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‘I need you to buy me time to find the heirloom.’
The speed of Gigi’s response suggested she’d given it a lot of thought. Which was either a good thing or a bad thing. ‘Fine. Give me this guy’s number and I’ll—’
‘No. Jeez, Gids, you think I’d be calling you if a simple phone call would’ve cut it?’
‘Then—?’
‘I need you to distract him by pretending to be me for a few days while I try to find his item,’ Gigi blurted.
‘What?No. Absolutely not! You can’t compound taking and losing his property by tossing subterfuge on top of it!’
‘So you’re saying I should just show up empty-handed and confess and hope he doesn’t destroy my career or press charges against me?’
For the first time in a long time, Giada heard real desperation in her sister’s voice. ‘Gigi...’
‘I know I don’t have a PhD like you or some hotshot CEO but I know I can be a great fixer.’ Her laugh was alarmingly self-deprecating. ‘Hell, I do it for free for my friends all the time. All I’m asking is your help in fixing my mistake, Gids. He won’t know who you are because you, shockingly, have zero social media presence. Trust me, I checked. Plus, only like...two people know I have a twin. So...please?’
Giada shut her eyes as her sister’s plea bit into that vulnerable spot in her heart. As dread feathered down her spine.
Because she knew what her response was going to be even before she’d taken her next breath.
‘How hard is it to find a slip of a woman who likes to give Bacchus a run for his money in the drinking stakes? Have you checked the cocktail bars on the French Riviera?’ Alessio growled into the phone, his temper nearing simmering point.
These days, he prided himself on remaining unruffled. He expressedsomeemotions, sure. But letting any particular one—anger, bitterness—gain precedence over another?
Never. Not anymore.
There was a time when he’d been a slave to his emotions. But he’d learned, over long and arduous years, that there was untold advantage in doing the opposite. That his enemies writhed in indecision, wariness and suspicion when he displayed zero emotion. Just the way he wanted them. Those three flaws without fail granted him a means to exploit the chink in their armour that led to their downfall.
It’d served him well.
Except now he couldn’t locate calm to save his life. Especially since all he heard at the end of the phone was nervous silence. ‘Speak!’
A throat cleared. ‘Apologies,signor. We’ve kept an eye on her usual haunts and explored many more. We’ve come up with nothing. She hasn’t posted anything on her social media in over a week and she didn’t go back to her apartment after her night out five days ago. My men searched the apartment, but we came up empty for the item.’
‘So what you’re saying is she’s sniffed you out and gone to ground?’
‘It seems so,’ his trusted employee admitted with much chagrin.
While Alessio was furious at the outcome, he experienced the tiniest sliver of admiration for Gigi Parker. Perhaps he shouldn’t have dismissed the airhead socialite quite so quickly. The team of fixers he’d sent after her were top-notch. Not his absolute best—they were currently engaged in another important task of ferreting out the last of his family’s enemies and ensuring the final traps were properly laid for the reckoning he intended to deliver.
After years of meticulous planning, the perfect timing had been set—his mother’s favourite time of year.
But he realised he’d underestimated Gigi. The flighty woman who’d imagined she could cajole and seduce her way into a job with him had some depth after all. At their meeting three months ago, he’d used the short ash-blonde hair, bold make-up and skimpy, thigh-skimming dresses to prejudge her.
His ultimate opinionhadbeen cemented during the woeful fifteen-minute interview he’d had the misfortune of enduring with her. Perhaps if he’d stretched it to the full hour...?
Alessio dismissed the thought. It didn’t matter. Yes, he’d been busy chasing the last cog in the wheel of restoring his family’s honour and had taken his eye off the ball. But she’d stolen from him on a frivolous whim because she didn’t get what she wanted.
Even worse, the Cresta Montaldi, the item she’d petulantly helped herself to, was one he’d spent the better part of a decade trying to retrieve.
There was no coming back from that.
If only Massimo could’ve been trusted to do his part, Alessio wouldn’t be juggling a dozen balls in the air. How was it that the only person he came within a whisker of trusting turned out to be his playboy brother who didn’t care a jot about the vendetta that had driven Alessio all his life?
He gritted his teeth and was about to issue a new set of ultimatums when the other man spoke. ‘We talked to one of her friends. He said that she had plans to go to Switzerland. To Gstaad specifically.’
Surprise jolted him, then suspicion surged high.
