‘I didn’t touch your watch!’ Her protest was vehement. A pulse was beating so fast at the base of her throat that still she found it difficult to catch her breath. That reference to the police terrified her, bringing back memories she would have done anything to forget and which she had no wish to relive. With her history as a former offender, how could she possibly hope to combat an accusation from a very rich and powerful man?
Sergio regarded her with cold, steady determination. ‘I won’t let you leave this apartment until you have told me the truth.’
‘You can’t do that!’ Kathy told him in disbelief. ‘You don’t have the right.’
‘Oh, I think you’ll give me the right to do whatever I like, cara mia,’ Sergio countered silkily. ‘I believe that you will do virtually anything to keep the police out of this. Am I correct?’
As she received that very shrewd assumption Kathy’s teeth almost chattered together. Yet, while fear was making her skin clammy, rage was sitting like a lump of red hot coal inside her. ‘How did you find out that I had served a prison sentence?’
‘My security chief started checking you out when he saw you making chess moves on the surveillance camera. He’s very thorough.’
‘Is he?’ Kathy raised a fine brow in disagreement. ‘I would say that I make a very convenient fall guy—’
‘Renzo Catallone doesn’t operate like that,’ Sergio asserted. ‘He used to be in the police force.’
‘Even better!’ A bitter laugh was wrenched from Kathy’s dry throat before she could bite it back. ‘He saw that I had a criminal record and that was that, wasn’t it? Investigation over!’
‘Are you denying that you stole the watch?’
‘Yes, but clearly you don’t believe me and I don’t have any way of proving that I didn’t take it. Obviously, you have a thief in your office. It might just be someone in a smart business suit, someone who was tempted, even someone who wanted a thrill. Thieves come in all shapes and sizes and in all walks of life.’
Sergio rested brooding dark eyes of derision on her. The crime for which she had once been convicted filled him with distaste. Far from being the refreshingly natural and unspoilt girl he had come to believe her to be, her beauty hid a rotten core of serious greed. In the position of carer and companion, she had abused the trust of an elderly invalid and had systematically robbed her charge over a period of many months. She had been prosecuted for the theft of the single item found in her possession, but she had almost certainly been responsible for stealing and disposing of other valuable antiques that had disappeared without trace during her employment.
‘I don’t need you to tell me the obvious,’ Sergio responded drily. ‘In this case I’m confident that I’m looking at the culprit.’
‘But then you’re confident in every sphere.’ Kathy slowly shook her head. Her copper and amber hair glittered with bright streaks, forming a metallic halo that accentuated the pallor of her ivory complexion.
Dully she recognised that she was in shock. In the space of minutes he had torn her newly learnt self-belief to shreds. He had tempted her out of the safety of her quiet life only to threaten to destroy her. She hated him for it. She hated him for the arrogant assurance that convinced him that he was right and she was in the wrong. She hated herself for believing, however briefly, that she could aspire to dating a guy like him. What sort of an idiot had she become? Did she believe in fairy stories, as well? She had surrendered her defence mechanisms when she’d put on the pretty yellow dress. Within the anger and the fear lurked a very strong sense of humiliation.
‘Let’s keep this clean and straightforward. I want to know what you did with the watch,’ Sergio repeated grimly. ‘And don’t waste my time with tears or tantrums. They don’t work with me.’
An insidious chill ran down her taut spinal cord as she recorded the cruel lack of emotion stamped on his lean, dark, handsome features. He would never listen to her story of the injustice she had suffered—he would have neither the faith nor the patience. He had no time for her or her explanations, since he dealt in black and white facts. As far as he was concerned, she was a convicted thief and she might have served her sentence, but he was not prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt.
‘I didn’t take it, so I don’t know where you expect to go with this. I haven’t got the information you’re asking for,’ Kathy framed tightly.
Implacable dark as ebony eyes rested on her. ‘Then I hand you over to the police.’