Treasured by Thursday (Weekday Brides Series Book 7) (8 page)

“My turn for what?”

He waved two fingers in his direction. “Something . . . anything you don’t despise about me.”

Was this a joke? “You’re serious?”

“One thing, Gabi.”

She thought about it, filed through a dozen things she hated and found one. “You have nice taste in flowers.”

Now his smile moved higher. When it reached his eyes he looked younger. And for the first time since they’d met, she found herself relaxing in his presence.

For the rest of the evening, they talked about their daily routines. She showed him a list of houses and spoke of the things she liked and didn’t like about each one.

He took in the information but didn’t offer much in the way of advice. He asked that she give him a few days to find something suitable. If he questioned why she wanted a new house, he didn’t ask her.

They ate their meal and finished with coffee.

“We’re going to have to announce our marriage soon,” he told her as he drove her back home.

“I’m going to call my family tomorrow.”

“Let me know when that’s done, and I’ll plan the next move.”

“What about your family . . . how are they going to take us?”

Hunter glanced at her before turning his attention back to the road. “My family isn’t a part of my life.”

She’d remembered something in his file about a brother . . . no mother, and a father who was alive. The details on where everyone was weren’t something Sam had placed in the information given to Gabi.

“My brother won’t take the news well,” Gabi told him. “My mother will be livid.”

“They know what you do for a living, right?”

“They do. But having me fall prey won’t be expected. I’ll do my best to convince them I wanted this. They will know it’s temporary.”

“As long as they can be trusted to keep that information to themselves.”

“They will.”

He pulled into her drive and she stopped him before he could walk her to the door. “This is awkward enough,” she told him.

“All right. We’ll speak tomorrow?”

She nodded. “I’ll continue the house search, send you files on what I find.”

She opened the door.

“Sleep well, Gabi.”

A pleasantry sat on her lips, but she went with a parting better suited for the two of them. “Pull out in front of a bus for me.”

He laughed as she closed the door and made her way inside.

First thing the next morning, a bouquet of flowers arrived. The note said simply,
The busses didn’t cooperate. I’ll try harder tomorrow.

Chapter Eight

Gabi spoke with Meg first. Her sister-in-law worked with Sam as well . . . she knew the details of their work, and if there was someone who could buffer the information for her brother, it was his wife.

“I signed a contract,” Gabi told her after they exchanged pleasantries and talked about the weather.

“What kind of contract?” Meg asked . . . then she barked, “No. You didn’t.”

“I did. We were married last week.”

“What? Why? Oh, my God, your brother’s going to shit.” Leave it to Meg to blurt out the truth.

“It’s just a contract, Meg. A year and a half. Val won’t have to worry about taking care of me. The money is huge.”

“Your brother doesn’t give a crap about the money. You don’t, either, so don’t even try and pass that off as the reason you did this.”

“Twenty-four million.”

“Oh . . .” Meg hesitated.

“And a house.”

“Really?”

Gabi was happy in her current home, but it sounded like Meg understood the bigger picture. “It’s a year and a half. Not a big deal.” There was no way Gabi was going to reveal any of the issues with insurance claims and offshore bank accounts.

“Who is it?”

“Who is what?”

Meg snorted into the phone. “The husband . . . you know, the guy you married?”

“Sorry. Hunter Blackwell. A friend of Blake’s, actually.” Well, maybe not a friend, but it sounded good and might ease some of the trouble Val was bound to make.

“I’d try and talk you out of it if you hadn’t already done it,” Meg said.

“Which is why I waited to call. I need to move on.”

“OK . . . moving on doesn’t mean getting married to a stranger. How about a date? Have you even been on one since . . .”

There was no reason for Meg to voice since when. They both understood the question.

“I don’t want to date. I don’t want that in my life, Meg. This is easier. People will think I’m normal and I can move on.”

“Beg to differ with ya, Gabi . . . but it’s perfectly normal for you to tell guys to bug off after what you’ve been through. But getting married instead of dating isn’t exactly a sound act.”

“There’s nothing remotely romantic about our relationship. It’s all business. Trust me.”

“I have little choice, don’t I?”

“It’s my life.”

Gabi heard Meg muffle the receiver of the phone. “Well, look who just walked in.”

