The Devil to Pay (2 page)

“Me neither.” Rianna replied and felt stunned. Gwen had never called her by her nickname before. She’d always been very formal and proper. This new intimacy made the current crisis feel even more profound. “It would be a disaster.”

This had to be serious. Tomos Bracchi was the easiest going chief executive known to man. There was never any fuss or tension involved. Usually his visits involved little more than an afternoon working his way through a tin of chocolate biscuits, an endless supply of cigars and great big mugs of—

Rianna’s head jerked up. “He doesn’t drink coffee, Gwen.”

“Tomos doesn’t,” she replied, tapping her foot impatiently as she hung on the phone. “But
Daniel
Bracchi most certainly does. They kept it a big secret, but now it’s official. Tomos retired yesterday. We have a new boss. And he’s damn fussy.”

Rianna turned the aluminum handle of the door, easing it open a chink to see Finance Director Mike Pearson’s ashen face as he spoke into his mobile phone.

“Smudge! Thank God!” he blurted and cut the call. “You’ve never done it before, but it would be just my luck if today was the first time you actually phoned in sick.” To Rianna’s astonishment, he marched across the Portakabin floor and flung a clumsy arm across her shoulders, drawing her into the office with an urgent whisper. “You
can
do this.”

Following the silent direction of his gaze, Rianna turned with a growing sense of unease, and it took a few seconds for her vision to adjust, for her brain to take in the tall, dark, male silhouette framed with watery sunlight against the window. She had no time to question why her belly twisted with a wrench of panic as the man slowly rubbed the back of his neck and continued to stare out at the wet concrete buildings opposite.

“Looks like you’ve saved the day, Miss Peters,” the Suit said. “Mr. Pearson’s wife has just gone into labour so there’s no way I’d insist he comes to Portofino with me now.” His broad shoulders began to turn. “Not with twins on the way. So...” His head snapped round quickly, and the rest of his powerful physique followed. The words died on his lips and the air was like lead for a few seconds as his dark brows snapped together. “It’s down to you now.”

****

Daniel Bracchi snatched up a sheaf of paperwork and stared blankly at the front sheet, just to give himself a few seconds to gather his thoughts. To rationalise. To process the facts. To regain his equilibrium and shut down the part of his brain telling him Linda was
here.

Linda, the shop girl!

He’d been working too hard and was beginning to lose his grip on reality. It couldn’t possibly be her. His imagination was going into overdrive! Thinking back, his driver
had
double-checked his request to stop at the godforsaken supermarket again. Fortunately, discretion was a non-negotiable part of his driver’s job. If word got out he was losing his marbles, the company share price would drop even lower...

His eyelashes lifted, and in a microsecond he’d taken a vivid mental snapshot of the woman standing just a few feet away from him. He shook his head in disbelief and turned over another unread page. No doubt about it. It was definitely her. The soft blonde halo of hair framing her face was styled differently, and she was a lot tidier, but those ice-grey eyes gave her away completely.

He had been a fool.

After a restless and unproductive afternoon the previous day, he’d gone back to the supermarket to see if he could get her phone number. In spite of her appalling clumsiness, she’d been the only beautiful thing he’d set eyes on in that stain of a town, and he’d badly needed some female distraction.

But he’d come away with a lot more than he’d bargained for. Daniel flinched inwardly as he recalled the surprise on the kiosk assistant’s face. Her words slashed at his consciousness like a hunting knife:
“Linda? She’s not long gone, love. They had to let her go after all the sick leave she’d had—another baby on the way—terrible sickness. Although how she’s going to manage with three little ones on her own is anyone’s guess. And stuff went missing from the warehouse on her shifts, never any proof of course, but no smoke without fire...”

Daniel suppressed a shiver as he recalled leaving the store as quickly as he could, clutching a cheap bar of candy. It was the first thing he’d seen as he had shrugged off his casual enquiry and mumbled he was “just passing”. His dignity remained intact, but he’d been shocked at what he’d heard. She hadn’t seemed a bit like that... But then what could he possibly know from their brief encounter? She was clearly well-practised in ensnaring unwary males, and it seemed they soon disappeared when they found out what she was really like. For pity’s sake he needed to get a grip. “Your finance director tells me you can make a presentation to the board to convince them the quarry’s still viable. I must warn you, however, they currently have every intention of selling to the highest bidder.” Daniel dropped the paperwork on the desk and then swallowed with irritation as a single sheet slid off the edge on to the floor.

