Page 27 of Scarlet Embrace

INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS

Elena looked quite beautiful that evening. The shock on her face when she saw me was quite memorable. Things had been a little bit awkward the last time we saw each other. As much as she tried to remain confident, I could tell that she was rattled by the whole thing that went down with Diana. I guess it was one of her strongest suits, and I found it quite admirable.

Over the next couple of days, I had checked up on her. Discreetly, of course, since I wasn’t going to add more troubles to what she had on her plate. The men I tasked with watching her told me that there hadn’t been any suspicious movement around her, and I told them to make sure things remained the same. Her relationship with Linda and I had almost cost her life. Convincing Linda to also stay away from her was quite hard, but when I explained to Linda that our world was different from Elena’s, she was strangely understanding.

I never expected to see her again until she was standing in my doorway. For a brief moment, I was blown away just by her presence. Elena Rodriguez was a rather beautiful woman. Those curves of her, her rather cute face, was strangely enchanting. She hasn’t smiled a lot in my presence, but in the few times I had checked up on her, I had seen her smiling, and I have to admit she had a rather beautiful smile.

Confident, caring, friendly, and with the curves that can make a man go insane. Elena was the kind of woman I would love to have by myside. I guess that was what made me tell Diana that Elena and I were seeing each other. To be honest, I could have come up with some better excuse or definition of our relationship, but I simply chose to tell Diana that Elena was my woman. I tried to convince myself that the reason I said that was because it was the best way to protect Elena, but Thomas had asked me if I was sure that was the only reason.

The word had spread that Lucas Cruz was in a relationship with someone, and at first, I thought it was going to die down, but Rufus had heard about it somehow. He had questioned me about her, and I simply told him that it was just a ruse, one that I was playing to sort things out. Setting up the luxurious car business and also trying to smoke out the spy was quite taxing, and I was barely sleeping four hours every day. I barely had time to address the rumor, and I had simply forgotten about it till Elena appeared again.

Once I saw her, I knew the only reason why she was there had to be the rumor. It seemed that she had finally gotten word about it, and she was there to address it. She had listened to my explanation more calmly than I had expected. I tried to make her see that it was to protect her, and she didn’t argue or ask me if I was up to something else. In fact, I was the one who ended up being surprised when she told me that we had a spy amidst us.

“Are you sure you heard right?” I asked as I led her to the bench in the middle of the garden.

“Yes. Diana was talking to Marcus about how she was unsure who my allegiance belonged to.” She had a frown at the word ‘allegiance,’ and I couldn’t help but smile. The more I learned about Elena, the more interested I was in her.

“And you are sure Marcus said the old geezer was a member of my family?” I asked her. Elena nodded, and that got me thinking. That was an important piece of information that was definitely going to help me in my search for this mole. If they were close enough for Marcus to call them a member of my family, then it reduced the number of people I had to deal with by a lot.

“This might be good,” I said thoughtfully.

“Ehm, Lucas,” Elena called my name. It came out as a whisper, and I turned to her, wondering what was wrong. I noticed she was looking ahead, and I wondered what had caught her attention.

Damn it! Father’s coming.

I knew he was in his study, but I didn’t expect him to step out. Seeing Hannah right beside him, I realized that she was the one who had probably brought him out. She clearly wasn’t happy with the success of my recent project, and she must be trying to sabotage my accomplishment. My father was definitely going to question me about Elena, which was going to put me in a rather tough spot.

“Play along with me, Elena,” I said as I got onto my feet.

Running away wasn’t an option, not when he had spotted us already. That would only make him even more suspicious. He clearly didn’t know who Elena was, and if I played things well, there wouldn’t be anything to worry about.

“Remember, you are Linda’s friend and mentor,” I whispered to Elena as my father and Hannah got close.

“Lucas. You didn’t tell me you had a guest.”

I could count on one hand the number of times my father had called me by my name. The fact that he called me by name was a subtle warning that he wanted the truth from me.

“I did not want to disturb you, Father,” I said with a smile. “This is Elena Rodriguez.”

“Ah! The Elena Rodriguez.”

The Elena Rodriguez? What does he mean by that?

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, sir. Lucas has spoken about you.”

I turned to her, realizing exactly what she was doing. When I met her younger sister back at her apartment, I had used the same line with her, and I didn’t know she was the petty type.

“Now, has he? I guess that’s expected since I have heard how he’s in love with you.”

Elena coughed in surprise, and I patted her on the back, asking if she was alright. I was stupid to think that my father wouldn’t have heard of the rumor I started. Clearly, someone had passed the information along to him for whatever reason known to them.

“I’m sorry if I caught you by surprise. You don’t know how glad I am to finally meet Lucas’s woman. I have long since given up on him,” Father said with a smile. The situation unraveling in front of me was one I did not like, and as if things weren’t dire enough, Hannah asked if Elena would love to stay for dinner.

“That would be rude of me. I just came to pay Lucas a visit, and I won’t—” Elena started before Hannah interrupted her.

“Please. I would love to know more about you,” Hannah said as she took Elena’s arm in hers and led her toward the house. I wanted to stop her, but that was impossible, not with my father around.

“Never thought this day would come, but I’m glad it’s finally here,” Father said.