His Mistress by Blackmail

by Maya Blake

  He didn’t deny it. ‘Like you, I’ve attempted to reach him since he stole from me. He didn’t contact me directly. He left a message with my security chief.’

  ‘To say what?’

  He gave a grim smile. ‘It’s best not repeated, but suffice it to say it’s clear he has no intention of returning with my possession soon. I’m hoping you’ll be more successful in getting through to him.’

  ‘Or what?’

  ‘Or the next step will be facing the authorities whenever he resurfaces. And, contrary to what he may think, he can’t hide for ever.’

  Her nape tingled with foreboding. Everything Xandro had said cemented Ben’s guilt. So she forced the words that needed to be said to end this. ‘So what do you want with me?’

  ‘What I’ve wanted from the beginning. For you to convince him to return what’s mine. I’m the big bad wealthy bastard he sees as the source of his problems. But he cares about you.’

  ‘And so you intend to use me as a pawn?’ she surmised.

  ‘If it’ll make him come to his senses, yes.’

  Ice crawled over her skin as the question she’d asked her own parents three years ago reluctantly formed on her tongue. ‘What if I refuse?’

  ‘My offer hasn’t changed. The more time I waste on him, the less lenient I’ll be when I eventually catch up with him.’

  She balled her fists. ‘He hasn’t answered any of my messages or emails. What makes you think he’ll take my call?’

  His gaze swept down for a moment before he rose. ‘Because, as of this morning, I’ve issued a press release stating my new venture with Hunter’s. I’ve also revealed to a few sources who the new members of the dance company are. Your brother takes a keen interest in your career, does he not?’

  She nodded because it was no use denying it. Xandro knew enough about her to know she and Ben were close. That was why he’d come after her in the first place.

  ‘I like my privacy. So when I have news to share the media tend to take notice,’ Xandro said coolly.

  ‘So you’ve told the whole world that you’ve bought a dance company and I’m somewhere on the list of your new members.’

  ‘You’re right at the top of the list. With a few careful embellishments that will draw his attention.’

  ‘What embellishments?’

  Xandro shrugged. ‘Let’s just say that if he hates me as much as I think he does, the idea of you being mine will not go down well.’

  She gasped. ‘The idea of being yours? What on earth are you talking about?’

  ‘He will know you’re the primary reason I bought the company. He’ll know that I attended your auditions and that you’re currently here alone on this island with me. I’m letting his imagination fill in the remaining gaps.’

  ‘Which are what, exactly?’ she demanded, although a part of her didn’t want to know.

  ‘You know him better than I do. How well do you think he’ll take the idea that you and I are involved, that I intend to make you mine, if I haven’t done so already?’

  It wasn’t difficult to imagine Ben’s reaction to news like that. Her overprotective brother would hate the idea. Xandro epitomised everything Ben was struggling with. ‘This was what you wanted all along, wasn’t it? To use me to push his buttons?’ she declared with bitterness she’d hoped never to experience again.

  ‘It was a contingency plan, yes. Do you agree?’

  Refusal was immediate. ‘No, of course I don’t. I won’t be bullied into giving you what you want.’

  He stood and walked to the window and stood there with his back to her. One minute passed, then two. The throbbing silence jangled her nerves, forcing her to her feet.

  ‘Did you hear me?’ she prompted when he made no move to reply.

  Slowly, he turned to face her. The flint-hard, ruthless expression on his face sent a chill down her spine. ‘I did. And here’s where I too play dirty, Sage. I know you haven’t been in touch with your parents for a while. Allow me to update you on what they’ve been up to this past year. They’ve made some...unfortunate business and personal decisions that aren’t turning out so great for them. Put simply, they’re in dire straits and the loan shark they’ve gotten into bed with has reached the end of his patience.

