Forever Yours (37 page)

A car’s loud horn in such close proximity made them both flinch, and they turned to see Romero in his car pull up behind her car. It wasn’t until that moment that she realized just how close Leonardo’s face had been to hers. Romero brought a camera out and snapped a photo then smirked, lifting an eyebrow.

“This is state of the art stuff,” he said, looking Leonardo up and down in that same suspicious way he had the first day he’d met him on the marina. Then he looked back at Sarah. “I’m testing it out before I decide if I’m really gonna spend this kind of money on it or return it.” He snapped another photo of them before adding. “This is top-of-the-line shit here. It can zoom in from miles away, Sarah.” The car behind him honked, and he waved his arm out for the car to go around then turned back to Sarah. “So where’s Angel?”

“School,” she said, her heart still hammering away but glad Romero didn’t know anything about the reality of Leonardo and her so-called dad.

At least Angel hadn’t mentioned telling him yet. She knew if Romero did know he’d already be out of the car in Leonardo’s face, not just sitting there eyeing them suspiciously.

“
You
don’t have school today?”

Shaking her head, she moved away from Leonardo, knowing full well now Romero wasn’t there to show off his camera. “My class was cancelled, so I came out for a run.”

Eyeing Leonardo one more time, Romero put down the camera, nodding. “All right. I gotta get back to work,” he said, seemingly indifferent. “Tell Angel to call me.”

He drove away, and Sarah knew she needed to get out of there—needed to get to Angel before Romero did—because that last comment about telling Angel to call him was pure B.S., as if Romero couldn’t just text Angel himself and say, “Text me. I have some photos I wanna show you.” If Sarah didn’t know any better, Romero had probably already tried to call Angel and likely hadn’t been able to get a hold of him.

It can zoom in from miles away, Sarah.

Sarah’s heart rate picked up again. Romero was nothing if not obvious.

“I gotta go,” she said, moving past Leonardo.

“Sarah, wait,” he said, holding her arm.

“Get your hands off me!” Sarah jerked her hand away and pushed past him.

The haze of fury that had begun to stew just before Romero drove up suddenly erupted inside her, and she spun around and pushed him with both hands. Then she did something she’d never done to anyone in her life and slapped him—hard. “I trusted you,” she said loudly. “I wanted to believe you were my brother
so
badly, and you knew this and used it against me, you bastard! I hate you!”

Leo stood his ground without moving but didn’t so much as lift a hand to block anything else she might swing at him. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I really am. I just—”

“Go to hell!” she said, walking away again.

She needed to get out of there before she wasted even another ounce of energy on him. He didn’t deserve it. Never had.

“I truly am sorry about everything,” Leo insisted, raising his voice but didn’t follow her. “I never meant for it to turn into this. I swear to you. But there is something else I think you should know. It’s why I’m even here.”

Sarah didn’t bother to even look back at him. She didn’t want to know about how this sicko
thought
he was in love with her anymore. Why he thought that was a good enough reason to come and turn her life upside down, play with her emotions, and then just walk away and leave her hanging when he realized his demented plan wasn’t going to work, she had no idea. She was done listening to him and sniveling inwardly about the other family she’d fantasized about having out there. For years it’d been just her and mother, and she’d been fine with it. Why in the world she’d suddenly thought she needed more was just selfish. So many others had less.

“It’s about your father, Sarah,” he said, making her stop at the door of her car, but she refused to look at him. “Your real father.”

~*~

Angel

Rushing out into the school parking lot, Angel read the text Sarah had sent him earlier. Her afternoon class had been cancelled, and she’d gone for a run at the marina. He had three other texts all from Romero. He could see the last one had attachments. No matter how many times he’d told Romero he couldn’t text him back when he in school, the guy still texted him back to back often while he was sitting in class. Usually the second or third ones sounded annoyed because he hadn’t responded to the first one. Angel frowned, reading the first one of Romero’s texts.

Call me as soon as you can. I need to ask you something.

Angel scrolled down to read the second one before checking out whatever stupid photos he might’ve sent in the third.

Sarah’s brother

It was all Angel got to read of the second one because the screen lit up with an incoming call from none other than Romero. Angel rolled his eyes, knowing Romero’s impatient ass would likely be all irritated that it’d been over forty minutes since he’d sent the first text and Angel still hadn’t responded. So he answered, ready to hear Romero’s mouth.

“What?”

“Hey, man,” Romero started right off. “I don’t care what you say about Sarah’s brother. The guy’s shady. I didn’t like the looks of him from day one, and I’m not talking about his tats and shit. I’m talking about the way he was all up in her face until you came and sat back down with them.”

Angel had meant to follow up and ask Romero what he’d meant that day when he said they were getting cozy, but he’d forgotten all about it. Now he hated to have to say to Romero the two words he so rarely ever did but had no choice. “You’re right,” he said, getting in his car and throwing his books on the passenger side. “He was shady.”

“What do you mean
was
?”

“I mean it turned out he wasn’t her brother after all. It was all bullshit, but he’s gone now.”

“Gone where?”

“Out of her life. She cut him off.” Angel started up his car. “She doesn’t talk to him anymore.”

“I knew it! So what was up today?”

“What do you mean?” Angel asked confused.

