His beautiful eyes flashed and his wide, sensual mouth compressed. ‘This matter is between us…you don’t discuss it with your sisters—’
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‘Don’t I? But this is family business,’ Kerry said defiantly. ‘And just as you don’t think that the business of profit is anything to do with me, I don’t think family business is anything to do with you!’
Luciano did not even look marginally amused. ‘Don’t be facetious,’ he grated. ‘We’re flying back to Ireland tomorrow and we’ll sort out any problems we have in private.’
‘In the usual way you sort out problems?’
‘No, even I don’t think you’re ready to fall into bed with me right at this minute,’ Luciano drawled.
Her blue eyes lit with fury. ‘I’m not talking about sex, I’m talking about threats—’
‘When have I threatened you?’ Luciano demanded rawly. ‘I just don’t want you running off to confide in those interfering sisters of yours!’
‘Don’t you dare call my sisters interfering!’
‘I have no quarrel with them as long as they stay the hell out of our marriage!’ Luciano launched at her with ferocious bite.
Kerry shot him a look of mingled angry, wounded frustration. ‘How could you think that I would want to tell another living soul about this? I’m hurt and I’m disappointed in you and the last thing I feel right now is proud of being married to you…but I’ve got enough pride to want to keep that news to myself!’
A surge of dark colour slashed his hard cheekbones and then slowly receded to leave him unusually pale. His dense black lashes screened his brooding gaze. He was seething but not an inch beneath that anger he was much more affected than he was prepared to admit by her attack. How dared she tell him that he had disappointed her?
Fabulous bone structure taut, Luciano surveyed Kerry with fierce, chilling cool but she was not fooled, for she knew she had finally penetrated his tough hide.
Rigid-backed, she walked back to the door before making one final comment. ‘And if you’re so blasted proud of what you’ve done, why didn’t you tell me about it? Why did I have to find out only by accident?’
How could she ask him that? If he had told her that he was in the process of destroying Linwoods, she wouldn’t have married him. And, given the same choices to make again, Luciano knew he would still choose to remain silent. She was his wife now. She could be angry, disappointed and hurt but she was still his wife and on his terms that meant that she wasn’t going anywhere. He was damned if he was going to fake regret to touch her soft heart. Bringing down her father had been a source of deep satisfaction to him and not only on his own account. Even before his imprisonment, he had despised Harold Linwood for the continual wounding snubs and rejections the older man had levelled at his daughter.
In a daze, Kerry walked out of her husband’s office building. She was all shaken up and the irony was that she very badly wanted to call her sisters and confide in them. Only, now Luciano’s derision had formed a giant wall between her and that comforting prospect. It was at that point that the final comprehension sank in on Kerry and she fell still in the middle of the street. My goodness, where had her wits been? Her sisters were already aware that Luciano owned the Salut chain and had targeted Linwoods!
In that moment, Kerry went from feeling disappointed that she could not lean on her sisters to feeling utterly betrayed by them and foolish. How could she have forgotten that strange conversation between her sisters which she had overheard at her own wedding? All that about feeling guilty about not telling ‘her’ and not interfering in other people’s marriages? Of course that exchange had related to her!
Furthermore, didn’t she have good reason to suspect that her sisters’ knowledge of events went back even further than her wedding? Hadn’t Misty admitted to having had Kerry checked out by an investigator prior to their first meeting? Presumably, Luciano, the male guilty of repossessing Ballybawn, had been checked out with even greater precision. What had Ione said? ‘Luciano is a very dangerous man who is already hurting your family.’ Kerry had assumed that Ione meant that Luciano’s existence was already causing grief between Kerry and her siblings. That was what she had believed Ione meant by ‘family’. Instead, Ione had been referring to the Linwoods.
A family who had never really been her family, Kerry conceded with pained honesty. Only Miles had ever made her feel as though she belonged to the Linwood clan and, ironically, Miles was a Bailey, not a Linwood. Yet he, like his sister, Rochelle, had still been much more a part of the Linwood family than Kerry had ever contrived to be. Now Luciano had wrecked even the tiniest chance of her ever getting closer to her father. Her husband had deliberately destroyed her father’s livelihood. She was twenty-six years old. Was it pathetic of her to have still cherished hopes that some day she would break through her father’s detachment and win his affection?
No doubt Luciano would deem such hopes another example of her unrealistic idealism! But suddenly Kerry had not a doubt about what she ought to be doing next, for her path seemed clear. She wanted to see her father. Harold Linwood was not a young man and he had just suffered a grievous blow. Was her father even aware that Luciano was responsible for the downfall of Linwoods? She paled and then squared her shoulders with determination. Her father was in need of all the support he could get and the least she could do as his daughter was express her regret and offer to help in any way that she could.
By the time that Kerry had established that her father was not at the office but at home and she had caught the train out to Surrey, the afternoon was well advanced. A taxi dropped her at Heathlands, a big, imposing dwelling surrounded by extensive gardens. Harold Linwood was in his study.
‘Have you come to express your sympathy?’ Her father was slumped in the imposing leather chair behind his desk, his pale blue eyes cold behind his spectacles and his intonation withering.
Kerry flushed, her tension increasing. ‘I know how much Linwoods means to you and how hard you’ve worked to build it up—’
‘Only for your husband to knock it down again like a pile of toy bricks!’
Squirming guilt and dismay assailed Kerry when she realised that he knew that Luciano had masterminded his downfall. ‘I didn’t know that Luciano was behind the Salut chain!’ she heard herself protest in her own defence. ‘I only found out today—’
‘He treated me to a personal visit.’ The older man pursed his lips and awarded her a bitter look of hostility. ‘I can’t stomach having his wife in my home!’
Kerry flinched. ‘I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have come and I’ll leave.’
‘Why did you come?’
‘I wanted to…I wanted to show you that I c-cared.’ Kerry closed her hands very tightly round the bag she was holding.
Harold Linwood loosed a contemptuous laugh. ‘I can soon cure you of that notion. Why would I want you to care? I’m not your father…’