  ‘By this time tomorrow their debts will be mine to enforce or renegotiate. How it goes depends entirely on you. Unless you agree to help me, not only will your brother end up in jail whenever he eventually turns up, your parents will also lose their precious lifestyle and their status in that charming little town they love so much, as they’ll be forced into bankruptcy. So what’s it to be?’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  SAGE WASN’T SURE how she managed to withstand the series of emotions charging through her. Disbelief. Shock. Anger. Back to disbelief.

  A thousand questions crowded the back of her throat, but she couldn’t immediately form the words to challenge everything he’d said.

  Her parents lived and breathed Havenwoods, the grand hotel situated in its namesake town in the middle of rural Virginia that had been in her father’s family for generations. For as long as Sage could remember, it was the one thing her parents cared about. There’d been times during her darker moments of despair when she’d wondered if they’d even notice if she disappeared from their lives. She knew Ben had felt the same. It was partly why he’d enlisted at twenty-one. And again, her parents had thought it was a whim Ben would grow out of. When he’d made his intention clear by re-enlisting for a second tour in the Middle East they’d issued him with the same ultimatum: Come home or be cut off. He’d chosen to be cut off.

  That was when they’d turned their full focus on getting her to bow to their will.

  That and the fact that ten years ago they’d added four Bed and Breakfast establishments to the hotel with a long-term business plan that included her role as eventual manager of the portfolio. Their single-mindedness hadn’t allowed them to entertain the possibility that she wouldn’t be in a position to fulfil that obligation. That the sustained barrage on her spirit and self-esteem by her bullies, the same bullies they were refusing to acknowledge, would draw her deeper into her dancing, her only solace in a dark landscape.

  But, despite their blindness where their children’s needs were concerned, Sage doubted her parents would’ve been blindsided when it came to their ambition to put Havenwoods on the boutique hotels map, never mind fall prey to the clutches of a loan shark in so doing.

  That bitter certainty made her laugh. ‘You’re wrong. My parents wouldn’t allow a loan shark within ten miles of Havenwoods.’

  ‘I assure you I’ve done my homework. They took on a business partner eighteen months ago. A maverick who convinced them to spend money they could ill afford, considering the business was already struggling.’

  It was only because everything he’d told her so far had turned out to be true that her conviction wavered. That and the glaring, painful fact that, not having spoken to her parents in years, she had no clue what was going on in their lives. ‘But...why...how...?’

  ‘Total renovation of Havenwoods and the smaller establishments with material more suited to a six-star global chain than a boutique hotel. Extensive advertising to drum up business. The usual pitfalls that overextending can create if undertaken too quickly. They probably could’ve achieved all that if they hadn’t tried to do it in months rather than years. In the last three months they’ve been forced to take out another mortgage on their home just to keep afloat. If you don’t believe me feel free to call and ask them.’

  They wouldn’t tell her even if she did. As far as they were concerned, she owed them the apology for letting them down, not the other way around.

  Still, it took every ounce of strength not to crumple into the chair she’d vacated minutes ago. ‘You’ve done all of this...dug up all this dirt on my family...for what, exactly? What did Ben take from you that’s so important you had to do this? And don’t say it’s the money. You brushed that off the first time we met
.’

  His face tightened even further as he prowled towards her, deadly intent stamped on his face. ‘What my possession means to me is not your concern. What should concern you is how precarious your family’s position is. It’s time to wake up, Sage. Your ambition seems to have blinded you to what’s happening with your family. You have a chance to stop things from getting worse for them. Do you really want your brother to end up in jail? Or your parents to lose everything?’

  Bitterness dredged through her at the thought that she was being asked to become the saviour of her parents when they’d closed their hearts and minds to her when she’d needed them. But the feeling was not enough to overcome the pain his words caused. Regardless of their indifference, she wouldn’t be able to abide it if the legacy they’d worked so hard to preserve crumbled to nothing. She might not have wanted it for herself, but Havenwoods was still their home.

  As for Ben, the thought of him in jail was unimaginable. Her brother needed counselling for his gambling problem. Possible psychiatric assistance after experiencing the trauma of war, not the cold harshness of imprisonment. ‘He can’t go to jail,’ she muttered, almost to herself.

