Infiltrating Your Heart (34 page)

“Hard to believe, but no. Somehow, we
never had an opportunity. We were a busy couple, both in college and after it.”

We don’t talk for the rest of the
shower. After we finish, we dress and then head to the living room.

“Do you want me to take you home?” I
ask. Mercedes thinks about it.

“I’d like to stay, if you don’t
mind.”

Heck, I’d love that.

“I certainly don’t mind.”

Mercedes gives me a quick kiss.

“I need to talk to my father first.
Make sure he’s going to be okay.”

“Sure,” I say, and Mercedes sits on
the sofa. She pulls her smartphone from her purse and calls her father.

A minute later, there’s a knock on
the door. I’m not expecting anyone, but I go and answer it.

“Good afternoon, Gabriel,” a guy says
coldly. I raise my eyebrows when I see who it is.

“Blake,” I reply. I guess I should
have expected a visit like this. Blake Carroll is Evelyn’s older brother. I
know that he’s a chef in LA. That makes me wonder if he truly came all the way
over here just for what I think he did.

“May I come in?” he asks.

“You’re welcome,” I tell him. Blake
grunts and then steps inside. He looks at Mercedes. She stares back at him in
confusion.

“So this is the slut you swapped my
sister for.”

I narrow my eyes in warning.

“Blake, watch how you’re talking to
her.”

“She definitely looks like a spoiled
rich girl.”

“Who is this ruffian?” Mercedes asks,
standing up.

“Blake Carroll. Evelyn’s brother.”

“Yeah. And I can’t believe you’re
still able to say her name with a straight face.”

“Why would I do otherwise?” I retort.

“I don’t know why Evelyn let you off
the hook without a fight. You’ve been together for almost four years, Gabriel.
And just now, when you almost become engaged, you throw in the towel. Some
timing you’ve got.”

“If you talked to Evelyn, she must
have explained everything to you.”

“She did, all right. That’s why I
can’t believe she’s so cool about it.”

“Evelyn understood that I didn’t love
her. Wouldn’t you be more pissed off if I married her without love?”

“Don’t give me shit, Gabriel. You
couldn’t possibly have fallen in love with some woman overnight.”

“What Gabriel and I have is love, Mr.
Carroll,” Mercedes says. She walks to stand next to me. I feel her put her arms
around me. “Please respect us.”

“No, respect Evelyn. She may not show
it, but I know she’s wounded inside. It’s all because of you.”

“The heart can’t be commanded, Blake.
I didn’t decide to fall in love with Mercedes. It just happened.”

Blake looks Mercedes up and down,
scowling.

“You clearly don’t see what I see.
She has ‘slut’ written all over her, Gabriel.”

“Respect, Blake!”

“Evelyn is beautiful,
and
she’s
also educated and has way more class.”

“That is enough!” Mercedes snaps. “If
you’re done with your tantrum here, please get out.”

Blake looks at Mercedes with arched
eyebrows. She stares back with a similar expression, her hands on her waist.
There’s fire in her eyes as well.

“You should leave, Blake. Come back
when you have a cool head,” I say. He looks at me.

“Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn
you, Gabriel. You lost a great woman, and you ain’t getting her back.”

Blake turns to leave. He takes a few
steps, and then halts. He looks at us over his shoulder.

“My father hasn’t taken kindly to
your breaking up with Evelyn, either. So keep this in mind: you’re not welcome
at the Carroll house or at the cruise company premises anymore.”

With that, Blake storms out. I look
at Mercedes. She seems close to tears.

“I’m sorry, baby,” I tell Mercedes,
embracing her. “I wish you hadn’t heard what that bastard said.”

“I’m
fine,” Mercedes says. She walks back to the sofa and sits down. After grabbing
the remote, she turns the TV on. I’ve never seen Mercedes pissed off. Sadly, I
don’t know her well enough to know how to thaw her out. I decide to let her be
for a moment.

The next morning, I wake up next to
Mercedes. Her back is to me. I’ve got my arms around her.

Mercedes thawed out a little as the
afternoon passed. We had fun watching romantic movies on Netflix. She even
seemed to forget Blake’s insults. I did my part to salvage the rest of the day,
too. I cooked her a dinner so good it could put a Cheshire smile on even Walt Kowalski.

I surreptitiously take in Mercedes’s
scent. I love waking up like this, skin to skin with Mercedes. When she told me
she usually sleeps naked, I found that very hot.

Something tells me Mercedes is awake.
I can tell.

“Morning, angel.”

Mercedes takes a sudden breath. I
plant a kiss on her shoulder.

“I know that you’re awake.”

I put my arm away so Mercedes can
move. She turns on the bed to face me.

“Damn, you look adorable.”

“Oh, don’t look at me, please,” she
groans. “I must look like a mess.”

“You look cute, Mercedes. I want to
wake up next to you every day. I want your skin to be the last thing I feel
when I sleep, and the first thing I feel when I wake up.”

Mercedes looks at me with wonder. I
can guess what she’s thinking. She must be imagining how much I love her. I
doubt I’d ever be able to let her go.

“Would you like some coffee?” I ask.
“I have to get up to go to work.”

“Oh…okay. I’ll join you in the
kitchen.”

“When is your class?”

“Shane said that I should show up at
ten.”

