by Andie Brock
‘What about you?’
She’d posed the question as more of a counter-attack than a quest for the truth, but the way she chewed the inside of her lip gave her away.
‘No doubt there has been a veritable stream of beauties hopping in and out of your bed.’
‘No.’ Jaco shook his head.
‘So, just one or two?’
She looked at him with such hope that Jaco felt his heart melt.
‘Not even that.’
‘What? No one? Really?’ Incredulity mixed with wary relief danced in her eyes.
‘No one, Leah.’
‘Wow!’ She gave him a megawatt smile.
Carefully setting Gabriel down on the bed in front of him, Jaco drew her into his arms, the need to hold her against him suddenly overpowering. Something about her vulnerability had touched him in a place he hadn’t even known existed, more deeply than he had ever thought possible. And now, as they were locked in this close embrace, it occurred to him that his feelings for this woman had the potential to change his life. That so far he had allowed himself to do no more than skim the surface.
Finally they pulled apart, and Jaco leant in to kiss her again, the stirrings of desire already making their presence felt as he breathed in the delicate fragrance of her hair, her skin, the taste of her lips. The kiss started to deepen—until a loud squawk from the third party alerted them to his existence and reluctantly Jaco pulled away.
‘To be continued...’ He gave Leah a sinful grin before getting out of bed and scooping Gabriel up in his arms. ‘Come on, mi figlio, let’s go and make your mamma some breakfast while she has a shower. If she is anything like me, she must be starving.’
Twenty minutes later Jaco surveyed his handiwork. Fruit, yoghurt, bread and jam, warm brioche rolls and a large pot of coffee, all laid on a table on the decked terrace. He had even picked a bunch of some sort of brightly coloured flowers—he had no idea what—and put them in a jug in the centre of the table.
Gabriel was propped up on an enormous beanbag in the shade, a wooden spoon in his hand, alternating between putting it in his mouth and flailing it around in an attempt to hit the upturned saucepan in front of him, his face lighting up with pleasure whenever he managed to make contact.
Jaco took in a deep breath, looking around him at the view, at his baby son, at the doorway into the living room where Leah would be appearing any minute. He could get used to this. More than that, he suddenly realised that this was what he wanted. A wife and family, kids—lots of them—so that he could give them everything he had never had. Security, happiness, love. For the first time ever it suddenly seemed possible.
Once this wretched business with the Garalinos was over he would be able to start his life afresh. He was so close to it now he could almost touch it, smell it. He just had to negotiate this last final push, see all his carefully laid plans through to conclusion, and his ordeal would be over. His and Francesca’s. And, of course, Leah’s.
Despite his macho insistence that Leah and Gabriel would be living with him whether they liked it or not, Jaco wanted Leah there of her own volition—not because he had forced her. And marriage and kids? He didn’t want them with some unspecified woman in the future. He wanted them now—with Leah. With a starburst of clarity he realised that Leah McDonald was crucial to every aspect of his future life.
As if on cue, she appeared, her cheeks pink, her hair damp from the shower.
‘Ooh.’ She looked around her, bending down to retrieve the wooden spoon that Gabriel had flung to one side and giving it back to him. ‘This looks lovely. And not a burnt steak in sight.’
‘Less of the sarcasm, young lady.’ Pulling back a chair, he gestured for her to sit with a sweep of his arm, then offered her the plate of brioche rolls. ‘I’ll have you know these rolls have been removed from the freezer and oven-baked to perfection.’
‘Mmm...’ Leah took a bite and smiled at him. ‘I won’t argue with that.’
‘So what do you eat for breakfast in Scotland?’ He leant forward to pour her a glass of orange juice. ‘Is it haggis or something?’
‘Hello—stereotypical prejudices alert!’ She gave him a mock-stern frown. ‘I’ll have you know that haggis would never be consumed until the evening meal—or high tea, as we call it.’ She smeared butter onto her roll and took another large bite. ‘Breakfast would most likely be porridge oats or something called a clootie dumpling. It’s a bit of an acquired taste.’
