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“Then tell me why the last few pictures of you and him make it look like there’s tension? What’s going on Dani?”
“I…”Just tell him, flashed through her mind but she pushed it aside. No, she knew how dangerous it would be for him to come back; the people who’d sent Chance after her wouldn’t hesitate to go after him to get to Mona and Kara. “I had a miscarriage about four months ago, I wasn’t that far along but I guess I’m just not ready to try again while Luke is.”
“Aw hell Dani, honey…why didn’t you say anything before now?”
“I knew you’d want to come hold my hand and I couldn’t let you. Look, we’re moving past it, okay? I promise, nothing has changed between me and Luke; we’re still the same two people we were on our wedding day,” she said with complete conviction. It wasn’t hard when it was the whole and unabridged truth. Her brother simply didn’t know that their supposed love was a total lie, just as the rest of the world didn’t know it.
“Okay, Mona and Kara send their love. I wish I could be there today Dan-Dan; I hate being away from you.”
“I do too De-De.” Dean knew she hated it when he called her Dan-Dan it was too boyish, which was the entire reason why she called him De-De. “Okay I should go before he comes looking for me. I love you Dean, please be careful.”
“I will and I love you too Dani. Promise me if you need anything call me honey.”
“I will,” she said crossing her fingers to stave off the lie.
Dani slipped the phone back into the bottom of the purse, under the lining where Luke wouldn’t find it and let the tears roll down her cheeks.
Dean was the only family she had left. Well, him, his wife and daughter, but it wasn’t as if they could spend time together. This was the fourth birthday they’d spent apart, and it was killing her a little more each day to not look across the room and see him smiling at her or to not be able to race over after she had a fight with a boyfriend and cry on his shoulder. He’d been her rock when their world was turned upside down by a car accident that had killed both their parents and left them orphaned, looking at becoming part of the foster system.
With a little ingenuity, she’d managed to push through emancipation papers for them and secured two places on campus at the local college with a little computer magic—a feat considering exactly what college it was. Computers were her specialty while numbers were her brothers. They’d both finished high school at fifteen and college at nineteen. She could find or hide anything with a computer while Dean could do the same with numbers.
They’d gotten jobs easily and then things started to change. Dean was hired on by Luke’s company and moved away from her for the first time. Soon after, he’d met Mona and they’d gotten married. Then before Dani knew it, they were expecting Kara. She’d been mildly jealous over her brother’s good fortune but after meeting Mona had felt something was off.
Dani wished she’d never looked into her background, had simply ignored all the warning signs and stayed away, but she hadn’t and the answers she found were horrifying. Mona’s father was the head of a mob syndicate in Florida, and he wasn’t happy about her leaving. It wasn’t until after a rival had come after them that Dean had taken the money from Luke and tried to run.
The first time they left, they were nearly killed by both Mona’s family as well as their rivals and by then, Dani knew she had to help. Dean finally confessed to her what he’d done, where he’d gotten the money and she knew no matter what, Luke would add himself to the list of hunters after him. Dean might have been able to cover his trail with the funds for a while but once they were discovered missing, it would lead straight to him.
Dani moved to town, changing her name and all of her background information, as she got a clerical position with Luke’s company in order to get into their system without going through the firewalls—although now she wished she hadn’t as they weren’t nearly as complicated as she’d anticipated. She might have gone a little overboard covering Dean’s trail just as she’d gone a little overboard getting them new information and somewhere to go where they’d be safe.
The biggest issue she’d faced was finding a way to replace the money into the company accounts so no one would bother to look for it. She’d decided only after meeting Luke and sensing his pompous attitude over the lowly clerical staff, to stick it to him.
It was almost too easy to wipe out his accounts, hiding the trail as expertly as she could while she led him along. She’d forgotten one little thing though…Luke wasn’t stupid. He’d noticed the connection between her coming to the company and putting herself in his line of sight with the removal of money from his accounts.
The reminders from the night he’d confronted her still made her shudder. He’d been furious and that’s when he found the account information that she’d swiped from him in order to gain access to his accounts. He’d given her two options, return the money or jail.