“Good. Then you have over two hours.”

I stand
up from the bed. Right now, I’m just wearing a pair of boxers. Mercedes watches
me walk out of the room. She looks beautiful, without effort.

Before I get to my office, I see Luke
just outside the corridor that leads to the gym’s offices. It looks like he’s
been waiting for me.

“Morning, Luke,” I say. We shake
hands.

“Good morning, Gabriel. I wanted to
let you know something.”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to leave you in charge of
the gym. Today, I’ll be at the south gym managing things.”

“I see. Don’t worry, Luke. I’ll take
care of things.”

“Thanks. See you, and have a good
day.”

“You, too,” I tell Luke. He turns and
walks away. I go to my office. Luke did tell me earlier that with my new
position, he’d be spending more time at the south gym. Now I’ll be the one in
charge of the north gym.

To help with my increased duties,
I’ve just hired a secretary. Luke has one, so I felt I could use one too. She’s
sitting on a small desk just outside my office. There’s more than plenty of
space for her there.

“Good morning, Audrey,” I greet. She
looks up from her computer.

“Thanks, Mr. O’Hara,” she says.

“What’s on the agenda today?”

Audrey
pulls up today’s schedule on her computer. She tells me today’s tasks, and I
nod. Then I walk to my office. There’s plenty to do.

~*~
Mercedes

Even with Gabriel’s attempts to make
me feel better, I still feel like trash. I’m pissed off with Evelyn’s snide
bastard of a brother, but at least I see the truth now. He was partially right.
I’m a slut.

I can’t help feeling bad that I stole
Gabriel’s heart. I’ve been so lovesick lately that I didn’t even stop to see if
I was good enough for him. I’m not sure that I am. Next to Evelyn, I’m hardly
much. Hell, I let men ogle and flaunt me for a living. Worse, I enjoy it.
Gabriel deserves to date someone better.

You’re not Scarlet Quinn
, a voice in my head says.
You’re
Mercedes Roberts, a good woman.

It’s all I can do to bottle my anger
before showing up for my first karate class. When I studied aikido, I learned
that rage may make you strong, but it also makes you more likely to make a fool
of yourself.

Shane greets me when I arrive at the
studio.

“Good morning, Ms. Roberts.”

“Good morning, sir.”

“I hope you have a great first day of
class.”

“Me, too.”

Shane nods to his assistant, a black
belt. He seems to be about Patrick’s age.

“Follow me, ma’am.”

Oh, great. I look like I could still
be in high school, and this dude calls me “ma’am”?

Sighing, I follow the black belt. He
leads me to a room where other new students are waiting. I count around a
dozen. There are likely more of them coming.

I sit down against the wall, like
some of the students are doing. Like them, I’m already in my uniform. I have a
white belt, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.

A couple of students my age are
sitting to my right. They look at me and decide to break the ice.

“Hi,” the guy says, and I turn to
him. “New here?”

“Yeah,” I say with a nod. I
surreptitiously check out their belts: the guy has orange and the girl has
green.

“Hey, we’re all nervous our first
time,” the girl says. “But we’re friendly. My name’s Kylie, by the way.”

“And I’m Sergio,” the guy says.

“I’m Mercedes.”

“Nice to meet you,” they both say. I
already feel more at ease here. Camaraderie’s always welcome.

“How fast do you rank up?” I ask. “I
feel odd, being over twenty and having a white belt.”

The girl—Kylie—laughs softly.

“It’s all right. Both of us were the
same, too. White belts at twenty-one,” Kylie says. “We’d just never had money
for this until then.”

Funny. I certainly could afford
martial arts lessons at nineteen. Why did it never occur to me to sign up?

Ten minutes later, everyone’s
arrived. Shane walks into the room with a woman a little younger than him. Like
the rest of us, they’re wearing a karate uniform.

“Good morning, everyone. It’s time
for class to start, so if anyone’s late, they’ll have to catch up. We do not
slow down for those who aren’t here on time.”

I look around the room. There are now
eighteen of us, not counting Shane and his companion.

Shane makes a short speech, and then
he has us introduce ourselves. I’m not a shy person, so I’m at ease talking
about myself.

After that, we begin.

Gabriel

After getting out of work, I call
Mercedes. I plan to drive to her apartment, so I want to let her know.

The other line keeps ringing. A few
seconds later, I get a recorded message.

“Hi, this is Mercedes. Leave me your
name and your message at the beep.”

I hang up without leaving a message.
I wonder why Mercedes isn’t answering.

“Where could she be?” I mutter to
myself. I look at the time. It’s five twelve. Right now, Mercedes is most
likely looking for a job. It’s Monday, after all, and she’s got her degree.
Yeah, maybe that’s what she’s doing.

Guess I’m driving to my apartment
instead. I start my car and then drive away.

I’m sort of distracted while I walk
along the corridor to my apartment. So I do a double-take when I see a manila
envelope just outside my door.

Who could have left this?

I crouch down and pick up the
envelope. After looking to both sides of the corridor, I unlock my apartment
and walk inside.

I’m a little more relaxed as I sit
down on my sofa. Maybe Audrey came looking for me and didn’t find me, so she
left this.

I open the envelope and spill its
contents into my hand. My eyes look at a full-color photo. I blanch when I
realize who is in it.