‘Sí…’ He was staring down into his glass of water.
‘Leaving no stone unturned—a nationwide alert,’ she continued, bolstering her nerves with conviction. ‘It’ll be on television and radio. Everyone will know about us and someone somewhere is sure to have seen something… Maybe a few someones.’
Tight-mouthed, Rico murmured, ‘Tell me about Hector.’
Thrown by the abrupt change of subject, Bella echoed, ‘Hector?’
‘By now he will be aware of your disappearance.’
She thought about that and shook her head. ‘Not yet. We don’t keep tabs like that on each other.’
‘You mean he is accustomed to you not always coming home at night?’ Rico phrased abrasively.
‘Everyone stays over with friends sometimes. And Hector’s a very private person who believes in minding his own business. He has his own very set routines and I’m not a routine sort of person,’ Bella admitted. ‘We don’t share mealtimes very often. When he asked me to move in—’
/> ‘And when was that?’
‘A year ago.’
‘Where did you meet him?’
‘I’ve known Hector for ever.’ Bella grinned. ‘Well, since I was fourteen.’
‘Fourteen?’ Rico grated, his dark features rigid with a response that she couldn’t quite read. It looked remarkably like distaste…but why should he react that way to such a harmless piece of information?
‘Why not?’ Bella frowned.
‘If you see no reason why not, it is not for me to comment,’ Rico returned thinly. ‘Where were your parents?’
‘I was living with my grandfather at the time.’
‘And he did not protect you from this dirty old man?’ he demanded with seething distaste.
Bella’s mouth fell wide in astonishment. She sprang upright. ‘Are you calling Hector a dirty old man?’
‘This appears to come as a big revelation to you…but sí.. yes. Such a relationship is an obscenity!’
Her green eyes fired, her temper exploding. ‘You actually believe that Hector and I have a sexual relationship,’ she realised in disgust. ‘My God, you are stuffed full of prejudices about me! I’m sorry to disappoint your gutter assumptions, Mr da Silva, but Hector’s nothing more than my landlord and a family friend—’
‘A family friend?’ Unperturbed by her anger, Rico surveyed her and merely continued to probe.
‘Hector knew my father back in the sixties,’ she volunteered with pronounced reluctance.
‘When will he notice your absence?’
Bella drank down her glass of water, still trembling with bitter anger. ‘I don’t know. Not tonight anyway. He always goes to bed early and I’m often out all day. I don’t always see him at breakfast. I also work shifts, and sometimes I do extra hours if I’m asked. By the way, I’m a waitress… I’m not out trawling the streets for men to sell my body to!’ she hissed at him. ‘What gives with you anyway? The fact that I’m out late at night and driving a beat-up car doesn’t mean I’m a tart!’
Hooded dark eyes rested on her vibrant and passionately expressive face. His mouth quirked. ‘You are quite correct. But you have a quite stunning quality of raw sexuality which tends to blunt the male perceptive powers. Your looks, your walk and the husky pitch of your voice,’ he murmured softly, ‘add to the confusion you create.’
Wide-eyed and bewildered, Bella stared back at him. He had delivered the assessment with the same distant coolness that an employer might use when he was discussing a potential employee with personnel management. But nobody had ever talked to Bella like that before—certainly not a man. A tide of pink illuminated her porcelain-fine skin.
‘And I don’t think you’re half as aware of the havoc you wreak as I assumed you were, querida.’ He thrust his empty plate away and rose. ‘Now I think it’s time I started trying to attract attention to us again.’
He left her standing there, uncertain, confused, anger and defensiveness still contributing to her feverish tension. The first crash of metal on metal made her flinch. He was hammering the container doors with what looked like a poker. The noise hit her in shock waves. But if someone heard them, came to investigate…? What were the chances? she wondered dully. If the kidnappers had really left them alone here, that signified a fair degree of confidence that their presence was unlikely to be discovered.
Clearing up the dishes, she discovered that a bone-deep exhaustion had settled on her without her even noticing. Rico was still banging the doors, vibrations running through the whole container like thunderclaps, hurting her ears, her teeth, her head. She withstood it, bracing herself. And then he stopped, releasing his pent-up breath in a hiss.
‘I’ll take a turn,’ Bella proffered.