Because the man dressed from head to toe in bespoke black standing in front of her was every inch as formidable—goodness, even more so—than her imagination had conjured up.
He stopped before her, eyes of chilled green glass fixed on her. ‘Are you not going to greet me, Suki?’ he asked icily.
Her gut clenched harder at the sound of his voice. Although it was now arctic, she didn’t need much prompting to recall it in a different tone. A huskier, headier timbre. A tone she had no business recollecting right now. She bit her tongue against informing him that he’d entered her domain and therefore etiquette dictated he needed to greet her first. There was no use because men like Ramon played by their own rules. And for her own peace of mind, she wanted the next two days to go as smoothly as possible.
Clearing her throat, she strove for an even tone. ‘Good morning, Ramon. I... I wasn’t expecting to see you.’
‘Were you not?’ he countered, unforgiving eyes still hooked into her. ‘What were you expecting, exactly?’
‘Well...not you...here...’ She stopped, silently cursed the silly stammering she’d thought was far behind her. ‘I mean, I was expecting your driver, not you...to come in person.’
‘Then I guess you’ll just have to suffer the inconvenience of my presence,’ he bit out.
His tone raked across her hackles, making her own chin rise. ‘It’s not an inconvenience, but surely you have better things to do than personally escort me to the memorial?’
‘Indeed, there are many demands on my time. But perhaps everything else paled in comparison to my wish to see you. Perhaps I couldn’t wait to clap eyes on you again, reassure myself that you’re indeed flesh and blood.’
Something about the way he spoke the words stamped cold, hard dread onto her soul. Frantically she searched his gaze, but his face was an inscrutable mask, the only indication of his demeanour the darkening eyes that continued to regard her with unnerving intensity. ‘Flesh and blood? As...as opposed to what?’ she asked, her voice not as steady as she craved it to be.
His firm lips flattened. ‘As opposed to the many other descriptions whose veracity I will test once the memorial is over. And believe me, Suki, there are many.’
Her hackles rose higher, her breath shortening as ice filled her spine. ‘Well, I don’t know what that means, but I assure you, I’m made of the same flesh and blood and bone I possessed when you last saw me.’
Cold eyes grew even more remote, his nostrils pinching white before he took a step back. ‘Should I find it curious that you neglected to mention your heart?’
Her breath strangled. No, her heart wasn’t the same. It’d grown into twice its size when she’d found out she was carrying a child. Then it’d been lacerated beyond repair at the harrowing events and the decisions that had led to the loss of her child. Suki was sure that were she to pluck it out of her chest right this moment, she wouldn’t recognise the battered organ.
‘Since the contents of my heart are none of your business, no, I don’t believe it’s a matter for discussion.’
He exhaled slowly, his chest expanding then settling as he regarded her. ‘For both our sakes, we will set this aside for now. We will go and remember my brother with our best memories. Then after that, we’ll talk.’
She recalled the paragraph in the email that had demanded her attendance at a meeting involving Luis’s will, and her heart lurched. ‘If this is about Luis’s will, please know that if there’s any contention I’m willing to relinquish whatever it is that involves me.’
One corner of his mouth twitched with a cruel non-smile as he turned and strolled for the door. ‘It’s about much, much more than that, Suki. But rest easy, you’ll find out soon enough.’
Of course, his assurance achieved the opposite effect. The journey to San Augustino Cathedral in Old Havana took a little over ten minutes, but it felt like several lifetimes with the deadly silence at the back of the limo dragging each second to infinity.
Inside the cathedral, life-size pictures of Luis and his parents were set on easels, their sometimes laughing, sometimes serious, always vibrant faces striking a deep well of sadness and grief inside her. Suki wasn’t aware she was silently weeping until a white handkerchief was briskly presented to her. The grateful look she sent to Ramon dissolved when she met his stony profile.
The ceremony was over in a little more than an hour with the two dozen guests lighting candles and saying a final goodbye to lives cut short too soon.
Suki was setting her lit candle back into its cradle when Ramon appeared beside her. Hoping the acrimony she’d sensed in him had receded, she cleared her throat and faced him.
‘Thank you for allowing me to be here, and for sending me the ticket. I promise, I’ll pay you back as soon as I’m back at work next month.’
His lip curled. ‘Such consideration. Tell me, where was that consideration when you decided to get rid of my baby without so much as a text message informing me?’
Her heart lurched to a stop. She felt the blood drain out of her head as she swayed on her feet. Opening her mouth, she strove for words, for anything to explain. But her brain had closed off in utter shock, her whole body drenched in ice-cold dread as he stepped closer, his body throbbing with menace and rage and dark promises of retribution.
‘Nothing to say, Suki?’ he scythed at her a second before one hand jerked out to imprison her wrist. With a merciless tug, he brought her flush against his body. To anyone watching it would’ve seemed as if he were comforting her. But he was leaning close, his lips a hair’s breadth from her ear as he whispered, ‘Don’t worry, I have plenty to say. And if you think the repaying of an airplane ticket is the only worry you have, then you’re seriously deluded.’
CHAPTER FOUR
NOTHING ABOUT HER disturbed him, Ramon assured himself as his driver pulled away from the cathedral and into traffic. Not the prolonged paleness of her frozen face, the ephemeral fragility of the fingers twisting in her lap, the intermittent shudders that racked her body.
She wasn’t cold. Or in pain.
No. Not at all.