by Lara Hunter
“Now that you mention it, I don’t know who I’m dealing with, since you haven’t told me. Maybe if I knew, things would be different.”
“More games. We’ll see how much you like it when I find you.”
“Oh? And how do you plan to do that?” I held my hand to my ear, struggling to make out the client’s words through the electronic device. It wasn’t easy to hear them over the chatter in the restaurant. I hoped they wouldn’t ask where I was.
“I have my ways. If I can pay nearly a million dollars to have an enemy taken out of the picture, what might I be able to do with small fry like you? Think about it. You’re an imaginative person.” They paused for a beat. “Maybe I’ll have to pay a visit to your parents.”
I gasped, getting the attention of several diners around us. Lucas looked around, smiling, waving it off, as I froze in place. “How do you know about them?”
“I know all about you, Selena McCarthy. The internet is a wonderful tool.” The voice sharpened, hardened. “Double down on getting what I want. Stop playing around. I want you to take care of it by the end of the weekend, or I might have to take a trip to Florida and tell Mommy and Daddy what their little girl does to earn money. I don’t think they’ll be too happy to hear about that, do you?”
“Don’t you dare, you monster.”
The cold laughter seemed even colder through the altering device. Then the client hung up, leaving me shaking.
“Are you okay?” Lucas asked. For the first time since discovering me in his office, he seemed genuinely concerned about me. It must have had something to do with the terror sweeping through me, the way I shook from head to toe. He could see that I wasn’t pretending, that I was in something too deep to get out of on my own.
“I’m all right, but I don’t think I’ll be for much longer.” I looked Lucas in the eye. “You know what this means, don’t you?”
“What?”
I took his hand, squeezing. “It’s not him.”
Lucas’ eyes widened, and he turned to his brother. “Diego. I’m so sorry. I’ve been so out of line tonight.”
“Can somebody please explain to me what’s going on here?” Diego looked flustered, throwing his hands into the air. “I feel like I just stepped into a movie that started ten minutes before I arrived. You’re both way ahead of me.”
I nodded, taking a deep breath before launching into my story. I didn’t have anything to lose by telling Diego the truth, I guessed. I hated admitting what I’d done so far and apologized for it.
“So wait,” he said, his eyes wide, “it’s a Brazilian number? And the voice is like something out of a crime movie, where caller speaks into a device to change their voice?”
“Right.” I showed him the number on my phone.
He slapped one palm on the table. “I’ve spoken to that person.”
“What?” I asked, perplexed. Lucas and I looked at each other, then back at Diego.
He nodded, smiling smugly. “Son of a—he called me months ago, back when…” He looked sheepishly at Lucas, almost blushing. “Back when we were really not getting along.”
“What did he say?” Lucas sounded nearly breathless.
“He wanted me to help take you down. Help get rid of ‘Loco Lucas’ once and for all.”
Lucas seemed to deflate, almost, sitting against the back of his chair. “I don’t believe it.”
“I didn’t believe it, either. That’s why I told the guy to get lost. I mean, I was mad at you and everything, but I would never go that far. I mean, at the end of the day, you’re still my brother. There are certain lines a man doesn’t cross.”
I liked Diego more than ever at that moment. There were plenty of people in the world who most definitely would have crossed that line if given a chance.
“Still, I didn’t tell you about it because I wasn’t talking to you in the first place,” Diego went on. “And I didn’t think it would ever amount to anything. Just some nutcase, or somebody playing a prank. Maybe a stupid tabloid story, nothing more.”
“Understood,” Lucas murmured, looking like he did anything but understand.
Diego leaned forward. “Here’s the thing, though. They knew about the fight we were having. That was what they tried to play on to get me to go against you. I thought it must be somebody who knows us, but I never did figure out who.”
“Did they say anything else you picked up on?” I asked.
Diego shook his head. “I got the feeling it was somebody from the company, though. They mentioned a few departments in which I might plant information to make you look bad; they referred to the specific departments, to their size and how easy it might be for me to slip information in there with nobody noticing.”
“So it’s coming from inside,” Lucas concluded. “Somebody whose paycheck I’m signing.”
I heard the despair and fury in his voice, and couldn’t blame him. I was too deep in this to walk away without caring. I wanted to see whoever was making life hell for the brothers pay for what they’d done.
FIFTEEN
Somewhere in there, we managed to eat dinner. Once it was plain that Diego had nothing to do with trying to sabotage Lucas, I had the treat of seeing the two of them get along rather well. There was a deep sense of relief in both of them. Relief that they could be brothers again. It warmed me. I was glad they’d found their way back to each other.
