Page 14 of Married to the SEAL
Fuck.
He was already in up to his knees and he had to get terra firma beneath his feet before he fell right in. He forced his attention back to the task at hand. The security system needed some serious upgrades before he was confident in its ability to protect anyone. He took out his phone and called the general, explaining in detail what he wanted.
He’d just hung up when something odd caught his attention. There in the fold of the sitting room drapes was something that didn’t belong. He pulled down the curtain rod and picked out a small electronic device.
A bug.
Someone had wiretapped this room.
He looked around. Out of all the rooms he’d explored so far, this one seemed no more notable than the others. If it was bugged, there was a good chance they all were. He carefully put the listening device back where he’d found it before going in search of Vasile.
He found him in his study.
“You’re settled in, I assume?” asked the president.
Matteo took a seat. “I am.”
The older man nodded sagely. “I’m sure you were surprised to learn where you’d be sleeping.”
He seemed to be fishing, looking for a reaction, and Matteo kept his face carefully blank. “A bit.”
“Thirty-two people work in this household. That number does not include my office staff, nor the many people who come in and out of this building on a regular basis. I need your marriage to my daughter to appear sincere on every level.”
“I understand.”
“She does not. She can be difficult, as you may have already surmised. She was not happy she had to marry, but she does understand it is necessary.”
One question was already lingering in Matteo’s mind. “Then why not have her marry the baby’s father?”
“I can only assume he is no longer in her life, but I’m not sure of that. She won’t tell me who he is.”
“I’m sure she will tell you in her own time.”
“Do you have children, Mr. Cruz?”
“Matteo. No.”
The older man leaned forward on his desk, holding his hands. “Lenore and Grace were inseparable.”
“Lenore?”
“My wife. She passed away several years ago. While Grace and I have never been close, she now seems to hold me in contempt, as if losing her mother was somehow my fault. I daresay she would sooner die than reveal her heart to me.”
The sadness in the old man’s eyes touched Matteo. He hoped to have kids of his own one day and could not imagine such a bad relationship with one of his own children.
“But she might tell you,” Vasile said. The stare he gave Matteo made his expectations crystal clear.
You are nothing more than a well-paid spy.
“Sir, if you had hired me to be your daughter’s bodyguard, I would be liable to you. Likewise, if you hired me to be your advisor or a valet or the head of the Armed Forces, I would be liable to you. But you hired me to be your daughter’s husband. My loyalty lies with Grace.”
“It is not a real marriage in any way. You are no more than an actor, and I, the producer.”
“I don’t see it that way.”
“Then I suggest you change your thinking, or I will get HERO Force on the line and clarify your responsibilities.”
Matteo sat forward in his chair. “Don’t you see what you’re doing to her?”
