Loving a Bad Boy (48 page)

Julio peered at him. “I see her in you. You
have the same eyes, nose. I’m so fucking happy you wear a hoodie
and nobody knows who the hell you are. It’ll make keeping her safe
easier.” He slapped his thigh and looked out the window. “Damn,
she’s not going to like this,” he whispered.

“
Yet you feel the need to
tell her?”

Julio glanced at his future in-law. “There
will be things I will never discuss with her. But family and
friends don’t fall in that category. When I ask her to marry me,
she will know everything. I won’t lie to her.”

Her father nodded. “It’s the same wit her
mother and I. She accepted me early on, didn’t like it, but she
loved me. I would do anything for her. Even deny my only daughter.
It was a tough decision to make, but I honored my wife’s wishes.
She wanted to be dead to the world in order to continue living. At
the time, I honored my wife’s request and broke my little girl’s
heart. It wasn’t a hard choice either; my wife will always come
first. At the time, we didn’t factor her growing up and becoming as
stubborn as her mama.”

Julio smiled. Pam could be stubborn when she
believed in something. “It never occurred to me that someone rigged
the death certificate. I thought I’d be coming back and Pam’d tell
me her mom had died years ago.”

“
You did a background
check on her?”

His skin warmed. “Yeah, when I first met
her.

Burrows chuckled. “I’m not on Exuma,” he
said citing another lie on the report.

Julio tugged his ear. “No. You’re not.”

“
My daughter thinks she’s
in love wit you.”

“
She is in love with me,”
Julio countered.

“
How can she love a man
she doesn’t know? Be honest, the reason you have not told her
everyt’ing is because you are afraid she will not like the real
you.”

The reasonableness of the older man’s tone
grated on Julio’s nerves, but he didn’t discount the truth of the
words. He was afraid Pam would reject him when she discovered the
amount of blood on his hands.

“
Perhaps, but we will work
it out. She knows me, just not everything. Did you tell your wife
everything before she fell in love with you or after?” Julio
challenged.

“
Touché’,” he said leaning
back in the chair. “I waited until I saw her love for me reflected
in her eyes. She was pregnant with my daughter at the time. Her
father didn’t want her to marry me, he thought she could do better.
But she loved me and that never changed.”

He leaned in Julio’s direction as though he
would share a secret. Sweat rolled down Julio’s side as he caught
the steely glint in the older man’s eyes.

“
You are lucky. The women
in my wife’s family love hard and long. Chances are Pam will adapt
and stay with you. But you cannot hide what you do. Don’t be an ass
and tell her shit that’ll get her in trouble. Just enough so she
won’t worry too much.” He paused. “Most important.” Burrows held up
a finger.

He remained quiet for a moment as he
searched Julio’s rapidly heating face. “Love her with everything in
you. No matter what happens on the outside, inside she must become
your world. A place of homecoming. There is nothing I will not do
for my wife. Nothing. I honor her above all, as it should be. The
sun never sets without me talking to her at least twice. This gives
her comfort.”

“
There may be times when I
can’t—”

Burrows hand slapped the arm of the chair.
“Make time or don’t marry her.” He pointed at Julio. “She will
always be concerned, but you must minimize her fear of life without
you. Only you can do that.”

Could he have sent word to Pam at the height
of his negotiations? Yes. He could’ve sent a text. They’d talked
every day until her phone died. This was definitely something he’d
offer in appeasement for the difficulty of his job.

“
Thanks.” He paused,
unsure how to assure her father that he was worthy of his daughter.
In the world they lived in, there were a few things that were
paramount. “I’ve reinstated my grandfather’s edict that no one
messes with my family under penalty of death. Francisco thinks I
can make a safe world for my wife. I promise I’ll do everything in
my power to keep Pam happy and protected. You have my word on
that.” He extended his hand.

