His Paris Affair (The Albury Affairs) (15 page)

Ruiz paced, his temper rising with each step. “How do you
know it’s not money for the hotel?”

Sadly Jon Luc shook his head. “That’s what the banks believe
too, but you’ve seen the state of this place. That money isn’t being used
here.”

“Damn it!” Ruiz punched the desk when he stopped to face Jon
Luc. “And Melody has no idea this has been going on under her nose?”

“I doubt it.” Ruiz cursed again, going back to his pacing.

“But Cheri the former concierge does and I’m sure she knows
something more about Antonio and his illegal operation if not all of it.”

Ruiz stopped midstride and turned back to Jon Luc. “What do
you mean?”

Jon Luc’s lips split in a wolfish grin. “She found me at my
favorite bar last night, and put all her moves on me. First, I thought it was
because she wanted her job back, but as the night went on and the closer her
breasts got to my face, I realized she was trying to pump me for information.”

“What kind of information?” he gnashed out.

“The kind that’s in the flash drive.”

“Then what?” Ruiz demanded impatiently. Why couldn’t Jon Luc
talk without prompting?

“I asked her how she knew about the flash drive.”

Ruiz growled. “What is this? Story time! Spit it all out
already!”

Jon Luc chuckled. “She offered herself for the night in
exchange for the information. I took her offer, made great use of one of your
rooms here then I gave her some helpful information: to never try something as
stupid as that again or I’d have her arrested.”

Ruiz sighed feeling a tad bit relaxed. “How could they have
known?”

“You think Melody would have told Antonio? She was present
when I gave you the drive?”

Ruiz shook his head vehemently. “She wouldn’t do that. I
can’t believe she didn’t notice what that rat was doing!” he half yelled
slapping his hands flat on the top of the desk.

“From what I hear she spent her time isolated in the
manager’s house. She was rarely seen until—”

Jon Luc stopped and quickly averted his eyes when Ruiz
looked at him. Straightening himself slowly like cat ready to pounce he
approached at an unhurried gait until he stood before Jon Luc and his temper
was now flaring red hot.

“Until what?” he gnashed out, sounding out each word.

Jon Luc looked at him dead in the eye and said, “Until she
left for the hospital and came back with a nanny and a baby in her arms.”

Ruiz felt the floor fall right from under him. He stumbled
backwards and fell against the desk his ears buzzing, his eyes clouding over.
He felt sick to his stomach and his entire body shook like he was suffering
from a fever.

“Your wife had a baby with Antonio Otorin.”

* * * *

Melody was moments away from throwing the case out the
widow. They were back in the manager’s house and had been locked in her room
for hours trying different combinations to open the briefcase to no avail.

“Are you sure we can’t pry it open with a knife?” she
whined.

“Of course we can. Then we can take it back with a broken
lock and hope he never notices,” Jackie replied sarcastically and Melody glared
at her. “If we do that there would be no way of taking it back because he would
know it was you.”

She was right, but. . .
 
“We could always buy a new one and replace it.”

A condescending brow went up. “Of course, let’s do that.
He’ll be less suspicious when he finds it open or when he tries to open it and
his combination doesn’t work. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Melody groaned tossing herself on the bed. “What could that
toad possibly have as a code, we’ve tried everything?”

“If you knew more about him before you illegally married him
maybe we would have more to go on.”

Melody pushed herself up on her elbows and glared at Jackie
as she walked around the room rocking Esme to sleep.

“Ha ha. We already know that joke isn’t funny.” She groaned
again falling onto the bed, “The only numbers that seem significant to him was
the date he had circled on the calendar a few months back. He went on a
drinking binj then…” Melody shot up excitedly. “Nanny, you don’t think it could
be that obvious?”

She shrugged. “We won’t know till you try it.”

Melody was at the door in seconds. She unlocked it and ran
into the living room. She hadn’t bothered to change the calendar in a while and
hoped it was still there and Antonio hadn’t torn that leaf out. It was still
there. She ran to the wall where it hung and the first thing she checked was
the year just in case someone had change it.