‘Then I look forward to acquiring it.’ Jaco gazed back at her, testing the water, aware that if he wanted to gauge her feelings he was going to have to open up himself.
‘Really?’ Leah looked at him in surprise.
‘Yes, why not? I would very much like to see your country and get to know your father. When this is all over we should pay a visit.’
‘And when will it be over, Jaco?’ Suddenly serious, Leah set down her glass and fixed him with her stunning hazel-eyed stare. ‘When are you going to tell me what all this is about? Give me back my phone? Allow me and Gabriel to leave this island?’
‘Soon—I promise.’ He reached for her hand. ‘I wouldn’t be doing this, Leah, if it wasn’t vitally important.’
‘So you keep saying.’ She looked down at his hand, covering hers, before withdrawing her own to tuck her rapidly drying hair behind one ear. ‘But I don’t understand why you can’t just tell me what’s going on now.’
Jaco hesitated. He wanted to tell her the truth. She deserved to know the truth. He saw that now.
Up until last night he had seen no reason to explain anything—not after the deceitful way she had kept his son a secret from him. But now he could see that she had had her reasons. They were all wrong, of course, but in Leah’s typical hot-headed, act-first-and-think-later way she had made a snap judgement and taken herself off without waiting for any sort of explanation. She was as impulsive as she was passionate, but Jaco could never hate her for that. Far from it.
‘Confidentiality is of the utmost importance.’ His brow furrowed as he weighed up how to proceed. ‘In my experience, the fewer people you trust, the less likely you are to be let down.’
Jaco had found that out to his cost. As a naive eleven-year-old he had put his trust in the Garalino family. Worse than that, he had been prepared to love them.
Excited at being adopted into a large, powerful family of brothers and uncles, led by the charismatic Luigi Garalino, he had tried to do everything he could to please them at first, in the hope that they would show him and his little brother some of the love that had been so badly missing from their lives ever since their parents had died.
But he had soon discovered there was no love to be had from that family. And as the years had gone by it had become more and more apparent just how rotten to the core the whole lot of them were.
Years of being beaten for the slightest excuse—leaving a smear on the windscreen of the fancy limousine he had just washed, or being late back, breathless and panicking, from the errand he had run across the other side of town. Years of being denied food if he dared to answer back or tried to protect his brother. Years of being locked in the coal hole for days at a time, then beaten again when he was finally let out.
But that was nothing compared to the psychological abuse that Francesco had suffered. The pain of his beatings was nothing to the agony of seeing his little brother cowering in a corner, shaking, his clothes soiled, unable to speak, unable to move, his spirit totally broken by the Garalinos’ wicked cruelty.
The guilt of not being able to protect his sibling had lived with Jaco all his life—coloured his existence, driven him on. But at least Francesca was safe now, and very soon she would be free. And by bringing Leah and Gabriel here he had protected them too—he had done the right thing. Even though Leah most definitely didn’t see it like that.
‘So you are saying you don’t trust me?
Is that it?’
Jaco watched as Leah traced a crumb around her plate before picking it up on her finger.
‘I’m saying that now, more than ever, I can’t afford to make any mistakes, or for anything to go wrong. So the fewer people who know, the better.’
Leah’s lips twitched slightly as she assimilated this information, suggesting she was far from happy with his explanation.
She raised her eyes to meet his. ‘And is it really worth it? All this plotting and subterfuge just for some business deal?’
‘This is no business deal, Leah.’ Jaco held her questioning gaze. ‘It is far more important than that.’ He hesitated again. ‘You have to understand that I am keeping you here for your own protection—yours and Gabriel’s. It is absolutely vital that no one knows where you are.’
Leah’s hands dropped down by her sides, a flush suddenly spreading over her cheeks.
‘Leah?’
‘Well, actually... I meant to say...’ She fidgeted in her seat.
‘To say what?’
‘Somebody does know.’
‘What?’ The cup in Jaco’s hand clattered down onto its saucer.
