by J. M. Madden
“Hmph.” He made a dismissive sound on the other end of the line. “We’ll see if it actually happens. Ray is friends with a lot of people in the area. I’ll be surprised if you can even get a space.”
Some alarm bell went off in her head. Of course!
“And I have a feeling,” her father continued, “that if you drop the charges he would be more than willing to put in a good word for you with the lease companies.”
Disgust coated her tongue at what her father was doing. “You seriously want me to smile and pretend everything is okay with the man that would have raped me if he’d had the chance? Just to get my boutique property? Do you hear how wrong that is? Or are you so blinded by what you think other people will say?”
Her father had never been an especially paternal figure in her life. There had always been a distance between them. And that distance had never yawned wider.
“Of course I’m concerned about what other people will say. You misunderstood the situation. Drop the charges, Lilly, and things will go back to normal.”
Her jaw firmed. “No. I’m not going to do that. If he tried to drug me he’s done it to other women, Dad. You’re condoning the actions of a potential rapist.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Lilly. Nothing happened.”
“But it would have if Diego hadn’t stepped in,” she snapped.
“Your mother is waiting. I expect you to do the right thing, Lilly. I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”
“Don’t bother,” she growled and hung up on him.
For several long seconds she just sat in shock, absorbing everything she’d just heard.
“I think I want to beat some sense into your father.”
Lilly looked up at Diego’s furious face. He’d moved to her side and she hadn’t even been aware of it. As her eyes hazed with tears he sat down beside her on the couch, wrapping his arms around her. Lilly didn’t exactly break down but she did lose some tears as she burrowed into him.
“I can’t believe what I just heard. He’s always been worried about social appearances but I never would have imagined he would condone something like this. And for some reason I feel like he’s covered for Ray before.” She reached over and plucked a tissue from the box, wiping her face. “There are so many things to address in that conversation. He’s been having us watched. Or he has someone very close to me feeding him details.”
The only people close to her were Kendall and Grif and she knew they wouldn’t do that to her. “He has to have someone monitoring us.”
“Were there cameras in the guest house?”
The thought had never occurred to her. “There are cameras for the exterior of the big house, and one points toward the guesthouse, but I don’t think there are any inside.”
He stroked some hair from her cheeks, his olive-green eye a little less fiery. “It may be worth checking.”
Sickness coated the inside of her stomach and she nodded. “You may be right.”
Diego kissed her on the lips. “If he’s been watching us I’m sure he had some nice things to say about me as well.”
She gave him a sheepish look. “Yes. You’re definitely not the type that he would choose for me.” She shrugged. “I’m not worried about it.”
Diego pressed a kiss to her lips and tugged her up off the couch. “Come on. I’ll cook breakfast while I talk. Then nothing will shock you the next time you talk to your father.”
Lilly followed him into the kitchen and sat at one of the barstools at the counter. “Nothing he said shocks me anyway. Well,” she paused. “You have a criminal record?”
Diego gave her a tight smile and a single nod. “Yes. I told you that the first night I came here.”
That’s right, she had. It had just drifted over her head that night. “I had forgotten you told me that.”
Diego’s long arm reached for a carton of eggs and he cracked several in a bowl. “When I was a kid, Mama left us alone for most of the day. I watched Manny when he was a baby. She would get home in the afternoon and shoo me out of the house while she played with the baby and made dinner. She worked for very little money and my step-father didn’t make above minimum wage. Then when I was about ten he died, leaving us alone. I will say she worked her ass off but as a Hispanic woman that didn’t speak much English, she didn’t get jobs that paid a lot of money and things started to get behind. Seems like just a few months after Rick died we were out of the house and in a shitty apartment. Even making the apartment rent was hard sometimes. So when a guy in the neighborhood needed me to run messages and stuff, I did. He paid me some money and most of that I gave to mama. She still bitched at me though. I will always be the mar on her life. The reminder she just can’t get rid of.”
He looked down at the bowl of whipped eggs, as if just remembering what he was doing. Throwing some onions and peppers in the pan, he sautéed them up. “I went from running messages to being part of the gang, and I started getting into trouble. I was a terrible teenager.” He turned to grin at her. “And there’s a certain period of time where you have to prove yourself worthy of being in the gang. So, I have a couple auto thefts on my juvie record. Some shoplifting. Nothing major but enough that I don’t want to brag about it.”
Lifting the bowl he carefully dumped the eggs in, then began to stir. Stretching his arm out he threw a couple of pieces of bread into the toaster oven. Lilly was absorbed in both his voice and easy actions.
“So, one thing she didn’t budge on was education. The truant officer came to the apartment one time and my ass was grass. She told me if I didn’t go to school then I didn’t live there. It just so happened that the school in our neighborhood was being shut down for budget cuts. Manny and I were bussed to another school in a better neighborhood. I actually learned there. But I still ran for the MS-13 gang. It made money that we needed. Mama didn’t like it but she didn’t really discourage me from it. When I dropped out of school at sixteen she didn’t say anything about it, because I was bringing even more money in.”