“Yes!” It was last year’s calendar. She pulled it down in
the process ripping the leaves out of the spiral, some falling to the floor.
She followed them to the ground and began pushing the leaves apart until she
spotted the one with the large red markings. She held it up like a trophy and
cheered. “Jackie! I found it! August twentieth!”

She ran back into the room and tried the numbers but the
code was two digits short.

“Go back from this year till it opens,” Jackie offered,
quickly placing Esme in her crib before she joined Melody on the bed.

They went back four years before it popped open.

“Yes!” they cheered as they excitedly pulled the papers out.
Something caught Melody’s eye. She picked it up and was about to read t when
Jackie pulled it out of her hand.

“
Non
, You’ll read
it later. Make copies first, put the briefcase back where you found it then
we’ll go through what we found. I’m just as excited we are finally going to
reveal that man for what he is, but we can’t get careless especially if he’s as
dangerous as I think he is.”

“Fine,” Melody relented. She gathered up the papers and went
to the room next to hers that was the home office for the manager with all the
necessary equipment. She made all the copies careful to set them apart and not
mix the originals and the copies. When she was done, she replaced the originals
in the briefcase and locked it.

“Here,” Jackie handed her one of Esme’s baby bags. “Put the
case in here, you don’t want to be spotted with it. My niece is gone so I can’t
come with you.”

Melody chuckled remembering how Jackie had stuffed it under
her sweater on their way down. Melody had to walk in front of her the entire
way to hide the rectangular bulge.

“Alright.” She stuffed it into the bag and walked to the
door. She was a little nervous. Going back up alone with no backup frightened
her. She just hoped Antonio was already out of his room. “Wish me luck.” She
said as she walked out.

“Good luck.” Jackie called after her.

* * * *

Ruiz pushed himself away from the desk, forcing his legs to
remain steady under him as he walked to the door.

“Ruiz, where are you going?” Jon Luc called after him.

He swallowed to clear his throat of the growing lump of
emotion. “I need to see. I need to see the betrayal for myself,” he yelled in a
shaky voice.

Jon Luc grabbed his arm and Ruiz roughly pulled it out of
his hold. “She’s a little baby Ruiz, not a betrayal,” he said the words slowly
like he was hoping it would sink in faster that way. And it did making Ruiz
even madder.

“Melody is mine, she belongs to me! She is mine! She’s
supposed to have my babies, mine!” he bellowed banging his fist on his chest.

Jon Luc lifted his hands as if he was trying to calm an
agitated horse. “Ruiz,
mon ami
you
need to calm down.”

The last thing he wanted was to calm down. He wanted
answers. “No! I don’t want to calm down. I want to know why she lied to me, why
she said she hadn’t fucked him. They don’t even share a bed!”

“Did she tell you that or did you assume so?”

“What?”

“She may have told you they don’t share a bed, but has she
ever said she never slept with him?”

The blood in Ruiz’s body chilled. Jon Luc was right. He was
the one who said that, misconstrued what she meant when she said she hadn’t had
sex in a while. He was the one who spoke the entire times she never said a
thing about that subject.

Ruiz felt his heart shatter, the back of his throat burned
like he’d just swallowed hot coal.

“I need to see.” The words barely made it out of his coarse
throat. His wife, his woman had bore another man a child. “I need to see,” he
declared racing out the door.

It wasn’t that far to the manager’s house from where he was.
At a dead run he was there in a matter of seconds. He burst through the door
and found the little living room empty until a woman who looked to be in her
late sixties stepped out of a room yelling in French. She froze when she saw
him, recognition filling her eyes. She knew who he was.

“Where is she?” he demanded.

“M—Melody isn’t here,
monsieur.
”

“Not her. The baby, where is she,” he pushed through
clenched teeth. It hurt just saying the word and that angered him even more.

She threw her shoulders back ad tilted her chin up. “
Je suis désolé
, but I can’t allow that without Melody’s
permission. If you would take a sit and wait…”

“Do I look like I want to take a fucking seat and wait!”
Ruiz growled.

