seems so. I haven’t been able to reach her by phone.’
‘Have you had Security try to track her down?’
‘They’re on it but no luck so far. She says she’s heading to Spain.’
‘I can read.’
A heavy silence fell between them and Leo scanned the note once again to make sure he hadn’t been mistaken.
Then he leaned back in his chair and rubbed the back of his neck, feeling his muscles bunch but not release. He crumpled the pink paper in his fist and lobbed it across the room. ‘How many hours do we have?’
‘Two. The childcare centre closes at five.’
Leo swore under his breath and jerked to his feet.
‘It’s only for the long weekend. She’ll be back on Monday,’ Danny added, highlighting the only positive in the message.
Leo stared out of his office window and watched the London Eye do a lazy circuit in the glittering summer sunshine. The wharf was a hive of teeming tourists probably spending more money than they had and he’d gladly hand over half of his vast fortune to any one of them if they could solve his current problem.
Four years ago he’d met a young model at Brussels Airport when all flights had been grounded due to inclement weather. Leo hadn’t even thought twice about it. Beautiful, more-than-willing woman, long night. It made sense.
Her wanting to get pregnant to a rich stranger still didn’t. The woman in question had been on the hunt for a rich husband instead of a rich career and had deliberately used a tampered condom. Three months later she’d come to him and told him the ‘good’ news.
She’d been hoping for a ring. What she’d got was a house and a monthly allowance once paternity had been confirmed.
Leo wasn’t father material. He had blood running through his veins he had never intended to pass on. The fact that this model—Amanda Weston—had duped him had made him crazy. After the fog had cleared and logic had returned he’d done the honourable thing. He’d covered all her financial expenses and made her promise to keep the boy as far away from him as possible. He might have inadvertently given someone life but he wasn’t about to completely stuff it up by being part of the child’s life as well.
Recollections of his own childhood danced at the edges of his mind like circus performers wielding brightly coloured batons with which to prod him. First the death of three of his men had reminded him of the horrendous circumstances surrounding his beloved uncle’s death and now the prospect of having to care for his three-year-old son was bringing up even worse memories. His mother. His father. His brother.
With ruthless determination Leo banished his memories and refocused on the one thing he could trust. Work.
He turned back to Danny. ‘What’s happening with the Thessaly ethanol plant?’
‘So, you still haven’t said. Are you going to Paris this weekend with Simon, or not?’
Lexi stopped trying to put the wheel back on a broken toy truck and looked over at her best friend and business partner, Aimee Madigan.
Aimee had one eye on the group of kids enjoying free play at the Little Angels childcare centre they had started together two years ago and the other on the yarn she was carefully winding back into a ball. ‘And please don’t tell me you have to work,’ her friend added with a sense of resigned certainty.
Lexi grimaced. She was supposed to be heading to Paris for the long weekend with a guy she’d been seeing casually for two months. And no doubt Simon would expect their relationship to advance to the next stage—sex—but Lexi wasn’t convinced that was such a good idea.
She had let herself be worn down by a man’s pursuit once before and the experience still left a bitter taste in her mouth. Only she didn’t really want to be worn down. The truth was, her life was wonderful as it was; she’d let herself be weakened once before by a man’s pursuit and the experience still left a bitter taste in her mouth. ‘You know the second centre is at a crucial stage of the planning. If I don’t get the loan approved in the next week or so, we won’t have one.’
‘I take it things didn’t go so well then with Darth Vader this morning?’
Lexi grinned at Aimee’s use of the pet moniker they had attributed to their hard-nosed bank manager and tried not to feel despondent. ‘He’s still got some concerns about how much the renovations are costing and some aspects of the business plan.’
‘I wish I could help you.’
Lexi shook her head. ‘This is my area of the business and you do enough around here. I’ll sort it somehow.’
Aimee stopped winding her wool and looked at Lexi as if she’d just had a great idea. ‘I know, maybe you could do that somewhere between the Arc de Triomphe and the Louvre,’ she suggested, only half tongue-in-cheek.
‘Oh, yeah, I’m sure Simon would really love that!’ Lexi laughed.
‘Well, he is shelling out for The Ritz so it seems a shame to miss it altogether. And he does seem very nice.’
‘He is,’ Lexi replied, wishing Aimee would let the topic drop.
‘Lex, you’re still using work as an excuse to avoid having a proper relationship with a man,’ Aimee reproved.
Lexi scraped her finger on the toy car. ‘Ow, damn.’ She sucked the scratch and tried to keep her answer light and simple. ‘Maybe I just haven’t met the love of my life yet.’
‘And you won’t with the amount of hours you spend here.’
‘I’m happy.’
‘Not every man is an immature skunk like Brandon, Lex, and it has been four years.’
Lexi pulled a face. She’d been best friends with Aimee since high school and she knew her friend had her best interests at heart. And she also knew Aimee was right, but Brandon’s betrayal had echoed that of her father’s just a little too closely and Lexi wasn’t at all sure she was willing to risk her heart again any time soon.
‘I know that,’ she said on a sigh. And she did. But even thinking about having a relationship brought up all her old insecurities and the truth, which she was far too embarrassed to ever admit to anyone—including Aimee—was that she wasn’t great at sex. Wasn’t overly sexual at all. Which, if she was being completely honest, was the main reason she didn’t want to go to Paris. That and the fact that she didn’t actually want to have sex with Simon. But admitting that made her feel as if there was something wrong with her.
And maybe there was … Wasn’t that what Brandon had implied?
She walked over to give the truck back to the three-year-old who had broken it. ‘Here you go, Jake. Just be a bit more careful when you play with it this time.’ She scanned the group and didn’t even hear the high-pitched sounds of kids digging to China in the sandpit and chasing each other around the various climbing frames during their free play session. It was getting towards the end of the day and half the kids had already been collected. Her eyes fell on Ty Weston playing quietly by himself hammering at the small wooden table,
