The Devil to Pay (15 page)

Shock froze his spine rigid.
Silvio...the bastard
. “You didn’t say anything about this at the function.”

“I trusted you like you told me to, trusted you to know what you were doing. I believed you when you said everything would be all right.” She laughed bitterly. “I left my ego at the door. And my self-respect in the gutter. I kept my incompetent little mouth shut.”

“You should never have found out—it wasn’t necessary—and it’s not important. Silvio was just stirring things up.”

“It wasn’t
necessary
? Not
important
?” She angrily leapt up from the sofa. “Can’t you see how insulting you are?”

Her anger took him by surprise and it looked like he’d made a big mistake. “OK, it was wrong of me. It shouldn’t have happened, a white lie. It wouldn’t have changed the outcome in any case.”

“And you’re sure of that are you?” She crossed her arms tightly across her chest and glared at him hard. “Of course, you’re sure, Daniel, it’s obvious now, how silly of me. The quarry was never going to be saved whatever I did, because you hate it, because you want rid of it and nothing was ever going to change that. You planned this outcome all along.”

“Don’t be so melodramatic. That’s not true.”

“So why
did
you delay the board meeting for a week?” Her expression was cold. “I know why: you put the meeting back to make me and the quarry look bad, to make it seem like we couldn’t hack it, like we’re amateurs, unprofessional, unfit to run the place. You also wanted to get me into bed, to take everything I have to offer before packing me off back home to a place you never intend setting foot in again.”

“It takes two, Rianna,” he muttered. “I don’t remember you complaining too much when I was on top of you last night.”

“It’s only just occurred to me I was being
used
. Used as a sex toy for a week, a plaything, a rub for your massive ego. Silvio Gozzi may be slime, but he’s opened my eyes to what you really are.”

“And what am I?”

“A user.” Her eyes narrowed as she took a sharp breath. “And a
loser
. Look at you with your expensive cars and empty bachelor pad. You didn’t need to get a degree anyway. Daddy was always there to bail you out and give you a job. You’ve no idea what it’s like to live in the real world, Daniel. People like me can only dream of the advantages you’ve had in life. And then wasted.”

“So let’s talk about people in the
real world
shall we? Specifically your own dear honest down-to-earth family.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Users and losers. You seem to be surrounded by them. Generations of children abandoned by feckless parents and left to fend for themselves or rely on the goodwill of others.” His heart rate began to pick up. “Your brother doesn’t seem too bothered about dumping
his
on you,” he muttered darkly, the accusation sounding more unkind than he intended.

“You know nothing about my brother or the circumstances,” she replied sharply. “It’s a mess—”

“No, I don’t, but let me guess,” he snapped. “How many years is he banged up for? I assume he’s inside jail for some reason. What was it? Drugs? Assault? Fraud? Or is it the simple fact he’s just run away from his responsibilities? Just like his woman, the one who brought those poor children into the world.”

“Stop it, Daniel.” Rianna’s voice shook as she stood up and paced the room angrily. “Stop now before you say something really stupid.”

“Like what exactly?” He glared across with simmering anger. “Something like telling you he’s a low-life misfit who takes you for granted? You don’t want to hear me say he will bleed you dry financially until there’s nothing left, do you? But he will and then he’ll move on to his next victim.” He thrust his hands hard into his trouser pockets. “Wise up, Rianna, and stop being a wretched doormat just because he’s blood. He’ll ditch you in the end just like your mother did.”

“Quite a speech, Daniel,” she murmured, pale and shaking after a few tense seconds. “So perhaps it’s time you shut your opinionated mouth and listened to
me
.”

“Be my guest.”

Her voice wavered. “My brother Bill can’t look after his children right now as he’s receiving intensive therapy—”

“
Intensive therapy
,” he affected a harsh laugh. “
Rehab,
don’t you mean? I knew there’d be drugs involved somewhere.”

