful face. Fear. Right there sparking in the edges of her brown eyes and in the tightness to her mouth. And now that his eyes had fully adjusted to the dim light in the shed, he saw boxes behind her.

  “Packing?” he asked, terrified of the answer.

  “We need to talk.” She took his hand and led him out of the shed and into her home. “Want something to drink?”

  “Am I going to need it?” he joked, trying to play it casual, light. Even while his insides churned.

  Her smile flickered and went dim. “Maybe.” She opened the wine he’d brought and poured it into her glass and poured sparkling water into his. They clinked.

  She sat on the arm of the couch. Close, so close. Never close enough.

  He put his glass down on the table and rubbed her arm. “What’s going on?”

  “Did you...?” He could hear her swallow hard, like her throat was tight. She took a sip of wine and tried again. “Did you hire a private investigator to go to Los Angeles and dig up my past?”

  How did she find out? That jackass was supposed to be discreet. “I was trying to get information to protect you, Angel. Don’t you want to stop running?”

  She leaned into him. “Yes. I’d give everything I have to settle here for good, with you. Everything but my family.”

  Okay. He liked all of that except the agony in her voice.

  “These past years with you, RW, have been...” She started to cry. “You have given me so much that I don’t deserve.”

  He took the glass from her hand and pulled her into his lap, cradling her head on his chest. “That’s where you are wrong, my angel. You’ve given me life. You’ve changed me. It’s far more than a man like me could ever hope for. Tell me what’s wrong.”

  “The PI you sent to Los Angeles. They killed him.”

  “No.” He slammed his eyes shut and exhaled through his teeth. “Those bastards!”

  “Because of me...another man is dead.” She was sobbing, her body heaving.

  He tipped her face up so he could kiss her tears away. God, the sorrow on her face ripped through him like a serrated knife. “My fault, not yours. We’ll make them pay, Angel. They are not getting away with this.”

  “No. Don’t you see? I can’t risk you or other people I love getting hurt because of my mistakes. Cuchillo is my problem, not yours. The gang was my gang before I knew what they were capable of. I ran to save my family. This is on me!”

  “How is it your mistake? You were a child living on the streets when the gang found you. Hell, thirteen, scared and alone? I probably would’ve joined a gang, too. They welcomed you in and protected you as if they were your family. No shame in that. You didn’t break the law. You didn’t kill anyone. Cuchillo took advantage of your plight and your big heart. He stole your innocence and made you witness horrible things so that you wouldn’t run. It took guts to get away. That bastard deserves to be locked up forever.”

  Her chin still quivered. “But I can’t stop him. No one can.”

  “I can. I have contacts, money, power. He’s never come across a guy like me before. Let me fix this.”

  She pressed her hand to her mouth. Thinking.

  He took her other hand and kissed her palm. “Please. I need you, Angel. I want to marry you. I want us to live happily with our kids and grandkids all around. Let me be your knight in shining armor this time.”

  “I don’t want to put your family in danger, too.”

  “I’ve set up guards all around, by land and sea. We won’t let them get anywhere near Plunder Cove. I promise.”

  She let out a deep exhale. “I’m sorry, RW. I know you mean well, but I can’t have anyone else hurt because of me. If I hear they are coming, I will leave Plunder Cove. To save us all.”

  Twenty

  They rented a car and ate at a quaint restaurant on the breakwater in Santa Barbara.

  “What’s this breakfast called again?” Henry asked with a full mouth.

  “Belgian waffle á la mode,” Matt said. “Do you like it?”

  “Ice cream for breakfast? Big, big love,” Henry said, shoveling in another bite.

  Julia pressed close to him, smiling. He felt the heat against him and touched her hand with his. He wanted her, always. He loved this day already and it had barely begun. Happy was a foreign concept he could get used to.

  “What does tying a knot have to do with marriage?” Henry asked. Julia turned stone-cold still. Her face drained of color just like it had in the plane when Henry had asked questions about his dad.

  “Oh, Henry, we’re not—” she began.

  Matt rushed ahead of her. “Some guys would say the knot goes around your neck like a tie.” He imitated pulling a tie tight, complete with crossing his eyes and sticking his tongue out. Henry laughed. Julia sat in silence.

  “I’m not one of those guys.” He looked at Julia’s ashen face and took her hand in his. “You see, a rope is strong. Really strong, right? But tie a tight knot in it and a miracle happens. When individual strands are bound together like this...” He held up their joined hands. “Everything is stronger. Better. Unstoppable. That’s why I asked your mom to marry me a long time ago. I believed that with her I could conquer the world.” He met her eyes. Would she see the depth of his feelings?

