Page 97 of The Marriage Auction 2: Part 3

“So what you’re saying is that my brother and Bianca are not, in fact, married?” Julianne confirmed.

“Not legally, no. Though he likely has no idea. Which brings me to another major concern.”

“Besides the fact that Bianca is a con woman who’s taking my brother for a ride? I’ll strangle the bitch myself!” Julianne snapped, anger coating her tone.

I reached out and covered Julianne’s hand with my own, showing her that she was not alone. “We’ll handle this,” I swore and watched her bottom lip tremble, but then, as expected, the longer she held my gaze, the quicker she put herself back together. The shock turned into a fiery passion, making her eyes appear icy as she sat up straighter, transforming into a badass right before my eyes.

“Continue,” she said flatly.

“Before your canceled engagement, Bianca took out a life insurance policy on you with a forged signature.”

I frowned. “I wasn’t aware of that.”

“Don’t worry, it was canceled after she married your brother.” He directed his answer to me and then turned to look at Julianne. “However, she did take one out on Brenden Myers the same week they were married. His signature on that policy was his own so he knew about it. However, the same day she was released from jail, she upped his policy from five million to twenty-five million using a forged signature.”

“My God!” Julianne blurted and rubbed at her forehead as though all this information was giving her a headache.

“Fuck!” I swore.

Bruno closed his eyes and nodded, silently confirming what I didn’t need to ask.

This was way worse than I could have ever imagined.

“What does it all mean? To what end?” Julianne asked.

“It means your brother is in danger. Bianca is planning to off him in order to be rewarded with the twenty-five-million-dollar life insurance payout.” Bruno confirmed what I’d surmised.

Julianne covered her mouth as she gasped. “But she left town…so he should be okay.”

“Her being in town has nothing to do with what she’s capable of having done on her behalf. Which brings me to more bad news.”

“Jesus.” I ran my hand over the back of my neck and massaged the sudden tightness there.

“I can’t say for sure that it’s her pulling the strings, but there are men following all of you. I had my guys on Bianca, but without your knowledge, I had men on Brenden and the two of you, just to be safe. Unfortunately, there are two men tailing each of you and several on Brenden.”

“Do you know why they are keeping tabs on us?” Julianne whispered, her voice sounding small and frightened. The badass flew out the window once she found out we were being watched and her brother was in danger.

“In my experience, there are only two primary reasons to have someone watched,” Bruno shared. “One, because they’ve done something bad. Or two, something bad is about to be done to them.”

Episode 86

Bad News

JULIANNE

“In my experience, there are only two primary reasons to have someone watched,” Bruno shared in that sexy Greek accent I found incredibly distracting. Not to mention the way he studied me as though he were cataloguing every last detail of me was rather unsettling. “One, because they’ve done something bad. Or two, something bad is about to be done to them.”

I stood up and tapped the top of the desk in front of me with my finger nail. “Are you telling me that right now, my asshole brother is in real danger, and we’re sitting here chatting about it like we’re discussing the fucking weather?” My voice rose as fear and uncertainty started to squeeze my heart into a vice grip.

Gio was behind me in a second, his arm sliding around my waist and pulling me against his solid frame.

“Jules, it’s going to be okay,” he spoke against my neck, his warm breath sending shivers racing down my spine.

I bent over, bumping him with my booty, knocking him back a foot so I could shrug out of his hold. I started to pace the room. “Let me get all of this straight,” I bit out.

“Bianca Cameron isn’t a real person,” I said out loud while pacing.

“No, I didn’t say she wasn’t real,” Bruno stated with a slight hint of mirth I didn’t appreciate, “I said that Bianca Cameron was a fake identity.”

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