“You kidnapped me from arms dealers?” Dana fought to keep her breaths steady as her heart rate surged. It was either an incredible act of love or sheer stupidity. “Why?”
Her mother’s fingers slid up to her wrists, grasping tighter. “I don’t want to cause you pain. Can’t we stop there?”
“I need the truth.” Dana couldn’t be angry anymore. Couldn’t work up the energy. She was shocked, exhausted...empty. “I need answers.”
“Know I love you.” Her mother’s gaze wouldn’t let go. “You believe me?”
“I guess.” She pinched her lips together then drew a deep breath. “I want yesterday back.” She felt like a five-year-old. Her confidence, her courage...it was all gone.
“If you could provide proof Dana didn’t know...” Rich spoke for the first time since they’d walked into the restaurant. “There has to be something.”
Her mother glanced up at the man who towered over both of them. She looked at Dana with a familiar raised eyebrow. “El novio?”
Dana’s eyes drifted shut. Seriously? Her mother wanted to know if Rich was her boyfriend? She glanced over her shoulder at him—he had not left her side since this whole mess began. Heat rose in her cheeks. He probably knew enough Spanish to translate the question.
He was looking down at her, a slightly amused expression twitching the side of his mouth.
It was embarrassing, but it broke the tension. It also left a question she had no idea how to answer. Boyfriend? No. Friend? What did she call the person who’d put his life on the line when he didn’t have to? Who held her and understood the things she couldn’t process herself? “He’s...” She shrugged. “He’s Rich.” Okay, that sounded bad. “His name’s Rich. Not rich like he has a lot of money.” At least, she assumed he didn’t. She shook off his hand and the question. “Mom, the story?”
With a quick nod, her mother glanced at the chair next to Dana, and Rich moved it closer. She stood slowly, let go of Dana’s wrists and slid onto the chair. “None of this will be easy, mija.”
“It can’t get any harder.”
Her mother’s expression said she wasn’t sure, but she inhaled and squared her shoulders as though preparing for battle. “You were born in Argentina to Jairo and Rachel Marquez. Your real name is Danna Elena Marquez.”
“You renamed me Dana Ellen.” Close, but not too close.
“We didn’t want to shock you too much. You were young, barely three when we brought you here.”
“Why? Other than my parents were arms dealers.” Which was reason enough, but kidnapping the child of violent criminals didn’t happen on a whim.
“Honestly, I’m really unsure why Rachel...” Her mother sighed and reached for Dana’s hand. “She had no interest in being a mother. Jairo had none in being a father.”
The pity in the words stung the backs of Dana’s eyes, but she swallowed the hurt. “So what happened?”
“Dana, do not bury your pain. You cannot—”
“What happened?” There was no moving forward if she didn’t bury the pain.
Karen pressed her lips together, staring at their locked fingers. “They hired me when you were born. I was the live-in nanny. Every feeding, every diaper change, your first words, I was there. You almost never saw Jairo or Rachel. Their interests were in the money and the power. Being parents never fit those things. Rachel believed that being a mother would make her seem weak, would make enemies run all over them. Maybe, in her own twisted way, she was protecting you. A rival cartel might have seen you as a target.”
It was hard to feel for a woman as cold-blooded as Rachel Marquez, but something in Dana’s heart squeezed. Her flesh-and-blood mother, who had carried her for nine months, hadn’t wanted her. What did that make Dana? In the battle of nature versus nurture, what if she carried Rachel’s nature deep inside?
“I met Ramon and married him. He wanted me to leave the Marquez family. They were dangerous, but they were never mean to me. I never saw them much, but they were well-known to be killers. I could not leave you. Until...” She shook her head. “Dana, it is enough to say that Ramon and I brought you here. That you are our child.”
“It’s not enough.” Dana stood and brushed past Rich, staring at the dark wood door. She inhaled the scents of cilantro and beef. Tonight, the aroma was anything but comforting. It gave the world a feeling of déjà vu, of a past built on vapor. “I need to know everything. Otherwise, I have no idea who I am and no way to defend myself against charges that will cost me my job and reputation.” Who in the tech world would hire someone without a security clearance? Someone the government had fired?
Behind her, Rich sniffed but said nothing.
What could he say? She should have asked him to leave, but she needed him near.
And she hated herself for it.
“Ramon and I, we knew of a man who could get us papers that said you were our daughter, papers that could get us into the United States. It cost us so much. Everything we had and more.”
The words trailed off hesitantly. What more?
Dana whirled on her mother. “You stole from the Marquez family? Not just their daughter but their money?” That was suicidal. If Jairo and Rachel had figured everything out, it was no wonder fire rained down on Dana’s and her mother’s heads. “What were you thinking?”
“That I loved you.” For the first time, her mother pulled herself to her full height. Her voice rose, carrying a force that made Dana step back. “Jairo and Rachel executed a man in front of you. You were three years old, and I knew in that moment that I could not let you stay there. One way or another, they would destroy you.” Her voice finished on a jagged edge, and she stared at Dana with regret and a plea for understanding.
“My nightmares.” Dana sank into the chair beside her mother. “They were real.” The man, the gun, the blood...all real. Dana closed her eyes. She had to get a hold of herself or she was going to be sick. She’d seen a man murdered in cold blood as a child.
Her heart shattered for that child.
Anger toward her mother evaporated. Ramon and Karen Santiago had done nothing but love her. Had done nothing but see that she had the best life possible.
Even as she drew her mother close in a hug that spoke the forgiveness she couldn’t, Dana glanced up at Rich. The truth healed her heart, but it did nothing to fix her life.