Neither suited her. She couldn’t return the money without him getting suspicious as to why she’d put it into the company’s accounts and it’s not like she had the excess just lying around to give back to him. As for jail, she hated tight spaces and was severely claustrophobic; she would have died before going to jail and she nearly did.
Mona’s father sent someone after her, to get her to tell where they’d went, and when she refused, they’d thrown her in the trunk of a car and sent it over an embankment. Luckily, a park worker found the car and called the police. Dani was terrified someone would figure out what was going on and that they would start looking for Dean, so she’d given in and had the hospital call Luke.
When he’d arrived, she could tell he was wavering between turning her in and being concerned, but when he’d heard what had happened to her, he’d relented enough to hear her out. She deserved an Oscar for her performance that night as she quietly admitted that the person who’d put her in the trunk of the car was the same person blackmailing her for a stash of cash.
Luke wanted to know why she was being blackmailed and she’d had to think fast. After all, what could be bad enough for her to agree to steal millions of dollars. She’d dug herself another hole and told him that she’d been sleeping with a married man, a much older married man who would be ruined when it came out that their affair had started when she was sixteen.
She’d watched the desire to punish her fade away from his expression and it was replaced by something warm that touched her. He took her home with him and kept a close eye on her for a week before he decided she wasn’t the horrible person she seemed to be originally. A few more days and she would have been out of town with her brother and sister-in-law, but then Chance had shown up again, breaking into Luke’s place, and came after her.
Luke showed up just before she’d passed out and when she came to, Chance was dead, and she was being taken to the hospital while Luke was carted away in handcuffs. She’d told the police it had been self-defense that Luke had come home, and interrupted Chance trying to kill her and had tried to help. Luke had said the same thing, that he’d stepped in between them then Chance had pulled out a knife, and they’d released him.
It was a week later that she discovered the truth, thanks to the laptop’s camera that was still on having caught the whole thing. In the beginning, it had been self-defense, but when Luke had stabbed Chance, it wasn’t perhaps the technical definition of it. Luke had disarmed the man, broken his arm, and Chance was lying on the floor.
Luke demanded to know why he was blackmailing her. Why he’d tried to kill her twice and that’s when Chance had said he wasn’t. He went on to say that he was just sending her a message to not screw with them. That he’d continue until she was unrecognizable but first, he’d use her and show her what being with a real man was like, a man that Luke obviously wasn’t.
It’d sent Luke into a rage, and he’d gone after the man picking him up by the shirt and throwing him against the wall. A part of her could understand why it’d happened, that he’d been angry at the way Chance threatened to hurt her combined with the fact that she was lying on the ground unmoving. She got it more than he knew…how Luke had forgotten that the knife was still in his hands and that when Chance had pushed at him it had slipped into his chest.
Of course, at first, Dani was horrified and wanted to run but there was a bodyguard suddenly outside the house and she knew she couldn’t get past him. Then slowly, she began to accept it, understand it and she’d calmed down enough to think rationally. That’s when Luke came home and demanded for her to return his money. He said that they could start over, do things right, and she had to refuse him.
It was impossible to return the money…she didn’t have it. She’d tried to reason with him, but it wasn’t working, and she’d finally had to use the recording to get him to back off. What she hadn’t been prepared for was his response to it. Even still those words haunted her.
“I guess there’s only one thing left then…”
“What’s that?” she said seeing the way his eyes had hardened.
“The only way to keep you quiet,” he said backing her into the corner and raising his hands to trap her, “is to marry you.”
“You can’t be serious,” she scoffed not believing it.
Dani quickly found out how serious he really was. The next day there was a wedding announcement in the paper, with a half-page picture of them from a dinner a few weeks before when she’d been playing him, and the date of the wedding had left her with no choice.
To the outside they were the perfect couple. Luke was passionate and protective of her; she was sweet and loving. In truth the only thing that either of them genuinely enjoyed in the relationship was the final release that they both found in bed.
She was beyond depressed at this point, not even the thought of sliding below the surface of the water and ending the sham could bring about a fight in her. It’d been that way since the miscarriage. She’d been furious about being pregnant. Luke had been furious about her being pregnant but when she’d lost the baby…it was as though she’d lost everything, though she never truly had it.
