Angela laughed without humor.
“There is never a time when Frank isn’t taking medicine or doing treatment,” she said, almost angrily. “You can’t plan around it.”
There was a knock at the front door, and Angela lost the sour expression.
“The babies are here!” she squealed, glancing at Elena. For a moment, Elena saw a flash of gratitude in her eyes, and she wondered how long it had been since her mom had last seen her grandchildren.
“I’ll be right there,” Elena promised as her mother hurried off to greet her daughter-in-law. Aaric stood awkwardly at the door, and Elena nodded at him, rising from her father’s bedside.
“I’ll be back later, dad,” she promised, placing another kiss on his cheek. “We’ll talk about your transplant.”
Frank chortled.
“There is nothing to talk about, cara. I will die before they find a match.”
Elena stared at him, tears filling her inky eyes helplessly.
“Shh, Elena. This is a happy day. Go see your nieces and your sister-in-law. Maybe come back later, and we will watch MASH together like old times, yeah?”
Elena nodded, closing her eyes to evaporate the water forming in her eyes.
“Okay, dad,” she promised. “I’ll be back later.”
She shuffled away from the bed, toward Aaric but she kept her head down, her long, dark hair covering her face.
She could feel him staring at her with pity, and she wanted to punch him in the face.
Don’t give me your sympathetic face, she thought furiously. You can’t relate to any of this at all.
Elena reminded herself that soon his two million-dollar down payment would come through and she would move her parents into a better house with a full-time nurse.
That money will do a world of good; she thought as she found the rest of her family. She tried not to think of how useless the dollars would be when her father was dead.
Chapter Six
Aaric was sure that they were being followed, but he could never concretely prove it.
“I need you to exercise extreme vigilance,” he told Wen and Carter. “Tell me if you see people near the property or see anything suspicious.”
“Like what?” Wen asked, somewhat sullenly. The CEO stared at the younger man pensively.
Aaric had noticed that the handyman had been giving him attitude and he wondered if it had anything to do with his marriage to Elena.
He had never paid much mind to the inner workings of his staff, but suddenly he couldn’t help but wonder if Wen and Elena were close.
I suppose I could always ask her, he mused, but he did not want to know. Or at least that was what he told himself.
What she did before is none of my business. It’s what she does now that is my concern – to a point.
Aaric had been slightly shaken by seeing the condition of her parents’ home and health during their weekend stay the previous week.
It was obvious that Frank Mancini was hanging onto life by a thread and that his poor condition was affecting Elena greatly.
How remarkable to see a family who seems close, despite their character differences.
The bossy and slightly overbearing matriarch of the family somehow translated into a younger, feisty Elena but Aaric could sense the discord between the two women.
Still, they seem to love one another very much. I cannot relate to that at all.
His childhood had not been filled with love and affection, and he often wondered if he had missed out on a great deal. Watching the rapport among the Mancinis, he was beginning to get a glimpse of what he had not had.
Even the spoiled Natalie seemed to begrudgingly love her extended family although she did flirt shamelessly with me. Natalie was more reminiscent of my childhood than anyone else.
Aaric shoved the thought of his own wasted youth aside and refocused his attention on Wen.
“Like people hanging around the property,” he snapped. “Or anything suspicious.”
Wen’s mouth became a semi-smirk, and Aaric turned to leave the man in the courtyard.
He was sure that it was ICE following him, more than likely Agent Oliver Dane hoping to catch him and Elena in the midst of something solid enough to allow for deportation.
Agent Dane had come knocking on the Monday following their trip to Naples, prepared to do a full interview regarding their sudden marriage. It did not take long for the man to realize that any questions he asked would be easily and truthfully answered; after all, Aaric and Elena had lived in the same house for seven years.
“How is your sex life?” Agent Dane asked Aaric cockily, sitting back with a sneer on his face.
“Like on a scale of one to ten do you mean? Or are you asking out of rhetorical politeness?” Aaric retorted. “Or perhaps you’re looking for pointers?”
The agent’s face contorted into a mask of anger and he leaned forward, his elbows firmly on Aaric’s desk.
“You must know that I will be asking Miss Mancini – “
“Mrs. Buckley, I think you mean,” Aaric interjected, savoring the fury in the agent’s blue eyes.
“Elena,” Oliver snapped. “I will be asking Elena the same questions I ask you. If your answers fail to connect – “
“So you’re going to ask her if I use bondage and when she says yes, you’re going to ask what toys I keep about? Something like that? Where on earth do I sign up for your job? Imagine, getting off on other people’s sex lives!”
Agent Dane’s jaw locked so tightly, Aaric wondered if he would be able to open his mouth.
“You can make all the jokes you want, but we both know that this marriage is a sham, Mr. Buckley.”
“Agent Dane, you may as well call me Aaric. If you’re going to riding my backside, I would think we should be on more familiar terms.”
“Mr. Buckley, I am not going away, no. And I will be picking apart this relationship with a fine-tooth comb.”
Aaric shrugged indifferently, sitting back.
