“His children have nothing to do with his crimes.”
“Are you certain about that?”
“I’m certain they had nothing to do with my abduction.”
“Becoming tycoons themselves at such a young age suggests they might have shared their father’s villainy before each laundered his image and history.”
“Like us, you mean?”
?
??Exactly. Just without our reasons.”
Rafael shrugged. “Regardless of any other transgressions they may or may not have committed, I’m only acting as judge, jury and executioner in the crime pertaining to me.”
Richard gave a conceding head tilt. “Your prerogative. But you’re the man who never misses or forgets a thing, and Eliana isn’t a name you hear every day. Didn’t it ring a bell?”
A million bells could have rung and he wouldn’t have heard them. He’d been that far gone under her spell.
“The only way it didn’t is if she gave you a nickname.”
“She did, but told me her real name almost at once.”
“Did she tell you those as soon as you met?”
“There was no chance for that until much later.”
Richard made a satisfied gesture. “There you go.”
He frowned. “There I go what? What difference does it make if she told me her name at first or later?”
“Timing is the difference. Later you were submerged under her spell and no longer able to add one and one.”
Just what he’d been thinking, even if his view of her spell’s nature and Richard’s were worlds apart.
“How could you possibly assign devious intent to her actions when this whole thing has been a total coincidence?”
Richard looked at him as if his IQ had dropped a hundred points. “I can because she’s Ferreira’s daughter, the woman who works with him, and whom he brought here instead of his senior partners to use as bait for you. And it would have worked spectacularly, if not for the tiny detail they’re oblivious of—who you really are, and that you’re the one reeling him in.”
He waved Richard’s incriminating theories away. “That’s preposterous. You know I’m the one who sought her out and that she didn’t even know who I was.”
Richard’s lip curled. “She knew enough about you to cast a spell in your general direction and wait for you to reveal yourself by going after her.”
He gaped at him. “You actually believe such nonsense?”
Richard shrugged. “The world, especially this part of it, is full of inexplicable things. Just like this compulsion that came over you when she walked in.”
“That’s called attraction. That’s supposed to be an inexplicable magic, at first at least. Then I touched her, talked to her, and all was explained. To me, she’s...perfect.”
It was Richard’s turn to gape at him. “See that? That’s not you talking. I’m starting to think a curse breaker is in order.”
“We’ve progressed from spell to curse? What we shared...”
Richard gave a harsh snort. “Dear Lord—shared? You’ve had what with that woman? Three, four hours?”
“Time is irrelevant when something is that powerful.”
Richard shook his head, regarding him with a mixture of dismay and disparagement. “Seems I’ll have to dig deep to find someone who specializes in such potent curses. And there I’d hoped hers was broken when you took off with that redhead. What did you do with her anyway?”