“Yes, you do,” she snapped. “I’m your wife. You have to explain things to me. Tell me why you walk through life with these self-imposed bars between you and everybody else in the world.”
“You’re imagining things.”
“Trust me. I couldn’t have a created a character as screwed up as you. Not unless there was a reason.” She circled the bed to stand closer to him, but didn’t touch him. Partly because she was afraid he would step back and it would break her heart if he did. “Is there a reason? Were you abused? Did your father hit you?”
“I had no father.”
“Then tell me something. You never talk about your past. It’s like you were born the CEO of Encrypton. Tell me about the boy. Tell me what happened to him to make the man. Was it your mother? Did she abandon you?”
“Leave her out of this,” he said his voice chillingly cold. “My mother loved me. I loved her. That’s all you need to know.”
“Then who? Who broke your heart, who taught you not to trust? Another woman? Anne? Or maybe that former
“You’re being ridiculous.”
Not so ridiculous. There was a reaction in his face just then and despite what he’d told her, she would bet her life whoever that woman was, she wasn’t just an employee. Fear seeped inside her gut. “I won’t spend my life with a man who is in love with someone else.”
“For God’s sake, I’m not in love with anyone!”
With that the fight left her. “I guess not.” She sunk heavily on to the bed.
He paced in front of her and she could sense his agitation. “Is that what you thought? That we would play house, have sex and in a month we’d be in love. You’re not stupid, Caroline. You should have known better.”
The strap on her nightgown dipped off her shoulder, but she didn’t fuss with it. “I guess I should have. I didn’t. I’m falling in love with you.”
The silence above her was deafening.
Then finally he said, “I don’t know what to say to that.”
“I don’t need you to say you love me. But I think I need to know that someday you could.”
More silence. “I have to go.”
Caroline jerked her head up. “Go?” She hadn’t figured on that. Hadn’t guessed he might run.
He disappeared behind the partition that separated the bedroom from the master bath and closets and came back dressed in sweats, his feet halfway shoved into sneakers.
“I’m going to the office. I need to think.” He walked past her to the door, stopped and turned. “I never considered that I would hurt you. When I decided to do this.”
She smiled sadly. “Never thought that anyone would fall in love with you?”
“No.”
“Well, that’s a problem. Isn’t it?”
He left and Caroline felt the air being sucked out of her with his departure. Maybe she’d been stupid to confront him. Maybe she should have given it more time before she pressed him.
But she wanted him. All of him. Unexpected, but there it was. And she
The important thing to remember was that this was only a skirmish in the war. Looking at it strategically, he hadn’t said he loved her. But he also hadn’t said that he couldn’t love her. Instead he had retreated.
A very un-Dominic-like thing to do she imagined. On some level she frightened him and that could only be possible if he was vulnerable. That was good.
Rolling back onto the bed she tugged the covers over her and willed herself to relax. Only a battle. Still a long way to go. When he came home they could talk again. This time without the yelling. Over time she would convince him that there were worse things than being loved by his wife.
And she would tell him that she wasn’t leaving.
She sensed that he needed to hear that. It had to be the first thing she said to him the next time she saw him. Everything depended on it.
Chapter 6
“Are you looking at me funny?”
Lieutenant Mark Hernandez of the San Jose police force asked the uniformed officer standing next to him in Dominic Santos’s fancy top-floor office.
Mark had been staring out the window overlooking the city, wondering why a guy who had all of this would have done what he’d done. His disgust at the waste must have shown on his lean angular face because he could have sworn that the officer was looking at him strangely.
“No, sir.”
Mark leaned toward the man who was still more kid than cop. He checked his surroundings, then asked in a low tone, “You got a cigarette?”
“You quit, sir.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
“No, sir.”
“No, you don’t have a cigarette?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay, now you’re messing with me.”
“I’m really not, sir.”
In dire need of a single puff of smoke, Mark walked out of the office and surveyed the lobby, hoping to find someone whom he hadn’t expressly forbidden to give him a cigarette. Instead he spotted the secretary who was still sitting behind her desk, apparently waiting for her boss to come walking down the hall any minute.
“We’re done questioning you. You’re free to go.”
She looked at him, her face expressionless. “I work here.”
“Trust me when I tell you your boss won’t notice your absence.”
“Mr. Santos wouldn’t do what you think he did.”
A loyal employee. It wasn’t such a bad quality. “Go home. Serena, wasn’t it?”
She nodded.
“He’s not coming in today.”
Her face fell and it seemed as if his words had finally registered. She pulled her purse out of a drawer and headed for the elevators. The doors slid open and as Serena stepped into the elevator, another woman got off.
She looked first to her right, then to her left as if searching for the appropriate direction to take. Not an employee.
She spotted him and headed his way with purpose.
She was short with dark messy hair that made her look like a pixie who had recently rolled out of bed. When she stopped in front of him the top of her head barely met his chin even though she was wearing what looked to be three-inch-high black pumps.
“You got a cigarette?”
The question caught her off guard. Then she assessed him. “Just quit, huh?”
“Okay, now
“Quit years ago. The patch helped.”
He pushed up the sleeve of his already-rolled-up Oxford shirt. On his upper arm was what looked to be a large Band-Aid.
“Give it time.”
“Right. Oh, by the way, I’m police Lieutenant Mark Hernandez. I’m investigating a homicide. And you are?”
