spine. Good. You are a fine match for my stubborn youngest.”
Her irritation over his probing questions eased. What parent didn’t want to see their children settled and happy? “I appreciate your opening your home to me and my son and giving us a chance to get to know you.”
“Diplomatically said, my dear. You are wise to proceed thoughtfully. Regrets are a terrible thing,” he said somberly. “I should have sent my family out of San Rinaldo sooner. I waited too long and Beatriz paid the price.”
The darker turn of the conversation stilled her. She’d wanted more insights into Tony’s life, yet this was going so much deeper than she had anticipated.
Enrique continued, “It was such chaos that day when the coup began. We had planned for my family to take one escape route and I would use another.” His jaw flexed sharply in his gaunt face. “I made it out, and the rebels found my family. Carlos was injured trying to save his mother.”
The picture of violence and terror he painted sounded like something from a movie, so unreal, yet they’d lived it. “Tony and your other sons witnessed the attack on their mother?”
“Antonio had nightmares for a year, and then he became obsessed with the beach and surfing. From that day on, he lived to leave the island.”
She’d known the bare bones details of their escape. But the horror they’d lived through, the massive losses rolled over her with a new vividness. Tony’s need to help her had more to do with caring than control. He didn’t want to isolate her or smother her by managing everything the way her husband had. Tony tried to help her because he’d failed to save someone else he cared about.
Somehow, knowing this made it easier for her to open her heart. To take a chance beyond their weeks here.
Without question, he would have to understand her need for independence, but she also had to appreciate how he’d been hurt, how those hurts had shaped him. And as Antonio Medina and Tony Castillo merged in her mind, she couldn’t ignore the truth any longer.
She loved him.
Approaching footsteps startled her, drawing her focus from the past and toward the arched entry. Tony stepped into view just when her defenses were at their lowest. No doubt her heart was in her eyes. She started toward him, only to realize his eyes held no tender feelings.
The harsh angles of his face blared a forewarning before he announced, “There’s been a security breach.”
Shock jolted through Shannon, followed closely by fear. “A security breach? Where’s Kolby?”
She shot to her feet and ran across the music room to Tony. The ailing king reached for his cane, his dogs waking instantly, beating her there by a footstep. Enrique steadied himself with a hand against the wall, but he was up and moving. “What happened?”
“Kolby is fine. No one has been hurt, but we have taken another hit in the media.”
Enrique asked, “Have they located the island?”
“No,” Tony said as Alys slid into view behind him. “It happened at the airport when Eloisa and Jonah’s flight landed in South Carolina. The press was waiting, along with crowds of everyday people wanting a picture to sell for an easy buck.”
Shannon’s stomach lurched at another assault in the news. “Could the frenzy have to do with the Landis family connections?”
“No,” Tony said curtly. “The questions were all about their vacation with Eloisa’s father the king.”
Alys angled past Tony with a wheelchair. “Your Majesty, I’ll take you to your office so you can speak to security directly.”
The king dropped into the wheelchair heavily. “Thank you, Alys.” His dogs loped into place alongside him. “I am ready.”
Nerves jangled, Shannon started to follow, but Tony extended a hand to stop her.
“We need to talk.”
His chilly voice stilled her feet faster than any arm across the entranceway. Had he been holding back because of concerns for his father’s health? “What’s wrong? What haven’t you told me?”
She stepped closer for comfort. He crossed his arms over his chest.
“The leak came from this house. There was a call placed from here this afternoon—at just the right time—to an unlisted cell number.”
“Here? But your father’s security has been top notch.” No wonder he was so concerned.
Tony unclipped his iPhone from his waistband. “We have security footage of the call being made.”
Thumbing the controls, he filled the screen with a still image of a woman on the phone, a woman in a white swimsuit cover-up, hood pulled over her head.
A cover-up just like hers? “I don’t understand. You think this is me? Why would I tip off the media?”
His mouth stayed tight-lipped and closed, and his eyes…Oh God, she recognized well that condemning look from the days following Nolan’s arrest and then his death.
Steady. Steady. She reminded herself Tony wasn’t Nolan or the other people who’d betrayed her, and he had good reasons to be wary. She drew in a shuddering breath.
“I understand that Enrique brought you up to be unusually cautious about the people in your life. And he had cause after what happened to your mother.” Thoughts of Tony as a small child watching his mother’s murder brushed sympathy over her own hurt. “But you have to see there’s nothing about me that would hint at this kind of behavior.”
“I know you would do anything to secure your son’s future. Whoever sold this information received a hefty payoff.” He stared back at her with cold eyes and unswerving surety.
In a sense he was right. She would do anything for Kolby. But again, Tony had made a mistake. He’d offered her money before, assuming that would equate security to her. She had deeper values she wanted to relay to her son, like the importance of earning a living honorably. Tony had needed to prove that himself in leaving the island. Why was it so difficult to understand she felt the same way?
Her sympathy for him could only stretch so far.
“You actually believe I betrayed you? That I placed everyone here at risk for a few dollars?” Anger frothed higher and higher inside her. “I never wanted any of this. My son and I can get by just fine without you and your movie theater.” She swatted his arm. “Answer me, damn you.”
“I don’t know what to think.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Tell me it was an accident. You called a friend just to shoot the breeze because you were homesick and that friend sold you out.”
Except as she’d already told him and he must remember, she didn’t have friends, not anymore. Apparently she didn’t even have Tony. “I’m not going to defend myself to you. Either you trust me or you don’t.”
