The Billionaire's Secretive Enchantress (The Berutelli Escape) (17 page)

“No!” he almost growled, standing up and coming up behind her.  “You’re Sierra Berutelli?”  He still wasn’t angry with her, but he could tell that his reaction didn’t convey that message to this sweet, terrified woman. 

She couldn’t speak, so she simply
nodded her head in shame. 

Drake
couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  And then it struck him.  The scent!  The honeysuckle.  He bent forward, inhaling her fresh scent but she smelled like his own soap.  But he thought back to the other times he’d held her in his arms, that familiar scent that he’d never been able to place. 

“You’re the girl!” he said with a strange tone.  His hands grabbed her upper arms, spinning her around. 
He’d finally found her!  After years of searching and dead ends, she was here in his arms!  “How did you know I was dumped into an alley?” he demanded. 

The tears were constant now and she blinked to try and focus on him.  “Because I followed my father’s goons.  I saw them dump you off and drive away.”
  She was extremely confused now.  Why wasn’t he angry with her?  Why wasn’t he furious?  And what was that exclamation about some girl?  She couldn’t help the jealousy that bit into her at the mention of some other woman. 

“What did you do?”
he demanded, holding her arms even though she was trying to pull free of him.  There was no way he was letting her go now!  Not now that he’d finally found her!  This whole situation was more perfect than he could have imagined!  She was Sierra! 

She shrugged, trying to loosen his grip but he wouldn’t release her.  “I called an ambulance.”

“And went with me to the hospital, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”  She wasn’t sure
what he was getting at, but he deserved to know the whole truth.  “I didn’t know what my father was going to do to you that afternoon.  I promise that.  I just knew that, after seeing some of his men run into his office where you’d disappeared, something was very wrong and I had to help.  I wouldn’t even speak to my father after that night.  I moved out the following week and I’ve never seen him since.  I only know that he died in prison a little over a year after your beating.  I can’t even figure out how the authorities finally got to him because no one had ever been able to get close enough to him to find out any evidence on him.  He didn’t trust anyone, not even my sister or me.  Which was probably a good thing since we would have turned him in as soon as we could.”

“And he would have killed you, wouldn’t he?”

“Yes,” she said, ashamed that her father had so little family loyalty.  Or maybe he always knew that his daughters were repulsed by his activities.  She never knew because she’d always been so afraid of him, never challenging him until that night she’d come home after this man’s beating. 

She knew that Drake
would be furious now that he knew the truth about her heritage.  “I’ll go now.  I can see my way out.”  She started for the door, her feet moving as quickly as possible so that she could get out of his way.  He hated her now.  And he was fully justified in his hatred. 

Drake
stopped her once again.  He grabbed her by the waist and pressed her back against the wall, his eyes boring into hers so he could find the truth.  “You were by my side.  All through that time I was unconscious, you were there, weren’t you?  In the hospital, sitting with me, talking with me, crying for me when I didn’t make progress every day.”

She couldn’t lie to him as much as she wanted to.  “Yes.  The nurses thought I was your sister so I just let them believe that.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”
  She looked up at him, confused by his questions but trying to be as honest as possible.  He deserved that and so much more from her family.

He watched her face, his mind about to explode with the impact of what she was telling him.  “Why did you stay with me at the hospital?  Why did you hold my hand during those first few days?  Why did you read to me, sing to me, tell me all those stories?”

“You heard me?” she asked, amazed and slightly embarrassed. 

“I felt your hair on my arm while you slept by my side.  Your hair tickled my arm several times but I cou
ld never see your face.  I tried so often to be awake the next time you came to visit, but I only remember your perfume.”  He shook his head with a slight smile.  “Or more accurately, your shampoo.  I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I just remembered the honeysuckle scent.  It was you.  All this time, it was you!”

She was completely confused.  Why wasn’t he yelling at her?  Why was
n’t he demanding that she get out of his life and informing her of her termination from his newly acquired firm?  “What’s going on here?” she finally asked cautiously.

He lifted her up and kissed her thoroughly, enjoying the relief of finally finding the woman he’d been searching for
as well as finally understanding Sierra’s fears ever since he’d walked into her office that first day.  It all made sense now!  “My entire security team couldn’t find a trace of you.  For months, I had them scouring the city and then widening their search for you.”

She blinked up at him in surprise, not sure she understood what he was telling her. 
“You wanted to find me?”

“Of course!  You were there for me.  The nurses said you saved my life!”

Her hands were gripping his shoulders but she still wasn’t sure why he wasn’t angry with her.  “Only because my father tried to kill you.”

“And you saved me.  If you hadn’t followed me that day, if you hadn’t called the paramedics, I would have been dead that day.”  He laughed, throwing his head back with
his relief.  “In fact, I even remember your tears falling on my face that afternoon.  It was a hot afternoon in Chicago and you cradled my head in your lap, your soft hands brushing my hair away from my head wounds and you constantly told me that I was going to be okay.  When I groaned with the pain in my ribs or my legs, I’m not sure where anymore because I was pretty much in pain everywhere, you yelled at me to not give up.  You told me in no uncertain terms that you would be very angry with me if I died on you.”  He shouted out with his laughter.  “I remember thinking that I didn’t want to incur your wrath so I fought pretty hard to stay alive and conscious until the paramedics arrived.  And then you fought with them to ride along with me, holding my hand the whole time they were working on me.”  He hugged her close.  “I know they wouldn’t let you despite all your arguments but you were right there at the hospital with me, weren’t you?  You’re the first person I remember when I regained consciousness.  Your voice was what got me through those terrible days and nights.”

