Chapter Fourteen
I’m married.Finally!Lourdes laughed softly in the backseat of Rubén’s limo at the registry office, exhausted and buzzing with excitement at the same time.Enrique followed her inside and shut the door behind him while Rascón hopped in the driver’s seat and raised the dark glass partition to give her privacy with her new husband.
Husband, wow.That had never sounded so good, even in her head.
After several minutes, the limo pulled out of the parking lot in a long procession of armored SUVs stuffed with bodyguards and the wedding party.
Still smiling, she stroked the length of her satin wedding gown and patted the curls she’d artfully arranged atop her head.
“Happy?”
Enrique lounged beside her with one leg bent and the other stretched out in the classic pose of a self-satisfied male.His white pleated shirt popped against his black tux and bow tie, the well-cut ensemble emphasizing his lean, athletic build and doubling the saliva in her mouth.
“Happy?I’m thrilled, ecstatic, beyond amazed, and—” she cut off, a sharp, sudden pain skewering her.
“And what?”He grasped her arm, a frown pulling at his lips.
“My parents.I didn’t expect Papá to come, but Mamá, I thought she would fly up.Hoped she would, rather.”Lourdes shrugged and glanced away.Between her guilt over the shooting at La Paradoja and her hurt over her parents’ refusal to attend her wedding, she was half surprised she’d even made it out of bed.
“Edita will regret missing out, I’m sure.Besides, the wedding was on short notice.You should call her.”
Short notice, right.That could’ve been the issue, however unlikely.“I’ll call tonight.”She swallowed past the lump in her throat.
When she’d gone through her boxes and luggage that morning, she found her cell phone and wedding dress.Thank goodness Papá had redirected his men to her new home, or she probably would’ve lost her belongings to Diego’s mindless revenge.
Enrique sighed, hesitating.“I know why your father initially rejected my offer of marriage.”
She shot upright and twisted her hands together.“Tell me.”
“There was a termination clause in the contract.If one party ended the arrangement without the consent of the other, the offending party had to pay out half a million dollars.”
“Dios mío.”Lourdes clasped her chest.“Papá must’ve been furious when he paid Diego all that money.”
“That’s not what happened.”
She frowned, then gasped.“Youpaid it?”
“I tried.I got the money ready and texted Zayas to meet me, but he never responded.Then he shot up La Paradoja.”Enrique straightened his sleek jacket.“Well, I guess one good thing came from the shooting.I don’t need to pay off a soon-to-be dead man.”
Her stomach cramped.“I’m so sorry.My father, refusing to pay—”
“You’re worth ten times that, Lourdes.We’re married now for better or worse.”He pursed his lips before his next words spilled free.“I should also say that I paid your father the same yesterday when he signed the contract.For reparation for my trespassing on his turf.”
“Not for taking me?”
“Both.”
She doubted that.Fresh anger and hurt burned through her.Knowing her father, he was more offended by Enrique’s show of disrespect than he was worried about Lourdes’s safety.And yet, Papá had been rewarded as if he deserved Enrique’s money.What did she ever do to earn her new husband’s devotion?The way he loved her—how much he loved her—almost scared her.
