Santino ignored the gesture and the humour died in his eyes. ‘We’ll discuss arrangements for your client over dinner tonight, Ms Mulhoon.’
‘Dinner?’ Kate’s breath caught in her throat. A cosy nighttime meeting was the last thing she wanted.
‘Time is short. You have to eat and so do I. And you’ll want to protect your client’s interests, I presume? The only available time I have is during dinner. We’ll discuss the way forward then.’
There was no way out of it, Kate realised, and as Caddy’s representative she couldn’t afford to be indecisive. ‘I’ll need to talk things over with my client first—’
‘Eight o’clock sharp. I’ll pick you up at your hotel.’
Santino had quickly restored the balance of power, Kate realised, feeling her hackles rising. But it was too late to argue with a man who had already turned on his heel and walked away.
As the two girls linked arms Caddy drew Kate out of earshot of the rest of the cast. ‘I wanted to fling my arms around you and cheer the moment you arrived, but I thought I’d better let you establish your authority first. I didn’t think you’d want me hanging round your neck. But now you’re here—’ Caddy gave Kate a hug.
‘I don’t care what anyone thinks,’ Kate said with feeling, unable to stop herself tracking Santino’s progress across the lot.
‘Then you should,’ Caddy argued with concern, ‘because there are people in this industry who will stop at nothing to get what they want.’
‘Is that what this is about?’ Holding Caddy at arm’s length, Kate stared into her cousin’s face. ‘Has someone been unkind to you? It’s not Santino, is it, Caddy?’
‘No, of course not…’ Caddy took a quick glance around to make sure they weren’t being overheard. ‘I only hope he knows I’m not involved in the drugs—’
‘Drugs?’ Kate made an incredulous sound. ‘I doubt he’s that naïve. You’ve nothing to worry about, Caddy. If there are drugs on his set Santino will know about them and common sense will tell him you’re not involved. What would you have to gain by disrupting filming or risking your reputation? Nothing,’ Kate said, answering her own question. ‘You’re the best person for this role and Santino knows it, or he wouldn’t have hired you in the first place.’
‘He hired that scumbag director, didn’t he?’ Caddy threw a hostile glance towards the trailers parked up nearby.
‘Everyone in the industry knows he was Santino’s second choice. He’d done some good work in the past and Santino wanted the film completed on time—’
‘Are you defending Santino?’ Caddy tried but failed to hide her smile.
‘All I’m saying is that everyone is entitled to one mistake…’
Kate fell silent as her careless words hung between them, and she was glad when Caddy squeezed her arm in a silent show of support. But she had come to Rome to look after Caddy, and it shouldn’t be the other way round, Kate reminded herself. ‘Diane Fox is said to be the best director in the business,’ she said, both to reassure Caddy and steer the conversation onto safer ground. ‘You’ll be fine once you start working with her—’
‘But will you be fine, Kate?’ Caddy’s voice had turned serious. ‘If I’d only known Santino would get here so fast—’
‘Of course I will,’ Kate said firmly, cutting across Caddy. ‘The only reason I’m going to meet Santino tonight is to talk business. I want everyone here to know that you have his full support, and I want you to concentrate on what you do best, Caddy, which is acting. You’re going to light up the screen—’
‘Do you really think so?’
Caddy was easily distracted and was soon dreamy-eyed.
‘I’ve got no doubt,’ Kate said with confidence. ‘Holding a meeting over dinner is the most sensible way forward given the time constraints. All I’m going to do is speak to Santino on your behalf, relay any concerns you have to him, and—’
‘You make it all sound so easy,’ Caddy broke in, ‘and it isn’t easy, Kate. It never can be where you and Santino are concerned—’
‘But this isn’t about me and Santino. It’s about you, Caddy. You seem to have overlooked the fact that the agency I work for takes a huge chunk out of your fee and I’m responsible for you. The buck stops here. It’s my job to look after you.’
‘But what about you, Kate? Who looks after you? What about your feelings in all this?’
‘What feelings? My feelings for Santino, do you mean?’ Kate did her best to look incredulous. ‘I have no feelings for Santino, and he’s made it quite clear he feels the same way about me.’
‘Be careful, Kate. You’re taking an awful lot for granted.’ Caddy’s eyes clouded with concern. ‘And that’s a big mistake where Santino Rossi is concerned…’
His suspicions regarding the morals of the film industry had just received another ringing endorsement. It seemed he couldn’t leave the studios for five minutes without some new and potentially damaging scandal occurring. This time drugs and intimidation. Next time…? He couldn’t afford a next time. What he needed was a firm hand on the tiller during his absence…a hand not dissimilar to Kate Mulhoon’s.
Santino’s hard mouth curved in a rare smile as he thought about it. Kate’s soft, pale hands had surprised him once before with their strength and ingenuity. If she came to work for him it would be interesting to see how long the new ‘ice princess’ version of Kate Mulhoon held out.
Meanwhile he had other things on his mind. He had to wait for the police to arrive and take his director into custody. A private interview with Cordelia had revealed that the trouble on the lot went deeper than the drugs his old friend Carlo had told him about, and the humiliation of one of his cast was something he would not tolerate under any circumstances.
As soon as Cordelia had told him what had happened he had called in the police right away. His leading lady had been subjected to a raft of cruel tricks, including silent phone calls, wreaths instead of the flowers she had ordered, manure dumped outside her trailer, and, in one final play of a pervert’s repertoire, a particularly sickening brand of sexual humiliation. All of it, he guessed, designed to break Cordelia’s spirit in order for the director’s heroine-hag girlfriend to take her place. It had been an ordeal for Cordelia to go over it again with him, and it made him sick to think about it now.
An invitation to the director’s trailer for a ‘coaching session’ had led Cordelia to find her ‘coach’ on the telephone while his girlfriend was busy on her knees beneath the desk…He’d stopped Cordelia there. He hadn’t needed to hear more to know she’d been through enough.
Santino’s thoughts switched back to Kate. With the arrival of the police imminent and everything back under control he risked her changing her mind about dinner now that Cordelia had been reassured. Kate might even decide to leave Rome before it suited him. Her dedication to her work was his only safeguard. She wouldn’t be satisfied he had fired the director for incompetence and drug taking, she would want to know that proper charges were being filed on Cordelia’s behalf. He wouldn’t be surprised if she insisted on staying on until the new director arrived. But of course, there were no guarantees…
Easing back in his chair, Santino smiled. Yes, there were. Kate wouldn’t leave Rome until she was sure Cordelia was happy and working well under the new regime. He hardly knew her, but after seeing Kate Mulhoon at work he could be sure of one thing—she wasn’t a quitter.
When the two girls reached the Hotel Russie they went straight up to Caddy’s suite, which she had insisted Kate share with her. As they walked