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‘You were rude, then?’
Leo didn’t look up. ‘It’s possible.’
He heard Danny sigh. ‘I was about to call you back anyway. You have bigger problems to contend with right now.’
Leo went still at his EA’s ominous tone. Bohze, not another site problem.
He didn’t ask, just waited for Danny to continue. But instead of saying anything, Danny handed him a pink sheet of paper with tiny coloured flowers dotted along the top.
Leo read the brief message and his foul mood plummeted.
‘You’re not serious?’
‘It seems so. I haven’t been able to reach her by phone.’
‘Have you had Security try to track her down?’
‘They’re on it but no luck so far. She says she’s heading to Spain.’
‘I can read.’
A heavy silence fell between them and Leo scanned the note once again to make sure he hadn’t been mistaken.
Then he leaned back in his chair and rubbed the back of his neck, feeling his muscles bunch but not release. He crumpled the pink paper in his fist and lobbed it across the room. ‘How many hours do we have?’
‘Two. The childcare centre closes at five.’
Leo swore under his breath and jerked to his feet.
‘It’s only for the long weekend. She’ll be back on Monday,’ Danny added, highlighting the only positive in the message.
Leo stared out of his office window and watched the London Eye do a lazy circuit in the glittering summer sunshine. The wharf was a hive of teeming tourists probably spending more money than they had and he’d gladly hand over half of his vast fortune to any one of them if they could solve his current problem.
Four years ago he’d met a young model at Brussels Airport when all flights had been grounded due to inclement weather. Leo hadn’t even thought twice about it. Beautiful, more-than-willing woman, long night. It made sense.
Her wanting to get pregnant to a rich stranger still didn’t. The woman in question had been on the hunt for a rich husband instead of a rich career and had deliberately used a tampered condom. Three months later she’d come to him and told him the ‘good’ news.
She’d been hoping for a ring. What she’d got was a house and a monthly allowance once paternity had been confirmed.
Leo wasn’t father material. He had blood running through his veins he had never intended to pass on. The fact that this model—Amanda Weston—had duped him had made him crazy. After the fog had cleared and logic had returned he’d done the honourable thing. He’d covered all her financial expenses and made her promise to keep the boy as far away from him as possible. He might have inadvertently given someone life but he wasn’t about to completely stuff it up by being part of the child’s life as well.
Recollections of his own childhood danced at the edges of his mind like circus performers wielding brightly coloured batons with which to prod him. First the death of three of his men had reminded him of the horrendous circumstances surrounding his beloved uncle’s death and now the prospect of having to care for his three-year-old son was bringing up even worse memories. His mother. His father. His brother.
With ruthless determination Leo banished his memories and refocused on the one thing he could trust. Work.
He turned back to Danny. ‘What’s happening with the Thessaly ethanol plant?’
‘So, you still haven’t said. Are you going to Paris this weekend with Simon, or not?’
Lexi stopped trying to put the wheel back on a broken toy truck and looked over at her best friend and business partner, Aimee Madigan.
Aimee had one eye on the group of kids enjoying free play at the Little Angels childcare centre they had started together two years ago and the other on the yarn she was carefully winding back into a ball. ‘And please don’t tell me you have to work,’ her friend added with a sense of resigned certainty.
Lexi grimaced. She was supposed to be heading to Paris for the long weekend with a guy she’d been seeing casually for two months. And no doubt Simon would expect their relationship to advance to the next stage—sex—but Lexi wasn’t convinced that was such a good idea.
She had let herself be worn down by a man’s pursuit once before and the experience still left a bitter taste in her mouth. Only she didn’t really want to be worn down. The truth was, her life was wonderful as it was; she’d let herself be weakened once before by a man’s pursuit and the experience still left a bitter taste in her mouth. ‘You know the second centre is at a crucial stage of the planning. If I don’t get the loan approved in the next week or so, we won’t have one.’
‘I take it things didn’t go so well then with Darth Vader this morning?’
