The Billionaire's Proposition (The Romero Brothers, Book 4) (14 page)

“No. But, my father got so upset. And Eduardo
threatened to do something if we intervened in whatever he wanted to do.”

“What happened next?”

“Well, Eduardo came to the house one night.
After I had quit working for him. My father and he argued and then…well, shots
were fired …” Her voice trailed off and she covered her face with her hands.
Carl reached over to her and wrapped his arms around her.

Venus regained her composure and looked up,
straight ahead, her jaw clenched. “Eduardo was a powerful man in the town,
everyone knew that. He has connections everywhere. People feared him.”

“Enough to get witnesses to say he was
somewhere else,” Carl said, figuring out the rest.

Venus nodded, slowly.

“So let me guess. You were the only one who
could positively, without a shadow of a doubt, identify him as the one who
murdered your parents and so you entered into some kind of witness protection
program.”

“Yes,” she said, bitterness spilling over in
her voice. “But now he has escaped from prison. He escaped! I feel so
responsible for…my parents’…deaths.” Her voice was heavy with remorse. “I…I
don’t deserve to have a family. If only…”

“Whoa, wait a minute. If only what? You’d
allowed Eduardo to sexually harass you? Hey, don’t ever let the evil actions of
others make you feel in any part responsible. You did nothing wrong.”

Carl felt his gut clench.
Damn!
If he could just
get his hands on that low-life bastard, Eduardo.
All this time, he
thought Venus was playing him and she was fleeing for her life. Anger knotted
inside his gut as he tried to grasp the gravity of this dreadful situation.

“I’m sorry I lashed out at you like that,”
Carl said darkly. “I’m
gonna
see to it that asshole is
caught,” he vowed as fury surged through his blood.

“I’m glad it’s all out now,” she said with
a cool reserve, her eyes vacant.

“So that’s why we couldn’t locate anything
more about you even though we hired you. You have all your documents legal
because your government arranged it, including a new birth certificate and
passport.”

She nodded. “Yes. That’s right. But unlike
the witness protection program in this country, in my country they give you very
little to start your new life. You’re on your own. The plan was that I leave
the country with no one knowing and take Tristan with me and legally adopt him
under secrecy. I was so thankful to be hired by your family. You guys have been
more than hospitable, kind, supportive.”

“Of course.”

“Luckily, Tristan is too young to…know the
truth.” Venus swallowed hard. “I was told it would be best to come to Canada
since no one would ever suspect me coming here. I dyed my hair and changed the
texture.”

Carl was too stunned to speak at first. He
was shocked, trying to process all this information. He drew in a deep breath.
“I’ll call everything off so you don’t need to worry,” he said in a deep, low
voice.

“What?
Your bid for
mayor?
No, Carl. You must go forth!” she exclaimed.

“Go forth? Are you kidding me?” Carl didn’t
know what had gotten into him all of a sudden. “You just told me that you’re in
the witness protection program. Do you really want us to go public about our
marriage?” He tried damn hard to keep his feelings from spiralling out of
control, but it was too late. He was going crazy out of his mind at the thought
of possibly losing Venus, for good.

Their
marriage?

Wasn’t this supposed to be a fake
relationship solely for show-and-tell purposes?

So then why was Carl feeling fiercely protective
over her suddenly? The woman just
lied
the hell out of
who she was—even for a good cause but still he had been deceived. He
should be thinking about divorcing her and calling it a day—finding
another woman to take her place.

But he couldn’t. He just couldn’t leave
sweet Venus on her own to deal with all of this.

“Carl, this woman named Amber at the
consulate assured me that everything is okay. Eduardo is still in Murumba. There
is no way he’d be able to obtain a fake passport and there is no way he could
know that I’m here. “

“So somebody knows you’re here?”

“Yes, but it’s okay. Amber helped me to get
myself settled. She’s one of the few trusted people at the consulate who knows my
real identity.”

“So that’s why you were terrified of
telling me about your past?”

“Yes. I was told to not tell a single soul.
And also, Eduardo vowed in the courtroom that I was going to be sorry. He
threatened me!”

“What? After what the monster did? He had
the gall to threaten you—in court?”

“Yes. Eduardo told me that he would make
sure that no one else could have me. He’d kill me and anyone close to me.”

“Oh, God! I’m so sorry you had to go
through that, Venus. I guess the idiot wanted to kill his chance of ever
getting parole with that courtroom fiasco,” he said bitterly. His voice was
laced with venomous sarcasm.

“Yeah, so that’s why even though I agreed
to our arrangement. I thought it wasn’t important that you be involved with my
past. It could have put you in danger.”

“But jeez, Venus! We’re married! Don’t you
think I should have least known something? I can take care of myself! And take
care of you!”

“Yes, you’re right. Thinking back in
hindsight I see you’re right. It was foolish to think that I could get away
with not ever revealing my past. That’s why I never thought I could ever get
married. Of course, I knew this marriage that we have is only for a year, so I
thought it would be different, you know?”

“Venus, I’m not going to announce anything
yet, until I know for sure that murderous bastard and his entourage of thugs can’t
get to you.”

Carl got up, looked at the time and grabbed
his cell phone. He dialled a number. “Listen, we need to talk. Urgent. And get
a D.P.”

“D.P?” Venus echoed. “Who is that?”

“It’s a code we use for disposable phone.”

“
We
use?”

“Never mind, for now anyway. I need to have
some things checked on right away, before we leave Vegas. But not from this
phone.”

“Why not?”

“My darling, Venus, you must know by now
that all phones can be easily traced. Except disposable phones—at least
not right away.”

