She opened her eyes to Matteo’s waiting ones and decided to tell him the truth.
‘I can’t get us to Italy.’
Matteo said nothing.
‘I’ve got the car and equipment covered but I can’t get the team there.’
‘The money’s run out?’
Abby nodded.
He didn’t get up and walk off and he didn’t berate.
He just sat there.
Thinking.
Then he gave in on water and called for a large cognac.
And still he sat there thinking.
Not about the necklace that he was supposed to be here for; instead he was thinking about cars and a team and it gave him a buzz that had been missing at the casino of late. He didn’t like motor racing. Fast cars were the only vice he didn’t have. There were too many painful memories attached.
Yet, he was starting to come around.
Watching Abby and later Pedro putting the car through its paces, speaking with the mechanics, gauging the opposition...
There was an attraction to the sport that Matteo had never anticipated when he had taken the challenge on.
He asked for figures and she went red in the neck but told him, and she watched as he crunched a few numbers on a calculator.
Not his phone, she noted.
And it wasn’t a two-dollar calculator either.
He had beautiful hands, Abby thought, and she liked the way his tongue popped out as he concentrated.
Matteo knew he should conclude this meeting now. The type of money that was required here outweighed the necklace and there was practically a guarantee of zero return.
‘Why do you think you’re a chance?’ he asked.
‘I built the car,’ Abby said. ‘I have the most fearless driver I’ve ever seen. Pedro’s a bit raw but that’s good. He’s unpredictable. No one except for me—actually, not even me—knows what he’s capable of...’
Still Matteo looked.
‘But he needs the right tool and my car is that.’
Still he looked. His face gave away nothing, Abby thought, but he had demanded honesty and if that was the case there was something rather large that she was leaving out.
‘And I’ve been waiting nine years for this.’
She didn’t tell him why; she just told him that she had.
He saw something then and its name was determination.
No, the numbers might not add up but the feeling in his gut tipped the scale.
‘Tell you what,’ Matteo finally said and Abby found she was holding her breath. ‘If you can come in in the top five here in Dubai, then I’ll take care of getting the team to Italy.’