He leaned forward and kissed her through her sobbing.  “You saved my life, Sierra.  I owe you everything.”

“No,” she argued, turning her head away.  She wasn’t even aware that her arms were holding him tightly.  She was only aware of the incredible feel of his arms and the painful wrenching caused by his words.  She hated the idea of him being in pain, wishing she could take all of it away.  “If I could have traded places with you, I would have.  I’m so sorry for what my father did.  I will understand if you hate me.”

Drake
squeezed her tightly, her face buried against his neck and he carried her over to the sofa, sitting down with her in his lap.  She was shaking with the force of her tears now and he wished he could help her, to understand why she was so upset.  “Hey, honey, I’m okay.  Thanks to you, I survived.”

“Not thanks to me.  My father was a bastard who did that to you.  He had no conscience.  He was a horrib
le, mean, terrible, evil-to-the-core man and I was always ashamed to be related to him.”

“
And you think I should blame you for the crimes he committed?”

“Yes!” she was getting angry now herself.  She was tired of waiting for him to realize that he should hate her.  “Why are you holding me like this?  You should be pushing me out the door.”

He pulled her hips closer.  “You’re not going anywhere now that I’ve finally found you.”  He looked at her curiously.  “You paid all my medical bills, didn’t you?”

She blushed and looked away.  “
Well, actually, my father did but he didn’t know it.  I charged as much as I could to the credit cards he gave me.  When he realized what I’d done, he cut me off so I sold all the jewelry he gave me over the years.  Anything not needed to cover your medical expenses, I donated to the local food pantry.”

He raised an eyebrow at that.  “I’m guessing there’s a story about that?”

She smiled for the first time since waking up.  “My father hated any kind of handouts.  I believe in helping others.  So giving the rest of his money to a food pantry was just my last zinger in his direction.”  She let her hand fall onto his forearm, her fingers relishing the feel of his skin under her fingers.  “So are you angry with me for lying to you all this time?”

He laughed, a loud, exuberant sound that vibrated warmly throughout her whole body. 
“I’m elated that I’ve finally found you.  And we’re going to be married as soon as I can arrange it.  We can wait only long enough for your sister to get here.”

He said it as if he’d already asked the question and she’d accepted.  “We’re getting married?”
she asked, her eyes wide with amazement at how things were happening so quickly. 

Drake
looked at her, all serious once again.  “I have one thing that I need to tell you before you agree to marry me.”

She was suddenly alarmed because of the
serious expression in his eyes.  “I can’t think of why you’d want to marry me after everything I’ve told you, but go ahead.”

Drake
held her hands closely.  “First of all, I want to marry you because I love you.  I’ve been infatuated with you since I saw you sleeping next to me in the hospital six years ago.  But even before I knew who you were, I fell in love with you over the past few weeks because you’re one of the sexiest, kindest, most exasperating and amazing women I’ve ever met.”

“Exasperating?  How?”

“Point made,” he growled before he bent and nipped at the tips of her fingers before folding them closed and clasping them in his larger ones.  “But here’s the bigger issue.  And brace yourself, because you might be angry with me once you hear this.”  He waited, her body tense as he looked down at her.  “I’m the reason your father was finally convicted and sent to prison.”  He waited as she absorbed that information in silence.  “I won’t accept responsibility for his death in the prison though.  That was from one of the enemies he’d made before he was sent away.”

Her relief was intense and overwhelming.  A small smile played at the edges of her mouth and she almost laughed at the relief she felt at hearing his words. 
“How did you do it?” she asked, her amazement growing by leaps and bounds.  “How did you get the evidence against him after so many others had tried?”

Drake
shrugged. “I wasn’t going to let him do to someone else what he put me through.  I was in the hospital for a month, then it took me another six months of physical therapy before I was completely back to my old self.  And every moment of that time after I left the hospital, I spent trapping your father in his own mess.  When I finally delivered all the information to the FBI, there was nothing they needed to do but pick him up.  The evidence against him was so strong, and I’d gotten many of his lieutenants as well since I didn’t want someone else filling in the vacuum once your father had gone.  So I made sure that his organization was taken down.”

He waited a long time, wondering if she might be angry with him for destroying her father in such a calculated way. 

She looked up at him, her mind slowly absorbing all that he’d just told her.  “You risked your life to send my father to prison.”  She said that with no emotion, her heart hardly even beating. 

He wasn’t sure what she was thinking, her face a blank mask and her pretty eyes just looking at him. 
“I don’t see it that way.”  His frustration was increasing.  Normally he could read her pretty easily but she was a mystery at the moment. 

She
pushed at his chest and glared up at him.  “You risked your life?  You put yourself in danger just to get back at my father?  He wasn’t worth it!  You should have stayed out of it!”

Drake
wasn’t sure what was going on.  “Just to be clear, you’re mad at me for putting myself in danger or because I took your father down?”

She threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. 
“I don’t give a damn about my father!  He was a low-life criminal who didn’t deserve to breathe air with actual human beings!  He was a horrible man and I never really had any feelings for him other than fear because of all the things he did to others.  But you!” she poked him in the middle of his chest, her fury rising as she thought about everything that might have happened to him… “You should have stayed away!  You should have let the FBI and the police do their jobs!  You should have never gotten near someone as cruel as that man and put your life in danger again!”

Drake
breathed a sigh of relief.  She was only angry with him for the danger and not because she actually cared for the man who’d sired her.  He wouldn’t call Joe Berutelli a father because he’d done nothing more than provide fifty percent of her DNA.  No, by some miracle, this woman had escaped from the criminal world and came out beautiful and wonderful.