“Ruiz!” Jon Luc admonished. “
Excusez-nous madame
. We did not mean to barge in and—”

“You, may not have, but I certainly did. Is she in there?”
he demanded pointing to the room she’d just emerged from.

Her eyes fearfully darted between him and the open door.
“Ruiz, wait a minute,” she began but he didn’t wait to hear the rest.

He moved past her and into the room. Everything was pink,
even the bed covers on the big bed. And right against the wall opposite the bed
was a crib. He marched to it stopping dead when her face came into view. She
had a head full of dark hair that curled at the ends. Her one visible cheek was
chubby with a blotch of pink blush. The blotch stretched and shrunk and he
could guess that she was suckling her tongue. He moved a step closer and
grinned at her pink fish lips. She was beautiful a perfect angel. Her fist
clenched and unclenched and she began to move her head around like she was
about to wake up.

“
Angelita preciosa
,” he whispered in
complete awe. Instinct told him to pick her up, to hold her to his chest and
rock her back to sleep—but first he had to feed her. He reached into the crib,
ready to pick her up when the sound of his name made him stop.

“Ruiz, I can explain.”

The rage slammed back into him. His hands that a second ago
were open and itching to cradle the precious baby, slowly clenched into tight
fist. He straightened slowly and turned to face Melody. She was crying, tears
flowing like floods down her cheeks as she nervously knitted her fingers
together. “Ruiz,” she cried on a hiccup.

That’s all it took. The sound of his name on her lying lips.
He charged at her grabbed her arms, lifted her up until they were eye to eye
and pinned her to the wall. “Why?” he demanded, his heart breaking a little
more. Seeing that beautiful angel and know she wasn’t his killed him. He could
barely breathe past the pain crushing his chest. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She shook her head, crying harder. “I’m sorry!”

The last thing he wanted was her apology. “How could you do
this to me? How could you have a child with another man?”

“You don’t understand!”

He shook her. “Understand what? That you slept with another
man? That you had his baby? I waited for you! I didn’t touch another woman and
it wasn’t because I never had the chance. We were married and I respected my
vows! I stayed faithful!”

She shook her head. “Ruiz—”

He shook her again. “Did you or did you not fuck him!”

“Ruiz, please.”

“Answer the fucking question!” he yelled.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean too. I was drunk—”

His ears began to buzz and he didn’t hear what she said
after. It was a severe blow to the gut. He wanted to hit something, to throw
her
across the room.

“Ruiz, you’re hurting me!”

She said the words but they didn’t register in his mind,
neither did the cries of the baby.

“Ruiz!” Someone shoved at his shoulder and all it did was
tighten his grip and pull Melody away from the wall before he slammed her back
against it. She cried out and he immediately released her. She fell onto her
feet, pressed herself against the wall and stared up at him with fear in her
eyes. That only made him madder. He screamed his rage, punching the wall right
above her head before he stomped out of the room.

“Ruiz wait!” she screamed grabbing his arm and hanging onto
it. She pulled at him, trying to stop him but he only dragged her with him. “I
need to tell you something Ruiz. Please stop.”

He stopped, spinning around so fast she stumbled back. Jon
Luc caught her by the shoulders and steadied her.

“No, I’m done. I’m done living in a fantasy. I’m done
expecting my life to have a happily ever after when it’s clearly isn’t supposed
to. I’m done getting screwed over because I left myself open and vulnerable.
I’m done! I’m going back to how I lived my life before, single and with very
little complications. Why the hell did I think I could do this marriage thing?”

Melody’s face was stricken by his words but he didn’t allow
himself to care.

“Wait, you don’t mean that!” she cried.

“The hell I don’t!” he bellowed, “You married another man
and had his baby. Consider this a favor. I’ll divorce you instead of having you
arrested for bigamy and you can have your little happy family.” With that said,
he turned around and fled, his own words burning a hole in his chest. He half
ran to his suite and when he got there, he bumped into Cheri at the open door.

“
Monsieur
Ruiz! I was just—”