Burrows took it and they shook. “Good to
know. You’re not as bad as some. From what I discovered, you’re
unstoppable when someone messes with anybody you consider yours.”
Burrows paused. “That’s a good thing. Just because I love my wife
more than life, doesn’t mean I don’t love my daughter. Knowing you
won’t let anyone hurt her goes a long way in my book. I’ll add a
layer of over that for whenever she comes to visit.”

The idea of Pam in the Bahamas visiting her
father without him, didn’t sit well. “She plans to stay with her
mom until things play out. Then she comes with me. Anything else,
she and I’ll work out.” He didn’t want to commit to anything
more.

Ghost had eyes and ears everywhere, chances
are he’d be sending Julio a warning if anyone got too close to his
daughter or grandkids.

Burrows stood and looked down at him. “Tell
Francisco it looks like things might be changing how we do business
and that I look forward to it.” He walked off.

It took a few minutes for the coils of
anxiety to unwind in his chest and belly. Then reality slammed into
him, Ghost was Pam’s father and he had given his blessings for them
to get married. A giddy feeling washed over him as his face morphed
into a real smile.

Pam was rolling over when she heard the door
click closed. She strained to make out the outline heading toward
her. “Julio,” she said softly, as happiness swept through her.

“
Hi babe,” he called out,
while stripping out of his shirt. She feasted on the hard planes of
his smooth chest and ripped stomach. The man was fine. Her eyes
followed his hands as they unsnapped his pants. “I need to talk to
you about something.”

That stopped the lustful thoughts in their
tracks. “Yeah?” Another thought hit her. “Where’ve you been?”

His fingertip tapped her nose as he sent her
a naughty grin. “I just had a you-sleeping-wit-me-daughter talk
with your old man.”

She jerked up. Heart racing, she struggled
to speak around the ball of panic playing havoc in her belly.
“Whaaat?”

He eased in beside her. Reading his face,
she tried to determine the amount of damage her obstinate father
had caused.

Warm lips brushed against her forehead.

She blinked.

“
Relax.” He whispered.
“You know he had to talk to me after spending hours in your
bedroom. Your screams probably kept him awake,” he teased with a
playful twinkle in his eye.

“
Oh my God,” she said as
her face heated. Ducking beneath his chin, her mind replayed their
blissful hours together. She had been loud. At the time she’d been
into how good he felt inside and all over her, she’d forgotten
where she was. “Did he come here?” she mumbled.

“
Um hmm.” He pulled a few
strands away from her face and placed a kiss near her
ear.

She giggled. Contentment warmed her in his
arms.

“
I left you a note and
then we talked for the last twenty, thirty minutes I
guess.”

Thirty
minutes
? “What’d you talk about that
long?” Had her dad shared more information about her mom and the
disease? Did Julio know it passed through the genes? Although she’d
been tested when she was younger, she wouldn’t even think about a
future family until she was tested again. Her heart dropped at what
that meant to their budding relationship.

“
He wanted to know if I
planned to marry you.” His matter-of-fact tone threw her. It took
an extra second for his words to penetrate.

“
Marry me?” she gulped.
This was happening too soon. She needed to be tested for
Huntington’s first.

“
Yeah…hey, are you okay?”
Frowning, he pulled her away from him. “You’re shaking.” He pulled
her close and rubbed her back. “Is the idea of marrying me that
bad?”

Her heart broke at the hurt in his voice.
She had to be honest with him, even if he left her for good.

Swallowing down her fear, she kissed his
chest. Determined to be strong, she looked up at him and cleared
her throat. “Mama has Huntington’s. It’s a horrible disease with no
cure and it’s killing her. It’s also genetic.” The blank look on
his face clued her in that he still didn’t get it.

“
Daddy said they tested me
for it when I was younger. I came up clean. But I want to do
another test when I go home.”

His frown deepened as she talked. “So what
you’re saying is you could’ve inherited your mama’s disease?”