  But he heard her. Heard and pounced on it. ‘That is entirely in your power now.’

  She opened her mouth, not entirely sure what she was going to say. The insistent trill of a phone in the charged atmosphere made her jump. It took a moment to realise the sound was coming from her handbag.

  ‘I’m guessing that’s your brother now, checking to see if there’s any truth behind the rumours,’ Xandro murmured into the silence.

  The uncanny way everything Xandro had predicted was playing out kept her frozen for a moment.

  ‘Answer the phone, Sage.’ He plucked her handbag off the floor and held it out to her. His implacable expression told her he would accept nothing but her compliance.

  With shaking fingers, she took it.

  He didn’t move away, completely disregarding her personal space. The harsh gleam in his eyes warned her of the consequences of her next move. On the fourth ring, she took the phone out of her bag.

  Could she do it? Could she blatantly mislead her brother?

  She shook her head.

  ‘You’re doing it for his own good. Let that be your reassurance,’ Xandro rasped, as if he’d read her thoughts.

  ‘I hate you for this.’

  A look passed through his eyes. One that almost hinted at regret. Then his face hardened again. ‘I only want back what’s mine.’

  In that moment, she knew he would go to the ends of the earth itself for it.

  Knowing her every choice was gone, she swiped her finger across the screen. ‘Ben?’

  ‘Sage?’

  ‘Ben, where are you—?’

  ‘Is it true?’ His voice was gruff with barely held-in anger. ‘Are you in Greece with that bastard?’

  A furtive glance showed Xandro had heard the slur. His jaw tightened but he didn’t move.

  ‘Did you take his money?’

  A terse silence greeted the question that even now, with the evidence mounted against him, she hoped he would deny.

  ‘What if I did? It’s nothing more than a man like him deserves. He struts around like he owns the whole world. Outsmarting him like I did was just the reality check he needed.’

  Sage closed her eyes, bitterness and disappointment fighting for supremacy inside her. With no ground to stand on in his defence, her vocal cords stopped working. For a moment, she toyed with the idea of hanging up, burying her head in the sand and pretending none of this was happening.

  ‘Sage,’ Xandro rasped warningly, again proving he had a disturbing insight into her thoughts.

  Ben inhaled sharply. ‘Is that him? What the press are saying is true, isn’t it? He bought Hunter’s and he’s there with you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Her brother cursed viciously. ‘Guys like him treat women like dirt. He’s not worthy of breathing the same air as you. You need to get away from him, Sage.’

  Xandro’s gaze trapped hers, forcing her to make the only response available to her. ‘I...can’t—’

  ‘Of course you can. Call the police. Tell them he’s kidnapped you. Let them haul him to jail! Give him a taste of what the real world feels like.’

  ‘He didn’t kidnap me, Ben. I came here of my own free will.’

  ‘But he tricked you, didn’t he?’ Ben insisted. ‘He bought the dance company and tricked you into going to his damn island. How else did you end up there?’

  Her hand tightened on the phone. ‘Ben, why are you doing this? All he wants is his stuff back. You need to—’

  ‘That’s not all he wants. Anyway, he’s not going to get it back! I don’t know what the big deal is anyway. What I took is peanuts to him. He’s worth billions.’

  ‘You took something that’s important to him,’ she said. Again she saw the look that passed through Xandro’s eyes at her words.

  ‘What? The trinkets he gives to his women when he’s done with them to shut them up? He orders them by the dozen from the jeweller in his casino. Did he tell you that?’ he snarled. ‘I bet he didn’t.’

  Sage wasn’t sure why her stomach dipped at that piece of news. But at least it helped her drag her gaze from the man standing statue-still before her. ‘This is still wrong.’

  She heard the clink of ice against glass in the background, and her heart sank further. If Ben was drinking, then the likelihood of him listening to reason was diminishing even further.

  ‘It’s sweet that you see the world in black and white, baby sister. It’s not.’

