‘They are too highly trained for such idiocy,’ Rico retorted crushingly. ‘In all likelihood they would have simply tracked me and followed without revealing their presence and risking my safety.’
Bella pushed away her plate. He was telling her that she had wrecked his chances of escape. But for her persistence he would have continued to exercise restraint on that point. Rico da Silva was not the type to cry over spilt milk but, challenged beyond his tolerance threshold, he had given her what she’d asked for. And honesty had never been less welcome.
‘Sorry really wouldn’t cover it, would it?’ she breathed jerkily.
‘No importa… Who can tell what would have happened? A hundred things could have gone wrong,’ he dismissed wryly. ‘I bear my own share of responsibility for our plight. I dismissed my bodyguards. And had I not taken you down there you would not be here now. They were waiting for me. I have business lunches almost every day. As a potential target you are told to vary your schedule but lunch… lunch is difficult to vary—’
‘I guess.’ Bella was surprised by his sudden denial of her culpability.
Lustrous dark eyes glimmered in the dim light over her anxious face. ‘Por Dios… It is inexcusable that I should take my anger and frustration out on you. I owe you my apologies. I am not accustomed to this feeling of being powerless. I have always been aware that I could be the target for such a crime but I did not seriously believe that this could happen to me. Arrogance brings its own reward.’
‘I don’t see what you could have done to prevent it.’ It was hard to drag her fascinated gaze from him. He was being so honest, so open. She had not expected that candour from a male as sophisticated and powerful as Rico da Silva. And the apology shook her rigid.
In her own way she saw that she had been as prejudiced as he was. She had not been prepared for the strength of will and purpose that he had revealed from the outset of their imprisonment. Survival was the only item on their agenda, he had said. He meant it; he would act on it. But what was really driving him crazy right now, she sensed, was the apparently foolproof setting in which their kidnappers had chosen to place them.
‘Where do you think we are?’
‘If they spent the time I was unconscious driving, we could be hundreds of miles from London. Then again, we could still be inside the city limits.’ He shifted an expressive brown hand, his mouth tightening.
‘But it’s so quiet—’
‘This container is set inside some sort of building. We are not outdoors. There is some kind of roof far above us. I was able to judge that through the airholes,’ Rico supplied, acknowledging her surprise at his knowledge. ‘There is very little light in the building. It could be a warehouse on an old industrial estate, miles from residential areas. On the other hand, it could equally well be a barn out in the depths of the country—’
‘You’ve really thought about this.’
‘I’ve had more time than you and more practice. International banking is cut-throat. Thinking on my feet comes naturally.’
Bella bent her vibrant head, amused by his assumption of mental superiority. He thought that she was thick just because her spelling was no great shakes. No doubt her second-hand clothing and her habit of chattering when she was nervous added to his prejudice. If he saw her paintings he might change his mind. Then again, he might not.
Hector didn’t think she was ready for a first exhibition as yet. It had been Hector who had told her that she needed more time and more experience to develop as an artist before she even considered trying to show or sell her work. And Hector ought to have known what he was talking about. In the days before he had become a virtual recluse Hector Barsay had been a renowned international art critic, whose opinion had been sufficient to make or break many an artistic career.
‘If we’re inside a barn that probably means there’s a house close by!’ Her sudden animation dimmed as quickly as it had arisen as she took that thought a step further and felt more threatened than ever by it. ‘And if there is a house our jailers are probably inside it…’ she whispered sickly.
‘Sí.’ He did not deny the possibility. ‘But the environment they have chosen for us would suggest to me that they are equally likely to be miles away or even out of the country by now—’
‘Out of the country… leaving us here trapped?’ Bella had gone white.
‘This was very carefully planned… all this,’ Rico stressed again, indicating their surroundings. ‘They did not employ gratuitous violence upon us—’
‘I thought they were very violent.’
‘They used drugs rather than brute force to subdue us. They might have stuck us in a basement somewhere and simply left us without food or any comfort,’ he pointed out.
‘Do you think they’re terrorists?’
‘I think not but I could be wrong. The nervous one did not strike me as a man used to having a gun in his hand. The other one was more professional, more confident … He was even enjoying himself.’
Bella’s sensitive stomach churned. Unlike Rico she did not have the emotional distance to assess their captor’s personalities.
‘To take me in that car park was a challenge, and he was a man accustomed to danger. He enjoyed the risk. Possibly a former soldier or mercenary. He had fast reactions.’
‘I’m scared,’ she muttered in a small voice.
Disconcertingly he reached for her clenched hand where it rested on the table. His large hand briefly engulfed hers with very welcome warmth. ‘Clearly not a halfwit,’ he said with a self-mocking edge.
‘The police will be scouring the countryside for us.’ Endeavouring to cheer herself up, Bella thought for the very first time of the police not as a threat but as the strong arm of the law. Investigators, protectors, rescuers.
There was an odd little silence. She glanced across at Rico.