Bought by Her Italian Boss(3)

Nadine was talking as she typed, "...say that the bank was unaware of  this personal relationship and the employee has been terminated-"

"Our client has stated that the photos were not invited," Fabrizio interjected.

Gwyn spun around. "And your employee states that she's been targeted by a  peeping tom and an online porn peddler and a vengeful wife."

Nadine paused only long enough to send her a stern look. "I strongly advise you not to speak to the press."

"I strongly advise you that I will be speaking to a lawyer." It was an  empty threat. Her savings were very modest. Very. Much as she would love  to believe her stepbrother would help her, she couldn't count on it. He  had his own corporate image to maintain.                       
       
           



       

The way Vittorio Donatelli continued to emanate hostility made her want to crawl into a hole and die.

"How long have you been with the company?" Nadine asked.

"Two years in Charleston, four months here," Gwyn said, trying to recall  how much room her credit card balance had for plane fare and setting up  house back in Charleston. Not enough.

"Two years," Nadine snorted, adding an askance. "How did you earn a  promotion like this after only that short a time?" Her gaze skimmed down  Gwyn's figure, clearly implying that Gwyn had slept her way into the  position. Night school and language classes and putting in overtime  counted for nothing, apparently.

Fabrizio didn't defend her, despite signing off on her transfer and giving her a glowing review after her first three months.

Vittorio's expression was an inscrutable mask. Was he thinking the same thing?

A disbelieving sob escaped her and she hugged herself, trying to stay this side of manic.

While Vittorio brought his own phone from his pants pocket and with a  sweep and tap connected to someone. "Bruno? Vito. I need you in Nadine  Billaud's office. Bring some of your men."

"For my walk of shame?" Gwyn presumed. Here came the tears, welling up  like a tsunami with a mile of volume behind it. Her voice cracked.  "Don't worry. I plan to leave quickly and quietly. I can't wait to not  work here anymore."

"You'll stay right here until I tell you to leave." His tone was  implacable, making her heart sink in her hollow chest while another part  of her rose in defiance, wanting to fight and rail and physically tear  at him to get out of here. She was the quintessential wounded animal  that needed to bolt from danger to its cave.

To Nadine, he added, "Confirm the photos belong to one of our employees.  For privacy and legal reasons we have no other comment. Ask the  reporters to disperse and enlist the lobby guards to help. Issue a  similar statement to all employees. Add a warning that they risk  termination if they speak to the press or are observed viewing the  photos on corporate equipment or company grounds. Oscar, I need a full  report on how these photos came to your attention."

"Signor Jensen contacted me this morning-"

"Not here." Vittorio moved to the door as a knock sounded. "In your  office. Wait here," he said over his shoulder to Gwyn, like she was a  dog to be left at home while he went to work. He urged the other two  from the room and pulled the door closed behind the three of them.

"Yeah, right," Gwyn rasped into the silence of Nadine's empty office, hugging herself so tightly she was suffocating.

A twisting, writhing pain moved in her like a snake, coiling around her  organs to squeeze her heart and lungs, tightening her stomach and  closing her throat. She covered her face, trying to hide from the  terrible reality that everyone-everyone in the world-was not only  staring at her naked body, but believing that she had had sex with a  married man.

She could live with people staring at her body. Almost. They did it,  anyway. But she was a good person. She didn't lie or steal or come on to  men, especially married ones! She was conservative in the way she lived  her life, saving her craziest impulses for things like her career where  she did wildly ambitious things like sign up for Mastering Spreadsheets  tutorials in hopes of moving up the ladder.

The pressure in her cheekbones and nose and under her eyes became  unbearable. She tried to press it back with the flats of her hands, but a  moan of anguish was building from the middle of her chest. A sob  bounced like a hard pinball, bashing against her inner walls, moving up  from her breastbone into her throat.

She couldn't break down, she reminded herself. Not here. Not yet. She  had to get out of this place and the sooner the better. It was going to  be awful. A nightmare, but she would do it, head high and under her own  steam.

Gritting her teeth, she reached for the door and started to open it.

A burly man wearing a suit and a short, neat haircut was standing with  his back to the door. Guarding her? He grabbed the doorknob, keeping her  from pulling it open. His body angled enough she could see he also wore  some kind of clear plastic earpiece. His glance at her was both  indifferent and implacable.

"Attendere qui, per favore." Wait here, please.

She was so shocked, she let him pull the door from her lax grip and close her into Nadine's office again.

Actually, it slipped freely from her clammy hand. The room began to feel  very claustrophobic. She moved to the window again, seeing the crowd of  reporters had grown. She couldn't tell if Nadine was addressing them.  She could hardly see. Her vision was blurring. She sniffed, feeling the  weight of all that had happened so deeply she had to move to the nearest  chair and sink into it.                       
       
           



       

Her breath hitched and no amount of pressure from her hands would push back the burn behind her eyes.

The door opened again, startling her heart into lurching and her head into jerking up.

He was back.





CHAPTER TWO

GWYN ELLIS LOOKED like hell had moved in where her soul used to be, eyes  pits of despair, mouth soft and bracketed by lines of disillusion. Her  brow was a crooked line of suffering, but she immediately sat taller,  blinking and visibly fighting back her tears to face him without  cowering.

"I want to leave," she asserted.

The rasp in her voice scraped at his nerves while he studied her. Vixens  knew how to use their sexuality on a man. If she was a victim, he would  expect her to appeal to the protector in him. Either way, he wouldn't  expect her to be so confrontational.

Gwyn was a fighter. He didn't want to find that dig-deep-and-stay-strong  streak in her admirable. It softened him when he was in crisis control  mode, trying to remember that she had, quite possibly, colluded to bilk  the bank and a completely legitimate nonprofit organization of millions  of euros in donations.

"We have more to talk about," he told her. He had made the executive  decision to question her himself, like this, privately. And he wasn't  prepared to ask himself why.

"An exit interview? I have two short words," she said tightly.

That open hostility was noteworthy. Oscar Fabrizio had been full of  placating statements until Paolo had been patched through on  speakerphone. Then Oscar had seemed to realize he was under suspicion.  He'd asked for a lawyer. Sweat had broken across his brow and upper lip  when Vito had ordered his computer and phone to be analyzed. Both were  company issued and it had been obvious Oscar was dying to contact  someone-Kevin Jensen perhaps? A plainclothes investigator was on the  way. A full criminal inquiry was being launched down the hall.

While here...Vito was sure she was an accomplice, except...

"You say you had no knowledge of those photos," he challenged.

"No. I didn't." Her chin came up and her lashes screened her eyes, but  there was no hiding the quiver of her mouth. She was deeply upset about  their being made public. That was not up for dispute. "They were taken  after a massage. I didn't know there was a camera in the room."

The images were imprinted on his brain. The photos would have made a  splash without Jensen's name attached, he thought distantly. She was  built like Venus.

But he saw how they could have been taken during a private moment and  manipulated to appear like shots between lovers. He had made certain  presumptions on sight: that she was not only having an affair with a  client, but was engaged in criminal activity with him. If Jensen was  prepared to steal from charity donations, would it be such a stretch to  photograph a banking underling in an attempt to cover it up?

Powerful men exploited young, vulnerable women. He knew that. It was quite literally in his DNA.

"Are you picturing me naked?" she challenged bitterly, but her chin  crinkled and she fought for her composure a moment, then bravely firmed  her mouth and controlled her expression, meeting his gaze with loathing  shadowing the depths of her brown eyes.