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‘I have thought about what you said about feeling adrift,’ he continued, ‘and I understand that you might not want to move to Greece to work, but a long weekend in Anapliró could mean a whole new start.’
He told her the whole deal then. How her wardrobe, travel and accessories would ‘naturally’ be accounted for. But it was the cash figure he offered that had her frowning.
‘Not enough?’ Costa checked, as if this was a negotiating tactic.
But she watched his cynicism dim with her next words.
‘Costa, it would change my life.’
It truly would. For it was enough to pay for accommodation while she looked for other work. Enough to get the hell out of this place and for the first time in her adult life to breathe without fear. But...
‘You yourself warned me to be more careful,’ she told him. ‘How do I know that I’m not just walking straight back into trouble?’
‘I can have it all put in writing if you so choose.’
‘As if that would help me!’ Mary gave a hollow laugh. ‘I’m sure you have a team of lawyers at your disposal.’
‘Perhaps, but although this is strictly a business deal, I have ensured that it benefits us both.’
For so many years Mary had chosen to stay quiet, but with him she more easily found her voice, and now she said what she guessed few would ever dare. ‘I imagine you once said the same to Eric Ridgemont. Have you told him yet that you’re pulling out of whatever deal it is you agreed with him?’
‘That’s none of your business.’
‘Actually, it is.’ Mary watched a muscle leap in his cheek, but he didn’t scare her the way Eric had, or Coral did, or the way life tended to at times. ‘Isn’t a gentleman’s word supposed to be his bond?’
He nodded curtly.
‘From where I was sitting the other night, it looked as if Eric was about to get badly burnt.’
‘Forget it,’ Costa said, and abruptly stood up. He felt as though she had her teeth lodged in his Achilles’ heel. ‘It was just a suggestion. Thank you for your time.’
But Mary was a brand of trouble he had never before encountered, for instead of stalking out he found himself pausing. Then he turned around.
‘I have just come from meeting Ridgemont and, yes, I have told him. I don’t generally go back on my word.’
‘I can only go on what I’ve seen.’
‘I have my reasons.’
He was aware that she had seen him poised with a wrecking ball on Saturday night. The same wrecking ball he had delivered this very afternoon. But while she was right to question him—and he admired her for it—Costa was hesitant to answer her.
‘I have never discussed this with another living soul,’ he said at last.
Mary knew that feeling only too well. ‘We all have our secrets.’
He looked at those stunning blue eyes and knew she was asking him to trust her. He felt compelled to find it within himself to do it.
‘You were right about us going back further than fifteen years.’ He paused, still so loath to share his sordid past. ‘What you don’t know, and neither does he, is that he walked over my mother.’
‘Meaning?’
‘Exactly that. I was working at a marina. My mother worked there too, and she had an attack.’ He saw Mary frown and explained. ‘She has MS, and for the first time she had lost her vision. It was temporary—not that she knew that at the time. She collapsed. Your boyfriend just stepped over her body on the ground.’
‘Please don’t call him that.’
‘Yourclient, then.’
And now her eyes were as blue as the midday sky of home, and he was right back there, reliving that day.