“You mean
,
you’re
not going to d-divorce me?” Venus could not believe this! After the ugly truth and
her scandalous past finally came out, Carl still wanted to be with her? He
wanted to protect her? Still, she felt psychologically naked, exposed,
vulnerable
. Carl knew her true identity. He knew who she
really was and what she’d been involved in her past. Something she never knew
she could handle, if he found out. What must he think of her? Nothing could rip
away the guilt, the torment, the pain and anguish of her parents’ deaths.
All because her crooked ex-boss wanted to harass her by forcing
himself on her.

After she’d posed the question, Carl seemed
to hesitate at first before answering. “No,” he said quietly.
 
“I’m not going to divorce you—yet,”
he added.

Yet?

Venus’s stomach sank to her knees again.
Of course not, yet.
But eventually they would end their
marriage. Still, she was grateful that he didn’t just decide to end their nuptials
right there and then. He certainly would be within his right to do so. And who
could blame him? Part of her was deeply relieved now that it was all out in the
open with Carl, but another part of her was deeply terrified. Her pulse pounded
in her throat.

“So what are you—I mean, what are
we
going to do now?” she asked. Her mind
was still reeling over the heated discussion of the past few moments. Her
emotions were spiralling out of control.
Over Carl.
She’d had the most passionate night, her very first time, and now this? It was
marred by the skeletons of her past.

She’d never seen Carl so worked up before,
so infuriated. But he had good reason to be. His anger was now directed at
Eduardo. Venus actually feared for Carl. She knew the Romeros were a tough
family dynasty, but Eduardo Meritos—the infamous mob boss? Eduardo played
dirty. That man could obviously never be trusted.

She still flinched from Eduardo’s agonizing
words at the trial. “I’ll kill you and anyone close to you!” he vowed with a
vengeance.

Venus shivered just thinking about it. She
closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath, trying to settle her thrashing
heartbeat.

Carl was way too caring, too kind.
Too noble of a man to be put in harm’s way—and all because of
her.
Just as her family had paid the price because
of—her.
She didn’t want to put Carl at any risk. But then she’d
already done so thinking that she could get away with pretending to be his wife—even
just for one year.

What if any of Eduardo’s people recognized
her beneath her disguise—her new look? Assuming she would be public
beside her politician husband.

“That’s what happens when you come from a
poor family,” she chuckled, humorlessly.

“What do you mean?” he asked. His gaze
still blazed into hers.

“I would have never taken the job to help
out with the bills and buying food if we didn’t need the money, Carl. But
my mom and dad encouraged me at first to work at the store, even
knowing it was owned by the Meritos family
. It was our only chance. The
store was looking for a young cashier. We…we desperately needed the money.
Things were so rough. Mom was so sick after she’d given birth to Niko…to
Tristan. She had developed cardiomyopathy right after Tristan’s birth. Dad
wasn’t doing too well with his eyesight. I was the only one who could work at
the time.”

“What about assistance from your local
authority?”

“Pff. That’s no good. Useless. No city
funds, Carl. It’s not like here in the western world. There are no agencies to
help poor families.”

Carl cursed under his breath. That was
exactly the reason he wanted to fight in local government and represent the
people. It may be a world of difference between her country and his, but it all
boiled to the same sickness. Poverty. No family deserved to live that way.

More than ever, he wanted to fight for
people like Venus, Tristan, like his own parents who’d lost everything because
of a stroke of bad luck, illness and job loss. Damn! It just wasn’t fair. None
of it was fair. And the sad irony was that Venus had a similar experience that
he had growing up, only difference
was,
she was left
to fend for herself without any help from her government.
 

 
“Carl, please don’t,” Venus finally
uttered, interrupting his thoughts. “I don’t want you to proceed with me. I can’t
put you at risk. I just can’t!”

“What? Are you kidding me? You think I’m
afraid of that bastard Meritos?” Carl raged. He stood by the windowpane. An air
of command exuded him. He had an innately captivating presence—even half
dressed, his muscular chest exposed, wearing nothing but silk pajama bottoms.
“You clearly don’t know me that well, Venus.” His voice was low, deadly. Anger
flashed in his dark eyes.

“I know I don’t know you that well, Carl.
But…I know of Eduardo. He’s lethal. He’s crazy. I couldn’t bear it if he-”

“Stop that,” he said, more gently, his
fingers stroked her arm sensuously and she felt his warmth zap into her,
calming her. “No one is going to harm you or anyone close to you.
Ever again.
I promise. Okay?”

Venus nodded slowly.

Carl touched her trembling lips with his
soft finger and she tingled with delight. Her fear and anxiety seemed to melt
slightly with one tender stroke of his warm flesh. She inched closer to him,
needing this intimacy more than ever.

He lowered his head to hers and captured
her lips with his and heat exploded between them.

“Oh,” she moaned breathlessly, enrapt by
his sweet, soft kiss. She wanted to cry, she wanted to scream—if only she
could turn back the hands of time and none of this happened. If only she could
have erased her past with one strike of a delete button. If only…

He parted from her lips and gazed intently
into her eyes. What was he thinking? Funny, but she didn’t need to know. She
felt it. She felt so connected to what he was feeling in her heart in a way
that she could not explain.

In some situations, words were not necessary.
Body language, vibes said it all. Reactions spoke volumes. The eyes told plenty
in their soulful depths. This was one such situation where words were not adequate
for a message to be communicated. For the first time in her life—in a
long while, she didn’t feel so…alone.
 

 
Venus could see raw hurt smoldering in Carl’s
dark eyes. He was hurt because of her, because of what had been done to her and
her family. No one in her life had ever felt her pain the way Carl seemed to.