abhorrence of the very notion made bile rise to his throat. “If I wanted to involve his family in my revenge, I would have used his sons. They’re the ones who don’t see eye to eye with him.”
Richard again looked at him as if he feared he had permanent brain damage. “You got that in reverse. Those sons are from a loveless marriage of convenience that imploded after years of cold war. They’d long drifted into their own lives and would make very dull blades. But the daughter he had with the only woman he ever loved—his most beloved person in the world—now, that’s a lethal weapon.”
“No.”
At his adamant rejection, Richard shrugged. “I guess it’s just as well you’re vetoing the idea. You probably wouldn’t be able to use her now, not after you took another woman to bed.”
“I did no such thing!”
“Not according to what she now believes.”
Rafael gaped at him for long, mute moments. Then he exploded. “You made her believe that.”
Richard met his apoplectic anger with calm disregard. “When you walked away, I thought your episode of insanity was over and you’d take that woman to bed to cleanse your palate. So when Ferreira’s daughter ran out after you, I took it upon myself to make sure she didn’t try to insinuate herself under your skin again.”
She’d run after him. Even after he’d left her without a word. And Richard had...
“For full disclosure’s sake,” Richard added, “I also offered to have sex with her in your stead.”
The next second, Richard was flat on his back, and Rafael’s hand felt broken.
Coming to stand over Richard, who’d pulled himself to his elbows, he growled with rage and pain, “Stay down.”
Richard struck out one leg, swiping both of Rafael’s from under him. He twisted in midfall, coming down in position to launch into a fight.
Richard did that elastic rebound move that no one his size should be able to do, landing in a crouching stance. The right side of his jaw was already swelling.
“I don’t feel like sending you to intensive care, Numbers, but touch me again and I will.”
“You can try, bastard.”
Richard unfolded to his full height just as Rafael did, his gaze exasperated. “You got it that bad, huh?”
“If you touched her, Cobra, I swear...”
“Please. I just wanted to see how she’d react. She fled from the monster sobbing, predictably.” Richard suddenly took him by the shoulders. “You can’t let her derail you. Forget her.”
“I can’t. I have to have her. Whatever the cost.”
“Even if it is letting her father go unpunished?” Richard asked.
“That’s the one thing I won’t do for her.”
“There’s that at least. But you won’t even consider that she might have come here with an ulterior motive?”
“No. Besides all evidence to the contrary, I can fathom people.”
“Really? Did you fathom her father?”
“I was a child.”
“I meant tonight.”
Rafael gritted his teeth. He hadn’t. Beyond being shocked, beyond knowing Ferreira was a monster, he still hadn’t felt it.
Richard read his answer in his silence. “You seem to have a serious glitch in your judgment where this family is concerned.” A beat. “Did you know that, besides being groomed to be her father’s right hand, she does a lot of charity work and volunteering? And that her main focus is orphanages?”
Rafael’s heart stopped. Then it boomed out of control.
Unable to bear Richard’s presence anymore, he hissed, “Leave.”
Richard gave a shrug that said his work here was done then walked away.
At the door he turned, flexing his jaw. “See to that hand. I hope it’s broken. It should be a reminder of what this woman has cost you—and will continue to cost you if you don’t stay away from her.”
Staring after Richard, the pain in his hand throbbed as he stood over the wreckage he’d caused, in the room where he’d found perfection with Eliana. A metaphor for how everything was in ruins at his feet.
Orphanages and helpless children...this was where he couldn’t afford rationalizations. That could be too much of a coincidence. And the implications could be...gruesome.
Orphanages were a perfect recruiting ground for the Organization, full of children no one would defend or miss. So had Ferreira found his sale too lucrative? Was he still supplying children? Was she working with him, getting to know those children, to pick the best specimens...?
Deus. He couldn’t even contemplate that his Eliana...
But his Eliana might not be real. The only Eliana might be Ferreira’s.
If that were true, if everything he’d felt from her was a perfect facade, if she was her father’s accomplice, he’d crush both of them to dust beneath his feet.
Ellie felt as if something had been crushed inside her.
She kept pressing her hand to her chest, as if to hold the damaged part back together until it mended. But its sharp edges kept poking into her vitals.
It had been twenty hours since she’d run out of Rafael’s mansion at midnight...and yes, the irony wasn’t lost on her.
But she was no Cinderella and her prince had turned out to be a predator. As she should have expected, from all the improbabilities.
Ever since she’d fled the scene, she’d been counting the hours. The minutes. Waiting for the misery to subside, for the memory of everything she’d had with him to fade. But time only magnified everything and smashed the broken shards to smaller pieces.
Which was absolutely stupid...and that was precisely what she was. Anyone would consider her the dumbest woman on earth if they knew the speed with which and extent to which she’d been bowled over by Rafael. And that she’d gone further, done something she’d never done before. She’d trusted him. With her safety, with her heart, with...everything. She’d opened herself so totally, had been so completely unguarded, his unprovoked blow had caused that much damage.
It was pathetic to feel that way when she’d known him only hours. But she’d been so under his spell she’d felt she’d known him forever. Now she knew the truth. What she’d thought a perfect coming together had just been a cheap interlude between a naive moth and a bored flame.
But