“How dare you!” Rianna’s face blazed, her eyes bright with pewter fire. “Bill’s had a complete breakdown as a result of losing his wife. She was swept away trying to save their children from the tsunami in Malaysia last year. She managed to get them both to the jetty where he was and pass them up to him, but it started to collapse under the force of the floodwater. He couldn’t do anything but hold on to the kids and watch her disappear in the current. Bill and the children made it to safety, she didn’t. Hundreds were in the same situation, and there was nothing he could do, but he can’t come to terms with it. He can’t get over the fact he survived and she didn’t.” Her voice cracked. “He loved her very much.”

Daniel felt a flash of sickness well up inside him and turned his back to lean against a window ledge. He’d screwed this up badly. “I can only apologise for what I just said. I’m sorry. I hadn’t the slightest idea—”

“How did you know about my mother?”

“I ran some checks on you last week. After the mistaken identity business, I didn’t want to be made to look a fool again.”

“My file says she’s dead.”

“I was thorough. My people looked beyond the quarry files. There’s no death registered, no missing person... I’m sorry. I had to do it.” From the window, the sun burned into his shoulders. Its heat like a branding iron. “The assault allegations are still on record, as well.”

“I was too small to remember all that. Gran said Mum and Dad fought a lot, but whether it ever went to court, I have no idea.”

“Not your mother. The assault on you.”

“Me?”

“Gareth William Afon, thirty-two, divorced, unemployed, currently living with his mother—”

“That’s enough.”

“He beat you up! I assume he was the married one, your boss. And then there’s the engagement notice in
The Taff’s Weir Chronicle
. Elwyn Stanley Phuge, Master Builder, church deacon—”

“I said that’s enough!”

“Three men in your life: a violent drunk, a married man—also violent—and a pervy creep you almost married. It’s looking quite lovely, your real world, Rianna,” he continued and glared at her. “I’ll bet you can’t wait to get back.” His neck jerked back uncomfortably as she wiped away a tear. He hadn’t anticipated that...

“You’re hateful,” she whispered. “Do you destroy all your women like this when you’ve finished with them?”

“You’re hysterical and I need some space,” he snapped as he swung past her, knocking her sideways as his shoulder collided with hers.

“Be my guest,” she shouted at his back, her voice drenched with bitterness.

His hands gripped the doorframe either side of him with tense white knuckles. He had made a complete mess of this. He had to get out. “The board sold the quarry to me. I’m signing it over to you as soon as the documentation can be drawn up.”

He slammed the door shut behind him and stared at the vase of lilies in the hallway. The impact made a petal drop and as the water rippled, he felt his body shake, too.

****

Daniel paced ferociously up and down the length of the outdoor pool, fists clenched tightly, the heels of his feet crushing into the terrace flagstones. He had behaved despicably back there and had been unable to stop himself getting deeper and deeper into a situation he did not know how to resolve. She had called him a loser. To his face.

No one had ever called him a loser, not even his father in the worst of times.

Such things just didn’t happen to him.

So…

He had no choice but to face up to the unpleasant truth: Rianna despised him and everything he stood for. He hadn’t waited for her reaction to the news that he’d bought the quarry. What was the point when she found him so abhorrent? He was disgusted with himself too, but he hadn’t just been using her for sex. She was wrong there. Maybe in the beginning he had been, but since their first day in Portofino, things had changed. It had gone way beyond the pure physical.

He had to find a way to make it all better, to turn back the clock to the previous night when everything was settled, when she was his and his alone. He needed to sort this out. He crouched next to the water’s edge, rocking backwards and forwards on his heels. If he didn’t act quickly, he would lose her completely.

Would it be so bad? a voice in his head sniped, and he ground his teeth together in an intense moment of self-exploration. He had to be ruthless with himself and face up to the truth, no matter how painful it was.

Losing her would be bad.

It would be worse than the harshest pain he had ever suffered. He knew it now, in the quiet, in the cold stillness, which intensified the fact she wasn’t by his side. He was alone, alone with the thoughts and regrets which would haunt him for the rest of his life if he didn’t act now.

