Romero (34 page)

“
All
of it.” Valerie made a face. “And just looking at the rest of this food makes my mouth water, but now in a good way.”

Isabel finished and Valerie paid. They walked out of the mall and hugged goodbye just outside the entrance. “Promise me you’ll call me as soon as you know something.”

“I will,” Valerie said, lifting her sunglasses and looking past Isabel’s shoulder. “Is that Romero?”

Isabel turned in time to see Romero pulling out of a parking space and turn toward the exit of the parking lot. “Yeah. Hmm. He said he was working today.”

When she turned back to Valerie, her expression matched what Isabel was feeling. She’d mentioned to Valerie Romero’s promise to not return to that jewelry store again or even the mall without her. Not that she’d taken him up on it but she hadn’t exactly turned the proposition down. What’s more, the entrance closest to where he had parked was the one closest to the jewelry store.

Valerie changed her expression quickly and shook her head. “Don’t jump to conclusions. Just ask him as soon as you get home, or better yet call him and tell him you saw him here. Ask him what he was doing.”

Isabel preferred to see his expression when she asked him. He hadn’t lied to her yet, and she had no reason to think he might start now. Not after everything they’d just gone through. She smiled trying to appear unfazed by it. “No, I’ll just ask him when I get home. He goes to MicroTech a lot for all his camera and computer stuff.”

That seemed a good enough reason for Valerie. They said good-bye again and Isabel headed home.

As much as she told herself it was probably nothing and to stop jumping to conclusions, Isabel gave in and called him on her way home. She may as well get the simple explanation now before she began to make herself crazy. He might not be home until later that evening and she’d be ready to throw him out with all the stories she was sure her imagination would come up with by then.

“I met a client over by the marina. Then had to install some telephone bugs at an office where some paranoid ass, thinks every one of his employees is out to get him. That took a while. I just got one more place I have to stop and take some pictures then I should be heading home.”

Isabel held her breath waiting for him to mention the mall. “Hmm. I had lunch with Valerie at the Crab Shack at the mall.” She hoped that would elicit him mentioning his own stop at the mall.

She had no idea what he could possibly have to tell her now but it was enough to garner an incredibly annoying lump in her throat. “You’re damn right we do.”

He must’ve heard the strain in her voice. “I know what you’re thinking, babe but…you know what? Fuck the pictures, I’m going straight home. Meet me there. There’s something I gotta tell you.”

Even after she’d hung with him, the lump remained in her throat. She’d been through too much this week. She wasn’t sure how much more she could take.

This was not how Romero planned on breaking the news to Isabel about Charles. He didn’t even have all the facts yet. It had started out of sheer curiosity. He’d come to realize through his line of work, that there were two types of people when it came to cheating spouses. The ones who demanded to know the truth and would end things accordingly when they got it, and those who chose to look the other way, living blissfully in ignorance as long as their perfect lives remained unscathed on the surface.

He figured she was so unlike Isabel, Pat most likely preferred blissful ignorance. In that case, there was no point in trying to enlighten her with the truth. She probably already knew or at the very least suspected. But things were beginning to take an unsettling turn.

At first, he’d done this for his own personal guilty pleasure. It’d be nice to have one up on stupid Pat, knowing her life wasn’t as perfect as she liked everyone to think. The very reason why he hadn’t planned on telling Isabel. But now he wouldn’t feel right keeping what he knew to himself. He just wished he could’ve waited until he knew everything before having to tell Isabel.

He got to the apartment before she did. He was just putting his wallet and keys on the counter when the door opened behind me.

“Okay, just tell me. Why were you at the mall? Why did you lie to me?”

Romero turned and walked to her, surprised that she looked ready to cry. “Babe, relax. I wasn’t there to see Cici. I know that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Then why
were
you there?”

He took her by the hand and led her to the sofa in the front room. “I was there to see a friend who works security at the mall.”

He backed up and told her about seeing Charles with another woman at the birthday party, then about the bank accounts. “My friend at the mall and I go way back to when we were both working bouncer gigs at clubs. He’s now head of security at the mall. But he does some stuff on the side.” He hesitated to tell her the next part because he knew her family must’ve fed plenty of shit to her about the kind of person he must be. “He used to hack into computers back in the day, and though he doesn’t do it so much anymore, I can still count on him to do things for me here and there.” Isabel stared at him, her eyes wide, but at least she didn’t look upset anymore—not at him anyway.

“If I’m right, Charles is having an affair, babe. It’s with a woman in Miami. And he’s been embezzling money from your dad’s campaign and transferring it to her account.”

Both of Isabel’s hands were over her mouth now. “You know this for sure?”

“I know for sure he’s been taking money from the campaign account and putting it into hers. And I know he stays with her whenever he’s in Miami. What I don’t know is what he’s planning on doing with all that money and if she’s actually someone he’s having an affair with or just an accomplice, but it looks bad. I don’t know if your sister knows about this either.”