Still, my soul was stormy. We hadn’t gotten any closer to finding out who was trying to take Lucas down, and whoever it was thought they could hurt my parents. I couldn’t let that happen. It was almost too much to ask for me to sit there through dinner. The only thing that kept me from screaming was the knowledge that we sat in an extremely classy restaurant, and I was there only out of the goodness of Lucas’ heart. He didn’t have to let me stay. He didn’t have to do anything. I was his enemy.
Only I didn’t feel like his enemy when we walked along the beach together. Diego had to go right after dinner, citing plans. I watched him and Lucas hug before he left, and I couldn’t help smiling. Something good had come of it all.
“What are you thinking about?” Lucas asked as we walked along the water’s edge, both of us holding our shoes in one hand. There was a breeze coming off the water, enough to stir my hair and send the fringed edges of my shawl waving.
“I’m thinking that I’d like to kill whoever is doing this.”
“What did they say to you? You looked terrified in there.”
I nodded, looking down at the sand with a lump in my throat. “He said if I didn’t do what he wanted, he would find my parents and tell them what I’d been up to. He made it sound like he might hurt them, too.”
We both fell silent. I couldn’t go any further into it just then, since I could hardly speak. I was too overcome with fear. What would I do if my parents found out? They’d never forgive me, and they wouldn’t be able to forgive themselves when they knew I’d done it all for them.
“I’m sorry this is happening to you,” Lucas murmured.
“Thanks.” I thought he might even have meant it.
“So who do you think it could be? I mean, have you met anybody here who seemed to know you better than they should?”
I shook my head, thinking it over. “I’ve met so many people,” I finally admitted. “It’s nearly impossible to remember all of them, or even to tell them apart.”
“Did anybody seem strange to you? On the yacht, maybe?”
“Not overly strange. Once everybody started drinking, it was hard to tell.” I couldn’t help smiling a little.
“That’s true,” he agreed, chuckling drily. “I don’t remember anybody acting strangely, either.”
“Has anybody been especially observant of you lately? Watching a little too closely, maybe?”
“Besides you, you mean?” he said, and I scowled. “Sorry. Just trying to lighten the mood. And the answer is no. I’ve been distracted lately, to be sure. The new deal and all.”
“Of course! The new deal. M
aybe it has something to do with that. Is there anybody who would benefit from crushing the deal before it’s final?”
“I’m sure plenty of people would,” he mused. “People who lost out on being part of the deal, for one. But that wouldn’t explain why the person seemed like they were from the company.”
“Oh. Right.”
I had forgotten that part. We were right back where we’d started. I wanted to kick something, I was so mad.
We walked on in silence, both of our brains spinning. I hadn’t been at De Rocha Medical long enough to know the inside information, and I felt useless. There was little I could do. I couldn’t help him. I could only hurt him. Not to mention my parents. My heart ached.
“You wanna know what really happened with Diego and me?” Lucas asked all of a sudden, his voice cutting through the silence.
“If you’re willing to tell it,” I said. I had the feeling he just wanted to talk, to do something rather than walking around in silence.
“Sure,” he offered. “See, Diego was engaged to a girl named Gabriela. They were together for two years before getting engaged, and then were engaged for around six months. We were practically family by the time things went south.”
“Went south?”
“Sure.” He sighed, looking uncomfortable. “See, it was a couple of weeks before the wedding. We had just thrown a party for the two of them. Everybody was there—most of the executives in the company, our parents, her parents, old friends from school, I mean everybody they knew. It was a great night, or so I thought at the time.”
“What was wrong with it?”
“Gabriela.” He sighed deeply. “She made a pass at me after the party. More than a pass. She threw herself at me.”
“Oh, no.”
He glanced over. “I didn’t do anything to encourage her. I would never do that to my brother—and besides, she didn’t interest me. I had never once thought about her that way. I’d already started thinking of her as a sister. She was my brother’s girl, so she was off-limits.”
“But she didn’t think you were.”
He nodded. “That’s one way to put it. I was stunned, seriously. Maybe I should have seen it coming. But I swear, I didn’t.”
He turned away from me, facing the water. “I felt like such an ass. I really did. When I turned Gabriela down, she stormed out—after putting her clothes on. The very next morning, she broke off the engagement, and Diego had no idea why. She finally told him she was in love with me.”
“Oh, Lucas.” I put a hand on his shoulder.
“I don’t know why she couldn’t have just broken it off and left it there. Why did she have to tell him it was because of me? Like she wanted to hurt me. She wanted to push us apart. Well, she did a pretty good job of it for a while.”
“But she couldn’t, in the end,” I countered. “You were stronger than that.”
