Guarding Antonia Read online

  Or so he thought.

  Finding out that they were still married should’ve had him running to his former lawyer’s office, abusing the shit out of them for their incompetence. Instead, he found he wanted to thank them for giving him a second chance at a marriage that shouldn’t have been.

  Problem was, it looked like he was the only one who wanted a second chance.

  Chapter 2

  Antonia sipped her cup of coffee and gazed out the window of her second story apartment overlooking the complex’s pool. It was certainly a better view than the alley full of dumpsters she’d had in New York.

  Sleep had been elusive the previous evening. After escaping from T-Rex and Brielle’s party she’d gotten home and wrapped herself up in her favorite blanket, knitted by her Nonna, and stared at the blank television screen while eating a gallon of chocolate ice cream. She didn’t trust herself to put the TV on. In her state, her night would’ve likely included a Hallmark channel binge while she cried into her Ben and Jerry’s as couple after couple got their happily ever after.

  Like her life needed anymore of those. How was it possible that in little over a year so many of the people she’d met had found their soulmates? While she’d come face to face with her biggest mistake.

  Her sexiest mistake.

  The best thing that had ever happened to her, if she let it.

  Antonia squashed that thought. The less she let herself think about Robot, especially a naked Robot, the better for her sanity.

  How could they still be married? It didn’t seem possible that a law firm could be so careless as to not file important papers like an annulment with the Court. They were messing with people’s lives.

  Geez, it was lucky in the two years since that fateful night in Vegas she hadn’t fallen in love and gotten married.

  God, how embarrassing would it be to be getting ready to marry the love of her life only to find out she was still married. Try explaining that one away. As it was, she’d kept her dirty little secret to herself.

  A sigh rippled through her and she finished off the contents of her mug. Shaking off the melancholy that crept into her like an insidious virus since Robot broke the news to her yesterday, this annulment needed to be a priority. After she got ready for work, her first plan of action would be to look up the law firm and see if she couldn’t get this mess sorted out herself.

  The sound of her cell ringing beside her interrupted the early morning quiet and a quick glance at the screen told her it was Erin calling.

  If she picked it up, she’d get the Spanish Inquisition for bugging out of the party early. If she didn’t pick up, her friend would probably get worried and send Carlos or someone else over to check to see if she was all right. And with her her luck, it would be Robot turning up on her doorstep.

  Antonia snatched the phone up and accepted the call. “Hey, Erin, you’re up early.”

  Seriously? You’re just asking for her to play twenty questions with you.

  She shushed the voice in her head, so she could focus on what Erin was saying.

  “I have a two month old, I won’t be able to sleep in for the next eighteen years. Plus, it wasn’t too long ago that I was getting up at the ass crack of dawn to go to work.”

  “True, how is my godson?”

  “Cranky. I think he was handed around too much yesterday and now I’m paying for it.”

  Antonia laughed, recalling the way the big bad Navy SEALS had been passing around both Kieran and Emma like they were footballs. As much as she wanted to deny it, seeing Robot holding a baby, a huge smile on his face had warmed her insides. He would make a great father.

  Just not a father to her own child.

  Liar.

  “Maybe you should get Carlos to look after his son today and you can go get a massage or something,” Antonia said in an attempt to douse the image of Robot and a blue eyed baby.

  “Oh, I would love that,” Erin sighed. “But it’s not possible, he’s already left for the day.”

  Hearing the tiredness in her friend’s voice, Antonia came to a decision. “How about I call the office and say I’ll be working from home today and come over and watch Kieran?”

  A loud sniff sounded down the line. “You’d do that for me?”

  “Of course, I would. You’re my best friend. I got your back.”

  “You’ve been hanging around SEALS too long, Toni,” Erin responded, tears clogging her voice.

  It took a second for Antonia to comprehend what Erin was saying. “Takes one to know one.”

  Yeah, that was a path she didn’t want to travel down and examine too closely. She looked out the window again, leaning closer to the glass. A flash of the early morning sun glinted off something metallic looking.

  What is that?

  She squinted as if that would help her to focus on what she thought she saw. There, in the far corner of the pool deck by the changing rooms, hidden by the short squatty trees, she could make out a couple. They appeared to be having an argument. The woman’s face was obscured so all she could make out was one denim clad leg and part of her pale pink top. Antonia had no idea if she was a resident or not.

  The guy was muscular, also wearing jeans, with a black t-shirt that had some sort of emblem on the back, but she was too far away to make it out. He had longish dark hair which fell across his face.

  She’d lived in New York long enough to know the best thing to do when confronted with something like this—look away and ignore whatever the hell was happening. This situation looked threatening and one she would be wise to let play out without getting involved.

  “Run,” Antonia whispered, though in her head she was yelling. It appeared like the woman’s assailant had her in a tight grip. The guy looked around and up in Antonia’s direction quickly before facing the woman again. Her grip tightened around her mug and her stomach churned a little.

  Had he seen her?

  Did he register anything when he looked her way?

  Like watching a replay in slow motion, Antonia saw the guy raise his arm, a wicked looking knife in his hand confirming the flash of steel she thought she saw earlier had been real and not a figment of her imagination.

