Chapter 2 - The Brother She Was Ordered to Marry
Lorenzo did not answer immediately.
Mateo saw the screen.
“Don’t.”
Sienna looked between them.
“Who is calling?”
The phone continued vibrating.
Lorenzo answered.
He said nothing.
For several seconds, nobody on Sienna’s side of the room moved.
Then a woman’s voice came faintly through the speaker.
“You should have let the Mercer girl walk away.”
The call ended.
Sienna felt something cold move through her.
“Who was that?”
Lorenzo placed the phone down.
“Camille DeLuca.”
Sienna stared at him.
“The woman who drowned?”
“The woman everyone believes drowned.”
Mateo poured himself whiskey.
Lorenzo took the glass from him before he could drink.
Mateo laughed bitterly.
“You’re choosing tonight to become concerned about my habits?”
“I’m choosing tonight to keep you useful.”
Sienna picked up the photograph.
“My father was there.”
“Yes,” Mateo said.
“Why?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to learn for two years.”
The reckless younger brother from newspapers suddenly seemed very different.
The dark circles beneath Mateo’s eyes were real.
So was the tremor in his fingers.
But neither looked like intoxication.
They looked like exhaustion.
Mateo sat.
“Camille was my girlfriend. Everyone knows that part. What they don’t know is that she called me three hours before the yacht party and begged me to cancel.”
“Why?”
“She said someone was moving money through the port consortium.”
Sienna glanced at Lorenzo.
“Dirty money?”
“Not ours,” Lorenzo said.
That distinction would have sounded absurd in any other room.
Here, she understood exactly what he meant.
Mateo continued.
“Camille worked in compliance for Atlantic Crown Bank. She found shell companies purchasing shipping insurance against cargo that didn’t exist.”
“Mercer cargo?”
“Some.”
Sienna’s stomach tightened.
“She confronted my father?”
“We don’t know.”
“But he was on the yacht.”
“Yes.”
Sienna looked again at the photograph.
Harrison stood partly in shadow.
“You told police he wasn’t there?”
“I never saw him,” Mateo said. “Not until this photograph arrived yesterday.”
“Who sent it?”
“No return address.”
“And forty-seven?”
Mateo rubbed his face.
“The yacht security system had seven cameras. After Camille went overboard, police discovered a forty-seven-second gap in every recording.”
Sienna understood.
“Someone deleted it.”
“Someone replaced it,” Lorenzo corrected. “The original footage still exists.”
“Where?”
“If we knew that, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Sienna stared at her father’s image.
All her life Harrison Mercer had been charming in the way irresponsible men often were.
He forgot birthdays but remembered expensive gifts.
He disappeared for weekends and returned with apologies.
He called Sienna his brilliant girl whenever he needed her to solve something.
She had mistaken dependence for love.
“What does this have to do with marrying Mateo?”
Lorenzo and Mateo exchanged a look.
Sienna noticed.
“No more secrets.”
Lorenzo leaned against the desk.
“Your father borrowed fourteen million dollars over eighteen months.”
“For gambling.”
“That’s what he told you.”
Her chest tightened.
“It wasn’t gambling?”
“Some was. Not fourteen million.”
“Where did the rest go?”
“We don’t know.”
Sienna’s mind began assembling pieces.
Her father.
Camille.
The port.
Missing footage.
A fake attorney.
A marriage contract marked 47.
“Someone is using him.”
“Or he’s working with them,” Mateo said.
Sienna looked sharply at him.
“My father is many things.”
“Including a man who sold you to pay a debt.”
The words struck harder because they were true.
Lorenzo gave his brother a warning look.
Sienna raised one hand.
“No. Let him talk.”
Mateo stood.
For the first time they faced one another directly.
“You want honesty?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I don’t want to marry you.”
“Excellent. We finally agree on something.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
It vanished quickly.
“My brother thinks the marriage protects both companies. It also puts you close enough for us to protect you.”
“From whom?”
“That’s the fourteen-million-dollar question.”
“Cute.”
“I occasionally have moments.”
Sienna studied him.
“Are you sober?”
Mateo stiffened.
“Eighty-nine days.”
Lorenzo looked away.
Sienna realized she had touched something private.
Mateo continued before she could apologize.
“Camille’s death destroyed me. I drank. I used drugs. I gave the press every reason to believe the worst story about me. Some of the stories are true.”
“But not murder.”
“No.”
“Did you love her?”
“Yes.”
The answer was quiet.
Unperformed.
Sienna believed it.
That complicated everything.
She turned toward Lorenzo.
“If we do this, I want the amended contract tomorrow.”
“You’ll have it.”
“And Mateo signs my conditions separately.”
Mateo blinked.
“What conditions?”
Lorenzo almost smiled.
“You should sit down.”
Twenty minutes later, Mateo had read them.
He looked at Sienna.
“If I die, you get my shares?”
“Yes.”
“That’s cold.”
“You’re welcome to remain alive.”
For the first time, Mateo laughed.
A genuine laugh.
Lorenzo looked faintly offended that either of them found anything funny.
Mateo signed the preliminary agreement.
Then he pushed it toward her.
“One condition of mine.”
Sienna frowned.
“You’re negotiating now?”
“I learned from my future wife.”
“Try me.”
“If either of us discovers something dangerous, we tell the other.”
“No heroic secrets?”
“No heroic secrets.”
Sienna extended her hand.
“Agreed.”
Mateo shook it.
His grip was warm.
Careful.
He released her immediately.
Her first condition had not needed explaining.
That mattered.
Lorenzo’s phone buzzed again.
This time it was security.
He listened, then walked toward the windows.
“Where?”
His posture changed.
“Keep him there.”
He ended the call.
“Harrison Mercer just arrived downstairs.”
Sienna frowned.
“My father?”
“He’s demanding to see you.”
“Then let him.”
“No.”
Sienna looked at Lorenzo.
“Why?”
“Because he didn’t come alone.”
The office monitor lit up.
Security footage showed Harrison in the lobby.
He looked disheveled.
Terrified.
A man stood beside him.
Sienna had never seen the man before.
Mateo had.
His chair scraped backward.
“That’s impossible.”
“Who is he?” Sienna asked.
Mateo moved closer to the screen.
“The yacht’s security chief.”
Sienna waited.
Mateo swallowed.
“He disappeared the morning Camille died.”
On the monitor, Harrison suddenly looked directly into the security camera.
He raised a white envelope.
Across the front was Sienna’s name.
Then the security chief leaned toward Harrison and whispered something.
Harrison’s expression collapsed.
He dropped the envelope.
May you like
The man beside him reached inside his coat.
And the lobby camera went black.
