Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
MARCO
W hen George came to me with the plan Audry had come up with, I was relieved for various reasons. It was a good plan, I could have kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner. And it would earn us not just immediate cash but increase our cash flow from then on.
She was definitely proving her usefulness.
Dismissing George, I got to my feet and marched down to the cells where she was sitting hunched over again. No one had brought her bedding yet and I decided that there was no need to keep torturing her.
“Congratulations.” I said, “You just earned your way out of here.”
“Hooray,” she said drily, without raising her head.
“If your plan works, I might even consider us even.”
That had her lifting her head, her eyes bright with interest. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. Unless you don’t want your freedom?”
She blinked at me. “I… don’t know. It depends on how good the upgrade to my living quarters is.”
I laughed. “Well then, we’ll just have to see what we can do to motivate you.” I stepped aside, gesturing for her to walk past me. Slowly, she unfolded her legs, slipping into the slides I’d provided for her and walked towards me, watching me warily. She stepped past me, into the corridor and turned to look at me, awaiting my next instructions. I closed the door, leading the way up to the main floor and then up the flight of stairs to the bedrooms.
The estate was divided into two wings – east and west. My brother and I had rooms in the east wing and there were two guest rooms as well. My mother and sister occupied the west wing. I stopped at one of the guest rooms in the east wing, the one opposite my own room and gestured towards the door. “Home sweet home. Enjoy.”
She gave me a look and then reached out to open the door, peering cautiously inside. I turned away, leaving her to it. “If you need anything, I’m just across the hall.”
She flicked a glance at me and then stepped right into her room. I turned away and then froze at her words.
“Thank you, daddy.”
I turned, eyebrows raised, a suitable disbelieving expression on my face, and gave her a look. She had paused, hand on the door and was now grinning at me, cheekily. I was torn between wanting to show her exactly who her daddy was and growling at her about how she was playing with fire. Instead, I turned around and walked away.
I descended the stairs, wondering if it was really a good idea to have her so close to me. As clever and beautiful as she was, I knew she was playing some sort of game. Add in the very inconvenient resemblance to my dead fiancée and it just seemed like playing with fire.
“I can hear you catastrophizing right now.” Valerio came out of nowhere to walk beside me down the corridor to my office.
I flicked him a dismissive glance and rolled my eyes. “Don’t you have better things to do than stalk me?”
“Sure, yeah. Just ran a security check on all our systems with George; tightened some protocols and didn’t find any traps or breaches made by the new girl. Whatever she is up to, it doesn’t involve stealing more cash from us.”
“Not yet anyway.”
“Yeah. So, are you really going to work with her?”
I shrugged, “I literally have no choice but to collaborate with her at the moment.”
“You could just give her up to the families.”
I stopped, and turned, folding my arms, and staring incredulously at him, “And admit that she stole our money?”
“Good point.” He pointed his index finger at me. “Well, just know that I will be watching really closely.”
“That’s why you’re here, Val.”