  One tear rolled down her cheek. Why? What was she thinking? Was he strong enough to hear her sweet lips admit she’d only loved one man—Henry’s father?

  Hell, no.

  Because he was scared, he rushed on. “But marriage isn’t for everyone.” He shrugged. “I don’t feel bad about that and neither should you. Life is short. Let’s enjoy what we have.”

  She let out a breath as if she’d been holding it the whole time he’d been speaking. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Loving me back then. For this last weekend.”

  He kissed her hand, not ready to confront how much he was feeling right now, not just back then. “Who’s ready for a surrey ride along the beachfront?”

  “Me!” Henry cheered. “What’s a surrey? Do I get to drive?”

  Twenty-One

  After they landed back in Plunder Cov
e, they all piled into her ugly old car. The lime-green Nissan Cube looked pathetic parked in RW’s private parking lot next to his sleek and expensive planes. It was another reminder of how different her life was from Matt’s.

  When she was young she’d hardly noticed how poor her family was and Matt hadn’t seemed to care. He’d treated her like she was special. Treasured. It was incredible, really, how easily he’d slipped into her lifestyle when his family was so wealthy. It could give a person whiplash jetting to California’s Riviera for breakfast one moment and put-putting in her junky car the next.

  She forced her insecure thoughts out of her mind. Driving to Pueblicito, she turned down the first street and continued until the road ran out. She parked in the dirt and took her binoculars out of the trunk. There was a fog bank sitting on the horizon. The ocean breeze danced in her hair, cooling her skin.

  “Follow my lead. I know how to spot the nests, but we won’t get close enough to step on them, I promise.”

  “Hell, do you know how sexy you are right now? You sound like a cross between a zoologist and a sheriff.”

  She smiled. “Which do you prefer?”

  “You,” he whispered in her ear. “Any way I can get you.” Her heart cracked. They were down to hours now.

  They crossed the dirt and walked in the tall grass at the broken edge of the street, stopping at a flimsy sign tilting in the grass. “A year ago, I pounded half a dozen signs here, advising how to protect the endangered snowy plovers.”

  She didn’t have any right to stop people from walking on the grass or the sand, but she’d hoped her signs reminded beachgoers to be careful. Until she had legal clout, it was the best she could do.

  She went on. “RW had his men take them down and sent me a cease and desist order. Your family has always let people walk across ‘Harper’ grass to get to the beach, but putting up signs in this area is not allowed.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I put up more. And down they went. This is the last sign I have until I can scrounge up money to have more made.” She shook her head. “My last purchase of schoolbooks wiped out my savings.”

  “Count me in. Where do I contribute to the sign project?” He rubbed her shoulder. It was a touch of kindness, an act of solidarity, and it turned her on. How did he do that? No one else had ever made her feel important and sexy all at once.

  “Mom, can I hold the binoculars?” Henry asked.

  “Sure.” She lifted the strap off her neck. Her hands were a little wobbly, which might have to do with how closely Matt was standing to her and how good he smelled, and because he was the only person other than Henry who had wanted to come out here to learn about the birds. Her friends and family thought she was nuts. Everyone else hated her for wanting to restrict the beach.

  “This is a good place to stop. Talk softly, we don’t want to scare the mother birds,” she said.

  Henry searched the sand with the binoculars. “Is that one?”

  She squinted. “No. Look. See that bird? Pale gray-brown with a white chest? That’s a snowy plover.”

  Matt wore his aviator glasses and turned his head toward her pointed finger. “I see it. Damn, it is small.”

  She nodded. “Each one weighs up to two ounces. They get to be about six inches long. There’s about two thousand snowy plovers left along the Pacific coast since most of their nesting habitat has been destroyed by development. Twenty-eight major nesting sites remain. When walkers, ATV users, horseback riders and dogs go on the beach during the breeding season, eggs and chicks are inadvertently killed. That’s why they’re in trouble. The species is dying out before our very eyes, and no one...” Her voice was choked with conviction and frustration. “No one will help me.”

  Before she knew what was happening he turned her around and kissed her. She melted into his embrace and took refuge in his warm, strong arms and soothing lips. And, for that moment, she wasn’t fighting everything by herself. She wasn’t scared and battling uphill. She wasn’t guarding her heart against the time when he would say goodbye.

  It was Matt and Julia against the world again. God, she needed him.

  Rubbing her cheek with the pad of his thumb, he said softly, “Hey, you aren’t alone. You know that, right?”

  No, she was worse than alone. She was happy, but fully aware it was a temporary state. He woke her from darkness with his heat and light. Tomorrow his warmth would be gone and she’d be just like the Pacific snowy plover on the brink of extinction. How would she survive losing him again?

