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“Oh, I will,” she sighed wearily. “Now I’ve just got to try to figure out who the hell would want to send me these nasty letters!”
Maxine thought for a moment. There was that twelve million dollar lawsuit from the couple suing the agency after their bungee jumping nuptials took a nosedive. Maxine squeezed her eyes shut and re-opened them. But it could not have been them—could it? The matter was in the hands of the court system and they were warned beforehand by the previous CEO of Dream Weddings, Inc. of the risks involved and not to take on such a crazy stunt but they wouldn’t listen. Maxine racked her brain again. What? What? What?
Was it her ex, Jiles? He was a former co-worker whom she found out had real issues prior to dating him. Her first real boyfriend. But then when she ended it with him as gently as she could, he couldn't let things rest. He was emotionally abusive towards her and would often cause her to doubt herself. That was until she broke away from his hold. Really weird. But somehow, Maxine didn’t think it could be him. Or, could it?
This was no time to play Russian roulette with her life. She was not about to take any more chances.
She picked up the phone and dialed the local police station after Googling the information.
“Eighty-fourth division. How may I direct your call?” the operator sounded on the other end of the phone line.
“Yes, hi, I need to speak with a detective. Right away.”
***
While waiting inside the Romero mansion for his grandfather to return from his trip, Lucas Romero finished pumping weights in the gym with his brother Zack by his side. The fitness facility was situated on the Romero estate.
He pressed the towel to his moist skin and pondered the latest allegation. He felt a vein throb in his temple. The more he dwelled on the ridiculous accusations, the more the heat of contempt scorched his blood.
The nerve of that woman! Trying to trap me like that. Extort money from me. Well, she’s got another thing coming and it won’t be cashable.
His biceps were more pumped than before and the adrenaline was still shooting up. He wasn’t a man who did the commitment thing unless you counted committing to working out at one of the many gyms owned by his family, or to dedicating all sorts of hours to help run Romero Realty Enterprise and Romero Foundation, the multi-national organizations founded and built from the ground up by his seventy-six- year-old grandfather when he was Lucas’s age of twenty-eight.
He was serious about his workout regime, especially since his motor vehicle accident some years back. He’d almost lost his life and his limbs. He was driving a friend to the hospital after she’d experienced dizzy spells. Out of nowhere they were struck by an intoxicated driver. Luckily, they survived. Lucas was given a second chance and thereafter he took nothing for granted. Yeah, he played around a lot but he made it clear up front to the women he dated.
He wanted a no-strings-attached good time. Period. Take it or leave it. He was happy for his cousin Antonio who got hitched six months earlier to that CEO of Dream Weddings, Inc. and he was happy his grandfather found love with his much younger nurse but marriage was not something he was going to touch with a long pitchfork any time soon. He had a brief engagement right out of college but it didn’t work out. Said "fiancée" was using the young Mr. Romero for his name. So much for finding someone who cared about you for who you were.
And now?
This crazy scheme from a woman he’d never even dated who claimed he was the father of her child? Yeah, right. Lucas was a lot of things but a deadbeat dad wasn’t one of them. No way in hell would he not claim a child who was his. But no way in hell would he sleep with a woman without protection. He took a hell of a lot of risks. Mostly with business but never with his health.
He loved sex. He loved bringing his women to all kinds of sexual heights. What man with a pulse didn’t? But the safer the sex, the better!
Lucas, like his brother Zack, loved the adrenaline rush that also came with fast cars and living in the fast lane but figured getting adrenaline from working out was best at the moment.
Anything to release the pent-up pressure he was feeling. He loathed deceitful women and wondered what the hell put that woman up to her shenanigans. He’d met her at a club once, yes. But she was all over him and Lucas just wasn’t feeling her. He guessed it was true that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned—by a Romero.
