From Enemy's Daughter to Expectant Bride (The Billionaires of Blackcastle 1)

The next second, Richard was flat on his back, and Rafael’s hand felt broken.

Coming to stand over Richard, who’d pulled himself to his elbows, he growled with rage and pain, “Stay down.”

Richard struck out one leg, swiping both of Rafael’s from under him. He twisted in midfall, coming down in position to launch into a fight.

Richard did that elastic rebound move that no one his size should be able to do, landing in a crouching stance. The right side of his jaw was already swelling.

“I don’t feel like sending you to intensive care, Numbers, but touch me again and I will.”

“You can try, bastard.”

Richard unfolded to his full height just as Rafael did, his gaze exasperated. “You got it that bad, huh?”

“If you touched her, Cobra, I swear...”

“Please. I just wanted to see how she’d react. She fled from the monster sobbing, predictably.” Richard suddenly took him by the shoulders. “You can’t let her derail you. Forget her.”

“I can’t. I have to have her. Whatever the cost.”

“Even if it is letting her father go unpunished?” Richard asked.

“That’s the one thing I won’t do for her.”

“There’s that at least. But you won’t even consider that she might have come here with an ulterior motive?”

“No. Besides all evidence to the contrary, I can fathom people.”

“Really? Did you fathom her father?”

“I was a child.”

“I meant tonight.”

Rafael gritted his teeth. He hadn’t. Beyond being shocked, beyond knowing Ferreira was a monster, he still hadn’t felt it.

Richard read his answer in his silence. “You seem to have a serious glitch in your judgment where this family is concerned.” A beat. “Did you know that, besides being groomed to be her father’s right hand, she does a lot of charity work and volunteering? And that her main focus is orphanages?”

Rafael’s heart stopped. Then it boomed out of control.

Unable to bear Richard’s presence anymore, he hissed, “Leave.”

Richard gave a shrug that said his work here was done then walked away.

At the door he turned, flexing his jaw. “See to that hand. I hope it’s broken. It should be a reminder of what this woman has cost you—and will continue to cost you if you don’t stay away from her.”

Staring after Richard, the pain in his hand throbbed as he stood over the wreckage he’d caused, in the room where he’d found perfection with Eliana. A metaphor for how everything was in ruins at his feet.

Orphanages and helpless children...this was where he couldn’t afford rationalizations. That could be too much of a coincidence. And the implications could be...gruesome.

Orphanages were a perfect recruiting ground for the Organization, full of children no one would defend or miss. So had Ferreira found his sale too lucrative? Was he still supplying children? Was she working with him, getting to know those children, to pick the best specimens...?

Deus. He couldn’t even contemplate that his Eliana...

But his Eliana might not be real. The only Eliana might be Ferreira’s.

If that were true, if everything he’d felt from her was a perfect facade, if she was her father’s accomplice, he’d crush both of them to dust beneath his feet.

Five