CHAPTER THIRTEEN
PHONETOHISEAR, Alexei sat back in his desk chair, grinning. Ralph Carter had been found in a casino in southern Switzerland. Either through cunning or sheer luck, he’d led the investigators a merry dance, but now there was no escape. Carter would face the consequences of his theft.
Satisfaction warmed Alexei.
Until Carissa’s face swam in his mind. He recalled her sparkling eyes, the throaty husk of her voice as she cried his name in ecstasy, her decadently addictive mouth.
How would she react when he made her father pay for his crimes?
Doubt stirred Alexei’s gut. He’d learned this week that she was anything but a selfish social butterfly. He admired her honest, generous spirit, even her obstinacy. This would hurt her.
He stiffened his resolve. She couldn’t expect him to forget her father’s crime. She knew it was coming. She hadn’t asked for mercy on Carter’s behalf. Though now Alexei considered that odd, surely.
Carissa was passionate and unafraid of ruffling his feathers, yet she’d never tried to intercede for her father.
As he listened to his PA, Alexei reached idly for Carissa’s sketchbook and flipped it open. She’d left it by the pool and he’d brought it inside when he took this call. Clearly she’d forgotten it, focused instead on the fact it was her turn to cook.
Tomorrow Henri and Marie returned and the food would be restaurant quality again. But Alexei would far rather have another week alone with Carissa, sharing responsibility for chores, than any amount of exquisite dishes.
His insides twisted. Alexei told himself it was from eagerness to face Carter. Not concern as he anticipated Carissa’s reaction.
‘Excellent. See to those arrangements and we’ll wrap this up.’
‘There’s one more thing.’ His PA sounded unexpectedly tentative. ‘A woman has been ringing, insisting she speak with you.’
Alexei frowned. He paid his PA an excellent salary. In return he didn’t expect to be bothered by importunate strangers. Obviously this woman was out of the ordinary. ‘And?’
‘She gave her name as Carissa Carter.’
Arrested, Alexei sat straighter. ‘Say that again.’
‘She claims to be Carissa Carter, daughter of Ralph Carter.’
Alexei looked at the sketch before him. It was one he hadn’t seen before and there was something incredibly intimate about it. Not just the fact that he was asleep on a sun lounger. He felt tenderness in the way Carissa had drawn the rumpled hair shadowing his forehead, and the lines of his mouth.
Was that really how she saw him?
A curious buzz started up in his ears.
‘Obviously the woman is lying.’
‘That’s what I thought. But she gave enough detail to be very convincing.’
The fact his PA pressed the point was significant. She was not only loyal but intelligent. She must have good reason for pursuing this. ‘Very well. Give me her number.’
Minutes later Alexei made the call.
‘Hello? Carissa speaking.’ Her voice was high and breathy and slightly familiar.
Alexei leaned forward, hand splayed on the desk, pulse quickening.
‘Carissa Carter?’
‘Yes, I... Who is this?’ Her voice wobbled and Alexei felt the blood drain from his face. He recognised the voice now. It was the woman he’d spoken to a week ago. The woman he’d arranged to have collected in Paris. He’d assumed the line had distorted her voice because she sounded different in person.
He pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. ‘It’s Alexei Katsaros.’
He heard a gasp, then a noise as if she’d dropped the phone. Adrenalin shot through him and his stomach lurched.