A Bride for the Billionaire Bad Boy (The Romero Brothers, Book 2) Read online

  Maxine wasn’t a politician, a reality star or an entertainer. Not that those people deserved to be stalked. But who on earth would have that kind of interest in her? Heck, she was barely making ends meet at the moment, so blackmail was out of the question. It was June, the so-called high season month for weddings and yet—business was unusually slow.

  Sure, she was the CEO of the small business owned by Annie, the eclectic woman who’d started the Dream Weddings, Inc. agency to grant the most unusual weddings to deserving couples. Only trouble was that most people were scaling down expenses during this period of economic uncertainty.

  “Girl, you look exhausted,” Betty commented.

  “I am,” Maxine murmured. She was drained. Exhausted, really. This was the last thing she needed. “I was at the nursing home late last night.”

  “Oh, no. What happened? Is your mother all right?”

  Maxine sighed. “She’d fallen off the bed.”

  “But how? Don’t they have rails?”

  “She’s confused again. You know how it is with short staffing.”

  “Right. I see.”

  “Well, sometimes it’s better for family to be there to make sure things are done. I always try to make sure I’m there at meal times to assure she’s fed. Sometimes her meal tray is left untouched. I try to read to her while I’m there, too. When she’s having her good days.”

  “Doesn’t it bother you that she doesn’t know who you are?”

  “Yeah, but I know who she is and every day I’m going in to be with her. She took care of me since she adopted me when I was a toddler. She’s the only family I have.” The words scorched a hole in her heart. Maxine didn’t want to see anything happen to her mom. She just couldn’t bear it.

  And that was why Maxine needed this job like crazy. How else could she afford to keep her mother in the nursing home—as imperfect as it was, if she didn’t have a decent salary? If business ran downhill, where would she be? What would happen to her mother?

  That’s why this latest stupid hoax letter didn’t help matters. Could things get any worse?

  “Just try to avoid caregiver burnout, Maxine,” Betty offered while scrolling down the screen on her iPad with her finger.

  “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.

  Right now, he didn’t even have his mind on a specific woman, unless he counted that woman he’d met. The hard-as-hell-to-get-her-attention Maxine Summers.

  Maxine was that hot chick he’d met through the agency that hooked up his grandfather’s fifth wedding to the younger nurse Shelly. The wedding didn’t exactly go as planned but his granddad was sure glad they had made arrangements for him to get hitched in style.

  He’d always thought it was crazy the way Maxine seemed to ignore him every time he was near her. She wasn’t stuck-up or anything remotely close to hoity-toity. Lucas could tell she was interested in him, but she was perhaps shy about expressing herself around him. She’d even told him she’d heard about his reputation with the women and seen it for herself and that’s what piqued his interest in her. She was brutally honest. He hadn’t met too many girls who carried those qualifications. That really turned him on.

  “That’s twenty-eight reps, man. Sure you wanna go on?” Zack commented as he handed Lucas his bottled beverage that was ever present by his side while he worked out.

  Lucas replaced the weights on the rack and sat up to take a good swig of his energy drink. “Thanks.” He wiped the sweat off his face with the white towel and then flung it over his shoulder.

  “Granddad’s going to want to meet with us soon,” Zack said, leaning against the treadmill sipping on his bottled water.

  “
I can’t wait,” Lucas said, his tone sharp as acid. He growled knowing full well that a scolding would follow very soon.

  “Let Granddad know I’m coming,” Lucas added. “I’m going to hit the shower first.”

  “Sure thing,” Zack agreed. He then grabbed his cell phone and headed towards the main area of the mansion.

  CHAPTER THREE

  A few moments later, Lucas stripped off his gym vest and track pants and headed to the shower of the home-built gym. He turned on the faucet, making sure the water was cool enough. He knew full well that it wasn’t good to shower immediately after working out. He should let his body cool down a bit first. Trouble was, he knew damn well nothing could cool him down. He was fired up. Seething. Beside himself. He rubbed the stubble on his chin and got inside the stall allowing the water to splash on his skin before lathering up. All the while thinking. Women. Nothing but trouble. He turned cold inside thinking about the latest headlines he’d seen in the morning papers:

  “Another Romero Weasels Way Out of Trouble with Family Connections.”

