For Better or Worse (13 page)

Antonio moved quickly. Cassidy tripped
once on the stairs, but that didn’t slow him down. His fingers bit into the
soft flesh above her elbow as he unceremoniously hauled her behind him, cutting
a path through the crowd when they reached the first floor. As if they
recognized his anger, people moved out of the way so they could get by.

She didn’t even have time to be
humiliated. She had to concentrate on keeping up with him. “Antonio, please
slow down.”

He ignored her, not uttering a word or
looking back to acknowledge she’d spoken. Outside, he pressed the button on his
remote car opener and yanked open the door. “Get in the car.”

She hesitated for a moment, resentful of
his tone. Her initial reaction was to tell him where he could go, but then she
thought better of it. In his current mood, he was liable to stuff her in the
trunk.

When he slid in beside her, he didn’t
say a word. He gripped the steering wheel and stared out the windshield for a
long time. Cassidy looked down at her clasped hands.

The silence stretched between them, and
when she almost couldn’t stand it anymore, he finally demanded, “Do you feel
good now that you’ve gotten your revenge?”

“I wasn’t getting revenge.”

“Yeah, you were, because there’s
absolutely no reason why my wife should be up in the VIP with a bunch of
professional athletes. You’re mad at me, so you put on your little fuck-him
dress and went clubbing.”

Cassidy turned to stare out the window.
“I refuse to talk to you when you use that kind of language with me.”

“You refuse to talk to me?” He laughed,
a rough, angry sound. “Good. I’d love the peace and quiet for a change.”

He started the car and took off with a
squeal of tires, the scent of burnt rubber filling the car. Neither spoke on
the ride home, and when they entered the house, Cassidy marched up the stairs
ahead of him. Steps behind her, Antonio shut the bedroom door hard.

Cassidy whirled on him. “Are you ready
to have a polite conversation now, because I don’t like it when my husband
speaks to me like he’s hanging out with the guys.”

Antonio’s jaw clenched, and he looked
ready to strangle her. “I don’t like it when my wife hangs out in the VIP with
a bunch of horny athletes—especially one who’s made it clear he wants to fuck
her.”

“I’m serious, Antonio. I’m not talking
to you if you use that kind of language with me.” She crossed her arms and
stared defiantly at him. He muttered an expletive in Spanish. “Spanish counts,
too. And what are you talking about, anyway?”

“I signed your buddy Isaiah to my agency
last week, and he basically told me he wanted to fu—sleep with you. At the
time, I didn’t know he was talking about you, and he didn’t know we were
married. So I became a little upset when I saw you sitting up under him,
giggling like he’s Richard Pryor reincarnated.”

“For the record, I wasn’t sitting up
under him. But at least now you know what I feel like when you’re off
networking at parties with all those loose women.”

“How is that the same thing?”

“How is it different?”

“I go to those events for business. You
were socializing with a man you have history with, and he wants to have sex
with you. Another difference between you and me is that you don’t trust me, but
I trust you. It’s
him
I don’t trust.”

“Well, I didn’t plan to be there. I
didn’t go there to meet Brick—or Isaiah, as you know him. Janice came to get me
because I was upset, and that’s how we ended up at Toxic.”

“You were upset because you thought
you’d caught me doing something wrong, and even though I explained about
Valentina and Emilio, you didn’t believe me.”

“Your explanation was very convenient.”

He threw up his hands. “No matter what I
do and what I say, you won’t stop. It’s as if you’re determined to sabotage our
marriage.”

Cassidy laughed bitterly. “The only one
sabotaging our marriage is you.”

Antonio fell silent, watching her in
disbelief. “Do you really believe I had an affair and had a child with another
woman?”

“It’s not that unbelievable. It happens
all the time—Jesse Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dan Marino, my father. If
what you’re saying is true, then Ernesto certainly did.”

“That’s right, not me, my brother, and
as you well know, he and his wife are getting a divorce.”

