“I need to see Mr da Silva urgently.”
“I’m afraid that Mr da Silva is in a very important meeting and cannot be disturbed. Perhaps you would like to leave a message?”
“I’ll wait.” Bella groaned.
“Maybe you could send a message in to him?”
“And what would you like this message to say?”
“Can I come in … like, go and sit down?” The older woman stepped reluctantly aside.
Loan-sharking certainly paid. Bella took in her palatial surroundings without surprise.
“I’ll write the message.”
A notepad was extended to her. Bella dashed off four words, ripped off the sheet, folded it five times into a tiny scrap and handed it over.
“Mr da Silva does not like to be disturbed.”
“He’s going to like what I have to tell him even le Bella muttered, sprawling down on a sofa.
Miss Ames disappeared. The brunette at the d watched her covertly as though she was afraid that she, about to pocket the crystal ashtray on the coffee-table, q minutes later Miss Ames returned, all flushed and taut. “Come this way, please…”
Bella strode up the corridor, hands stuck in her pock, fingers curled round the pack of cigarettes that nerves } driven her to buy before she’d entered the bank.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Rico da Silva bla across the width of the most enormous office she had e seen. Her heels were sinking into the carpet.
She looked around her with un hidden curiosity and t back at him. He had to be about six feet four. Wide sshoulders, narrow hips, long, lean legs. Michelangelo’s D trapped in the clothing chains of convention.
Navy striped suit, boring white shirt, predictable navy tie-probably put on a red one for Christmas and thought was being really daring. He was looking her over as if were a computer virus threatening to foul up the entire rice network. She tilted her chin, and her gaze collided v glittering golden eyes. He had really gorgeous eyes. In the streetlight she hat got the full effect. Eyes the colour of the setting sun, si tacularly noticeable in that hard-angled, bronzed face. I5 that sizzled and burned. The key to the soul. There w: tiger in there fighting to get free—a sexual tiger, all t and claws and passion. On some primal level she could the unholy heat. Wow, this guy wants me, she regist{ in serious shock.
“I asked you what the hell you’re doing here,” Rico pea ted with leashed menace.
Bella dragged her distracted gaze from his, astonishe4 discover how hard it was to break that connection. 1 dening, she went tense all over, embarrassed by her crazy thought.
“I
said it in my note. “
“And what exactly is
“We have a problem” intended denote? By the way, problem is spelt with an e, not an he delivered, hitting her on her weakest flank.
“I’ll try to remember that.” She studied her feet and abruptly, cravenly yielded to temptation and dug out cigarettes and matches.
Never had she been more in of the crutch she had abandoned the day she’d moved Hector’s house. She was just on the brink of lighting when both the match and cigarette were snatched from Under her arrested gaze the cigarette was snapped in and dropped in a waste-paper basket.
“A member of the hang-‘em-high anti smoking Bella probed helplessly.
“What do you think?”
She felt that she had never needed a cigarette more. one. ” she begged.
“Don’t be pathetic. It won’t cut any ice with me,” drawled, with a sardonic twist to his mouth.
“What is problem?”
Bella swallowed hard and then breathed in deeply. “You look guilty as sin,” Rico informed her grimly. if my suspicions as to what has prompted this appearance prove correct I’m taking you straight to the lice. “
The tip of her tongue slid out to moisten her dry lip. His lashes lowered. Hooded eyes, revealing a mere of gold, dropped to her mouth and lingered there. A ing tension entered the atmosphere. The silence vibrated.
As Bella laid her outdated insurance policy on the in front of him she felt as though she was moving in motion.
“Can I sit down?”
“May I sit down,” he corrected automatically.
“No.” He scanned the document.
“You see, it only ran out Monday,” Bella pointed out, a wobbly plea for understanding.
“And I sent in the: premium and thought it was fine. But when I phoned company this morning…”
The well-shaped, dark head lifted. Lancing golden e bit into her shrinking flesh.