‘Last night, when you were in the kitchen, I phoned the police.’ Leah’s face crumpled apologetically.
‘You did what?’
Kicking back his chair, Jaco reared up, towering over her with thundering fury. With his body blocking out the sun it felt as if the whole world was coming to an end. Even Gabriel stopped banging his saucepan and went completely quiet.
Leah stared up at Jaco in panic. At the corded veins in his arms from the fists that were bunched like steel. At the tendons standing out in his neck...the fierce set of his jaw, the fury in his eyes.
Even though she wasn’t entirely sure her call had had any effect, she had fully intended to tell Jaco about it. Wrapped in his arms last night she had roused him to try and make her confession. But somehow other events had taken over, and in the morning, when there had still been no sign of anyone coming to ‘rescue’ them, she had put it from her mind.
Never had she imagined that he would react like this.
‘Please tell me you are joking.’ He reached down to put his hand on her shoulder. ‘Tell me you haven’t really done this.’
‘I’m afraid I have.’ Leah bit down on her lip. ‘I’m sorry, Jaco, but I found your phone on the floor and rang the emergency number. But they didn’t seem to believe me anyway.’ She clutched at this glimmer of hope, trying to calm his madness. ‘And nobody came so it must be okay...right?’
‘What did you tell them?’ His voice was a muted roar.
‘I...I said that we were being held prisoner on this island...me and Gabriel. That we wanted to be rescued.’ Her unease spread, the more she thought about it.
‘Dio, Leah.’ He ground down on his jaw. ‘Did you give them my name?’
‘Well, yes, but—’
‘What else? What else did you tell them?’
‘Nothing else.’ Leah screwed up her face, trying to remember. ‘I may have mentioned that you were part of the Garalino family. But I didn’t have time to say anything much. You came back into the room and...’
‘You mentioned the Garalinos?’
‘Yes.’ Leah nodded guiltily. ‘I’m pretty sure I did.’
‘That’s it. We are leaving.’
Sweeping past her, Jaco picked up a startled Gabriel and tucked him under his arm.
‘Right now. Get your stuff.’
‘What? Why?’
Leaping to her feet, she rushed after him, following the two of them down the corridor to her room.
‘I mean, they don’t even know where we are—not really. I couldn’t give them the name of the island because I don’t even know it.’
‘They can track my phone, Leah.’ He could barely contain his rage. ‘They will know where we are.’
‘Well, no one has turned up yet.’ Still she persevered. ‘Like I said, they’ve probably forgotten all about it. Treated it as a prank call.’
‘Pack your things.’
Flinging open the wardrobe door, Jaco pulled out her suitcase and threw it onto the bed with one hand, Gabriel still held in the crook of his arm.
He glared at her, his eyes slits of fire. ‘And hurry up about it.’
Working on autopilot, Leah had started to stuff their belongings into the case when suddenly she stopped. This was ridiculous. What was she doing? She had already been forced to pack up and leave her home once, with no more than a minute’s notice, and now Jaco was doing it again. Ordering her around, giving her no explanation, expecting her to obey his every command. Well, she had had enough.
Firmly planting her feet on the floor, she folded her arms across her chest and glared at him.
‘No, Jaco. You can’t keep doing this to me. I’m sorry if I have done something wrong...got you into trouble...but I am not the one to blame here. If you had told me in the first place what was going on I would never have had to call the police and whatever all this is...’ she gestured at the clothes strewn over the bed ‘...would never have had to happen. You need to tell me right now what this is all about, or I flatly refuse to leave.’
‘Trust me—you are leaving. We all are.’ Laying Gabriel down on the bed, Jaco closed the lid of the suitcase, snapping the clasps shut. ‘Your foolish action has compromised your safety, and more importantly Gabriel’s safety. We have to leave the island immediately.’
‘Compromised our safety?’ Leah stood her ground, even though her knees were shaking and her whole body was trembling with the shock of Jaco’s violent reaction. ‘Are you sure that’s what I’ve done? Or have I simply blown your cover?’