“And that makes it okay? It’s not okay
to run around having babies with women who you’re not married to. It’s not okay
to sneak around and ask people to keep secrets. How could you be a part of
that?”

“What choice did I have? He’s my
brother, Cass. I wasn’t going to betray him.”

“Then you’re a liar just like he is.”

He looked at her like he thought a
foreign entity had taken over her body. “What the hell is the matter with you?
My brother’s a good person. The situation is complicated. It’s not black-and-white.
I don’t condone what he did, but I happen to know he loves Valentina. Sometimes
people make the wrong choice, but that doesn’t mean they have to pay the
consequences for the rest of their lives.”

“Sometimes the consequences of lying and
keeping secrets last a lifetime,” Cassidy countered.

His brows knitted together. “What are we
talking about?”

“We’re talking about the importance of
trust and truth—especially in a marriage.”

Antonio shook his head, dropping his
head back to look up at the ceiling. When he made eye contact with her again,
his eyes were bleak. “You’ve never trusted me. Never.” He crossed the room to
her. “Tell me something. Why’d you marry me?”

“What kind of question is that?”

“I thought about it on the way here, and
I can’t figure it out. You agreed to marry me, but only after I asked you three
times.” He held up his fingers. “Maybe I didn’t want to see it before, but you
didn’t want to marry me, did you?”

“Of course I wanted to marry you. It-It
was a difficult decision to make.”

“Why? Because you think I’m such a low-life
piece of scum?”

“I don’t think you’re scum.”

“Because I’m such a piece of shit that I
can’t control myself, and every woman who smiles at me or propositions me I
have to nail?”

“Stop it,” Cassidy whispered.

“What’s the matter? You don’t want to
hear the truth about the man you married? Why deny it anymore? I’m no good,
Cass. I’m sleeping with my staff publicist, Ronetta. She bribed me with
brownies, and I couldn’t resist. Oh, and Lucinda, too. She’s as efficient in
the sack as she is in the office.”

“You’re being a jerk.”

“I’m telling you what you want to hear.
It’s no big deal because you’ve known all along, right? Your gut is always
right. In Miami, I had a woman staying in the hotel with me. Man, she gives
great blow jobs.”

“I’m not listening to you anymore.”
Cassidy moved past him, but he took her arm and forced her around to face him.

“You’re going to listen to everything I
have to say.” He glowered down at her. “The reason I didn’t tell you about my
brother is because it was none of your business. The reason I helped him is
because he’s my brother, and I won’t apologize for it.”

“Now that you’ve made your point, let go
of me.” She jerked her arm, but he only tightened his hold on her.

“He should have married Valentina in the
first place, but he didn’t. He married a woman who threw herself at him
constantly, and his judgment became clouded, but he didn’t love her. What he
did was wrong, but he’s been unhappy for a long time. He married the wrong
woman, and when the marriage went sour, he turned to Valentina—as a friend
only, but they became lovers. It wasn’t planned, but it happened. She broke off
the affair and told him she couldn’t see him anymore unless he was free. She
cut all contact with him. The affair was short, but it made Ernesto realize
that he wanted her, and he eventually filed for divorce.

“In the meantime, Valentina finds out
she’s pregnant but doesn’t say anything because she doesn’t know he’s filed for
divorce. You know how he found out he has a son? I ran into her while I was in
New York and saw her with Emilio. She tried to deny it at first, but as soon as
I saw him, I knew he was Ernesto’s. He looks exactly like my brother—like all
of us. Especially around the eyes.”

Cassidy had noted the same thing. All
the Vega children had their father’s brown eyes and thick, long lashes.

“She begged me not to say anything, and
I told her I couldn’t do that to my brother,” Antonio continued. “That was his
son, my nephew, my parents’ first grandchild. How could I walk away and pretend
like I’d never seen them? Of course I told him, and they started communicating
again. I was the go-between, and I’d do it again. A week before the divorce was
supposed to be final, I flew them down and set them up at the hotel, but the
proceedings didn’t go according to plan. We didn’t anticipate how vindictive
Ernesto’s wife would be.

