‘One of Gregorio’s men is sitting in his car outside this building,’ she challenged tensely.
David raised is brows. ‘He has men watching you?’
‘Protecting me, yes.’
‘Protecting you from whom? Me?’ David questioned when Lia gave him a pointed glance. ‘You never used to be paranoid, Lia,’ he scorned.
‘I never used to be a lot of things that I am now.’
‘So I’ve noticed. And not all of those changes are for the better,’ David assured her. ‘But de la Cruz and his men aren’t here. There’s just the two of us.’
Lia was aware of that. Very much so. And she didn’t like it one little bit. Didn’t trust or like David one little bit.
‘I said I want you to leave,’ she repeated through gritted teeth.
‘Wouldn’t you like to know what really happened the night your father died?’
‘What?’ Lia gasped as she stared at him with wide eyes.
David returned her gaze challengingly. ‘I said—’
‘I heard you,’ she dismissed agitatedly. ‘What I want is an explanation of what you meant.’
He shrugged. ‘I was with your father when he died.’
‘I... But... There was never any mention...’ She gave a shake of her head. ‘I was the one to find him—slumped over his desk in the morning.’
‘Our meeting was lawyer/client confidential.’ David shrugged. ‘When he suddenly collapsed... Well, as I said, I don’t handle sudden death well.’
‘He had a heart attack in front of you and you just left him there to die?’ Lia reached out to place her palm on the wall for support as she felt herself sway.
‘He died almost instantly.’ David’s mouth was tight. ‘There was nothing anyone could have done.’
‘You don’t know that!’ Lia stared at him incredulously. ‘You all but killed him!’
‘Your father died of a heart attack,’ he maintained evenly.
‘But heart attacks are usually brought on by stress or shock. Did you do or say something to cause his heart attack?’ Lia was having difficulty keeping down the waves of nausea churning in her stomach.
‘Invite me in and I’ll tell you exactly what happened.’
Lia didn’t like the smug expression on David’s face. Smugness caused by the fact that he knew she would want to know exactly what had happened the night her father died. That she needed to know.
But to do that David had said she must invite him in to her apartment.
Did she dare to be alone with him in there?
GREGORIO TRULY BELIEVED what he had told Lia: a man could no longer call himself a man if he ever raised his hand in anger to a woman. But right now he was very angry. With a red-hot, blinding anger.
Which meant he would have to punch a wall or something to alleviate his tension before seeing Lia. Or he could just punch David Richardson in his too-handsome face and kill two birds with one stone—or one punch.
But for now Gregorio had to concentrate on driving to Lia’s apartment so that he arrived in one piece.
He had deliberately avoided the reception area of the hotel today. Had avoided Lia. She had made it clear yesterday that she didn’t want to continue seeing him.
That was about to change—whether Lia liked it or not.
Raphael had telephoned him just fifteen minutes ago to report that as a routine precaution he had checked all the numberplates and owners of the cars parked in the street where Lia’s apartment was located. He had found Richardson’s sports car parked at the other end of the street, neatly—deliberately?—hidden between two SUVs.
Gregorio had left his hotel suite in such a hurry he had still been talking to Raphael on his cell phone when he’d stepped into the lift and impatiently punched the button for the basement car park.
If Lia had invited Richardson to her apartment, against all Gregorio’s advice for her to stay away from the man...
The thought had Gregorio pressing his foot down hard on the accelerator, his expression grim.
* * *
‘I’m still waiting,’ Lia challenged as David stood unmoving and silent in the sitting room of her apartment.
A mocking smile tilted his lips. ‘This place is a bit of a come-down for you, isn’t it?’
Her gaze remained fixed on him. ‘I like it.’
And she did. The apartment was compact and easy to keep clean. It was also her first very own space. She had enjoyed living with her father, but there had been a formality to it, with meals served at set times and an army of staff to cook for them and clean the house. And consequently very little privacy. Here she could do exactly as she pleased, when she pleased—including eating what and when she wanted. In the nude if she so chose.
‘If you say so,’ David derided sceptically.
‘Well?’ Lia’s impatience deepened.
‘Aren’t you going to offer me a coffee or something?’ He made himself comfortable on the sofa.
‘No.’
He chuckled. ‘I think I like this new, outspoken Lia after all. Very sexy.’ His gaze ran slowly over her, from her head to her toes and back again.
Her hands clenched at her sides. ‘Will you just tell me what happened the night my father died?’
David’s expression became guarded. ‘He invited me over. We talked. He had a heart attack. I left.’
Anger welled up, strong and unstoppable. ‘You already told me that much in the hallway.’
Had her father known David was responsible for the missing money? Had he confronted the other man and then David had simply let her father die when he collapsed?
Why hadn’t her father confided in her?
The answer came to Lia so suddenly and with such force she almost bent over from the pain.
David had been her fiancé. The man her father had believed she loved and intended to marry. At the time she had believed that too. She had no doubt her father had loved her enough to want to protect her from knowing the truth about her future husband.
‘My father confronted you about the embezzlement of Fairbanks Industries funds.’ It wasn’t a question but a statement.
David’s mouth twisted derisively. ‘He said that if I returned the money then no one else needed to know what I’d done.’
‘But you no longer have the money, do you?’
‘Not all of it, no.’
‘Because you’re addicted to gambling.’ Lia looked at him with disgust.
‘I’m not addicted!’ There was an ugly expression on David’s face. ‘I just enjoy the thrill...the excitement.’
Addiction.
‘Can’t you see how it’s ruining your life?’ Lia frowned. ‘How it’s turned you into a man who steals from his clients to feed his addiction?’
‘You sound just like your father,’ David scorned. ‘He said if I returned the money no one else need ever know about it and the two of us could live happily ever after. He withdrew from the