Using a spatula he stirred the scrambled eggs. Lilly’s mouth began to water even as her heart pounded listening to him.
“When I was seventeen I was shot trying to rob a convenience store.” He peeled up the sleeve of his black t-shirt, showing her the mark through the meat of his arm. “That straightened me up. It was all kind of a game till then. I re-enrolled and finished school, graduated and got a legitimate job. The gang didn’t like that I had left so they targeted the grocery store where I worked bagging groceries. They tried to rob it one night and I thought I was quicker than the kid with the gun.” He tugged the collar of the shirt down, showing her the scar below his clavicle. “I was in the hospital for three days before they released me.”
Lilly shook her head in amazement. “God, I can’t even imagine the life you’ve led. And that was all before the Marines.”
Diego nodded, pulling two plates from the cupboard. Lifting the frying pan he separated the eggs into two piles. Buttering a slice of toast for her, he set it on the plate then set the plate in front of her. Lilly looked down at the food, amazed that he’d found all the ingredients.
“A few days later my brother Manuelo was shot trying to rob the same convenience store where I’d been shot. The MS-13s loved doing evil stuff like that to test us. Unfortunately the store clerk hit what he was aiming at that time. Manny died right there in the store.”
Lilly’s eyes filled with tears, but Diego’s did not. There was a hard, don’t-look-too-deep expression on his face, like it was still a painful wound, so Lilly was unsure exactly how to reassure him.
Diego slid onto the stool next to her, giving her a chance to touch him. Lilly rubbed her hand over his strong back.
“That’s my big bad history. Yes, I have a juvenile record, but my distinguished service record more than made up for that. I have a drunk and disorderly on my adult record, but that was right after I left the Marines and was trying to figure my life out. I’m sure your father realized that, he just di
dn’t mention it.”
Lilly sagged in her chair. “I’m really sorry, Diego. Image is huge with my father. When I walked the catwalks for the big companies, he and mom were there with me to get their picture taken with their semi-famous daughter, even though they look down on the fashion industry as a whole. I just never expected him to turn on me so spectacularly.”
Leaning into him she lifted her face for a kiss and he obliged her, lifting her chin. “Don’t let him get you down. I’ve dealt with guys like him before. You just have to beat them at their own game.”
Flashing her a grin he turned to his plate and began eating.
The tight knot of tension in her belly began to ease, enough at least that she could eat the meal he put in front of her. The eggs were incredible and exactly what she needed after a hard night of loving. As soon as they were done, though, Diego prepared to leave.
“I know it’s a Sunday but I have some things I need to work on at the office.”
It was a little surreal giving him a kiss as he walked out the door, but she made it a point to not put any demands on him. She didn’t ask him when she would see him again, or if. She just let him go. And hoped that he would return to her soon.
* * *
Diego tried not to be disappointed when she just let him go. He’d just dumped a lot of shit on her about his past. Maybe he was just feeling a little raw and insecure. Talking about his family always made him itch, because there were so many things he could have done differently. Manny dying was his biggest regret. If he had been there for more of Manny’s young life, he probably would not have died.
It was hard to know that for sure. That had been almost thirteen years ago now. Damn.
Pulling the knife from his jeans he began scraping the pad of his thumb back and forth over the blade.
Lilly had accepted everything he told her without surprise, only empathy for what he had endured. It was very strange because he’d never told anyone else about Manny dying or his own trials. This was the first relationship he’d ever been in when he’d laid everything on the table and she hadn’t even flinched.
Maybe he was in love. The woman continually surprised him with her acceptance and understanding.
Grif was already in the office when he let himself in. “What the hell are you doing here?”
His boss frowned, looking over the laptop screen at him. “I’m doing payroll, and a few other odds and ends. What are you doing in here?”
Diego hesitated. He hadn’t yet told his boss that he was seeing Lilly. Was this going to be awkward? Maybe Lilly had told Kendall and it was a non-issue.
“I’m dating Lilly,” he told him finally.
Grif raised a dark brow and grinned a little. “It’s about time. You two have been making cow-eyes at each other for way too long.”
“Cow-eyes?” Diego didn’t know whether to laugh or yell. “What the fuck does that even mean?”
Grif rocked back in his chair, interweaving the fingers of his prosthetic hand and real hand over his stomach. “I don’t know. Kendall just told me that last night. You two have been simmering for a long time, she says. You have our blessing. Just don’t hurt her. You don’t have a great track record but I can see you being different with her.”
A huge weight settled on his chest and he had to look out the bright window for a moment as his throat tightened. Grif was a few years older than he was, not a lot, but there was something about the guy that Diego looked up to. The words he’d just spoken made Diego feel like he’d won the lottery or some shit. “I will use the utmost care with her,” he promised. “She is not like any other woman I’ve ever met.”
Grif smiled at him and nodded. “I’m glad you recognize that. Now, what are you doing in here?”
Diego told him everything, from the lease denials to the phone call this morning. “Just the fact that Ray was ready to do this to Lilly in the middle of such a large gathering makes me think he’s done this before. I want to investigate him—money, background, everything.”