“Val?”

“Yeah.”

Gabi closed her eyes. “OK. Wish me luck.”

“All the luck isn’t going to make this easy.”

Valentino Masini was a self-made man, owned his own island with an exclusive resort he built from nothing.

The sound of Val’s voice made the knot in her chest tighten. “The look on Margaret’s face tells me there is trouble, what is it,
tesoro
?”

“No trouble . . .” Not if you removed the facts. She slowly delivered the information she needed to.

I signed a contract.

The marriage is temporary.

Yes, we’ve already gotten married.

No, I’m not crazy.

“I know you’re not pleased, Val. Just try and understand I needed to do this.”

Her brother’s silence sliced through her.

“What is this man’s name?” Val’s question was cold.

“Hunter Blackwell.”

Her brother’s voice softened to tell her he loved her. Then he cut the conversation short.

Meg took up the receiver and reported that Val had opened a bottle of whiskey. “I’ll talk to him,” Meg said.

“I really am OK,” Gabi told her.

“We’re just worried.”

“I know. I’m sorry for that.”

They said their good-byes and Gabi sent Hunter a text.

My family has been notified.

Gabi’s text arrived at eight in the morning, Hunter spoke with the real estate agent during his lunch, and Tiffany was sitting in his office a hair after four thirty working on a guest list for a special announcement for later in the week. Thursday . . . a week from their actual wedding would be perfect. And then he was taking the weekend off.

“And what announcement is this?” Tiffany asked as she jotted down notes on his expectations of the event. “I didn’t think the Adams agreement was solidified.”

“It’s not business,” he told her. “It’s personal.”

Tiffany stared. “You don’t hold personal events.”

“I do now.”

The portable phone in Tiffany’s hand rang, she answered it. “Mr. Blackwell’s office. Hold on.” Tiffany dropped the phone. “A Mr. Masini to see you?”

Mister? Gabi’s brother.
“That didn’t take long. Tell him to come up.”

Tiffany told security and stood.

“We will need privacy, Tiffany. Please hold my calls.”

Hunter didn’t have a sister and couldn’t imagine how he would react if he’d found out his had agreed to a marriage for money.

Not well, he decided.

Defuse and deflect. Assure her safety . . . smooth it over.

The man walking into his office could blow so much.

Valentino Masini wasn’t a small man. He wore a suit, ruffled and worn after what must have been a lightning flight across the country. His dark eyes held a death stare that would intimidate most. Hunter found strength in the other man’s gaze and held it.

Tiffany quietly walked out of the room, leaving the two of them staring at each other.

“Mr. Masini.” Hunter didn’t offer a handshake.

“Why Gabriella?”

Just business, much like his sister.

Hunter dropped his hand. “She said yes.”

“Gabi would never do this willingly.”

Maybe the brother knew more than most.

“I assure you, she did.”

“Your assurance means nothing.” Valentino took two more steps into the office, kept his voice deathly low. “She doesn’t need your money, doesn’t need your home, and doesn’t trust men. Her agreeing to your contract is completely outside of her character.”

“Perhaps you don’t know your sister as well as you think.”

Masini clutched his fists at his sides.

For a moment, they simply stared at each other. Hunter was about to assure the man that Gabi was safe with him, when his temporary brother-in-law delivered a threat Hunter hadn’t seen coming.

“If you hurt her . . . one hair . . . I will kill you.”

Kill? Not,
come after you
. . .
make you regret it
. . . but kill?

“Don’t you have a new wife that would be disappointed if you landed in jail for murder?”

“My wife would be standing in line to finish the job should I fail,” Masini told him. “And she’s an excellent shot.”

The hair on the back of Hunter’s neck started to rise.

“You have a lot of nerve coming into my office and threatening me.”

The other man looked as if he was ready to charge. “My sister may be an easy target, but I am not.”

Hunter opened his mouth to counter and heard voices beyond his office door.

Gabi sailed into the room, her eyes brushing over his before they landed on her brother. Her hands were in the air, her voice on fire. “What are you doing here?” she yelled.

Tiffany stood back, eyes wide.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t come?” Masini yelled back.

“What’s done is done, Val.” Gabi glanced around the room and switched languages so fast it took Hunter a minute to realize she had. She said something to her brother in a heated tone.