  “The Bad Boys of the Romero Family,” followed by a caption of “Lucas and Zack at it again!”

  “Romeros Want to Rule,” followed by a story about how the family was likened to modern-day barbarians who seek to buy up as many properties and take over as many businesses as possible to “take over” and “now they want to sow their wild oats!”

  Tabloids!

  Didn’t they have anything more newsworthy to cover? Like the massive layoffs and high unemployment rate? Growing up, he and his family didn’t have much until they’d found out about their long-lost grandfather, Toni. When Lucas's father Jack was unemployed, their family home was repossessed by the bank and they were forced to live out of their dad’s old minivan until the authorities got involved. That was why no matter how successful or rich they were, they never forgot where they came from and would do everything in their power to help those up.

  What was that saying again? “When you have more, you should give more!” That being said, he also knew one didn’t have to be rich to give.

  Yeah, he lived on the edge at times! Sure, he wasn’t perfect. He sometimes could be a real jerk in the business arena but he still couldn’t get his head around the press mentality.

  Anything to feed the story-making machines! The Romero family sold papers! That was something he would never get used to.

  “When Money Affords Everything…Even Bribery!” was the headline that irked him the most. The same woman claimed that Lucas was trying to buy her off from coming public—which was completely fabricated. She even took a selfie on her camera phone at the time while they were entwined in some exotic dance move. Yeah, the music was pumping and the energy at the club was electric. People go to clubs to have a good time, let loose. Unwind. Unfortunately, when snapshots are taken and a little airbrushing on a photo manipulation program is applied, things can look ten times worse than they are.

  Damn those camera phones! Lucas thought bitterly.

  The brothers, along with their cousin Antonio (prior to his tying the knot recently), would often unwind at an exclusive nightclub in the downtown core of Toronto every so now and again. Unfortunately, many opportunists and wannabe reality stars would take their phone recording devices and cameras and take all sorts of snapshots of them or with them and post all sorts of stories online.

  Lucas thought little of it at the time but every time there was a community program he was involved in on a workday or a major deal to clinch, random images would surface in the media at just the right time in an attempt to discredit his reputation as trustworthy or professional. Like he needed that sort of help. It was bad enough his old man left him a legacy of a tainted name from which he had to distance himself.

  His father, Jack, was caught up in some fraud and mishandling of funds scandal some time ago but the media never eased up after he was cleared on a technicality. Reports even went as far as to accuse the Romero family of using their influence and money to buy off witnesses—which was completely false. But that didn’t help much.

  He had already gotten into a heated discussion with his grandfather over the phone last night about the situation as it unfolded in the media. His grandfather’s solution was to issue a written statement, yet again. But Lucas sure as hell wasn’t going to apologize or try to explain himself every single time a ridiculous insinuation came to light in the papers. He had better things to do with his time than to consistently play into games.

  But a few things were true about Lucas Romero.

  He didn’t bow to pressure.

  He didn’t care what the hell people thought about him—as long as he was true to himself.

  He didn’t believe in marriage.

  ***

  An hour later, the Romero clan was seated in the plush study on the main floor.

  “Have you read the headlines this morning?” Toni spoke up as he sat by the grand marble fireplace facing his grandsons. He was, in a word, furious.

  “Granddad, I’m sorry this all happened but I had nothing to do with that girl. I’m not issuing a statement,” Lucas asserted.

  “Do you even care about your reputation, Lucas?”

  “I care about not wasting time,” he responded with rigidity.

  “Lucas, I’ve told you before and I’m telling you again. In business, reputation is everything. Without it, you’re nothing.”

  “You can’t control what people say about you, Gramps!” Zack shot to Lucas’s defense.