“True,” he murmured, glancing over at me with a smile. “So that’s what happened. Diego was sure I must have done something to take her away from him; that I must have slept with her behind his back. He was convinced of it, and it was my word against hers.”
“Wow.” Poor Diego. I couldn’t imagine how much that must have hurt.
We were quiet again for a long time. It was a companionable silence. We were content to be silent together for a while. It was nice, actually.
I looked at Lucas, standing beside me, then I looked out at the water. It just reached our bare feet, swirling around our ankles before sweeping back out to sea. On and on for miles along the white sand, the lights all along the shore’s edge illuminating our way along with the moon. It was a beautiful night, even by Rio standards.
“This is my favorite place,” he confessed.
“What, right here?”
Lucas laughed. “Not here specifically. I mean by the water. By the ocean. That’s another reason why I live where I do; I love to surf.”
He sat down, seeming not to care about his suit. I figured I might as well follow his lead—he’d bought my dress, after all. If he didn’t mind me ruining it, I didn’t, either.
“It’s not easy, growing up poor in a place like this.” He looked out across the water. “It’s all about money here. It’s all about what you have. I felt invisible, you know? Like I meant nothing. The wealthy have a good way of making you feel like you’re nothing when they have everything.”
I leaned against him, just slightly, letting him know I was beside him even if I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t come up with anything that wouldn’t sound obnoxious. I’d never had a lot of money growing up, but I hadn’t been through anything close to what he’d faced.
“The ocean doesn’t care who you are,” Lucas murmured. I barely heard him over the lapping of the water against the shore. “It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor. Anybody can step into it and feel it, smell it and hear it and see it. It will take anybody in its way, no matter who they are. It doesn’t matter. When I’m surfing, I’m just like anybody else.”
“I feel the same way,” I told him. “I love being near the ocean. I came to Rio just to be near the water. It restores me.”
“Really? You’re not just saying that?”
“I wouldn’t just say that,” I admitted. “And I’m glad you feel the same way I do about it.”
“But you don’t surf?”
“Oh, no,” I giggled. “I like looking at and being in the water, but it stops there.”
I could just imagine him out there on a board, looking tanned and muscular and healthy, smiling, feeling vital and part of something bigger than himself. I realized I would like to see him do it someday, but I couldn’t imagine him ever letting me get that close to him. I didn’t deserve that. As soon as we figured out who was trying to hurt him, he would order me out of his life, and that would be the end of it. I wouldn’t blame him, either.
“I love surfing. It’s one of my favorite things in the world.”
“I don’t think I have a favorite thing in the world,” I realized. “Doesn’t that sound weird?”
“You must have something.”
“I don’t, I swear.”
“Then you should find something. Something that makes you feel whole and alive.”
I thought hard for a moment, but nothing came to mind. “I’ve spent so much of my life only surviving, I guess I forgot to find something to love and make life worth living.”
I was taken aback at my own revelation, realizing that it was the truth, through and through. I hadn’t taken much time to figure out what I truly liked and didn’t like.
“Can I ask you something?”
“You want to know why I do what I do?” I asked, smirking.
“Am I that obvious?” I heard his warm chuckle in the darkness, saw the flash of his smile in the moonlight.
“Well, I guess if you could tell me about Gabriela, I suppose can tell you why I started doing this.” I took a deep breath, realizing this was the first time I’d opened up to someone about this. “I lost my first real job six months after landing it, and I had nothing. I was in debt up to my eyeballs, and my parents needed my help, too.”
“Your parents?”
“Yes, the people my client now wants to hurt.” I felt my teeth grinding together when I thought about it. “They’re the only reason I still do this, I swear. I’m out of debt now. I don’t need much. But they do.”
“What’s wrong with them? I mean, that you need to take care of them this way?”
“Dad got sick,” I explained. “Cancer. Five years ago, before I graduated college. He’s better now, but he can’t work, and they still have medical bills to pay off.”
“So you gave them money?”
I nodded. “I paid off the rest of their mortgage, did my best to get them out of debt and set them up in a retirement community.”
“Wow, Selena.” His voice was soft, full of wonder. I shook it off.
“It’s the least I could do. They’ve done so much for me. We never had
a lot of money—we weren’t poor the way you were, but we weren’t well off, either. They deserve to relax and enjoy life for once. It’s the least I can give them, you know? It’s not Dad’s fault he got sick. Before that, the man worked like a dog. I couldn’t look away. I just couldn’t.”
“So you need the money for them still?”
“I want to be sure there’s never any doubt as to whether or not they can stay. I want them to always be secure there in their new home. I want them to have everything. And when it’s all over, a little for myself would be nice, too. But I don’t need much. Just enough to do a little traveling, to get away from everything I’ve already done. That’s all I want.”