  “I see a nest,” Henry soft-yelled.

  “Where?” Matt released her and took his body heat with him. The cold settled quickly into her bones.

  She took a deep breath to calm herself. “Can I see the binoculars for a moment, Henry?”

  “Over there by that little clump of grass. Eggs, right?”

  She followed his instructions and... “Good job. Yes. That’s a nest. Here, Matt, you look.”

  He took the binoculars from her and focused. “I don’t...wait...okay, yes, I see small eggs.” Matt scanned the beach with the binoculars and stopped suddenly. He pulled the glass away from his eyes and looked again. Focused.

  She saw the way he ground his molars together. “What is it?”

  “Tractor tracks near the hatchery area.” Anger rippled across his handsome features. “RW was here.” He brought the binoculars up and searched the ocean. “Two boats. See them at eleven o’clock?”

  Julia looked into the water. “Eleven...? Oh, yes. I do. Who are they?”

  “Dad’s goons.”

  “What’re they doing out there?” Henry asked.

  Matt’s voice was tight. “I can make a guess. They want to block our attempts to stop the development project. They see us. They’ll be calling in the troops. Well, guess what? We attack first.”

  She didn’t like the sound of that.

  Henry’s eyes sparkled. “Hooah! Let’s get them.”

  Julia held up her hand. “Whatever happens, you need to stay out of it, Henry.”

  Matt took his cell phone out of his pocket. “I’m calling my brother. Maybe we can crash RW’s meeting with his contractor.” He dialed. “Yeah, it’s me. I’m out here near the beach. When’s the contractor meeting?...Good. We’ll be there.”

  “Okay, team.” Matt kissed her on the forehead and messed up Henry’s hair. “Back to the Batmobile. We’ve got a species to save.”

  * * *

  Jeff met them at the front entry to Casa Larga. “The gang’s all here.”

  Matt felt Julia’s nervous energy. They didn’t know how this would play out. Maybe they should’ve left Henry at home.

  But Matt had wanted to give her this win before their time was up. And he hadn’t wanted to miss the chance to catch RW in the act.

  “They’re in the great hall. What’s the game plan?” Jeff asked.

  “Obstruction,” Matt replied. “We won’t let him do this.”

  Jeff shrugged. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  They strode into the great hall as if they owned the place. RW was standing over several plans spread out across the dining table. A white-haired man stood beside him, and two younger associates hung back in case they were called to action.

  RW looked up. “What’s this about?”

  Matt stepped forward. He could see a rather large building on the plans. “Your secret plans. Did you think we wouldn’t figure it out?”

  Color drained from RW’s face. “How? Who told you?”

  Matt was pissed now. “We have eyes! Did you think we’re that stupid?”

  “Leave us,” RW said to the contracting team.

  The three men quickly left the room and closed the doors behind them.

  “You must swear you won’t tell anyone,” RW said softly. “Angel could be in terrible danger if anyone finds out she is
here. They’ll kill her.”

  The expression about the pin dropping in a quiet room? Yeah, that was nothing compared to the sucking silence in the great hall.

  “Swear to me.” RW wasn’t angry. No, Matt saw desperation in his eyes. Angel was the lady who had nursed him back to health, right? Was that why RW had his goons stationed in the boats offshore? As lookouts?

  What did this have to do with the snowy plovers?

  “We’re here about the secret development on the beach. What’s it going to be? A snack shop? Jet Ski rental? More housing? Dammit, Dad. You can’t do this. You’ll destroy the snowy plover habitat.”

  RW’s mouth opened. Closed. He sat hard on the nearest chair. “Forget what I just said.” Like they could. Matt stepped closer. Jeff did, too, but Julia held Henry back.

  “What’s going on?” Matt asked.

  “I can’t talk about this. Especially not in front of them,” RW said softly. “You have no idea how dangerous this is.”

  Matt caught Jeff’s eye. Jeff shrugged.

  Julia stepped forward. “RW, please. Stop your development plans. Nothing is worth the destruction of an entire species. You have thousands of acres. Why put anything on top of a hatchery?”

  RW blinked at her as if he was seeing a ghost. “But it’s the perfect spot for the school. The kids will love it.”

  “What?” Matt said.

  Jeff studied the plans. “He’s right. It’s a school. A really cool one, from the looks of it.”

  Julia cocked her head, looking closely at the plans. “I don’t understand. You’re building a school in Pueblicito?”

  RW smiled for the first time since they’d entered the room. “Did you know the children here have to travel forty minutes on a bus one-way to go to school?”

  “Yes,” Henry spoke up. “I hate that stupid bus. It doesn’t have air-conditioning and the springs are popping out of the seats.”