‘Really? This is what you waste my time with?’ Theron bit back angrily.
‘Is it so surprising that I might want to check in on my oldest and bestest friend?’ Lykos’s saccharine tone made Theron’s teeth ache.
‘Given that it would be the first time in nearly ten years? Yes,’ Theron admitted.
‘Well, I’ve just been presented with an interesting business opportunity but... I don’t know, there’s something about it...’
‘You’re worse than a cat with a mouse. Stop toying with me and spit it out.’
‘But where’s the fun in that?’
‘About as much fun as me hanging up on you,’ warned Theron, preparing to do just that.
‘Wait!’
Theron didn’t say anything.
‘It’s a business opportunity in Norfolk.’
‘You’re in America?’ Theron asked, confused.
‘No, Norfolk, England. An acquaintance of ours brought it to me.’
‘We don’t have mutual acquaintances,’ he growled, his voice one hundred per cent sure, but his mind flashed onto Summer looking up as Lykos bent over her hand. How had he forgotten that?
‘Oh. My mistake. I must have been confused.’
‘Stop being coy. You don’t get confused,’ Theron bit, a dangerous edge to his voice now.
‘Small, blonde. Very pretty—positivelyradiant. Must say, fits her name perfectly.’
Theron gripped the phone. ‘What is she doing with you?’ he demanded, shocked by the phosphoric fury burning in his veins.
‘Get your mind out of the gutter. It was a business proposition,’ Lykos replied, distaste heavy in his tone.
‘And you never mix business with pleasure?’ Theron scoffed.
‘Oh, all the time,’ Lykos replied easily. ‘I just don’t mixmypleasure withyours.’
Theron breathed his heartbeat into submission. ‘Has she mentioned Kyros?’
‘Not once. Why?’ Lykos replied.
‘Are you sure?’
‘It’s possible that it slipped my mind,’ he taunted.
‘What was the business?’
‘She has a twelve-million-pound estate in Norfolk she wants to sell for a third of that value.’
Theron cursed. ‘She’s a student. Where the hell would she get an estate from?’
‘If you want to know, go ask her. Though might I suggest, before you go in there bashing down the front door—’
‘No,’ Theron interrupted, the sudden need to find out exactly what was going on, intoxicating. ‘I don’t know what the hell you’re getting out of this, but I know you have an angle here somewhere. So, no, you can’t suggest a thing. I’m going to get to the bottom of thisright now. And you willnotbuy that estate,’ Theron commanded.
Less than twenty-four hours later, as Theron put the rental car into park, he told himself that his pulse was pounding because of the near miss with a scaffolding lorry,notbecause Summer Soames was hiding somewhere inside the estate in front of him. What was her angle here? Had she moved on from Kyros? Was she now targeting Lykos? He could have her.