Doukakis's Apprentice

She paused to watch as a boat passed under the bridge, lights twinkling and music playing. On the deck, a couple were locked in a passionate embrace and suddenly Damon wished he hadn’t agreed to a walk.

Everything made him think about that kiss in the hotel suite.

To distract himself, he kept the conversation focused on work.

‘I can see that you have original ideas, but original ideas are no good if they’re not supported by sound business practice. Money was leaking from your company. Do you have any idea how close you were to bankruptcy?’

She was still watching the couple kissing. ‘Yes.’

‘Is that why you all took a pay cut?’

‘The board wanted redundancies. None of us wanted that. We’re a team. We’re happy working together. And we’re good. I’ve known some of these people since I was a child and used to come to the office after school to help. The problems we face aren’t anything to do with lack of talent. You’re a clever man and you’ve looked at the numbers. You know that the money leaking from the company was pouring straight into the pockets of the board.’

‘I understand that. It’s the reason I fired them although at the time I didn’t know just how bad they were. What I don’t understand is why your father allowed it to happen. He should have had tighter control on what was going on.’

Even though it wasn’t cold, she drew the coat more tightly around her. ‘My father has always treated the company more as a hobby than a business. Sometimes he’s interested and sometimes he isn’t.’ Her voice was deceptively light. ‘He didn’t keep a rein on the board and without him there they took more and more liberties. He stopped showing interest in the company altogether about six months ago—about the same time he started seeing your sister. He’s been behaving like a teenager in love ever since. The board wanted cost savings.’

Damon kept his anger on a tight leash. ‘And the obvious solution, apart from slashing their own spending, was redundancy.’

‘My dad set up the company twenty-five years ago and some of the people who worked for him are still there. They’re loyal, lovely people.’ Her gaze flickered briefly to his. ‘And before you say it, yes, I know that business can’t run successfully on loyal, lovely people alone. We all figured that as long as we were still employed it could turn around so we agreed to the pay cut. I suppose we were all hoping for a miracle.’ With a wry smile, she stroked a strand of blonde hair away from her face. ‘And then my father and your sister went missing. And you showed up.’

Damon paused, unused to confiding in anyone but surprised to find that he wanted to. ‘We had a row. Just over two weeks ago. Arianna told me she was in love with someone and that I was going to lose it when she told me who.’ He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose, regretting that encounter. ‘She was right. I did lose it.’

‘I can imagine. We were never exactly your favourite family.’

His hand dropped slowly. ‘You were right when you accused me of acting emotionally—I did. But it was like watching a train crash in slow motion—you can see disaster and you want to take charge and stop it happening.’

‘Why do you feel you have to stop things happening?’

‘That night we were told about our parents—I thought she was too young to understand. She wasn’t.’ The cold feeling spread through him and he had an urgent need to shake it off, to outrun it. ‘She crawled onto my lap and sobbed and sobbed. Wouldn’t let go. I have never felt more helpless and inadequate than I did that night. I promised myself I was never going to let her be hurt like that again.’

Polly matched her stride to his as they crossed the bridge and started to walk along the embankment towards the hotel. ‘She was a child then. She’s an adult now.’

‘I’m more parent than brother and I don’t think a parent ever stops feeling responsible.’ It was typical, he thought, that a woman would want to unpeel that statement and look beneath the surface.

He wondered what had possessed him to make such an unguarded comment when normally he kept his feelings tightly locked away. ‘Let’s get back to the hotel.’

‘In other words you don’t want to talk about it. Sorry. Shouldn’t have asked.’ She was light on her feet, sure-footed as she negotiated paving stones and cobbles. ‘So what happens now? You took over the company thinking that you’d be able to influence my father. But my father doesn’t care about the company at the moment. He’s obsessed with your sister.’ Her face was pale in the twinkling evening light and Damon watched her, realising that he’d given virtually no thought to how she felt about it all.

‘It must have been hard for you, seeing him involved with women your age.’

Her tongue moistened her lower lip. ‘School was hard. My father used to drive a soft-top sports car and the blonde in the front was as much of an accessory as the CD-player. If anything is designed to make you a target, it’s having a parent who behaves like that.’

‘Was that why you rebelled?’

She gave a funny crooked smile. ‘I didn’t rebel. I had a problem and I sorted it. It’s what I’ve always done.’

‘You had three boys in your bedroom—the bedroom you shared with my sister. How was that sorting a problem?’

‘It happened ten years ago! I refuse to be continually judged on something I did ten years ago. Get over it.’ She walked surprisingly quickly for someone quite petite and he cursed softly and followed, deciding that she was infinitely more complicated than he’d first thought.

He was getting the sense that he’d misjudged her yet again, and yet her misdemeanour had been witnessed by several members of staff so he knew that this time there was no mistake. What was there to misjudge? At fourteen years old she’d been caught in her underwear in her bedroom with three boys—an offence dealt with by exclusion.

They’d reached the hotel and she smiled at the doorman and greeted him in French.

Amazed that she managed to be chatty even in a foreign language, Damon extracted her from what promised to be a lengthy conversation and urged her forwards. ‘So why is your title executive assistant when clearly you should be on the creative team? It’s not a fair reflection of your responsibilities or your contribution.’

‘Life isn’t always fair, Mr Doukakis.’ She walked into the apartment ahead of him, exchanging a cheerful greeting with his security team who Damon dismissed with a faint movement of his head.