“Did you not see the pictures I sent you? They were together at the marina.” Angel froze for a moment just as he was getting ready to put the car in reverse. “And not to piss you off or anything, but they looked pretty fucking cozy again. Say I exaggerate all you want, but pictures don’t lie, and I have more if you need to see more. You know I thought that fucker looked too—”

Angel pulled the phone away from his ear and scrolled through his texts then clicked on the photos Romero sent him. The sliver of hope he’d had that maybe Romero had been mistaken about whoever it was she’d been talking to being Leo was crushed the moment he saw the first photo. It was of Sarah, standing by her car, talking to Leo.

With his first thought being that maybe she was in some kind of danger, he spoke in to the speaker. “Is she still there with him?”

He heard Romero say she’d left, so he scrolled to the next photo. Leo was squatting down next to her car door, talking to her, and it appeared Sarah was trying to close her door. The relief inundated him, drowning out the anger he’d began to feel about seeing her engaging with the guy, but it was fleeting. In the next two photos she was out of the car, leaning against the rear of it, and Leo was standing too damn close to her. Scrolling through them faster now, his eyes were fixed on Sarah’s expressions. First, she was looking at his arm, and then the next one nearly sucked the air out of his lungs. She was touching his arm, lifting his shirt, and gazing at one of his tattoos, and Leo was close enough to kiss her.

“Did he kiss her?” Angel asked, wanting a warning before he scrolled to the next photo.

He brought the phone to his ear because his heart needed a breather. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to take any more photos if they got worse.

“No, but it sure as hell looked like he was going to, didn’t it?” Romero asked. “That’s why I sent you all those because I knew you’d say I was exaggerating. You know if I had known about him being full of shit I would’ve said something. I was right there! And I don’t give a shit how big he is. You know me. I would’ve clubbed his ass over the head with a fucking wrench if I had to. I just didn’t . . .”

Angel lowered the phone, about to scroll through the pictures again while Romero continued to rant, when the second incoming call indicator blinked.

“I’ll call you back,” he said to Romero. “It’s Sarah on the other line.”

“I have more pictures. You want me to send more?”

“Send them all,” he said as he yanked his keys out of the ignition.

He stepped out of his car and took in a much needed lung full of air, trying desperately to erase the visual of Sarah touching the guy’s arm. No matter how much effort he made in the short time he had, he couldn’t, and it only infuriated him further. He knew that was going to affect the way he handled this.

For a second, he considered letting it go to voice mail until he calmed down because already he felt like he was going to lose his shit. But going against his better judgment, he answered anyway.

“Sarah, what’s going on?” he asked, pacing and taking deep breaths.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“At school still. What happened?”

Just the fact that she didn’t mention Leo first thing already had him hot.

He should’ve never answered.

“With what? I was just—”

“What do you mean with what?” he snapped. “With Leo, Sarah. You were with him at the marina. You wanna tell me about that?”

“Yes, I was going to. You want to come pick me up?”

“No. Tell me now,” he said as the fucking visual assaulted him again and again. “I wanna know now.”

“He was there when I finished my run. He wanted to explain everything. Why he lied.”

“And why did he?”

“It’s a long story—”

“Is it really?” he asked, his insides boiling now. “So you were there for a while with him?”

“Not very long.”

It took everything in him not to cuss. “So what’d he say? Why did he lie? Give me the short version. You can tell me the rest later. I wanna know what his bullshit excuse was.”

“He said . . .”

He heard her exhale but his patience was shot. “He said what, Sarah?”

“He said he fell in love with me.” She paused for a moment, but for the first time since he’d answered, Angel was speechless. “What he told me before about feeling a connection with me before we’d ever met? He said that was all true, only it was a more intimate connection than he first admitted. Then after we started chatting, his feelings for me only grew further. And it
was
about the jewelry.”

Angel listened to her silently as she told him the rest. How she hadn’t wanted to even listen to him at first.

But then did.

She explained why Joseph looked so much like her and her dad and how Leo originally wanted no part in the scam but then made it sound as if he’d done it for her sake, to protect her from another potentially dangerous lying sack of shit Joseph might’ve hired instead.

The whole time Angel couldn’t get past the thought that she might’ve actually bought Leo’s bullshit: That the only reason Leo had gone along with any of it was because of his feelings for her, feelings he felt before he’d even met her. How he’d feared for her safety and how he’d threatened Joseph about not contacting her after they’d figured out she had no such jewelry. But the worst part was still screaming in his head, and for as much as he tried to calm it—stay quiet without interrupting her—it only got louder with every word she said that sounded like justification for Leo’s actions.

“So let me get this straight, Sarah. This asshole, who lied to you for months about something pretty fucking big like his
identity
, shows up today, and you want nothing to do with him until he explains he’s in love with you?”

“No,” she said quickly. “That’s not what—”

“And then,” Angel said, fully aware he was raising his voice to the point where he might start yelling but he didn’t give a shit anymore because he was livid. “And then after he explains all this, you decide to stick around and let him close enough to kiss you?”

“What? Who said—?”

“I saw pictures!” he boomed. “Of you and him against your car. His face is close enough to touch yours, and
you
touched
him
. Admit it, Sarah. You’re attracted to the guy, and the fact that he says he did this because he’s in love with you makes it all better!”

“No! Of course not! I—”

“What? Are you two gonna be friends now?”

“Angel, calm down, pl—”

“Are you, Sarah? Are you collecting best friends who are in love with you now?”

She didn’t say anything, and he knew he was being an asshole now, but he couldn’t help it. The jealousy was eating him alive. She’d stuck around and allowed this guy, who didn’t deserve even a minute of her time, to stand that close to her. A guy who admitted to being in love with her. She stood there and admired his arms and tattoos and then fucking touched them!