‘What a waste of a journey,’ he said, ignoring the tiny dent to his ego, since he had no doubt he’d be able to change her mind. He’d caught the flicker of heat in her shimmering green gaze when she’d looked at his hand a moment ago. He’d heard the barely-there hitch of her breath. Just as when they’d been talking by the tree earlier today, she wasn’t as uninterested in him as she was trying to make out.
‘Not at all,’ she said pleasantly. ‘If I can’t change your mind, I will find out as much as I can about you and report back.’
‘Good luck with that.’
‘Oh, I won’t need luck,’ she said with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. ‘I do a similar thing on a daily basis for work.’
‘I’m not one of your clients.’
‘You looked me up?’
He gave a brief nod. ‘I did. After leaving school at eighteen you went straight into an internship at the top PR firm in London at the time. Six years with them then you moved to your current company. You specialise in corporate damage limitation and crisis management. Your clients span the globe. Your reputation is stellar.’
‘You’ve done your research.’
‘I can’t be manipulated.’ Not any more.
‘Everyone can be manipulated,’ she said with a slight lift of her chin. ‘The trick is subtlety. To make them unaware of it. I’m very good at my job.’
‘So I understand,’ he said easily, knowing that no one would ever be good enough to prise out his secrets.
‘But I wouldn’t take you on as a client anyway,’ she said with a shrug and a sip of her drink.
‘Why not?’
‘In my line of work transparency is key and you’re too...’ she thought for a moment ‘...shady.’
His eyebrows lifted. ‘Shady?’
‘You’re not the only one who decided to do some research, Rico. There’s virtually no information about you online and that’s strange. Normally there’s something—however minor—about everyone. But apart from the one article I found that briefly described you as one of Italy’s most successful but least-known hedge fund managers, your digital footprint is practically non-existent.’
Yes, well, he took care to stay out of the public eye. He didn’t want anyone poking around his less than salubrious background. He’d better check out that article and have it removed. ‘I value my privacy.’
‘What do you have to hide? I wonder.’
What didn’t he have to hide? Nothing he’d done as an adult had broken the law, but some of the things he’d done between the ages of twelve and sixteen as a member of the gang had. Those things were intensely personal and had caused him excruciating pain, disillusionment and shame before he’d cut off all emotion by shutting himself down. He had no intention of ever unlocking that door, so the last thing he wanted was Carla’s curiosity aroused.
‘What would you like to know?’ he said expansively, feigning the transparency she was apparently so keen on in an attempt to detract her from rooting around in his psyche any further. ‘Ask me anything. To you, I’m an open book.’
The look she gave him was sceptical. ‘I doubt that very much.’
‘Try me.’
‘All right,’ she sai
d with a nod. ‘Why did you turn up at Finn’s house today?’
Rico inwardly tensed and fought the urge to respond to the jolt of discomfort that slammed through him. Was this her idea of subtlety? It wasn’t his. But, given her reputation, perhaps he should have expected a direct hit.
‘To confirm a suspicion,’ he replied as casually as if she’d asked him what his favourite colour was.
‘Yet you didn’t stick around to do so.’
‘I didn’t need to. You did it for me the second we met.’ The image of her standing in front of him, her green eyes wide, the pulse at the base of her neck fluttering, shot into his head and predictably sent all his blood to his groin. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen shock quite like it.’
‘You were unexpected.’
‘Evidently.’