Net of Lies (12 page)

‘
A bit.’ She nodded, resting her head against the velvety-soft cushion. ‘And I don’t feel so great about all of this, if you have to know. I’m terrible with lying, and I know I’ll manage to mess it up somehow. I wish you wouldn’t tell me anything and just let it all happen.’

‘I thought you deserved to know, Kate
. Don’t worry, I won’t be bothering you anymore today. We will just go to the car workshop and make sure your ride home is safe. The details can be talked about tomorrow, in Madrid. I think I have already told you more about my family than I’ve ever told anyone else.’

D
esperate to find the man she had once known again, she found herself unable to stop watching his profile as he focused his attention on the road.

She had
difficulty accepting the fact he hadn’t lied only about his involvement with someone else. He had also hidden the fact that he was the only male heir of the Lorrena family, whose aristocratic roots were firmly grounded as far back as the Middle Ages. They owned a couple of castles, vineyards, land, and a chain of exclusive restaurants run by his cousins. They didn’t really live in the spotlight, and their lack of scandalous behavior kept them safe from public interest. On the Internet, she’d found some vague info on his father, who seemed like an extremely strong and stubborn character. Ruling the Lorrena clan must have taken its toll on the dark, brooding man. That and Raoul’s mother’s death; she recalled an article describing the accident that had killed her instantly. Raoul had been only twelve at the time—a young boy left bereft by the sudden departure of Pilar Larimar de Santos y Lorrena.

Famous for her beauty and brains, his mother had been the driving force for renovating the crumbling
family residence. She had a degree in architecture, so she knew exactly how to preserve the rough beauty of the thick walls and narrow windows that graced the old castle. The changes she initiated were later carried out by her grieving husband, who never recovered from the unexpected loss. Forty years old and at the peak of a fulfilling, successful life, Pilar had been killed in a freak accident that had left the whole community grieving. Raoul had been sent to the best boarding schools, his father’s strict upbringing making it an obvious choice ever since he’d started first grade.

And he
’d been successful; Kate remembered reading in one of the articles she had managed to dig up that Raoul had stormed through the expensive private education program with an ease that was offensive to the other pupils. He finished high school a year early and continued his studies in business and law at Oxford. He was bright and diligent, finishing with top honors and securing himself a great position at one of the top law firms in Madrid. She had also managed to find a scrap of information on his marriage, accompanied by a photograph of him and his wife.

It was Sonia, of course. She recognized those dark eyes, heavy
-lidded and sad, just the way she remembered them from their first and only meeting. Kate met her through Raoul. She had been his cousin’s girlfriend, which hadn’t stopped him from starting an affair with her that had resulted in an engagement. She was the only daughter of the very proud Cullimar family, and her parents were as wealthy and influential as Raoul’s.

Kate
had met her and liked her in an instant. Next to Raoul’s rather noisy and definitely extroverted cousin, Sonia had seemed shy. They had chatted about things, but Kate was unable to escape the weird sensation that Sonia was in some kind of trouble. Her trembling mouth, sad eyes, and overall nervousness gave her a haunted expression—all of this had prompted Kate to ask if everything was all right. In response, Sonia’s large eyes had filled with tears, and she had shaken her dark, perfectly styled head in denial. She had never told Kate what was bothering her, which was understandable given how short a time they had known each other. But Kate had been observant all her life, and this instance wasn’t any different. There was a definite tension among the three people.

Three weeks later
, she had a good inkling what it was all about. While Raoul had to leave for business for a week, she had planned to spend it quietly working on her final paper. With him around, she had difficulty concentrating on anything but the warm strength of his arms and the sweetness of his seductive kisses. Plus, he was interesting to talk to. She loved chatting with him about just about anything, be it politics, art, or business.

She
had known he was a lawyer, but they hadn’t talked much about his work, which she’d later realized was a mistake because it would have exposed his lies much sooner. He’d played the part of a young, average lawyer for the half a year they had been together, and it was nothing but a lie. He was making decent money, and his flat wasn’t too shabby, either. But he had barely mentioned his family, and his magnificent features had darkened dangerously at her delicate probing. She had a feeling that he was trying to heal plenty of wounds by avoiding contact with his family, but she was too shy to insist that he tell her more. She had thought it would make him think she was trying to take their relationship to the next, more permanent level. She definitely didn’t want him to think she was too serious about the future, and her pride wouldn’t allow her to admit that she absolutely was.

Kate needed it to come from him. S
he had some old-fashioned expectation for him to make the first move in acknowledging their union. They had laughed and talked about what would happen in the future. But Kate didn’t look past the immediate future of the following few months. Her absolute trust in the man who seemed to adore her never as much as wavered. She had no other logical explanation for his constant visits and hints about moving in. It was a far cry from him dropping on one knee and actually popping the question, but she thought it was only a matter of time, so she was patient.

She had already managed to secure herself a semi
-permanent position with the British team at the university, another year in Spain promising to be even better. Raoul seemed very happy with her choice, and her revelation about her prolonged stay brought only joy and excitement to his eyes.

..................

Therefore, she’d been totally shocked to be confronted by a thin, shriveled-up man with unexpected information about her boyfriend. He had arrived at her door at noon on a Sunday, ringing the bell with his yellowish, waxy finger. Kate could only stare at him as he explained his name and occupation. She reached out automatically with numb fingers for the small cream-colored card he handed her with ostentatious disregard.

‘I
work for Raoul’s father,’ he said. He didn’t explain much about the family. He didn’t have to. She could tell from the moment he walked through the door that it wasn’t his purpose to explain things to her at all. He didn’t care about what she thought, either. His only goal was to order her to disappear from Raoul’s life. ‘You were in the way,’ he told her. Raoul’s commitment to another woman was not to be taken lightly. Kate listened as he explained to her in his monotonous voice that Raoul was engaged to Sonia and had proposed to her only last month in front of their families.