“There have been delays after delays
because of her demands. She’s not happy about giving up her lifestyle and the
prestige of being the wife of a professional athlete. Their divorce should have
been final months ago, and Valentina’s been waiting while Ernesto gives his
wife just about everything she asks for but his kidney so he can be free to be
with his son and the woman he loves. Nobody knows about Valentina and
Emilio—not my parents, not my brother in California, not Lorena—no one. We’ve
been extremely careful.

“We didn’t plan on having to keep the
secret this long, but we couldn’t risk the word getting out while he’s in the
middle of a divorce. He knows his squeaky-clean image will take a hit once the
divorce is final and the press finds out about Emilio, but at least by then,
he’ll be a free man and able to raise his child with the woman he loves.

“Now you know everything, Cassidy. Are
you happy? Does it make you feel better that I had to betray my brother’s trust
to gain yours?”

He dropped her arm and wheeled away,
disgust etched in his features. She’d never seen him like this before, and it
landed a devastating blow to her spirit.

Absentmindedly, she rubbed the spot on
her arm he’d held on to so tightly. “I’m sorry,” she said meekly.

“I wish I could believe you, but I know
tomorrow you’ll find something else to be suspicious about. I’m tired of it.”

Her heartbeat hammered her chest. “What
do you mean?” The squeaky sound of her voice betrayed the rush of fear that
overcame her.

Hurt-filled eyes fixed on her when he
faced her again. “How do you think it makes me feel to know my wife doesn’t
trust me?” She reached for him, and he pulled back. “Don’t.”

She flinched from his rejection. He’d
never pulled away from her before. Not once. Not ever. No matter how upset he
was. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she said, “I do trust you.”

“No, you don’t. It’s always something. I
couldn’t get to the hospital to see Roarke and Celeste’s new baby, so you
automatically assumed that I lied about having to meet a client. I check in
with you all the time. I text you when I’ll be late. You know everywhere I’ll
be at almost every minute of the day, and it’s still not enough. I—”

At the break in his tirade, she lifted
her downcast eyes. He was frowning at her, a light of suspicion in the depths
of his. “Earlier tonight I couldn’t figure something out. I want you to answer
a question. How did you know I was at the hospital?”

Cassidy remained silent, choosing not to
incriminate herself. Apprehension, like an acid, burned in her stomach.

When she didn’t answer, Antonio
rephrased the question. “How did you know where to find me?”

Chapter Twelve

“Wait a minute.” Antonio spoke more to
himself than to her. He fished his smartphone out of his pocket and watched her
bite her lip, a sure sign of guilt. He looked at the phone and then at her
again. “My phone, Cassidy? You bugged my phone because you didn’t trust me?”

“Antonio—”

“How did you . . . ?” He floundered,
flabbergasted she’d gone to such lengths.

“Last week,” she answered in a soft
voice.

“When you came to my office?”

She nodded.

“You’ve been keeping track of me and my
conversations all week?”

“I didn’t activate the software after I
downloaded it,” she said hastily, as if that made what she’d done acceptable.
“After you asked me to remove the software from your computer, I did, but I-I
didn’t mention the one I’d saved to your phone. I swear I only activated it
tonight because you ran off and I didn’t know where you’d gone. I didn’t know
what to do.”

“The software has a GPS component?” When
she nodded, Antonio almost crushed the phone in his hand. “Unbelievable. That’s
how you found me. I told you I’d explain everything when I came back.”

“You have to understand, I needed to
know. You were acting strange.”

He used the device to point at her. “I’m
not the one acting strange. You are. This isn’t normal. Because of the scene
you made, the entire country almost found out about my brother’s affair days
before he gained his freedom. You could have jeopardized the divorce with the
stunt you pulled at the hospital.” Tears pooled in her eyes, but he refused to
cave like he always did. This time she couldn’t soften him with trembling lips
or ardent apologies. “You went too far this time.”