“Of course she doesn’t.”

“Well.” Romero didn’t want to sound condescending but it was hard to believe she was completely clueless. Charles hadn’t exactly covered his tracks too well. “You never know, but his other girl knows about Pat. She’s been giving him a hard time lately, which is the reason why I think he may be considering making some kind of move. I’m just not sure what, but I think that’s what the money is for.”

“Because it’s still not clear-cut what this relationship with this girl is. It looks likes she might also be married, but there’s something weird about it. I’m still checking things out. Although that doesn’t mean anything. She could be having an affair herself. But he could still say she’s just be an assistant. He has several. And the whole transferring money to her account he could probably come up with something relating back to the campaign and just deny the whole damn thing.”

“But—”

He squeezed her hand gently. “What do you think your family is gonna say when you tell them
I’m
the one making these accusations? Without proof whose word do you think they’ll take?”

She stared at him, taking a deep breath.

“Just wait. I should know this coming week. My friend at the mall is gonna… look into his computer and see if he can get some personal stuff between Charles and this woman. And I’ve made a few other calls. I should be hearing from them soon, too.”

Romero lay back pulling her onto him. “No. I’m sorry I kept anything from you. I just wanted to have everything down before I told you.” He kissed her. “I told you, you have nothing to worry about. But I get why you might’ve jumped the gun this time. I probably would’ve myself.” He chuckled. “Only I wouldn’t have handled it quite as calmly as you did.”

“No, you handled hearing about me going to see Michael just fine. I was proud of you.”

Romero let his head hang back. “Don’t remind me.”

He filled her in on a few more of the minor details he’d uncovered, but he didn’t have a whole lot more to tell her. He only hoped this wasn’t something that looked and smelled bad, but was actually nothing. That happened a few times when he was following a potentially cheating spouse. Isabel’s family already didn’t like him and him flinging false accusations like this, certainly wasn’t going to buy him any points. As long as Isabel could keep this under wraps until he knew for sure, everything should be okay.

***

“No.” She took the seat across from Art. “After last week’s nightmare he’s been banned from coming around the family. They all say he’s dangerous for me, but we both know who’s the most adamant about it. They actually had an intervention for me on Friday.”

“Get the hell out of here.”

The waiter came by and filled their champagne glasses. Isabel took the pitcher of orange juice on the table and poured some in her champagne glass. She loved mimosas. “No, I’m not kidding. Whose idea do you think that was? They even brought Jacob along to put in his two cents.”

Art laughed. “Well, Pat’s in for one today. I don’t give a damn what she says anymore.”

Isabel downed most of her mimosa and nodded her head. “Good for you.” Maybe if Pat spent less time worrying about other people’s relationships, her own wouldn’t be such a mess. “Did you really tell Pat you agreed about Romero being dangerous?”

Isabel had to laugh, too. Of course, Pat would find a way to turn that around in her favor. She then eyed Sabrina, remembering how Pat had made it sound like Art purposely hadn’t brought her to please Pat. “And why weren’t you there the night of my dad’s dinner?”

Sabrina’s eyebrows lifted and she looked as if she felt guilty. “I’m sorry.” She glanced at Art. “I thought he’d told you. My mom had surgery that week.
She was in no condition to be left alone. So I stayed home to look after her.”

Isabel shook her head. “Oh, no worries. I was just curious.” God, she should’ve known better. Pat had always had a way of manipulating everything to her advantage.

After asking Sabrina a bit more about her mother’s health, the waiter came by and refilled Isabel’s champagne glass nearly to the top, leaving little room for the orange juice. Her parents arrived together with Pat and Charles. Art, Sabrina and Isabel all stood to greet them. Pat’s standoffish attitude toward Sabrina didn’t go unnoticed by Isabel.

Isabel reached out and gave Charles a quick handshake instead of her usual hug and kiss on the cheek. She could barely stand to look at him. Her parents sat next to her, leaving Pat no choice but to sit next to Art and Sabrina. The bad part about that was Isabel would now be facing Charles through entire brunch.

“Well, are you going to tell us why we’re here now?” Pat asked as she placed her napkin on her lap.

Art pulled out his phone and Isabel took another big gulp of her mimosa. She was nervous for him. Whatever it was, she’d be behind him all the way. She didn’t want Pat squashing their news. She was so good at that.

“Let me get Gina on the phone. I promised I’d put her on speaker so she could hear it at the same time as you guys did.”

Pat rolled her eyes, already disparaging whatever he was about to tell them. The waiter walked around the table, pouring more champagne all around, as Art placed the phone in the center face up on speaker.

“Hey. Art.” Gina answered, sounding excited.

“Hey, Gina. You’re on speaker. Say hi to everyone.”

She did and everyone greeted her back. Isabel’s insides were beginning to turn. She was sure Art would be announcing his wedding date and she was terrified that Pat was going to say something stupid.