With a sickening wave of dread, Leah suddenly realised she had hit upon the truth. These people who they had to be protected from weren’t the bad guys. He was the bad guy. Jaco Valentino—suave, sophisticated billionaire businessman, with his easy charm and his impeccable manners. The man who had so easily stolen her heart. The man she had fallen in love with so deeply, so desperately, that she would never, ever recover, was nothing more than a filthy rotten criminal.
Her mind started to fly in all directions. Was that why Jaco had to keep her and Gabriel hidden away? Because they might leave a trail for the police? Or maybe, without realising it, she had some information they could use against him. Capezzana. What if the vineyard was nothing but a front—some sort of money laundering operation that she had unwittingly been a part of?
And then there was Francesca. Someone else Jaco had hidden away. What was it that he had said? There were ‘people who would like to hurt her’. Who would want to hurt her? And why? Presumably the same people who posed a threat to herself and Gabriel? Were these the sort of people Jaco did business with? Violent criminals? Gangsters? The mafia? No wonder he was estranged from his adopted family. They were probably disgusted by the villainous path he had taken.
With her fervid imagination rushing to slot the pieces of the jigsaw into place, Leah saw a very ugly picture taking shape.
‘You have no idea what you are talking about.’
Slashing through her thoughts with blade-like ferocity, Jaco picked up the suitcase and watched with mounting impatience as Leah stuffed the last few things into her shoulder bag, then gathered Gabriel into her arms.
Herding them from the room, he marched her out of the villa and towards the helicopter that gleamed in the punishing sunshine. After making sure she was buckled in safely, with Gabriel on her lap, Jaco walked in front of the cockpit. But instead of getting in the other side straight away he strode towards the cliff-edge and, pulling his phone out of his pocket, hurled it into the sea with all his might.
With a surge of stomach-churning dread, Leah felt as if a part of her had drowned with that phone. The part that had clung to the hope that she had got this all wrong.
She h
ad to go with him now. But the first chance she got she and her baby son were going to make a bid for freedom. She had no intention of being around this sickening man for any longer than was strictly necessary.
CHAPTER NINE
JACO SHUT THE door to his office, double-checking it had locked behind him. He took in a breath as he looked around at the gleaming wooden panelling and the sparkling mirrors, the dazzling spotlights, suddenly wondering why he had commissioned this flashy monstrosity. Even naming it The Alessia, after his mother, felt all wrong. In no way did it reflect her gentle personality.
At the time he had considered the luxury yacht just another compulsory toy for the billionaire playboy, along with the fast cars and the fancy properties all over the world. But Jaco was no longer that man.
The memory of all those years of hollow sex with women who had meant nothing to him now filled him with revulsion. He’d told himself he was having fun, that no-strings sex with a host of beautiful women was every red-blooded man’s dream. Now he realised it had all been a pointless waste of time. That the reason he had never wanted any commitment was because he had never found anyone he wanted to commit to.
Until Leah. Until the day Leah McDonald had burst into his life like a ray of autumn sunshine, bringing a glow of vitality to everything around her with her spirit and her smile and her infectious enthusiasm. He hadn’t fully realised it at the time, but that day had been the turning point of his life.
Striding down the windowless carpeted corridor, Jaco focussed on what he had to do. Bringing Leah and Gabriel to the yacht had never been part of the plan, but Leah had left him no choice. By phoning the police she had seriously jeopardised the whole operation. And, worse still, put herself and Gabriel in danger.
Because Jaco didn’t trust the police. He didn’t trust anyone apart from the select few who had managed to prove themselves through rigorous checks and several years of loyal service. Everyone else he viewed with the deepest suspicion. That way there were no nasty surprises.
He had no idea who this person was that Leah had spoken to. But he did know that she had not only given them his name but the name Garalino, which would have immediately set alarm bells ringing. One of the most powerful families in Sicily, the Garalinos were on intimate terms with both the carabinieri and the polizia di stato. Bribery, corruption and coercion was rife.