“You were driving without surance when you hit me—’ ” Not intentionally! ” Bella gasped, raising both haJ palms outward, in a gesture of sincerity.
“I had no ide thought I was covered. I’d sent off the money and I that if I hadn’t had an accident they would have just accepted it and renewed my insurm’ ” You’re whining,” Rico cut in icily as he rose from hind his impressive desk.
“I’m not whining. I’m only trying to explain!” she tested.
“Point one—if you were not covered by insurance at the time of the accident the oversight was your responsibi Yours, nobody else’s,” he stressed with a glacial lac} compassion.
“Point two—in driving a car without insur you were committing an offence—’ ” But—’ “And point three—I most unwisely chose to let yot scot-free from the consequences of the offence you already committed last night!”
“What offence…7 Oh, the one-way street bit,” Bella r tered, hunching her narrow shoulders in self-defence. It like being under physical attack.
“But that was an dent… It’s not as though it was deliberate. Anyone have an accident, can’t they? I’m really sorry. I met would do just about anything for it not to have happe because now everything’s in this horrible mess—’ ” For you, not for me. ” Rico sent her a hard, imp as look.
“When I inform my insurance company of this I will insist that I bring in the police and they will put you for the outstanding monies in a civil case.”
Bella went white and twisted her hands, moving f one long, shapely leg on to the other with stork-like restiveness.
“Please don’t get the police. Somehow I’ll pay you back … I promise!” she swore unsteadily.
“Is Hector going to pay?”
Bella flinched.
“No,” she mumbled.
“I’ve already had a quote for the damage to my car.” He gave it to her. Bella watched the carpet tilt and rise as she fought off a sick attack of dizziness brought on by shock. “Somehow I don’t think that you can come up with that kind of cash.”
“Only in instalments.” And if I starved, lived rough and went naked, she added mentally, beginning to tremble. He had spelt out the cold, hard facts and her vague idea that they might somehow be able to come to an arrangement had bitten the dust fast. She couldn’t expect him to pay for the repairs to the Bugatti and wait for twenty years for her to settle the debt. Intelligence told her that, but a numbing sense of terror was spreading through her by the second.
“Not acceptable. So therefore it goes through on the record with the police,” Rico da Silva informed her flatly.
Already she was backing away, knowing that she was about to break her most unbreakable rule and copy Cleo. She was going to run, pack a bag and leave London—go back to the old life where there were no names, no pack drill, little chance of being caught by the authorities. How had she ever got the idea that she could make it in this other world with all its rules and regulations?
“You’re not leaving,” he warned her grimly.
“You can’t keep me h-here!” Bella stammered fearfully. “You can put the police on to me but you can’t keep me here!”
“I call Security or I call the police. I’m not a fool. If you walk out of here you’ll disappear. Maybe the police are already looking for you,” Rico da Silva suggested, studying her slender, quivering, white-faced figure with cool assessment. “For some other offence?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“You’re terrified.” His shrewd gaze rested intently on her. “A bit over the top for a charge of careless driving and doing so without insurance. If it’s a first offence you’ll be fined. However, if this is merely the latest in a line of other misdemeanours I can quite see why you wouldn’t want the police brought in.”
In his mind she had already gone from being a lousy driver to being a persistent offender. She had met prejudice like that before. Her first year with Gramps had been hell outside the sanctuary of his home. Neighbours, teachers and classmates had been all too ready to point the finger at Bella when there had been a spate of thieving in school. Bella had never stolen anything in her life, but had the true culprit not been caught in the act she was well aware that everyone would have continued to believe her guilty.
With the last ounce of her pride she thrust her head high. “I have a clean record!”
“Excelente. Then you will not throw a fit of hysterics when I take you to the police station.”
“You … take me to the p-police station?” The fire in her was doused, cold fear taking over.
“Tell me why you are so petrified of the police,” he invited, almost conversationally.