Grif nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
Chapter Ten
Diego worked through the day and when Brian arrived after lunch to hang out he put him to work as well. There were no shadows in Brian’s eyes now, at least none that Diego could see.
Ray Chambers was a well-liked pillar of the community. He was on the Vail City Council. A widower, his wife had died years ago in a car crash. He’d dated since then and had a couple of relationships but nothing long-term. He had two children in their mid-thirties, but neither lived in the area. His daughter Celeste lived in Florida and his son in California.
Most of his money came from land development in the area. He fronted the money but he hired out the dirty work, hence all the connections he had to the property community in Vail. As Brian handed him the short list he’d compiled, Diego shook his head. These were names even he recognized from the area. Big names.
Grif left to run a background check and when he returned he was grinning.
“What?” Diego demanded.
His boss held up a paper. “Mr. Chambers was married after his first wife died.”
“Okay.” Diego didn’t get why Grif was looking so pleased with himself. “And?”
“And,” Grif paused to wiggle his dark brows, “the interesting part is that he was only married for a few days before the marriage was annulled.”
“Why annulled? Why not divorced?”
Grif shook his head. “It doesn’t say here. But,” he held up a finger, “the woman who initiated the annulment lives in Carbondale. And I might have run across her phone number and address.”
Laughing, Diego stood to slap Grif on the back and take the paper from his hand. “You’re amazing. Thank you.”
“Call and see if she’s up to a couple of visitors later. I’ll go with you.”
Diego dialed the number, heart pounding, and when a woman answered the phone he explained who he was. She seemed reluctant to speak to him at first until he mentioned Lilly. “Wait, Lilly Carmichael?”
“Yes,” he affirmed, wondering if he’d just bungled something.
The woman sighed. “I remember Lilly from a long time ago. Yes, you may come out and I’ll tell you about Ray.”
Diego promised to be there within a couple of hours.
As he and Grif drove to Carbondale, Diego prayed it would be a strong lead. “How long were they married?”
“Just a few days, like three. Barely enough time for the ink to dry on the license.”
That was very curious. “Was it a drunken Vegas quickie?”
Grif shook his dark head. “Nope. Family attended here in Vail.”
Huh…
The drive took a little over an hour. They lucked out in not hitting traffic, though the tourist town itself was busy. A subtle increase in temperature meant that people were getting out to enjoy the weather. Vail was well known for its skiing, but it also had phenomenal state parks in the area. They had to wait at a few crosswalks for enthusiasts to cross.
Donna Gilmore owned a frozen yogurt shop on the corner of Main Street in the thick of the tourist area. Other restaurants surrounded the shop and it seemed to be doing okay. She had directed them to circle the back and climb the outdoor steps to the second level, where her business office was.
After they parked, Diego waved Grif ahead of him. “You need to break the ice pretty boy.”
Grif frowned but jogged up the steps. An attractively dressed gray-haired woman with sharp blue eyes opened the door and invited them inside.
Diego didn’t miss the cringe that rippled over her face as she took in his face and Grif’s prosthetic. “I thank you for speaking with us, ma’am. We would never have bothered you on a weekend if it wasn’t important.”
Donna shrugged. “We aren’t too busy. It’s still a little cold out for frozen yogurt.”
They smiled politely but Diego was too impatient to chatter. “We’re investigating your former husband, Ray.”
Donna settle
d behind a desk and waved them to the two chairs in front of it. “Ray the asshole, you mean? Tell me how this is connected to Lilly.”
Diego sat and watched her take a drink of water from a water bottle. “He tried to drug Lilly last week at a party. Now he’s calling in favors, making it difficult for her to get her business started.”
Donna had paled and now nodded slowly.
“Ray started out as a nice guy. We met at a local business owner’s meeting. He’d lost his wife a few months before, I knew that, but something about him appealed to me. When he asked me out I said yes.” She shrugged. “For a while it was very nice. He treated me like I meant something to him. He accepted my two girls like they were his own.” Her mouth twisted into a scowl. “Within just a few weeks we were heavily invested in each other. Marriage seemed like the next logical step.”
She paused and looked out the window before glancing back at them. “I was thrilled. My first husband had been dead for many years and it was nice to be wanted again. Ray and I hadn’t slept together at that point. He had some story about taking time and exploring the physical side of the relationship after we were married. I remember thinking that was both sweet and a little strange but not enough to call everything off.”
Donna swiveled back in her chair until she was facing them. “The night we married he made excuses about sleeping with me. He was tired from all of the wedding excitement. He had a champagne headache. And a couple other things. Not only did we not sleep together that night, we didn’t even stay in the same room. My eleven-year-old daughter woke me screaming that night because Ray was looming over her in her bed. He came into the bedroom to try to explain himself and even as he was talking to me his eyes kept drifting to my daughter in her nightshirt and panties. It was disgusting. I sent her into my older daughter’s room and Ray broke down. Apologized, said he couldn’t get excited without some kind of ‘stimulus’. I had the marriage annulled that following Monday. My girls and I moved out into an apartment.”
