Temporarily His Princess - By Olivia Gates Page 0,64
know how to handle those…those monsters.”
“Who do you mean?”
“The mob!”
And he’d thought nothing could ever surprise him again.
He raised his hands as if to brace against more blows. “Just tell me everything from the beginning.”
She nodded, causing her tears to splash on his hands. It made him hug her tighter, trying to absorb her upheaval.
Then haltingly, tearfully, she began. “Fifteen years ago, I was diagnosed with lymphoma. Dermot panicked because our insurance would pay only for a tiny percentage of my treatments, and we were already in debt. At the time, Dermot and I worked in a huge multinational corporation, him in accounting, me in IT. Our financial troubles were soon common knowledge and a guy from work approached Dermot with a way to make easy, serious money.”
She paused to draw a long, shaky breath.
“Dermot told me and I refused. But I was soon in no condition to work and with only one income and the bills piling up, it was soon untenable. Dermot began to gamble then fix books and was soon so deep in debts and trouble that when the recruiter approached him again, he agreed.
“For a while, I was so tired and drained, I was just relieved we weren’t scrabbling anymore. I bought his stories that he’d entered a partnership in a thriving import/export operation. Then things started getting uglier with his mob bosses asking terrible things of him. And the worst part was they’d also dragged Daniel, who was only nineteen, into their dirty business.
“Unable to go on, Dermot had us pack everything and move across the country. We kept hopping from one place to another in his efforts to escape the mob. During remissions, I worked from home, but my relapses kept draining us. Dermot and Daniel kept trying everything to keep us afloat. But at least the mob was off our back. After seven years, I thought we were home free.
“Then six years ago, I got a call. The man said that they’d always wanted me, the real expert in the family, and that they had some jobs for me, if I valued my husband’s and son’s lives. They owned us. Not only with the debts but with what they had on them. They’d send them to prison if I didn’t cooperate.” Shame twisted in his gut, that he’d once employed the same method with Glory. “But it wouldn’t end with prison if I said no. Accidents happened on the inside, even easier than on the outside. The job was you. They’d found out about your relationship with Glory and thought it put me in a perfect position to spy on you.”
He stared at her, six years worth of agony being rewritten, the realization of the needless loss of his life with Glory choking him up.
Glenda sobbed harder now. “As a taste of what they’d do if I refused, they beat Daniel up—we told Glory it was a bar fight—and he was hospitalized for a month. I was ready to do anything after that. And I did. I used Glory’s total trust in me, and your total trust in her, to hack her computer, and yours. Then you discovered everything.
“I was so scared Dermot and Daniel would be the ones who’d be dragged into this when everything they’d done came to light during the investigation. I found only one way out. To tell you it was Glory.”
And he groaned with six years of heartache. “Per Dio, why? Didn’t you think what you’d be doing to her, to me? Didn’t you realize how much I loved her?”
“It was because I knew exactly how much you loved her that I did this. I knew you loved her so much you might forgive her, or at least wouldn’t be able to bring yourself to punish her, would let her get away with it—let us—let me—get away with it. And I was right. You did.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “You don’t consider breaking her heart a punishment?”
“It was her heart or my husband’s and son’s lives.”
Silence crushed down as he gazed into the woman’s drowned eyes, the pieces falling into place like hammers.
Then he said, “Then it happened again.”
Her tears ran continuously now. “They gave me the new assignment as soon as your wedding was announced. I begged them to let me go, tried to tell them that there was no way you wouldn’t be prepared this time, that you wouldn’t find out. They only said that with Glory as your wife now, it would be impossible