  Toni gave his grandson a stern glare. He sighed deeply before answering. “That is true, Zack. But it doesn’t mean that you live in such a way that makes it darn easy for people to say horrible things.”

  “Now what’s that supposed to mean?” Lucas’s voice hardened. He felt his muscles tense as he pulled away from the oak table in the study he was leaning against. His hands were still shoved in the pockets of his trousers. His blazer was opened and his tie loosened around his neck. He was on his way to the office downtown after the meeting.

  Antonio and Lucy looked on with mixed expressions. Lucy rubbed her hand over her swollen belly as if she felt her baby move. She was five months pregnant with Toni’s first great-grandchild. Something that should be the delight of his world right now but unfortunately it was overshadowed by the current nonsense. At least Antonio III was doing something valuable with his life. He had some stability being married to a good woman, expecting a child. The way things should be.

  Jules, Troy and Carl, Toni's other grandsons, were present and had already proffered their share into the matter when the family meeting commenced without Lucas while he showered. Occasionally, the men would exchange glances with each other as the elder Romero spoke. It wasn’t often a family emergency meeting had to be called at Romero Mansion to brainstorm on what move to make after the family name was being sullied. Toni was at least grateful for that. But one time or twice was one or two too many.

  “I’m saying that this isn’t the first time you had some…indiscretion. Remember that time at the hotel in Vegas?”

  “You’re not seriously blaming me for that?” Lucas fired in a clipped tone. He leaned back against the desk again, his hands shoved in the pockets of his dress pants as his blazer hung loosely. Toni resisted the urge to tell him to button up his suit. What he wanted to tell him instead was to button up his attitude.

  Toni’s pet peeve was the casual business look his grandsons often sported. He always thought it was better for a young man to have his suit done up and neat to give the impression of professionalism. But that was back in his day. Was Toni being too old-fashioned regarding his grandsons? For heaven’s sake, they were two generations apart. Toni grew up in a much different era from his grandsons. Very different.

  “Granddad, I’m sorry you’ve had to endure inconvenience with all this press intrusion but I’m not taking responsibility for other people’s actions. I think we’re all wasting our time trying to address this. And as for Vegas, I don’t go
around judging people by their backgrounds.”

  “Lucas! You need to be more careful with whom you associate. I’m warning you.” The tension in the study was beyond palpable. Toni recomposed himself, feeling guilty for tearing into Lucas the way he did. “Lucas, I didn’t mean to raise my voice like that,” Toni’s voice softened.

  Lucas’s gaze was fixed outside through the French doors overlooking the massive garden. Luckily it was a private area and tranquil so they were unaware of what was going on outside at the main entrance. It was a quiet area of the estate. A perfect place for family gatherings. At times, one of sorrow. Toni’s other grandson Antonio III was an emotional wreck when the family was called in to the study years ago to address the tragic death of his father Antonio, Jr. The family attorney was the one who delivered the heartbreaking news.

  “What do you propose we do, Grandfather?” Antonio III chimed in, his eyes narrowed in anger. He was just as fed up with the series of bad press as the rest of them.

  “We must act fast in order to mend the damage,” Toni responded with an air of authority. He then redirected his attention to Lucas. “Lucas, you’ve done so brilliantly with your Healthy Start Program. You’ve not only created jobs with that spectacular software and the initiative walk-in program. I want you to focus on the launch of your new product line. I just don’t want this perception of your being reckless and dishonest to tarnish that.”

  “He has a point, Lucas,” Carl added, his deep voice cut through the tension in the room. Carl himself owned the successful string of fitness centers around the city and was quickly branching out to the west coast and to the U.S.

  “I’m not disputing that we need to uphold the family honor, Granddad,” Lucas growled. He moved from the spot where he was resting and paced by the fireplace. “I’m disputing the fact that we need to keep playing into this publicity game when every Jane, Mary and Sue comes forth with ridiculous allegations. There’s a time to do damage control and there’s a time to let things go and focus on what really matters. What’s that saying? Time spent on getting even is time wasted for getting ahead.”