The fact that he’d had dreams for weeks afterwards, of being held back and forced to watch a faceless blonde woman making love to countless men, was something that made him burn inwardly with shame even now.
Trinity looked pale. Hesitant. ‘I was looking for you, actually. Could we have a private word?’
Cruz crushed the unwelcome memory and arched a brow. ‘A private word?’
He flicked a glance at the crowd behind her and then looked back to her, wondering what the hell she was up to. Surely she wouldn’t have the gall to try and seduce him under the same roof she had before, with her husband just feet away?
‘We’re private enough here. No one is listening.’
She flushed and then glanced behind her and back, clearly reluctant. ‘Perhaps this isn’t the best time or place...’
So he’d been right. Disgust settled in his belly. ‘Spit it out, Trinity. Unless it’s not talking you’re interested in.’
She blanched, and that delicate flush disappeared. Once her ability to display emotions had intrigued him. Now it incensed him.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You know very well what I mean. You tried to seduce me in this very house, and when it didn’t work you transferred your attentions to my brother. He obviously proved to be more susceptible to your wiles.’
She shook her head and frowned, a visibly trembling hand coming up to her chest as if to contain shock, disbelief. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about...’
Disgust filled Cruz that she could stand here and so blatantly lie while her enormous rock of an engagement ring glinted at him mockingly. All he could see was her and her treachery. But he had to crush the recriminations that rose up inside him—it was too late for them now.
Rio had revealed to Cruz on his return to the UK a few days before that he was on the verge of bankruptcy—his huge inheritance all but wiped out. And Trinity De Carrillo’s name was all over nearly every receipt and docket that had led his brother further and further into the mire. The extent of how badly Cruz had misread her was galling.
An insidious thought occurred to him and it made his blood boil. ‘Your innocent act is past its sell-by date. I might not have realised what you were up to—more fool me—but I know now. Rio has told me how you’ve single-handedly run through almost every cent he has to his name in a bid to satisfy your greedy nature. Now you’re realising his fortune isn’t a bottomless pit, perhaps you’re looking for a way out, or even a new benefactor?’
Before she could respond he continued in a low, bitter voice.
‘I underestimated your capacity to play the long game, Trinity. You lulled Rio into a false sense of trust by manipulating his biggest vulnerability—his sons. I’m very well aware of how my actions pushed you in the direction of my brother, and that is not something I will ever forgive myself for. Needless to say if he requires financial help he will receive it, but your days of bankrupting him are over. If you’re hoping to bargain your way out of this predicament then think again. You’ll get no sympathy from me.’
Trinity was so white now Cruz fancied he could see the blood vessels under her skin. A part of him wished she would break out of character and get angry with him for confronting her with who she really was.
Her hand dropped back to her side and she shook her head. ‘You have it all wrong.’
‘That’s the best you can come up with?’ he sneered. ‘I have it all wrong? If I “have it all wrong” then, please, tell me what you want to discuss.’
Cruz could see the pulse at the base of her neck beating hectically. His own pulse-rate doubled.
‘I wanted to talk to you about Rio...about his behaviour. It’s been growing more and more erratic... I’m worried about the boys.’
Cruz let out a short, incredulous laugh. ‘Worried about the boys? You’re really trying to play the concerned stepmother card in a bid to deflect attention from the fact that you’re more concerned about your lavish lifestyle coming to an end?’
Bitterness filled Cruz. He knew better than most how the biological bond of a parent and child didn’t guarantee love and security. Far from it.
‘You’re not even related to them—you’ve just used them as pawns to manipulate your way into my brother’s bed and get a ring on your finger.’
Trinity took a step back, her eyes wide with feigned shock. He had to hand it to her. She was a good actress.
Almost as if she was talking to herself now, she said, ‘I should have known he’d protect himself somehow...of course you’d believe him over me.’
A sliver of unease pierced Cruz’s anger but he pushed it aside. ‘I’ve known Rio all of his twenty-five years. I think it’s safe to say I’d trust my own flesh and blood over a conniving gold-digger any day of the week.’
Heated colour came back into Trinity’s cheeks. She looked at him, big blue eyes beseeching him with commendable authenticity.
‘I’m not a gold-digger. You don’t understand. Everything you’re saying is all wrong—my marriage with Rio is not what you—’
‘There you are, darling. I’ve been looking for you. Charlotte Lacey wants to talk to you about next week’s charity function.’
Cruz blanched. He hadn’t even noticed Rio joining them. He’d been consumed with the woman in front of him, whose arm was now being taken firmly in her husband’s hand. Rio’s dark brown eyes met Cruz’s over Trinity’s head. They were hard. Trinity had gone even paler, if that was possible.
‘If you don’t mind, brother, I need to steal my wife away.’
Cruz could see it in Rio’s eyes then—a familiar resentment. And shame and anger. Futility choked him. There was nothing he could do. He knew Rio would already be despising the fact that he’d allowed Cruz to see him brought so low at this woman’s greedy hands.
He watched as they walked back into the crowd, and it wasn’t long before they left for the evening—without saying goodbye. Rio might have shown Cruz a chink of vulnerability by revealing his financial problems, but if anything that only demonstrated how much Trinity had got to him—because he’d never before allowed his brother to see a moment’s weakness. Cruz’s sense that his determination to see Rio treated fairly had been futile rose up again—he had never truly bridged the gap between them.
Cruz stood at the window in his drawing room and watched his brother handing Trinity into the passenger seat of a dark Jeep in the forecourt outside the house, before he got into the driver’s seat himself.
He felt grim. All he could do now was be there to pick up the pieces of Rio’s financial meltdown and do his best to ensure that Rio got a chance to start again—and that his wife didn’t get her grasping hands on another cent.
At the last second, as if hearing his thoughts, Trinity turned her head to look at Cruz through the ground-floor window. For a fleeting moment their eyes met, and he could have sworn he saw hers shimmer with moisture, even from this distance.
He told himself they had to be tears of anger now that she knew she’d been found out. She was trapped in a situation of her own making. It should have filled Cruz with a sense of satisfaction, but instead all he felt was a heavy weight in his chest.
Rio’s Jeep took off with a spurt of gravel.
Cruz didn’t realise it then, but it would be the last time he saw his brother alive.