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‘She’s headed here? That’s a little too convenient for her to be heading two hours away from my current location, don’t you think? Surely, she wouldn’t be that foolish?’ Unless it was deliberate.
Was she taunting him?
While it wasn’t rife public knowledge, it also wasn’t a secret how much the ruby-encrusted family crest meant to him. With the astronomical sums he’d promised for the heirloom’s retrieval, it’d been whispered about enough for its value to be known.
‘We thought so too but...isn’t it worth exploring? Maybe she’s trying to make contact through your brother?’
Alessio frowned, casting his eyes upwards as if he had X-ray vision that could see through the ceiling into the bedroom where Massimo was currently sleeping off another hangover. Alessio had thrown in the towel at three a.m., but he knew Massimo had stayed up with his friends until sunrise, which meant, despite it approaching noon, his brother wouldn’t surface for another hour or two.
Alessio had come to Switzerland to drag his brother back to Sicily, to a family Christmas neither of them relished but that had to be performed for the sake of vows made to their mother.
After being apart for so many years due to circumstances beyond their control, it was an unyielding stipulation that they spent holidays and birthdays together. They hadn’t missed one event in the last seven years.
Massimo had been his usual stubborn self, however, and Alessio had allowed himself to be talked into a rare weekend doing nothing but skiing and drinking, with the proviso that, come Monday, Massimo would get off his backside, off this mountain and onboard the private helicopter waiting to transport them to the airport.
Returning to Sicily was imperative to show his enemies that change and retribution were coming. That reclaiming his family name and everything else they’d cruelly ripped from the Montaldis was only a matter of time.
‘You’ve been tracking her for three weeks. Has she had contact with Massimo?’ he pressed.
‘Not that we’ve noticed. But your brother is an easier man to track than you.’
Teeth gritted, Alessio accepted that unfortunate truth.
While his younger brother had memories of what had happened to them in the past, he’d efficiently blocked it out by delving neck deep into a playboy lifestyle that usually set Alessio’s teeth on edge and caused the endless headaches. But Alessio had made a vow to his mother on her deathbed that he would protect his baby brother come what may.
Vows were sacred.
If Massimo was somehow involved in this, Alessio suspected Christmas would be even more strained.
And if Gigi Parker was aiming to gain leverage by using his brother...well, that was something else he hadn’t seen coming with this woman. But at least, he mused as his blood rushed faster at the thought of putting this nuisance to bed and being reunited with his possession, he was in the right place at the right time.
He took a deep breath as he relished teaching the little thief a lesson. It would be his pre-Christmas present to himself while righting a wrong.
Win-win.
‘Look into it and give me an update immediately. Don’t let me down,’ he tossed in the warning. Keeping his men on their toes reaped results.
‘Se, signor,’came the quick response.
He hung up and turned away from the desk in the study of the luxury chalet he’d owned for years but barely used himself. Striding to the wide rectangular window, he stared at the stunning white-out landscape.
Much as he preferred the warmer climes of Sicily, he couldn’t deny that Gris-Montana in winter was stunning. Before it’d caught his interest, the sleepy town had been gaining popularity, though at a slower pace than its more flashy neighbours of Gstaad and Montreux. He’d taken steps to keep its charm, and it was a little gem he hadn’t minded using for the odd weekend.
But this wasn’t the time to stand idly admiring his view.
He had more important things to do.
Like bringing those who’d shattered his family to heel.
For that to happen, he needed to retrieve his possession from the elusive Gigi Parker.
Preferably on this side of Christmas.
A mere three hours later, Alessio was having to put the former on hold in favour of the latter. His men had pulled out all the stops to get him the answers he desired.
Gigi Parker was indeed in Gstaad.
She hadn’t bothered to hide her movements, another reason she would be no good to him as a fixer. Above all else, he valued discretion, unless a certain...flair was required.