Relieved he understood, yet frightened of
the consequences, she nodded. “Yeah. I won’t have any children if I
have Huntington’s, period. It’s not a good thing to pass on.
So…that’s kinda why I freaked when you talked about marriage.” His
arms tightened around her as she returned her head to his
chest.

“
You’re worried?” he
asked.

“
Yeah. I mean, I’ve always
wanted kids. But…it’s not worth it, the quality of life, the
debilitation. The best thing I could do for my kid is
not
pass on the
gene.”

“
Whoa, you don’t even know
if you have it yet. You said you’ve already tested for it and
didn’t have it then. What makes you think it’s changed? Can it do
that?”

Everything she’d read up on the disease said
no, and she’d done a whole lot of research since she’d been here.
But there was a niggle of doubt nestled deep in her heart that
demanded she be absolutely sure before she did anything else.

“
No, not really,” she
finally answered. “I just want to be sure.”

He dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “I
hear you. And do that if it makes you feel better. But understand
this, I love you regardless. Gene or no gene, I still want to spend
my life with you. Got that?” Grabbing her hair, he pulled her back
as he finished the last of his sentence.

Heart full, she couldn’t speak after his
proclamation. She nodded as a tear trekked down her face, closed
her eyes and accepted the kisses he placed all over her face.
Seeing her mother’s degeneration scarred her in ways she hadn’t
comprehended. The blow to her earlier memories of the young,
vibrant woman her mother had been was hard to swallow. The
knowledge that this could be her in a few years crippled her with
debilitating fear.

If Julio hadn’t come for her, without a
doubt, she would’ve remained on the island in seclusion, almost as
penance for something she couldn’t quite define. Now there was a
glimmer of hope for a full and happy life.

“
Good. Now there’s some
things I need to tell you.” He sat up and leaned against the wood
headboard. “Come here, I like holding you.”

Curious as to why he chose to sit rather
than lay down, she remained silent as she scooted up in his waiting
arms.

“
Better?”

“
Yeah,” she said,
listening to the fast beat of his heart.

“
First off, I need to
apologize.”

She twisted and looked up at him.
“Apologize? What for?”

“
I never fully explained
what I did for a living. That’s something you need to know before
we get married.”

She relaxed. He still planned to marry her,
which was all that mattered. “Okay. What do you do in your job?”
She offered him a half-smile, remembering all the times she thought
he’d worked as an undercover cop, or agent, or even the time she
thought he was in the mafia. None of those would surprise her.

“
I work for a large
organization in South America. It’s a cartel, and is involved in a
lot of stuff. But what I handle, or have been handling primarily
the past three years, is strategizing and implementation. I oversee
negotiations, implementation of contracts, and in some cases,
correct problems.”

During his recital, Pam
had moved a slight distance so she could see him clearly. Thinking
it and hearing him say it were two different things she discovered.
“Cartel?” she whispered after clearing her throat. “As in
mafia?”
Oh hell
.

“
Yeah.” His voice held no
emotion.

She frowned. Something was off. “You’ve only
been in it for three years?”

He nodded.

“
Why? That’s not how it
usually happens, is it? I mean, how’re you doing all that
management stuff this quick?” She didn’t miss the flaring of his
nostrils even though everything else remained the same.

“
I had a really good
friend back in Michigan. We were in prison together—”

Her hand flew to her chest. “Prison?”

“
Yeah. I went in as a
juvie, but came out when I was an adult.” He took her hand and
placed it on his chest. “Anyway, my stepdad asked him to look out
for me, and we kind of started looking out for each other. One day
he was kidnapped while I sat in his car waiting for him to get out
of some class he was taking.”

“
You had his car?” She
asked, realizing there was so much to this man than she'd first
believed.

He nodded. “Mine was in the shop, so he gave
me his. He was that kind of guy. If you were his friend, he’d die
for you.” His eyes begged her to understand. Although she’d never
experienced that type of friendship, she nodded so he’d
continue.