  ‘Then tell me what you’re trying to prove,’ she challenged with more than a hint of anger.

  ‘I’m causing him more than a moment of discomfort. I worked my ass off for him, and he didn’t even know I existed. Maybe now that he knows what it feels like, guys like him will stop looking down their noses at people like me.’

  The snippet she’d read online about Xandro’s beginnings in the rougher parts of New York rose in her mind, dragging with it speculation as to whether the piece of property he was pursuing was connected with his past. A look in his eyes told her she wasn’t about to find out right now.

  ‘Ben, tell me where you are.’

  ‘Sorry, Sage, but no.’

  She closed her eyes, her insides trembling at the resolution in his voice. ‘Please—’

  ‘No. He’s not going to win. I’m sorry I’m not around for you, but promise me the first chance you get you’ll contact the cops—’

  The phone left her fingers, the rest of Ben’s words fading as Xandro took it from her. ‘She will do no such thing. Neither will I where you’re concerned. For the time being. But you’ve had your fun, Woods. Take things a step further at your peril.’

  She caught Ben’s snort. ‘Your threats aren’t going to work on me.’

  Xandro’s jaw clenched for a single moment. ‘Very well. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.’ He hung up, and calmly offered her phone back to her.

  ‘Why did you do that?’

  ‘The conversation was going nowhere,’ he responded brusquely.

  She looked down at her phone, torn between calling Ben back and leaving things be. She raised her head as she heard Xandro’s footsteps.

  ‘Wait!’

  He turned and raised an eyebrow at her.

  ‘What happens now?’

  He shrugged. ‘Nothing. He’s had confirmation that you’re with me. He knows I’m not bluffing. Let him stew over his new reality.’

  Another odd sensation dragged through her belly. ‘You’re not going to let me go, are you?’

  His mouth lifted in a facsimile of a smile. ‘No. He’s been radio silent for three weeks. But he’s just shown his hand by reaching out to make sure you’re all right. You’re his weakness.’

  ‘But you heard what he said. He’s not going to return your things.’

  ‘That would be a shame,’ he replied. He turned towards the door again.

/>   ‘So, you’re just going to leave me here?’

  ‘Of course not. Until I get my property back, where I go, you go. That is your reality from now on.’

  Her mouth was still parted in an undignified O when he walked out and shut the door decisively behind him.

  * * *

  She could’ve gone after him to demand a definitive explanation of what he meant. But Sage desperately needed to regroup.

  When her parents had thrown down the gauntlet—compliance or disinheritance—she’d painfully taken the latter option. This time, Xandro had ensured she had no option that she could in good conscience live with except the one he wanted. Had she been watching this drama unfold in someone else’s life she would’ve been marginally impressed by his machinations.

  But this was her life. A life she’d scrambled together with Ben’s unwavering support in the face of her parents’ indifference and callous ultimatum. Now Xandro Christofides was issuing an even more impossible choice: save Ben or lie to him.

  She was still staring out of the window when Stavros returned to clear the lunch table. Unable to stand still a moment longer, she walked through the French windows.

  The head-clearing she needed finally came with the acceptance that, for now, Xandro had all the power. She’d said that she hated him for what he’d done. She did. But, with a little space, she was grudgingly aware that he’d been willing to give Ben another chance after his outburst. How much longer his patience would hold was another thing entirely.

  * * *

  She got her wish to leave the island two hours later. But it wasn’t by boat.

  Sage eyed the gleaming black helicopter sitting on its designated platform with unease as she walked beside Xandro.

  ‘Something wrong?’

  She looked around. ‘I can’t see a pilot.’

  ‘That’s because I’m flying it,’ he replied tersely.

  ‘I’m not in the habit of getting into menacing-looking machines with strangers.’

  His mouth flattened. ‘That’s good to know. But let’s be realistic for a minute. You’re effectively cut off from civilisation unless I choose to take you off my island. If I wished you harm, wouldn’t this be the perfect place to keep you and have my way with you?’