The light breeze lifted a few strands of her loose hair as she turned to her brother and saw him jerk his chin towards the largest yacht moored at the far end of the pier. ‘Trust Pantelides to rub my nose in it,’ he said acerbically.
She looked from the sleek black, gold-trimmed vessel back to her brother. ‘Rub your nose…what are you talking about?’
With a sullen look, he strode off down the jetty. ‘That’s my boat.’
‘Yours? When did you buy a boat?’
‘I didn’t. I couldn’t. Not after the mess up with Pai’s last campaign. That boat was supposed to be mine!’ Dark anger clouded his face.
Her heart jumped into her throat. ‘Pietro, a boat like that costs millions of dollars. Besides that very unsubtle hint that I in any way stood in the way of your acquiring it—which is preposterous, by the way—there’s no way you could ever have afforded a boat like that, so—’
‘Forget it. Let’s go and get this over with. It’s bad enough Pai pulled out of coming tonight. Now I have to schmooze for both of us. You have to play your part, too. It’s clear Pantelides’s got a thing for you.’
Disgust and anger rose in her and she snatched her hand away from Pietro when he tried to lead her down the gangplank.
‘I won’t participate in another of your soulless schemes. So you may as well forget it right now.’
‘Inez—’
‘No!’ Feelings she’d bottled up for much longer than she cared to think about rose to the surface. ‘You keep asking me to throw myself at prospective investors so you can fund Pai’s campaign. You’re his campaign manager and yet you can’t seem to function without my help. Why is that?’
Pietro’s eyes darkened. ‘Watch your mouth, sister.’
‘Show me some respect and I’ll consider it,’ she challenged.
‘What the hell has got into you?’
‘Nothing that hasn’t always been there, Pietro. But you need me to point it out to you so I will. I’m done. If you want me to accompany you as your sister to Theo Pantelides’s dinner, then I will. If you have another scheme up your sleeve, then you might as well forget it because I am not interested.’
Her brother’s lips pursed but she saw a hint of shame in his eyes before his gaze slid away. ‘I don’t have time to argue with you right now. All I ask, if it’s not too much, of course, is that you help me secure this deal with Pantelides, because if we lose his backing then we might as well pack up and head back up to the ranch in the mountains.’ He set off down the jetty.
She hurried to keep up, picking her way carefully over wooden slats. ‘But I thought everything was done and dusted this morning?’ she asked when she caught up with him.
Anxiety slid over Pietro’s face. ‘Pantelides cancelled the meeting. Something came up, he said. Except I know it was a lie. I have it on good authority he was parked outside a coffee shop chatting up some girl when he was supposed to be meeting us to finalise the agreement.’
Inez stumbled, barely catching herself from toppling headlong into the water a few feet away.
‘You’re having him watched?’ How she managed to keep her voice even, she didn’t know.
Petulance joined anxiety. ‘Of course I am. And I’d bet my Rolex that he’s doing the same to us.’
The thought of being the subject of anyone’s surveillance made her skin crawl, even though a part of her had reluctantly accepted the truth: that her father’s business dealings weren’t always legitimate. But hearing her brother admit it made her stomach turn.
And if that was the way Theo Pantelides conducted his business as well…
She pressed her lips together and looked up as Pietro strode past the potted palm lined entrance to the Yacht Club.
‘Aren’t we dining in there?’
He shook his head. ‘No. We’re dining on my…on his boat,’ he tossed out bitterly.
Inez glanced at the yacht they were approaching.
This close, the vessel was even more magnificent. Its sleek lines and exquisite craftsmanship made her fingers itch for her sketching pad. She was so busy admiring the boat and yearning to capture its beauty on paper that she didn’t see its owner until she was right in front of him.