“I suppose that is what I pay taxes for – oh yes, do I still have to pay the insurmountable amount of taxes while under investigation or is that frozen for the time being?” Aaric asked innocently.
He watched as Agent Dane stalked toward the door, his face scarlet with anger.
“You will not know where I am or when I am coming,” Oliver hissed. “Be prepared.”
“I was an honorary boy scout, Agent Dane. Fear not. Thank you so much for stopping by.”
After he left, Aaric had called Elena to his office.
“We need to get our stories straight,” he told her, and they did. After they finished an hour-long conversation, Aaric sighed.
“And you need to move your belongings into my suite.”
Elena stared at him, her mouth to the floor.
“You can’t be serious!” she snapped. “I told you, I am not sleeping with you. It is not part of the – “
“Simmer down, firecracker. I am not suggesting you sleep there, but we must present the idea that you do sleep there. Move in some clothes, toiletries et cetera. Just enough that if he comes poking about, he will be somewhat satisfied.”
Elena bit her lip and nodded.
“Of course,” she said, embarrassed. “I – sorry I jumped the gun like that.”
Aaric shrugged indifferently.
“I don’t care what you do, Elena, truly I don’t. I only ask that you keep your private life intensely private. If you have suitors or dates, do not bring them here and I will do the same.”
A small smirk appeared on Elena’s lips.
“No more hookers are staying over?” she asked, her eyes wide with innocent disappointment. “Whatever will I do for entertainment?”
Aaric glowered at her.
Will I be able to put up with her ball busting for two years? He wondered. His mind slipped toward Ilona, and he wondered where he would meet her.
Maybe I will rent an apartment in Miami Beach for her and the others, he thought
.
“Anything else?” she asked. Aaric nodded.
“Yes. I am circumcised.”
“What?” Elena sputtered. “Why the hell are you telling me that?”
Aaric smiled wickedly.
“Because it may come up in conversation with ICE,” he replied simply, amused by her shock.
She nodded quickly and averted her eyes, her olive cheeks staining with pink.
Did she just look at my crotch? He wondered, but he had no way of proving it. Maybe it was just wishful thinking.
He shook his head as if to shake some sense into his skull and turned to his computer.
“That’s it?” Elena demanded, and he nodded.
As Aaric stood in his office, recalling the look on her face, he wondered if he was doing something terrible.
She’s a full-grown woman; he reminded himself. She’s getting what she wants out of this. Why do you feel so guilty then?
He had no answer.
Elena frowned as she read the text from her sister-in-law.
Since bringing Aaric to her parents’ the previous week, it seemed that Natalie was her best friend, calling and texting as if making up for lost time.
While Elena had been thrilled to see Elsa and Ariel, she could have done without Natalie’s fawning over the billionaire.
Maybe after this divorce happens, I really can set her up with Aaric, she thought wryly. For an inexplicable reason, the idea made her angry.
These two deserve one another, she thought. They are both self-centered and money focused. They will make beautiful, shallow children together.
To his credit, Aaric brushed off Natalie’s shameless flirting with decorum but every time her sister-in-law strategically placed a hand on her new husband, Elena found herself fuming.
He is a free agent, she told herself. He can have Natalie and anyone else he wants. It’s Natalie who is acting despicably.
Still, Elena could not help but feel upset by the scene.
When they left for home on Sunday, Elena found herself sitting in stony silence in the passenger seat.
“That went well,” Aaric commented as they pulled onto the interstate. Elena didn’t answer, keeping her eyes trained on the passing scenery as they drove.
“Your family seems nice,” Aaric offered again when she did not respond. “I think they handled the news rather well.”
“You know nothing about my family,” Elena shot back with more fury than she intended. “And Natalie is a bitch.”
Aaric seemed as surprised by her words as Elena was saying them.
What is wrong with you? She asked herself, shaking her head. You sound like a basket case.
“Your brother must love her,” Aaric replied slowly. “He must see some redeeming qualities in her.”
“My brother is an idiot and a megalomaniac,” Elena replied, again shocking herself with the words.
She loved Lorenzo, and while she may not approve of his wife choice, Elena certainly did not believe he was so bad.
“Money does strange things to people,” Aaric commented, and Elena stared at him.
What is that supposed to mean? She wondered defensively.
“Is that a dig at me?” she snapped. She desperately wanted to tone down her attitude, but she could not stop herself. It was as if Aaric was feeding her animus without trying.
Or you’re looking for an excuse to pick a fight with him, she thought, but she couldn’t understand why.
It was as if she was determined to maintain her low opinion of Aaric, despite his subtle change in personality.
Over the weekend, he had behaved wonderfully, speaking attentively to her family, engaging with six-year-old Elsa and four-year-old Ariel.
But Elena was not so easily fooled.
You’ve lived with this guy for seven years. You know what he’s like. Just because he turns on the charm for a day or two doesn’t change the fact that he’s the same dickhead he’s always been. Don’t let your guard down.
“A dig at you?” Aaric echoed. “Why would that be a dig at you?”
