‘I’m appalled that you can say that our marriage is at risk if I don’t do what you want me to to.’ Kerry tilted her chin, blue eyes troubled but determined.
‘If you go to him, I won’t be here when you come back,’ Luciano ground out in a low, lethal undertone. ‘I’ll return to Italy and divorce you.’
Her shaken face blenched. He was taking intimidation to new and serious limits. Had she been so tolerant and easy-going that he now expected her to do exactly as he told her? She refused to credit that he could be serious in making such a threat when they were so happy together.
‘I promise that I won’t be away longer than twenty-four hours.’
The terrible silence hummed.
Kerry looked at Luciano, praying that he would show some understanding of the awful position he was putting her in. Lean, strong bone structure rigid, Luciano was pale beneath his bronzed skin. When she met the savage shimmer of his golden gaze she realised that he was not pale with stress so much as pale with absolute seething, sizzling rage. Was he jealous of her affection for Miles?
Uneasy at that suspicion, she turned away to pack an overnight bag, for she needed to head for the airport almost immediately. Miles was the closest thing to a best friend that she had ever had but she felt that that admission would be even less pleasing to Luciano. Five years ago, when her own life had fallen apart almost overnight with Rochelle’s revelations and Luciano’s subsequent arrest, Miles had made the effort to be there for Kerry. Nothing could have cured her heartache but his caring interest had warmed her at a time when she had been in despair.
Luciano could never recall feeling a more violent-centred anger. He was outraged at her lack of respect for his feelings. He was frustrated by the impossibility of telling her what Steven Linwood had confessed because that confession was virtually worthless until Steven got up the courage to make an official statement to the police. Her relationship with Miles had ensured that Luciano could not trust her with Steven’s revelations. But what embittered Luciano beyond belief was her unquestioning trust in Miles and her eagerness to offer the younger man support.
Deep in her own thoughts, Kerry was disconcerted when she lifted the bag she had hurriedly packed and discovered that she was alone in the bedroom. Her dismay increased when she realised that Luciano had driven off in his car, forestalling any hope of further dialogue before she left for the airport. But, although she was troubled, the belief that Luciano was being totally unreasonable stiffened her resolve…
CHAPTER ELEVEN
KERRY had just got off her flight to London when Miles rang her to tell her that he was at Rochelle’s apartment and not his own.
‘For goodness’ sake, what have you been doing?’ Kerry gasped.
‘Look, we’ll talk when you get here. Don’t tell anyone where I am,’ Miles urged tautly.
When her stepbrother answered the door of his sister’s apartment, he peered out into the hallway with a furtive air and hurried Kerry inside as fast as he could. ‘Thanks for coming. This may be our last chance to talk for a long time and I wanted you to hear the whole story from me and not from anyone else.’
‘I can’t believe you’ve been taking drugs. You need professional help,’ Kerry began worriedly. ‘What have the police charged you with?’
‘Possessing and smuggling cocaine…’
‘Possessing and s-smuggling…?’ A look of shock stamped on her face, Kerry collapsed down on the sofa in the ultra-modern lounge. ‘Smuggling?’
‘I’ve got a very heavy habit to feed,’ Miles protested. ‘I needed the money—’
Her faith in him had been badly shaken. That Miles should have become addicted to drugs was one thing, that he should have sunk to the level of smuggling them was another thing entirely.
‘I first got into debt a long time ago,’ Miles confided with an uneasy laugh. ‘I borrowed funds from the wrong people. They threatened to break my legs if I didn’t pay them back, so I had to find money from another source. There isn’t any way to wrap this up nicely, Kerry. So I’ll just spit it out…I was the real thief at Linwoods five years ago!’
Kerry gaped at him. ‘No…don’t tell me that—’
‘I persuaded Steven to doctor the account books for me…our Steven is very talented with figures. Of course, he didn’t initially want to frame Luciano to save my sorry skin.’ Her stepbrother grimaced. ‘So I informed Steven that I’d tell his homophobic parents that he was gay and that I’d expose his double life…and he couldn’t do enough to help me after that!’
‘You blackmailed Steven?’ A semi-hysterical laugh was dredged from Kerry, for she could not credit what she was hearing. ‘Are you drunk? Are you serious? You’re standing there telling me you did these monstrous, appalling things and you’re talking as if they were just understandable little mistakes?’
‘I wanted you to hear my side from me so that you would understand. I’m very fond of you. I want you to know that I didn’t plan to hurt anybody,’ Miles argued with disturbing vehemence. ‘I got deep in debt and everything got out of my control—’
‘People get into debt but they don’t all steal and blackmail to save their own skins!’ Kerry felt nauseous as she continued to look at him and she could not stop staring at his familiar features. It seemed all wrong that he should look just the same as usual with his thin, good-looking face tired, his eyes full of rueful appeal and his blond hair flopping on his forehead. But though he might look the same, there was an essential difference, she grasped painfully. He was not the guy she had thought he was and he never had been.
‘My mistake this time around was telling Steven that he had to tidy up a few loose ends from events five years back—’
‘You tried to involve him again?’ Kerry swallowed hard and looked away from him in disgust.
‘I had no choice! Luciano has had private detectives snooping everywhere and I had to be sure that there was no trail to lead back to Steven and me—’
‘Or did you hope that if there was a trail it would lead only to Steven?’ Kerry recalled how, weeks earlier, Miles had suggested to her that Steven might have been the thief.
‘Well, Steven was always a gutless wonder and I’m afraid he’s done for the both of us now!’ her stepbrother launched at her with festering resentment. ‘He couldn’t take the pressure and he panicked. A few days ago he came clean with his parents and then he made a full confession to the police. His stupid father just rang me to boast that now there’s another warrant out for my arrest!’