She swayed slightly and then felt strong male hands on her arms as Rafael forced her back into her seat.
‘Sit down,’ he said roughly, ‘and try to get a grip. If you commit fraud you take your chances and deserve to be found out. These people are entirely innocent and your actions have brought them close to ruin.’
Grace licked dry lips, desperately trying to think straight. ‘We buy our coffee from a company and we pay generously. Obviously they’re not passing that on to the producer. They must be doing something with the money. They must be splitting it with someone in my company.’
Rafael gave a contemptuous smile. ‘And I wonder who that could be? The owner, perhaps?’
She shook her head, too shocked and numb to muster a spirited defence. ‘No. Not me.’ But who?
What she really needed to do was go back through the company accounts in minute detail, but how could she do that?
Whom could she trust?
She almost laughed at the irony of the situation.
It was ironic that the one man who had the skills to help her was watching her with grim distaste. How much greater would his disapproval be when he knew the truth about her? To clear her name she had to tell him everything about herself and yet even as the thought entered her head, she dismissed it.
She’d never made excuses for herself and she didn’t intend to start now. And anyway, the fact that she wasn’t directly to blame didn’t absolve her of responsibility.
Café Brazil was her business.
She’d been too trusting—and that misplaced trust had had disastrous consequences.
No, she couldn’t ask Rafael Cordeiro for help any more than she could blame him for not agreeing to extend the loan. It was over. She’d go home, back to England, and somehow discover the answers she needed. And then she’d look somewhere else for the finance she needed to pull her company out of trouble.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE walk back through the rainforest to Forest Lodge was charged with tension, the atmosphere between them snapped taut after the outpouring of emotion at the fazenda.
And that was hardly surprising, Rafael said to himself as his long legs swallowed up the distance. Women were never at their best when they’d been found out. And Grace Thacker had been well and truly found out. There was no more hiding. Her fraud was exposed, the consequences of her actions thrust in her face. With him standing over her shoulder and Filomena crying, she’d had little choice but to express guilt and remorse and she’d done it most convincingly.
In fact, she’d been extremely convincing. If he hadn’t known it to be impossible, he would have thought that the accusations levelled at her had come as a surprise. Indeed, her shocked response and her almost remarkable display of self-condemnation had both been sufficiently compelling to have him on the verge of reaching out with words of comfort and support.
He’d even run through the facts in his head one more time, just to be absolutely sure he couldn’t have made a mistake. Was there any way she could be innocent of the fraud he’d uncovered?
The answer was no. There was no way. She had access to the accounts. She knew the company figures. In addition to that, the person in charge of finances at her company was her own father. So obviously it was a family job.
Glancing behind him, Rafael was surprised to see her right on his heels. He was walking fast but she, despite her lesser height and build, was keeping up.
And then he saw the emotion in her eyes and knew that she wasn’t even aware of her surroundings.
Was it simply anger and frustration he was seeing? Probably. After all, her fraudulent money-making scheme had been exposed and terminated.
He had no doubt that her convincing display of regret at the fazenda had been played out for the benefit of Filomena and Carlos. Why was he impressed when he, better than anyone, knew just how well a woman could perform when she found herself in a tight spot?
Didn’t he know better than anyone just how low a woman could stoop in order to yank herself from poverty to riches?
Grace Thacker’s business was about to fold and, despite her impassioned request, he had no intention of throwing her the lifeline she so desperately wanted.
Rafael frowned and concentrated his attentions on the path ahead.
He’d arranged for the helicopter to collect her the following morning and fly her back to Rio de Janeiro so that she could catch a commercial flight to London.
Which meant that she had one more night in the rainforest to stew in her guilt.
Only he had no doubt that once she reached the privacy of her room she wouldn’t be wasting time on emotional demonstrations of regret and remorse. Why bother if she didn’t have an audience?
They arrived at the lodge and Rafael turned to her. ‘You have two hours until dinner. I expect you’ll want to rest.’