In his entire life, Rich had never wanted to hold a woman as much as he wanted to hold Dana Santiago. He clenched his fists and paced to the door to stop himself.
This was between Dana and her mother. He was a bodyguard.
Nothing more.
But if that was true, why did Karen Santiago’s story break him? Right now, he was feeling things he hadn’t felt in years. His heart ached in ways it hadn’t since he’d walled his emotions off after Amber died.
Worse, why had he lost part of himself when Dana looked over her mother’s shoulder at him?
The pain in her expression, the confusion layered behind the temporary relief of forgiving her mother. He wanted to hop the first plane to Argentina and confront the people who’d dared to hurt her as a child. He’d walk out the front door of this restaurant right now and take out anyone who dared try to hurt her again.
He’d die for her.
Not simply because he’d been asked to protect her. Because, from the moment they’d had their first real conversation, she’d made him feel. In hindsight, he could see what he couldn’t see in the moment. He wasn’t standing here because Wyatt had asked him to come on their mutual friend’s behalf. He was here because he chose to be. Because something inside wouldn’t let him be anywhere else.
The realization drove his mind into chaos. Planting both fists on the cool wood door, he rested his forehead against the grain and managed to hold himself together. He couldn’t let Dana see what she’d done to him. There was too much chaos in her life, and she’d made it clear she had no room for any man.
Not that he should be entertaining such thoughts. He’d loved Amber and lost her. No way could he ever go through that kind of pain again. Plans were fragile things, easily broken, easily shattering him.
Dana’s pain scraped against his raw emotions and did nothing but confirm the truth. The sooner they tucked her somewhere safe and he returned to his life without her, the better off they’d all be.
He cleared his throat. “I hate to interrupt...” Was his voice really husky? What in the world was this woman doing to him?
The women pulled apart, but he looked at Karen, not Dana. If he met her eye while his emotions ran rampant, the consequences could be disastrous in more ways than one. “How did you know you were in danger? Do you know who’s behind all of this?”
“All of this?” Karen looked confused as she turned to Dana. “I thought Jairo and Rachel had found you. When you walked through the door, it was like seeing someone raised from the dead. I’ve been trying to call you, to email you.”
“I left everything in North Carolina to avoid being tracked. I was attacked twice there and once in Georgia.” When Karen gasped, Dana squeezed her mother’s fingers. “I’m fine.” She quickly related the past two days, including her suspension. She glossed over the severity of the attempts on her life. “When I saw the refrigerator, I came here.”
“It was a vain hope you were alive.” Karen covered their clasped hands with her free hand. “I noticed the same car follow me to work for two days. Since we ran from Argentina so many years ago, I have always noticed anything different. I have always been afraid the Marquez family would find us. I should have told you so you could watch your back, but with your job and with the fact you look nothing liked you did as a three-year-old, I assumed you were safe.”
“You were followed?” Rich hated to be pushy, but the way things were going, they might have to run sooner rather than later. The last thing he wanted was to be caught off guard.
Karen glanced at him gratefully, a look he didn’t fully understand. “Several times. I tried to call you, to see how Sam’s wedding went, but no answer. When the man showed up, I got scared. And then when I came home from work this evening, he came to the house, tried to break in. I moved the pictures, escaped out the back and came here.”
“This is why you had a plan all along, why you had the signal set up,” Dana said.
Her mother nodded.
“Why not call the police?” It would have been the smart move.
Karen turned toward Rich. “I have never called the cops in my life. Have never had a traffic ticket, even. My identity, Dana’s identity, they are all fake. I held my breath the whole time she was having background checks and secret clearance checks, certain we’d be found. If it is revealed who I am, they will discover I am not a legal American. Dana is, because Rachel was born here and met Jairo in college. They moved to Argentina when his father grew ill and could no longer run his organization. But me? No.”
“Now what?” Dana stood and paced to the other side of the small office, away from Rich. “What will you do? You can’t live in Stephanie’s office. You can’t stay without putting them in danger, too.”
“Mija, there is so much you know nothing about. I am going into hiding until this blows over. My job thinks I am taking leave for a family emergency. I depart tonight.” She stood and turned toward Dana. “You come, too.”
There it was. The solution. Relief relaxed his tense muscles. Dana could go into hiding with her mother. She’d be safe. Rich stepped around the chair and stood beside Karen, a united front. “If she has someone who can safely hide you, then you should—”
“I already told you no.” Dana whirled on him, her fists balled. “I need freedom to investigate. If I hide, I can’t clear my name. In fact, I look even guiltier.” She fixed her gaze on him. “Have you thought this through? You’re in this now, too. They know who you are, Espectro.” She practically spit the words. They dripped with sarcasm that nearly overpowered the room. “You’re a target, too. I won’t hide if you’re out there in the wind. I...” Her expression collapsed, but she put it back together so fast, Rich wasn’t entirely sure he’d seen the flicker of weakness. “I won’t leave you out there alone. I can’t.”
The way she looked at him, the conviction and emotion in her voice—for a moment that dragged on longer than he could calculate, they were the only two in the room. Whatever had broadsided him moments earlier had clearly hit her, too.
The air between them charged. Their hearts were in as much danger as their lives. Neither was leaving the other behind, but neither was free to express why.
Everything was hopeless.
Rich broke contact and turned to Karen, who watched him with the same concerned-mother look he’d received from Amber’s mom more than once. Given their current situation, it was completely out of place.
Karen started to speak, but a rapid knock rattled the door.
Javi, the young cop from the kitchen. His gaze skimmed Rich then found Dana. “We have a problem.”