Mia might only have known Damián a short time but of one thing she was certain: he was a man who noticed everything and, more importantly, remembered everything.
Damián noted the narrowed, suspicious stare his answer provoked. ‘As soon as I saw your photo I knew you were the one I needed,’ he explained evenly. His attention had been captured so completely by Mia’s picture that he couldn’t remember what the other actresses looked like. ‘As I explained last night, you had the look I was after. Once I was satisfied you were clean—there were no rumours of you taking drugs any more—I had only to satisfy myself that you were an actress of talent. But, if we are to convince everyone that we are in love, I need to know personal things about you.’
‘That works both ways.’
‘Agreed, but today I want to talk about you.’
‘Aren’t you afraid the press will dig into my background and learn about my criminal record? Your name would be associated with a drug dealer.’
‘They won’t. And, even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to do anything with it. Your record is permanently sealed. I was assured of that before I approached you.’
She had a sip of her drink, eyes wary.
Damián pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. ‘Please, mi vida, that document...put it out of your mind.’
‘How can I?’ Knowing her criminal record was in someone else’s hands and could be used against her at any time was like having a permanent weight lodged in her chest.
What if she mucked the job up? Would he use her record as a weapon against her as punishment? While she knew zero about the documents he needed to find, she knew they were incredibly important to him. He was a man at war with his brother whereas Mia was a woman desperate to protect her sister. The way they lived and their outlooks on life were just too divergent; how could she trust someone whose mind worked in such a different way to her own?
He inhaled deeply and got to his feet. ‘One minute,’ he muttered.
He disappeared, returning shortly with a large envelope. He handed it to her. ‘Here. This is my copy of your conviction. Take it.’
CHAPTER FIVE
DAMIÁN SAW THE hesitation before Mia took the envelope from him.
‘This is proof I have no intention of using it against you.’ He sat back down and stared into her wide, disbelieving eyes. ‘I only wanted it for the information it contained. You will have to take my word that I made no copies.’
Expecting her to automatically demand proof regardless of his assurance, he was pleasantly surprised when she continued staring at him, time stretching between them, before the shadow of a smile curved her cheeks.
‘Thank you,’ she said simply, and laid the envelope on the table. Biting into her bottom lip, she said, ‘If your communications are being monitored, how can you be sure Emiliano hasn’t seen it and copied it?’
His chest filled, although whether it was because she seemed to have actually taken his word for something or her mention of his brother he couldn’t say. He still couldn’t believe he’d given her that information. ‘My security team have provided me with a state-of-the-art phone which they monitor for me. Everything concerning you has been done through it. I have used Felipe and his team for my security needs for over a decade and I trust them implicitly. It was them who discovered my communications had been hacked.’
Her eyes held his for a little longer before she nodded, seemingly accepting his assurance and, masterfully keeping her glass straight, curled back into the sofa. ‘Okay, so what do you want to know about me?’
Everything...
The wayward thought caught him off-guard, and he had another drink of his beer while he composed his thoughts. ‘Your family. Tell me about them.’
‘There’s not much to tell. We’re just normal.’
‘Define normal?’
‘Well, Amy and I never call our mum by her first name. And we don’t need to make an appointment to see her. And I don’t think she’s following me or hacking into my communications. That kind of normal.’
Damián had no idea why this obvious slight against his family and dig at his situation, something he would normally take as a heinous crime, made him laugh.
As a man who rarely found humour in life, hearing his own laughter sounded strange to his ears.
‘Is Amy older or younger than you?’
‘Two years younger.’
‘Any other siblings?’
‘No.’
‘Is Amy an actress too?’
‘She’s just qualified as a nurse.’ Mia said this with unmistakable pride. ‘Our mum works as a school teaching assistant. See? Normal. I grew up in a three-bedroom semi-detached house in an old market town where nothing much happened, all very ordinary and...’
‘Normal?’ he supplied with a quirk of his brow. Unbelievably, he found himself relaxing, something that was as alien to him as the sound of his laughter. Maybe it was the soft lighting or the way Mia had relaxed into the sofa, the two of them conversing as...well, not friends, but not foes either.
She sniggered. ‘Exactly.’
‘What about your father? What does he do?’
She had a quick drink before answering. ‘He died nine years ago.’
The lightness of their conversation darkened in an instant.
‘Oh.’ He blinked. ‘I’m sorry.’
Her smile became brittle. ‘Don’t be. It was a long time ago.’
But the pain was still there. He could see it in the way her knees pulled closer to her chest and in the sudden tautness of her features.
‘How did he...?’ He found the question flailing on his tongue.
‘Die?’ She swallowed but the brittle smile remained. ‘His car broke down on the motorway. He was trying to pull over to the hard shoulder when he was hit by a lorry.’ She had another drink. ‘He didn’t stand a chance.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he repeated. With his own father having recently died suddenly—although not unexpectedly as he’d suffered ill health—his chest twisted to imagine the devastation it had wrought.
‘The coroner said he died instantly so that’s a comfort. He didn’t suffer.’
No, he thought. The dead didn’t suffer. It was the ones left behind who bore the suffering.
‘What was he like?’ he asked.
Her tight frame loosened and her features softened. ‘He was wonderful. He was a physics teacher and mad as a box of frogs. Very loving and very funny and hugely intelligent. He doted on us.’