  A gasp escaped out of her as he plunged the knife into the woman, before pulling it out and repeating the action over and over. The coffee she’d just drunk swirled and tumbled in her stomach. Bile rose up in her throat and she swallowed hard, pushing it back down.

  “Oh my God. Oh my God,” she cried out. The words echoed in her mind even after she’d finished saying them.

  As if the guy who’d just killed a woman in cold blood heard her cries, he looked up again in her direction as he wiped the knife on his shirt. A self-satisfied smug smile on his face.

  For half a heartbeat, she was frozen to the spot as if cold ice had crept out of the floor and wound around her feet. She finally came to her senses and ducked down behind the kitchen counter, hoping and praying he hadn’t seen her. Bile rose in her throat as her heart pounded so violently she worried it would pop out of her chest. Her rasping breaths were harsh and erratic.

  “Antonia! What’s wrong.” The cries came from far away. She looked around and saw her phone had slipped from her grasp and lay on the tiled floor beside her. Her fingers trembled as she reached over to pick it up.

  “I-I-I think I just saw someone murdered,” she whispered, as if afraid the guy was going to hear her and come for her.

  “What?” Erin’s high-pitched screech had her pulling the phone away from her ear. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes.” Antonia pulled her knees up, resting her head on them not sure what to do. As much as she wanted to look out the window again, she didn’t want to risk being seen, in case the guy was still hanging around. But she couldn’t let her fear stop her from confirming what she thought she’d seen.

  “You need to be a hundred percent sure you saw what you did, Toni. This is serious.” Her friend sounded in control of herself now. The calm tones exactly what she ne
eded.

  “Tell me something I don’t already know.”

  “Did you see who did it? Can you identify the person if you have to?” Erin peppered her with questions. Questions she didn’t want to answer, but knew she had to.

  “I only caught a quick look at him. I don’t think he saw me, but I can’t be certain. My mind is blank at the moment.”

  She closed her eyes and thought for sure that would help her to picture the guy’s face, but there was nothing, just black as if her mind had totally wiped the event from her memory bank. She blinked a few times and her kitchen came back into focus.

  Had another resident seen it as well? Or was she the only one? Maybe it wasn’t what she thought it was. Maybe he didn’t really stab the woman, and it was one of those fake magician knives that retracted when coming in contact with the body.

  Yeah, that works because you totally didn’t see him wiping blood on his shirt.

  Well, at least she knew her sarcastic inner voice was on the case. Maybe she could get her subconscious to deal with it.

  A hysterical laugh bubbled up inside of her and she swallowed it down. Laying her head against the kitchen cupboard, she wished she’d stayed in bed. Tossing and turning would’ve been preferable to the situation she now found herself thrown in.

  “Toni, are you still there?” Erin’s insistent voice blew through her desire for her morning to start off differently.

  “Yeah, I’m still here.”

  “Where are you exactly?”

  “In my kitchen. I thought I might look out the window again.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I think I should let Carlos know what’s going on.”

  “No,” Antonia exclaimed. God, the last thing she wanted or needed was her apartment overrun by Navy SEALs, because she knew Carlos wouldn’t turn up alone. After yesterday, she didn’t need to see Robot, not when her mind was in flux over the news he’d dropped on her.

  “Geez, Toni, why are you being so stubborn? You said you saw a murder! And that you think the person who did it saw you. Being alone is the last thing you should be.”

  Yes, Erin was right, but then again, she had no idea if the guy really saw her or not. “Look, maybe I mis-interpreted what I saw. It may not have been a knife.”

  Hadn’t she already been through this scenario with herself? The excuse sounded pathetic. She could totally picture Erin rolling her eyes at her.

  Okay, enough was enough. She’d never cowered from anything in her life and she wasn’t about to start now. She stood up and braced herself to look out the window, hoping against hope that she wouldn’t see a dead body.

  “Fuck.” No such luck.

  “What?”

  Antonia sighed. “I see a body. I’m going to call 9-1-1. I’ll talk to you later.” Without waiting for a response, she disconnected the call.

  She had no idea if someone had already called but it wouldn’t matter. Now, she had no choice, and couldn’t ignore the reality of the situation—she’d witnessed a murder.

  Ten minutes later, she was pacing her small kitchen, her glance continuing to go out the window. The first scream from a resident had come while she’d been on the phone to the 9-1-1 operator. Fortunately, someone had alerted the building super and he’d come out to make sure no one got too close to the victim and not muddy the crime scene.

  God, she’d been watching too many crime shows if she knew stuff like that.

  Her heart leaped into her throat when a loud pounding echoed around her apartment. Logically, she knew it would be the police but a part of her feared that it was the murderer and he’d found out which apartment she lived in.

  Wiping her sweaty palms down her jeans she approached her front door tentatively, attempting not to make any sound in case it was the killer and not the police.

  Looking through the peephole, a mix of relief flowed through her. It wasn’t the murderer, but two cops, one in uniform and a woman in plain clothes.