Rianna’s revelation about her brother had caused him to panic, its unexpectedness hitting him with full force, bringing buried memories back into sharp focus. The way she recounted the horror of his loss had sliced through him. If she didn’t hate him already, she would now. The things he’d said about her brother and his wife. If only he’d held his breath for thirty seconds and kept his sour mouth shut.
Dio!
What a mess.

Of all people, he
did
understand the pain, anguish and torment her brother was going through, but he’d clammed up like an idiot and when he could have explained, he had run instead. He’d run away from her to be here, on the edge of the pool he loathed. To the pool that swirled deep and slow all year round, beautiful and lethal. He’d only ever run once before now. He had to tell her why. He had to dredge it all back up again.

His head sank into his hands. This wasn’t going to plan. His carefully sketched-out suggestion on the way back to the villa wasn’t working out. And his plans always worked out. He always got his way. The journey back that afternoon had been full of hope and then, as he had drawn nearer to the villa, it became shrouded with uncertainty. He’d realised he didn’t want her to leave straight away and had attempted to lock his brain into analytical boardroom mode, to get the result he wanted, whatever it took.

Unanswered questions screamed at him. So what
did
he want of her? A month? A year? More? He rubbed his eyes and lifted his gaze to the blue, cloud-free sky and coughed. He couldn’t put a timescale on it, but at the same time, he couldn’t foresee a time when he would be content to let her go.
He had lost control in spite of everything. In spite of everything he had ever believed himself to be: cold, calculated, and immune to the absurd emotion of love...

Then it hit him like a bullet.

He
couldn’t
wave her goodbye. Her memory would haunt him for the rest of his life if he did. Just the thought of not seeing her again, holding her, hearing her voice, made him realise how empty his life would be. What was the point of all this around him anyway? The wealth, the status, the gold and jewels and rocks and stones of the villa, it meant nothing to him. It should never have been his anyway.

He wanted her. He needed her, to possess and protect. Until when, he couldn’t bring himself to consider.

Forever?

“
Dio
.” His body shuddered as if doused with buckets of sharp ice. He had to act now, if he wasn’t already too late. He didn’t know how he would do it, but somehow he had to buy some time. Time to make her see things his way.

Time to persuade her to stay.

Chapter Eleven

Rianna’s bedroom door was ajar and her shabby suitcase lay open on the bed, displaying its familiar grey and black contents. A tangle of shoes, silk and lace lay discarded on an armchair and the sound of clothes hangers rattling filled the air as he marched into the room.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Rianna’s head turned abruptly toward him. She knew her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were rimmed with pink, but she didn’t care anymore. Why should she worry about her appearance for his sake? “What does it bloody look like?”

“I want to apologise for earlier,” he said quickly, a muscle twitching in his jaw. “I shouldn’t have said what I did about your brother and his wife. It was wrong.”

“It was,” she replied flatly and continued to rifle in the wardrobe, her back still turned to him.

“I don’t want you to go, Rianna.”

She stopped for a moment and the air was as still and thick as wet cement. “Well, you don’t always get what you want, Daniel,” she snapped. “It must be quite hard on you to have to face that.”

“You’re talking to me as if I’m a spoiled brat.”

“Aren’t you?” She spun round and glared at him, her hands gripping her hips. “Haven’t you always had things your way? Got things just as you specifically wanted them? If money could buy them, of course.”

“Money buys you very little of any true value.”

“So that’s why you drive one of the most expensive cars in the world and live in a place the world’s elite would fight over.” She huffed out a laugh devoid of humour. “Oh, give me a break.”

“I can get most things paid for, but I don’t have the power of life and death and it never bought me the love and attention I really wanted. Wealth hasn’t bought any of my family true happiness.”

Rianna folded a towel as he stared at her. She was shocked to notice his ashen features and the dark hollows under his eyes.