“I didn’t ask you for that money so I can walk away from this arrangement eating bonbons,” she told him defensively, turning back to look out the window.
“I don’t really care what you do with the money, Elena,” Aaric sighed. “I wouldn’t blame you if you did take some time to do just that.”
Elena watched him through her peripheral vision.
“What do you mean?”
Aaric chuckled.
“You think I don’t know that I can be demanding? Arrogant?”
Elena was stunned into silence.
“You have been one of my longest running employees, Elena, in or out of the company. People find me difficult at times. And I find people difficult under good circumstances. I often clash with others. My personality doesn’t sit well with many and vice versa.”
Elena had not been expecting such a revelation, and in spite of herself, she wondered why he was confessing these things to her.
Is this a trick?
“I would say after seven years of living with me, you have earned a long break. After nine years, well, let’s see if your sanity is intact still.”
Their eyes met briefly, and Elena found herself laughing.
“I’m tougher than I look,” she told him, and he nodded.
“I believe that,” he replied.
The rest of the drive was surprisingly pleasant, and they chatted about Elena’s family.
“Your father is on a transplant list?” Aaric asked gently as the neared Miami Beach.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Elena nodded.
“He’s been on the list for years. He won’t get a kidney. He’s too old now,” she muttered, shaking her head. “I would never tell him that I realize that but I know it’s true.”
“Dialysis is the only thing keeping him alive?”
“And the renal drugs,” Elena conceded. “But he’s getting worse. He looks a hundred years older than he did the last time I saw him.”
“Why don’t you visit them more often?”
Elena shifted her eyes guiltily.
How could she explain to her employer that it was too difficult, seeing her once vital, strong father wasting away before her eyes.
“It’s difficult watching them die, isn’t it?” Aaric said unexpectedly, and Elena whipped her head toward him.
“Have you gone through it?” she asked. It had never occurred to her that her snarky, demeaning boss had familial ties.
“My mother died of cancer when I was twelve,” Aaric replied, his gaze fixated on the road. Elena could see it was difficult for him to discuss.
“It was a long road; she would grow ill and then go into remission and start all over again. I admit I felt a sense of relief when she finally died. It meant that she was at peace and it was a weight lifted off me. It is hard to watch such suffering at a young age. Of course, then I was left entirely in the care of my father, but that is another story entirely.”
As Elena stared at Natalie’s latest text message, her mind wandered to that conversation.
I really don’t know much about Aaric. Maybe I should find out about the man I married.
She pushed the thought from her mind.
Why should she care about Aaric Buckley? Their marriage was a sham after all. She had no reason to want to get to know him.
Everyone has a story after all. It doesn’t matter where you came from. What matters is how you treat others, and Aaric Buckley has always been an ass to others.
The door to the bedroom she kept flew open, and Wen stood there, glaring at her. Elena jumped.
“Jesus,” she gasped. “Have you ever heard of knocking?”
Wen drew close to her and grabbed her by the arm.
“How long have you been banging the old man?” he demanded. Elena pulled her arm back and scowled at him.
“It’s none of your damned business,” she snapped, but she instantly felt ashamed. It was no shock th
at Wen felt betrayed. The union had blindsided him, and she had not been able to tell him the news before it hit the gossip columns.
You can’t be angry with his frustration, she reasoned.
“What did you tell him about me? About us?” Wen insisted, his face contorted in anger.
“Nothing!” Elena replied earnestly. “What is there to tell?”
Wen stared at her for a long moment.
“I never really took you for a gold digger, El. I guess looks really can be deceiving.”
He stormed from the room before she could protest his assessment, leaving her to stare at him in sadness.
He's just hurt right now. He’ll get over it, she told herself, but she wasn’t sure that was true.
How many more lies will I tell myself before this charade is over? Elena mused.
And it had only just begun.
Chapter Seven
“Things are getting worse, Aaric,” Cameron told him seriously. “You have to come back to work. We are losing some of our major clients.”
Aaric stifled a sigh and nodded.
“I heard. What is the DA doing? Going public with everything now?”
“I don’t know who you pissed off and how but things are escalating quickly, and we need to do damage control.”
Aaric rose from his desk.
“No time like the present, mate,” he replied. “Let’s head to Miami.”
“It’s six o’clock at night, Aaric. It can keep until tomorrow. Anyway, you’re still technically on your honeymoon, aren’t you?”
The question was loaded with sarcasm, but Aaric chose to ignore it.
“I can stay in Miami tonight,” Aaric replied, throwing open the door. “Call Lilyanne and tell her to head over to headquarters. I am going to call a board meeting tomorrow. We need to sit down and figure this out before everything I work for goes completely down the toilet.”
The two continued toward the front of the house, and as they passed the living room, Aaric paused.
“Elena, what are you doing?”
The girl stood with a duster in her hand upon a chair, dusting the steel chandelier.
“What do you mean?” she asked, eyeing him. “And where are you going?”
“Are you cleaning? I told you I have a full-time woman starting tomorrow. Get down from there.”
The Lost Seal: A Seal Romance Page 22