  She opened the door with hand still shaking. “Good morning, officers. Thanks for coming so quickly.”

  “Good morning, I’m Detective Janet Correa and this is Officer Kirk Patterson. Are you Antonia Rocca? And did you call about a suspected murder in the courtyard?”

  “Yes, that’s me. And yes, I did.” She stepped to the side. “Please come in.”

  The two crossed her threshold and before she shut the door, she looked down the hallway in both directions. Nothing but the narrow grey carpeted hall and closed doors.

  Sighing to loosen her tense shoulders, she closed and locked her door, then secured the chain.

  They still stood behind her and she pasted a smile on her face as she faced them. Was that stupid to smile in the midst of a murder investigation?

  Her nerves were tumbled together tighter than a ball of yarn. “Um, do you want to come through to the kitchen?” She had no idea what to do, and, for the first time in recent memory, she wished she had someone beside her. Someone she could lean on and take point on this interview.

  An image of Robot flashed in her mind, but she quickly banished it. She couldn’t afford to let herself get too close to him. It didn’t matter that they had a piece of paper saying they were married, they were as far from a married couple as Piglet and Eeyore.

  “The kitchen is where you witnessed the suspected homicide?” Detective Correa asked. Seeing as she was the one doing most of the talking, Antonia assumed she was taking the lead on the investigation.

  “Yes, come this way.” She brushed past the officers and strode down the hallway into the kitchen.

  Detective Correa walked straight over to the window and gazed out. “So, you were standing here when you witnessed the crime?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I was drinking a coffee, talking to my friend on the phone. I glanced out the window and thought I saw a glint of metal. I leaned a little closer and then saw a couple arguing.”

  “Did you get a good look at them?”

  Antonia noted that Officer Patterson had pulled out a notepad and was taking notes.

  “Well,” she started and then paused, closing her eyes again to see if she could conjure up the events of an hour ago. Vague pictures flashed across her mind. For some reason her mind wasn’t letting her remember all the little details. Perhaps she was trying too hard. “I couldn’t really see the woman, she was hidden by the trees. And I know the guy looked up, but at the moment my mind doesn’t seem to be cooperating with me to remember everything.”

  The cops nodded, and Officer Patterson made some more notes. Detective Correa peered out the window again, before turning to her. “If you—” she broke off when a loud pounding on her front door echoed through the apartment.

  The police’s demeanor changed in a flash, both straightening, their hands going to their holstered guns. “Wait here, ma’am,” Officer Patterson stated.

  Before she could respond there was another loud knock before. “Antonia, it’s Robot, let me in.”

  “Oh geez,” she groaned. Of course, it had been wishful thinking to assume Erin wouldn’t have told Carlos what had happened. And no way would Carlos not have told his team lead. They’d probably been together when Erin called.

  “You know this Robot person?” asked Officer Patterson.

  “Yeah, he’s a friend. Let me go let him in before he breaks down the door.” She rushed out of the kitchen down the hallway, pulling the chain and unlocking the door. The second she opened it, six burly men stormed into the apartment. She plastered herself against the wall to stop from getting trodden on.

  “Looks like you have your own protection detail, ma’am.” Detective Correa commented with a wry smile.

  Antonia swallowed the words she wanted to blurt out, instead she smiled and nodded. What she had was six interfering men who always had to be in control.

  If the SEAL team had any regrets for the way they barged in, they didn’t show it. Her apartment wasn’t huge to start off with, but with Robot’s team and the two police officers standin
g around, it felt more like a matchbox.

  “Okay, SEAL team, go into my living room while I finish up with the police. I’ll deal with you in a few.”

  The men smiled before heading her request. All but Robot, who widened his stance and crossed his arms over his chest, giving the impression of an immovable rock wall. She narrowed her eyes at him and cocked her head to indicate he follow his team. His lips firmed into an even straighter line.

  Damn him, he wasn’t budging. Did she really think he would?

  Maybe not, but she hoped he might.

  “Is he bothering you, ma’am?” Detective Correa asked, and she had to bite back a laugh at the image of the police officer trying to remove a Navy SEAL.

  Robot took two steps until he was standing by her and he stared down the cop. “I’m her husband. I’m staying.”

  Antonia gasped at Robot’s admission. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she hissed at him. She looked around to make sure none of his team heard him. Thankfully the area was empty, but her apartment wasn’t huge, and Robot hadn’t done anything to keep his voice down.

  Great, this day was getting worse and worse.

  “If you’re her husband, why weren’t you here with her this morning?” The detective looked around the room. “There’s no indication you reside here. Why should we believe you, considering Ms. Rocca’s reaction to your declaration?”

  Well, Antonia could be thankful the police hadn’t immediately taken Robot’s word as gospel.

  Robot shrugged his impressive shoulders. “It’s a long and complicated story, but the fact of the matter remains, I’m legally her husband and I’m staying with her while you question her further.”

  “Ms. Rocca can you confirm this, please? Is this man your husband?”

  Talk about being pushed into a corner with no way out, but Antonia had no plans to lie to the police officers and end up in trouble. “Yes, he’s my husband. Technically.”