He yelled back, just as heated.

Hunter was lost. Italian wasn’t a language he’d cared to learn. Perhaps it was time he hired a tutor.

He exchanged glances with Tiffany, who kept her distance but watched.

Gabi argued something and moved to Hunter’s side of the room. That’s when he realized her hair was down. Her hands flew, her hair flew . . . she wasn’t happy her brother was there, but unlike the quietly angry woman she was with him, with her brother, she screamed and yelled. She was incredibly beautiful this way . . . unleashed.

She said something with the name Alonzo and Masini abruptly changed his tone.

Hunter didn’t understand the words, but Masini’s anger started to fade.

That’s when Gabi lifted her left hand and placed her right one on Hunter’s arm. “You’re too late,” she said in English. “We’re already married.”

Masini spit out one more string of Italian before running a hand through his hair.

The silence in the room was broken by Tiffany. “You’re married?”

So much for keeping things quiet until Thursday. “That’s all, Tiffany,” Hunter said, dismissing her.

Gabi grasped the ends of her hair and pulled it over her shoulder. “Go home, Val. Live your life and let me live mine.”

Val shook a hand in the air. “One hair, Blackwell. One hair.” Before taking his leave, Val pulled his sister into a desperate hug and all the anger seemed to simmer away. Well, between the two of them, in any event. Masini shot daggers with his eyes, killing Hunter where he stood.

“I love you,
tesoro
. You know where to find me.”

Then he left.

Gabi collapsed in his office chair and her shoulders folded in. For a few seconds, Hunter thought he had a crying woman on his hands . . . then he realized she wasn’t weeping . . . she was laughing.

He leaned against his desk and felt a chuckle deep in his gut. “That was very entertaining.”

She started laughing harder, and it was impossible to sit there without feeling it grow and erupt inside him.

“He threatened my life,” Hunter told her.

Gabi hiccupped, wiped tears from her eyes.

Hunter laughed. “It wasn’t funny.”

She was doubled over now, finding the humor for the both of them.

He walked to the private bathroom in his office and brought her some tissues. She thanked him, wiped her face, and continued to laugh.

“If my mother . . .” She started to laugh again. “My mother shows up, you might want to duck.”

“What, she’ll throw a chair at me?”

“Let’s hope that’s all.”

Hunter watched as Gabi took hold of her laughter. She was radiant in her designer jeans and button-up shirt. The loose hair flowing over her shoulders looked like silk. No wonder her brother was so protective of her. He must have had his hands full watching over her all her life. The men must have flocked, like ducks to a pond.

“Do you always fight like that?”

“In Italian?”

“That and the yelling.”

Gabi shrugged. “It
was
a fight. He shouldn’t have come. Though it warms my heart that he cared enough to do so.”

Hunter shook his head. “I’ll never completely understand women.”

“I would hope not. Where would be the mystery in life if we understood the opposite sex completely?”

“Mystery should be about the prize in the cereal box, not a question as to what weapon your family is going to come at me with.”

That had Gabi laughing again. “Well if you’d just jump in front of a bus, we wouldn’t have these concerns, now would we?”

She made him smile again as she stood to leave. “I ditched the real estate agent. Probably should get back to the search.”

“I’ll walk you out.”

“That isn’t necess—”

“By now most, if not all of my office staff, has heard of our marriage. Letting you leave alone not only speaks of trouble, it will suggest the rumors are wrong. We’re married, and it’s time to practice some of your acting skills.”

She offered a short nod, and to her credit didn’t flinch when he placed a hand to her back and walked her out of his office.

Tiffany lowered the phone and stood as they walked by.

Hunter didn’t spare a glance, where Gabi offered a smile and silently walked beside him.

It was close to five, but it didn’t seem any of the staff left even a minute early. Hunter ignored the looks and continued to the elevators.

“Everyone is staring,” Gabi whispered close to his ear.

“They’re all trying to figure out who you are. Hold your head up.”

She stiffened her spine and walked into the elevator. They were silent beside the other passengers as they slowly made their way to the ground floor of the building.

Still eyes lingered, he felt them, knew Gabi did, too.

He noticed his car parked with the emergency lights flashing. The Aston suited her . . . elegant, classy.