“Hi, Art.”

“Bellie Bell, you busy this weekend?”

Isabel thought about it. She didn’t have plans but after the week she’d spent away from Romero, she was hoping to spend the entire weekend with him. “Not really, why?”

“Me and Sabrina were going to drive down there on Sunday. I was hoping to get everyone together for brunch… we have an announcement to make.”

Isabel smiled. “An announcement? Oh my God did you guys set a date for the wedding?” As excited as she really was, Art had always said they’d wait until Sabrina was done with school. The last time he’d mentioned it she still had at least a year to go.

“I’m not saying, Bell. You have to wait. But I’m calling to make sure you leave the day open. I know it’s kind of last minute, but that’s just how things worked out.”

He sounded excited and that excited her as well. Finally some good news, even though to some, mainly Pat, it would be anything but good. “Sure. Let me know where and when and I’ll be there.”

Romero took her hand after coming around the car in the hospital parking lot. Just like that, the good vibes she was feeling deflated. Either she told Romero he couldn’t come with her Sunday, that he’d been banned from all her family functions or she took him, going against her family’s wishes.

“Your brother’s gonna be in town?”

Isabel nodded, smiling. “This Sunday. He’s got an announcement to make, I think he and Sabrina set a date for the wedding. And it must be soon if he wants to get us all together so fast.”

“Really?” Romero smirked. “This should be interesting.”

Isabel took a deep breath. Romero didn’t know the half of it.

CHAPTER 25

Lies

The next morning Romero drove back to his uncle’s house to pick up some of his things, most importantly his laptop. His battery was completely dead. He’d left the laptop on when he got the news of Max and forgot all about it.

Max was doing a lot better now. There were no signs of fluid in his lungs, and he was able to talk a little the night before. The unlucky bastard had been the only one hit that night, but they’d at least arrested the guy who’d fired the shot. It appeared to be unintentional. A stray bullet and Max was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but they were still investigating.

Romero plugged in his laptop to let it charge while he showered and got ready for the day. Isabel had left early to work. He felt bad that she’d called in sick the day before on account of him. Since he didn’t have anything at her place he left with her in the morning and decided to get ready at his uncles’. By the time he’d finished getting ready and made himself something to eat, his laptop had a good enough charge. It had saved his work and took him directly to the last thing he’d been working on, reminding him of Charles.

He logged back into the software and it went directly to the last records he’d looked up—Charles’s secret bank account. There were an awful lot of hefty deposits in the last few weeks and suspiciously large amount of transfers to another bank account. Romero clicked on the account the money was being transferred to. The account was registered to a Nicole Herrera in Miami, Florida. Interesting.

He got caught up snooping for about an hour. In that time he uncovered the hefty deposits to Charles’ account all matched the same amounts of withdrawals from another account Charles had only that account was registered under the LLC name Montenegro for Mayor Campaign. Could Charles be stupid enough to be taking campaign donations and funneling them to his girlfriend’s account? Didn’t he know all this shit could be traced? Unless he really thought that no one would ever suspect.

Romero remembered Pat bragging at the announcement dinner about how most of the donations to the campaign were coming from Charles’ connections. If that was the case, Charles could be reporting smaller donations than were actually being made and pocketing the rest. All he had to do was deposit the actual amount and withdraw the difference, but it was still a risk.

Deciding this was just too interesting to not look into further, Romero put in a few calls to some of his own connections.

Pissed that he’d wasted an hour on this, he got his stuff together and headed out to meet a client.

By the end of the day, he was anxious to see Isabel again. He called her on her way to her apartment but she hadn’t answered. As he drove in, he noticed more cars in the parking lot than usual. If he wasn’t mistaken, one of them was Pat’s car. Fuck. He hoped she wasn’t there.

The door to the apartment opened just as he walked up to it. Isabel walked out and closed the door behind her. “What’s going on?”

“My family is here.”

“Why? Something happen?”

“No, they just decided they wanted to speak with me… alone.”

Romero stared at her confused. “About what?”

“About what happened with you and Michael, among other things.”

“What’s there to talk about?”

The door opened behind Isabel and Pat stood there hand on hip. “Bell, we’re waiting.”

Romero caught a glimpse of who was there. Both her parents, even Charles, and then he saw him—Jacob. Immediately it spiked his senses. Fucking Pat. She was never going to give up.

“What’s he doing here?” His question was directed to Pat not Isabel.

“He’s here as a friend who’s as concerned about Isabel as we all are.”