Rianna bent to pick the paper up and he scanned her skin, her hair and her small hands. He then snatched his gaze away before she could notice. “So I trust you can quickly make arrangements to deal with any…
domestic
issues before we fly out this afternoon?”

Rianna slid the errant piece of paper onto the desk. “I have a current passport, if that’s what you mean,” she replied firmly. “
And
a suitcase.”

Daniel felt the corners of his mouth begin to turn up with amusement at her barbed response, but managed to suppress a smile. This was a refreshing change. He wasn’t accustomed to this level of feistiness from a female of the species. A sizzle of excitement flashed through his body at this unexpected lack of fear, swiftly followed by a dull wave of revulsion. The creature had quite a mouth on her as well it seemed and he pictured her yelling obscenities out of a bedroom window as her latest conquest shuffled off into the night. “
Bene
,” he replied smoothly. “Gianpiero, my driver, will collect you at four this afternoon. Please be ready to leave on time as we have a very tight schedule. Now,”—his gaze flickered over her like a searchlight, sweeping her appearance from head to toe and then returned to the paperwork—“I suggest you scoot off home and pack.”

****

It was now patently clear that there was a lot more to
Dan
than she could have possibly imagined. Dressed in an immaculate navy blue suit, crisp white shirt and a silver striped tie, he exuded total power and authority. The jet-black waves of hair Rianna had dreamt of running her fingers through had been freshly tamed into sleek corporate respectability, and the dark shadow of stubble on his jaw from yesterday was completely gone. His
stern expression
was intimidating.

Rianna could feel her cheeks smarting at his last dismissive remark, but she managed to crush her exasperation and be professional.
Mike had obviously said something about her home situation. It was clear from Bracchi’s intonation when he had used the word “domestic”, but she couldn’t let her circumstances jeopardise the future of the quarry. Her boss had been right. She could do this. She
had
to do this, not only for herself but for her dependants and for the other hundred households relying on the business.

She knew it wouldn’t be easy for her gran to take total charge of the two children, but she was sure her relative would understand its importance. In truth, neither of them had any choice in the matter, if Rianna lost this job, the extra wages she picked up from KostKrunch at the weekend wouldn’t even keep them in pull-up diapers.

“Your driver will need my address—”

“He has it already.
That’s
what a Personnel Department is for.” His eyes glittered and his mouth twisted as he handed her a business card. “Just in case you need to contact me in the interim.”

Rianna turned the black and gold card over in her fingers, feeling its heavily embossed quality and absorbing the shock of what was happening. The words leapt out with stunning clarity.

Daniel Bracchi, Chief Executive Officer, Bracchi International...

Rianna focused silently on the card in her hand. Oh yes, Signor Bracchi Jr. had slipped into the role of CEO quite effortlessly and it suited him, but this dark prince was most
definitely
out of her league. She would just have to forget she would be spending a few days away with the very man she had been fantasising over for hours like a lovesick teenager, the man who considered her to be little more than a scruffy oaf.

Rianna looked up to see him watching her intently. He had crossed his arms over his broad chest and was glowering. His eyes flashed suddenly, and she was jolted back to cheek-burning reality as he flicked a dismissive hand in her direction.

“
Via
! Shoo!”

Chapter Two

Rianna dropped her suitcase in front of the living room window so she could see the road outside. It was a narrow street of terraced miners’ cottages built a long time before most people had cars. Parking was a nightmare, and there were frequently raised voices on the issue, not to mention stolen traffic cones and mysterious “disabled parking” zones painted hurriedly under cover of darkness.

It was ironic, but parking was
one
problem she didn’t have. Having no taxed vehicle at her disposal equaled zero hassle, but she
was
concerned about Bracchi’s driver getting any stick. It would be so embarrassing!

