Penniless and Purchased

‘They’re all I’ve got. Please.’ Her voice sounded anxious. ‘Please let me collect them—don’t throw them away. I need them. And,’ she went on, forcing herself, ‘I’m fine here—honestly. I’m used to it.’

She t

ook another razoring breath. She needed him to go. Just go. She was starting to break, and she mustn’t break in front of him—she just mustn’t. The stark shock of his approach on the street was wearing off, leaving in its place only an urgency to get rid of him. She had to get rid of him. She had to. It had taken all the strength she possessed to leave him that fateful morning, to force herself to walk away, down the long, long road back to the bleak, hopeless life to which she was condemned and from which there could be no escape.

And now to see him again, to have him here, so close, in this vile dump she lived in, was agony—just agony!

‘Please go, Nikos. I can’t have you here. I just can’t.’ Her voice was strained. ‘I’ve…I’ve got things I have to do. So, please—just go. Please.’

‘What things?’ He was unrelenting.

‘Just things. It doesn’t matter what. Just go, please.’

He could see her distress. It was visible, flaring from her. And he could see, too, that she was at the very end of her strength. She could take no more. And he needed to find out a lot more! His eyes set on Sophie as she stood there, looking so frail a breath of wind might blow her away.

‘Where is your father, Sophie?’ The question came stark, blunt.

He saw her cheeks whiten. He was stressing her, but right now he didn’t care—he had to know where Edward Granton was, and then go and confront him with the truth about his daughter, his once-precious daughter!

What father would leave his daughter to live like this?

‘He’s abroad,’ she answered quickly.

‘Where?’

She gave a shrug, a small, weakened movement, her eyes shifting from his relentless gaze. ‘It doesn’t matter where. Nikos. Look, you have to go,’ Her voice was taut, low. ‘I…I have to be somewhere.’

Nikos levelled a long, measuring look on her. She did not meet his eyes. They were blank, blind, her expression a mask. A mask to hide behind. While behind the mask she was falling to pieces…

He took a step back, nodding. ‘OK—I’ll go.’

He saw the tension in her face ebb by a fraction, and knew he was doing the right thing. His agenda had just changed. The reasons why she had walked out on him could wait—for now. For one long, last moment he looked at her. Then, with a final brief nod of his head, he turned on his heel and left.

She listened as his footsteps rang on the stairs, heard the door to the street open and shut. Then slowly, very slowly, she sank down on the bed, as tears welled up under her eyelids and burnt like acid on her skin.

CHAPTER NINE

OUT on the pavement, Nikos slid out his mobile phone. Although he could not see his operative—they were skilled at inconspicuous surveillance—he knew the man was in the vicinity. When he answered, Nikos’s instructions were quick and to the point.

‘Keep watching her.’ Then he disconnected and called his driver to bring the car for him.

His mood was savage. But not with Sophie. Not know.

What the hell was going on with her? Why was her father leaving her to live such a life? Running up debts! Taking menial jobs! Queuing up at Job Centres! Resorting to working as an escort!

Everything he’d thought he’d known about her life now had exploded in his face.

But he would find out the truth! The truth about why she had run from him, walked out on him as she had, after such a night together…

No time to think of that now. No time to do anything other than ruthlessly, relentlessly, do whatever it took to keep her in his sights.

His car pulled up at the kerb and he stepped into it, curtly ordered his driver to drive off. Sophie had to think he had, indeed, done as she had pleaded with him to do—left her alone.

A thin, whipped smile set at his lips. One thing was certain—Sophie Granton was not getting away from him. Wherever she was going now, he’d be there too.

His car meandered through the nearby streets, and it did not take long before the call came through from his street surveillance team that Sophie had left the dump she lived in. But when Nikos arrived at the destination she had made for, in an outer region of London, whose quiet, wide, tree-lined avenues and large Victorian villas were a world away from the litterstrewn, run-down area she lived in, he could only frown in consternation. It was a substantial edifice, with a brass plate discreetly set into the stone wall fronting the short driveway past the entrance.

What was she doing here? At such a place? For a moment he could only stare, beyond comprehension. Then logic clicked in. The only explanation was that this place was something to do with her earlier visit to the Job Centre. She must be here for some kind of job interview—what else? Climbing out of the car pulled up in the driveway, he walked inside.