She put the computer on the table and opened it. Maybe it had a password and she wouldn’t be able to get into it. But it didn’t. The background was a photo of Diego’s wife and two kids—number three hadn’t been born yet—and there was a folder for his landscaping business.
Elise hesitated for just seconds before she began entering the bills in their proper places. She was tempted to double what her parents owed but it wasn’t her name on the invoice.
Once the bills were complete, she set them up to be sent via emails to the homeowners.
Smiling, feeling that she’d accomplished a few things, she began looking for groceries to see what she could cook for dinner. Alejandro would be hungry when he returned.
The cooking courses she’d taken in an attempt to please Kent were coming in handy.
She went online, found a recipe for chili and corn bread, and got busy.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“It’s the fault of both of you!” Diego said in Spanish as he unlocked the front door. “You and Carmen did this together. Now what am I to do with her? Hide a rich girl until the law finds us? She—” He broke off when he stepped into the little house. It smelled clean and something good was cooking.
He flipped the switch to turn on the lamp in the corner. The clothes that had been thrown on the furniture were gone. The floor was clean and there was no longer a layer of dust on everything.
Turning, Diego looked at Alejandro in question, but he shrugged. He had no idea who’d cleaned the place. Diego’s eyes said it couldn’t have been the rich girl.
In the kitchen a pot of chili bubbled and beside it was a pan of corn bread.
“Look at this,” Alejandro said. He’d opened the computer to check email and seen that that month’s bills were ready to be sent out.
Diego opened the door to the closet that held the washer. No dirty clothes.
It was dark out, but Alejandro opened the back door and turned on the light. All the trash that had come with the house had been picked up. There were two full garbage bags by the gate. He went to the clothesline and
removed the three pairs of socks hanging there.
“Useless, huh?” he said, and pushed past his brother to go into the house.
He found Elise in the bedroom, stretched out on the bed, a five-year-old magazine on her chest. She was sound asleep.
He sat down beside her and gently removed the magazine. “You did a good job today,” he said softly in English. “And you showed us that you’re worth a lot—which I knew. The moment I saw you, I knew that...that you were different.”
He smoothed her hair back from her face. “I will carry the vision of you in that white underwear with me all my life.” He couldn’t help it as he ran his hand down her arm. She seemed so fragile, so beautiful—and so unattainable.
Before Alejandro came to the US, his sister had gained his sympathy with her story of being in love with a man who was being forced into a marriage with a coldhearted rich girl.
He’d arrived in the US believing every word she’d told him.
But then he’d started helping Diego, and Alejandro had seen Elise from a distance. To him, she was beautiful beyond belief. Carmen kept saying that she wasn’t womanly, but he didn’t see her that way. He’d heard her mother berate her, correct her, complain about her. All her father seemed to say was, “Get me another drink, would you, kid?”
Alejandro had made sure Elise never saw him watching her, but then she seemed to be living in a bubble of happiness about her coming wedding.
He had been torn between loyalty to his pregnant sister and wanting to warn this innocent girl of what she was getting into with her marriage. As it always did, family won out.
As he pulled the spread over her, he thought how he liked having her nearby. And he was very glad that she had cleaned and cooked today. Such things went a long way to winning over his stubborn brother. Diego took care of a lot of people and hiding his boss’s daughter was making him nervous.
* * *
Elise had wanted to be up to make breakfast, but the smell of bacon frying woke her. She had a frantic moment of fear that if she didn’t pull her weight she’d be abandoned. And what then? She had no doubt that her father still had men waiting for her at the airport. The moment she presented an ID, sirens would probably sound, and men in white coats would take her away.
She leaped out of bed, took a three-minute shower, put on her only other set of clean clothes, and went to the kitchen. Diego and Alejandro were sitting at the table digging into plates of bacon, eggs, and toast. Very American.
“I’m sorry I overslept,” she said to Diego. He was shorter than his younger brother, and heavier. He was handsome but not in the same class as Alejandro. “But then, yesterday was traumatic.” She glanced at his closed bedroom door. “Did Carmen come back?” Elise put two pieces of bread in the rickety old toaster.
“No.” Diego kept his head down, not able to meet her eyes since they all knew where his sister was.