“Don’t look so nervous,
bach
!” Her grandmother sat on the edge of the mauve velvet sofa and wrung her hands in direct contradiction to her own advice as the sound of shrieking and flying Lego came from the kitchen. “The kiddies will be fine. Maisie’s taking them to pre-school for the next five mornings and Dai said he’d take them to the park in the afternoon. Uncle Fred’s got a DVD thing from the car boot sale, so it looks like you’re redundant here anyway!”

“Oh, Gran, it’s brilliant how everyone’s rallied round so quickly. I know the kids will be okay, they adore you, but I’m worried about the strain on you. It’s only been a couple of years since your little stroke and you know what the doctor said—”

The older woman smiled broadly and put her hand into the pocket of her pink floral housecoat. “Rubbish and nonsense! Those kids aren’t yours, remember, however protective you are. Now, take this, just to borrow mind—they’re precious to me—but I think they might bring you some luck.” She produced a plain black box and opened it to display a single strand of Venetian crystal beads. “They’ll go with anything,” she said as she handed it over. “And I’ll be very offended if you say no.”

Rianna smiled. Her first reaction was to refuse the loan as her gran knew she would. But those beads... She had always loved them. They weren’t valuable, but they still caught the light in their myriad facets and magnified it many times over with flashes of aqua and crystal petroleum, qualities equaling any of the minerals she had seen at the quarry. They were beautifully clear and sparkled just as they would have done on her grandparents’ wedding day.

She touched their cool hardness for a moment. “Would
Grancha
have minded?”

“Not one bit.” Mrs. Peters sighed. “If your grandfather was still here, he’d be giving you a much better send-off than this. He’d be proud, really he would, proud his best girl has grown up to be so clever and achieved so much with so little.” Rianna swallowed as her grandmother’s eyes shone brightly with the threat of tears. “And don’t you think he’d have been such a good
great grancha
to those little ones?”

“Yes, Nan,” Rianna replied softly and bent to give her a hug. Their silent embrace was brief as within a few seconds, Rianna spotted a black shadow outside the house and quickly snapped the jewellery box shut. “Heck, the car’s here, I’ve got to go.”

“Yes, don’t keep them waiting!”

Rianna pushed the box into her handbag, grabbed her coat and called out toward the kitchen. “Fiona… Gavin…Come wave me off with Nan, will you?”

A blur of snatched kisses and sticky hugs on the wet slate doorstep was Rianna’s farewell, as the dark-suited hulk she assumed was Gianpiero stood waiting by the passenger door of a black Mercedes. The windows were blacked-out and the neighbours’ net curtains went into overdrive. Rianna could almost hear the gossip already: obviously not the welfare officer, so it must be drugs. There would be some almighty inquisitions over the garden fence in the next few hours.

Poking her head around Gianpiero’s vast body for a final wave, she blindly threw her handbag onto the back seat before lowering herself down into its leather confines. The door closed with a luxurious click.

“You almost cost me an hour’s work with that bag of yours, Miss Peters.” Daniel Bracchi’s deep voice sliced into the silence as she turned with horror to see him gesturing at his laptop screen. “It landed like a ton of bricks on the keyboard. What the hell have you got in there?”

The car shifted as the trunk closed down on her suitcase, and Rianna realised she was staring at him open-mouthed like a demented goldfish. “I didn’t realise—” She could feel her entire face pulse with embarrassment. “God, I don’t know what to say, I am
so
sorry!”

He frowned and gestured toward her passenger window. It had been lowered and the cold damp air felt like balm on her hot cheeks. “Say goodbye properly then,” he instructed as Gran smiled weakly and Gavin and Fiona bobbed up and down on the pavement.

Rianna’s heart twisted as they squealed with excitement. It was to be expected, the poor things had never seen such a big, shiny car before. Then she suddenly felt the warmth of Bracchi’s body as he leaned across and stuck his own face out of the window. A prickle of awareness pulsed through her as his large frame pressed her breasts against the cool door trim and the rumble of his voice thundered through her chest wall. She swallowed hard.