Kate
didn’t believe him right away, and couldn’t if she’d tried. A month ago, they were walking around Madrid, visiting the sights by day and making passionate love by night.
When would he have had the time to fall for Sonia?
They were together most of the time, Raoul’s warm eyes eagerly following her wherever she went. Was that really the behavior of a man who was planning to marry someone else? She had to accept the fact that it was exactly what had happened because a wedding invitation and a set of photographs the man produced made it impossible to explain away.

There
was Raoul, his arm around Sonja’s slim shoulders, smiling into the camera. In another photo, she was presenting her ring to the camera, her serious face barely broken into a smile. A drop of moisture landed on their smiling faces, and Kate blinked, surprised. She tried to wipe away the drop, smudging it along the left side of the picture. It took her a moment to realize she was crying, then more tears followed the first. She choked on her tears, gulping inelegantly and completely forgetting the man who watched her with narrowed eyes without as much as an ounce of pity.

This
can’t be happening,
she thought miserably, as the evidence stared back at her from the glossy pictures.

The man put a
check on the table.

‘
Why?’ she asked, unable to stop her teeth from chattering. She felt cold and frozen, her emotions hanging in a state of total disconnect with the world around her. ‘Why would Raoul lie to me?’

‘
Because you’re good looking would be my first guess.’ He shrugged his infantile shoulders in a negligent gesture. ‘Raoul has always been partial to pretty girls, especially your type.’ Watery blue eyes went over her with annoying attention to detail, leaving her feeling dirty and fighting an urge to wipe herself of his gaze. ‘Plus, you’re convenient, Ms. Reeves,’ he added, oblivious to her pain. ‘He has been planning to propose to Sonia for a while now. They were an item before she moved on to his cousin, which only made him want her back. I’m afraid to say it, but you were never meant to be more than a temporary distraction. You’re new here, and you don’t know any of his friends and family—isn’t that a perfect liaison, and a safe one, too?’

‘So why isn’t he with her now?’ she asked desperately, knowing the answer before he opened his
mouth. ‘Oh, I see. He is with her right now.’

She
couldn’t believe it, not if she wanted to keep her sanity. Raoul had seemed a bit distracted, and she’d caught him staring into space with a lost expression on a few instances. He would snap out of it instantly the moment he saw her watching him.

She
’d bought into his excuse of be extremely tied up at work. After all, when they were together, he was just as loving and passionate as he had been during the first week of their whirlwind romance.

‘I met Sonia
,’ she admitted to the man and watched his eyes turn predatory. She clung to the weak hope that her statement had upset his perfectly laid-out plan. ‘She was with his cousin, and nothing in her behavior made me believe she was into Raoul. She seemed sad and worried, that’s all. I even asked why, but she brushed it off. Don’t you think that, given the opportunity, she would make sure Raoul’s girlfriend was informed about their romance? To make me doubt and second-guess my own relationship? If she loved him, she wouldn’t be able to resist at least hinting about it to me.’

‘Sonia
Callimar is very proud.’ Undeterred, the thin man with eyes as washed out as laundry left in the sun for too long shrugged again and explained, ‘She knew that Raoul had someone on the side, but Spanish women are forgiving, Ms. Reeves. They know what matters most, and a quick affair isn’t in that category. Don’t you know the expression about sowing wild oats? It doesn’t matter and leads to nothing.’

He searched in his bag and produced a piece of paper, his
thin-lipped smile filling her with dread. He looked awfully confident, and she felt her hopes dissolve in a sea of misery so intense she felt she might die.

‘
Here, I thought you might be difficult, Ms. Reeves.’ He handed it to her, watching her hesitating gesture with narrowed eyes. ‘I came prepared, you see. This is the statement you will sign for Raoul’s father to make sure you won’t go back on your word and start making things difficult, after all. In return, you should really have a look at the check I gave you. I’m quite convinced it will make things a lot easier for both of us.’

A
kind of sick curiosity prompted her to look, to check what number Raoul’s family had put on their love. She wanted to know the value of her relationship with him, written in black on white. The six-digit number made her gasp in shock, and stepping back and stumbling over the chair behind her, she dropped the paper to the floor.

‘
Take it back,’ she ordered in a hoarse voice as bile rose in her throat. Her stomach churned painfully as she watched him bend and pick it up. He carefully smoothed the crumpled paper, shaking his head in disapproval.

‘Not very smart, Ms.
Reeves, not at all…’ He scolded her like some kind of old-fashioned schoolmaster reprimanding a disobedient pupil. ‘If you hope to get more, forget it. This is a one-time offer, and it won’t get any better.’

‘I don’t want a penny of your stinking money!’
she heard someone yell and was surprised to find out that it was her own voice. It sounded far away and alien, her raw pain turning the pleasant tone into a hysterical pitch.

‘
Take your money and leave, now!’ She walked to the door and swung it open, her gesture unmistakable in its implication. ‘If I see you around ever again, I will call the police and put a complaint that you’re harassing me. Remember that.’

H
is annoyed face made her think of an ugly gargoyle, like the ones grimacing from the old-fashioned buildings downtown. For a second, he looked as if he wanted to say something, but one glance at her face must have convinced him otherwise.

The door closed with a light clicking sound.
The silence inside her apartment washed a wave of relief over her, but the presence of the little man just a few feet away made her want to scrub off his poisonous gaze. He’d left her alone with the pictures, which seemed to scream at her. She picked them up again, her careful gaze sliding slowly over Raoul’s face, eager to find the slightest proof of the picture being Photoshopped. But it wasn’t…