Varo. Six foot four inches of brick shithouse Varo. Nina’s bodyguard I hired and now lived just feet away from her while I remained here thousands of miles away Varo. If he had said West, I might have been able to handle it. At least I could believe Nina would never want him. But Varo wasn’t as easily dismissed.
“No.”
“Before you say no, hear me out. He’s there already, so it wouldn’t be much to just have him move into the house. Once or twice out for dinner for the press and I think that would do it.”
“No.”
Sitting back in his chair, he let out a frustrated sigh and made a clucking noise with his tongue. “You’re not thinking clearly, Tristan. How do you plan to keep her safe? We’ve been lucky so far, but it’s only a matter of time before Karl begins to focus on her. With Varo, we know we can trust him, he can keep her safe, and it could buy us some time to do our own research into what Karl wants.”
“She’ll never go for it,” I mumbled, trying to convince myself as much as convince Daryl.
“She’ll go for it if I tell her you need her to. Unless you have a better plan in mind, I say we do it.”
I sat there unable to think of anything to replace Daryl’s stupid idea. My brain was filled with the thought of Nina and Varo. Even their pretending to be a couple made my gut churn with jealousy.
“Only if we set some ground rules. He doesn’t touch her, he remains in the carriage house, and they only pose for the press twice. No more.”
Daryl shook his head. “That won’t work. He has to move into the house with her if the deception is to be believable. He can stay in another room, but he has to be in the house.”
I knew he was right. Karl would never believe Nina had moved on if her new supposed boyfriend still lived in the carriage house with West. Somehow the press would find out, and then the whole thing would be blown. It’s just the idea of Varo living in my house, taking my place, acting like the man in her life now nearly drove me out of my mind.
“Tristan, don’t you trust her? After all she’s done to show you she’s devoted to your life together, you can’t believe she’ll be loyal in this?”
My demons screamed “No!” inside me, threatening to take over my thoughts until I couldn’t think straight. I’d never been the master of my jealous nature, and having another man living in my house filling my shoes when I should be there next to Nina wasn’t something I was able to handle.
“It has nothing to do with that, Daryl. Can you imagine what it feels like to know that another man will be with the woman you love while you have to stay away from her side? As if it wasn’t bad enough I can’t go back to her, now I have to agree to being replaced?”
Standing, he looked down at me in sympathy and nodded. “I get it, but it’s only for show and not for long. We just have to move fast to find out what there is at the heart of Karl’s secrets so Nina’s pretend relationship may only have to be those two dinner dates.”
Relationship. Dates.
Fuck me.
“Fine. Tell her I think this is for the best,” I bit out.
“Good, but that’s probably not going to be enough. I think you’re going to have to tell her. Oh, and no matter what she does—no matter how many times she calls you or texts you—I need you to keep your distance. This only works if she believes in this. Any sense of how much you hate this and she won’t be able to do it.”
“Fine, but how am I going to tell her?”
Daryl pointed to the notebook on the table. “Write her something. I’ll take it to her.”
I found a sheet of paper in an old desk and quickly wrote her a note telling her to pretend to be in love with someone else, my heart feeling like it was being squeezed in a vice the entire time. My notes to Nina always had been to show her how much she meant to me, and each word I wrote added to my betrayal of something I’d only done out of love before. Handing it to him, I silently prayed to God she wouldn’t be able to do it. That we’d have to figure something else out that didn’t involve her pretending to be another man’s date, or worse, girlfriend. Something that didn’t involve the woman I loved acting like I was dead.
“I’ll be back. It’s time you got the hell out of this place. We’ve got work to do.” He headed toward the door as I began to spiral out of control and stopped as he opened it. “Hey, she wanted me to give you a message.”
“What?” I asked, my heart pounding against my ribs.
“She said she’ll be waiting. Don’t worry, Tristan. Your life is waiting for you when you get back.”