‘Bathers?’
‘A swimming costume,’ Meg attempted, but Luca screwed up his nose at the Australianism.
‘They are horrible words—I like women to wear bikinis! Come,’ he said impatiently as Meg started to clear up the picnic. ‘Just leave it.’
‘You can’t just leave it! What about the blanket, the basket.?’ Meg insisted, but Luca had other ideas, striding off towards the car and clearly expecting her to follow.
‘If they want it, then they can come and find it!’
‘What’s wrong?’As Meg climbed into the car, almost immediately she realised something was up, Luca frowning into the phone as he checked his messages.
‘I’m not sure,’ was Luca’s distracted reply, his face rigid as he replayed his voicemail message, before finally he turned around and faced her. ‘I have to go back to the casino. It would appear I am needed.’
‘That’s fine.’ So riddled with doubt was Meg, she was sure he was making it up, sure that her little exposé before must have put him off, but, forcing a smile, she tried not to let her disappointment show as they drove towards the casino in silence. When he didn’t elaborate further, didn’t suggest that they meet up later, Meg could sit on her hands no longer.
‘Luca.’ Taking a deep breath, Meg decided to bite the bullet, almost managed to convince herself that she was imagining the sudden tension between them. It was only since the phone call the mood had changed—maybe he was worried about work. ‘Tomorrow, why don’t we—?’
‘Let’s just wait and see, shall we?’ Luca snapped out his response, lifted his hand from the steering wheel and flicked away her attempt. For Meg it was like being slapped, her face burning as he declined her brave offer, her voice when it came again as tense and as strained as the expression he was wearing.
‘Would you be able to drop me off at one of the beaches …?’ She didn’t even get to finish, Luca flicking on the indicator and pulling over before the sentence was even over, and for Meg it was the final straw, everything that had been before evaporated into thin air as she opened the passenger door and stepped out, the atmosphere so suddenly vile, she didn’t even bother to say goodbye….
And neither did Luca.
CHAPTER SIX
‘YOU’RE SURE?’ A muscle was pounding in Luca’s cheek as Dario fiddled with buttons and the grainy CCTV footage came up on the screen.
‘Here we see the girls looking at the jewellery, now she is handling it—the staff kept a close eye on them, of course.’ Luca didn’t say anything, his black eyes narrowing, watching as Meg held the earrings in her hand, then handed them to her friend, who held them up to her a moment before handing them back to the assistant. ‘Here, four hours later, the footage isn’t as good—the main camera was on the front desk—but you see she came back with the man she had been drinking with in the gaming room and asked to see the jewels again. This is when the man she was with suddenly collapsed.’
Luca snarled. ‘It was a distraction technique; a ruse to keep the main camera on the front desk and distract the staff.’
‘No.’ Dario shook his head, extremely experienced in all aspects of casino security; he was one of the few people who could disagree with Luca and get away with it. ‘I also thought it might be a distraction technique, but I have checked with the hospital—he is in the coronary care unit after suffering a major heart attack.’ The security chief’s words were delivered in rapid Italian, but his voice was nonchalant—theft was a common occurrence in the casino, but with the security so tight it was quickly and easily dealt with. ‘Here you see her more clearly now. I don’t think she planned it, just saw the opportunity and got greedy.’
Even though he’d been told the facts, even though Dario rarely made a mistake, still he hoped it would be Jasmine that would appear on screen, that somehow Dario had mixed up the two women, but despite the grainy footage, even if Meg’s face never fully came into view, there was no mistaking the unique, stunning top she had worn last night. Luca sucked in a deep breath, his teeth gritting together. What the hell did she have to go and do that for? He’d have given her anything she wanted, anything at all. Hell, he’d been so smitten, if she’d wanted some damn jewellery he’d have bought it for her without batting an eye, and now here she was, a woman he’d actually thought different, a woman he’d respected, showing her true colours—stealing his own family jewels.
It made him sick—sick to the stomach, yet he was also filled with a strange, hollow sadness, not just for what he had lost, but because he knew what he had to do. There was a strict one-strike policy at the casino, with no exceptions—even if he had thought for a short while that this Meg was one.
‘You’ve spoken to the friend?’
‘When we searched the room. Apparently Miss Donovan was in and out last night.’ Dario gave a shrug. ‘The jewels were wrapped up in the top Miss Donovan was wearing and had been stuffed in the backpack—we’ve got all the evidence we need to call the police.’
Luca stared at the frozen image on the screen, trying to relate the deceitful, shady character to the woman he thought he had glimpsed, the woman he had held in his arms and kissed, the proud, dignified woman he had wanted to get to know.
The woman who had duped him.
‘Do it, then.’ Luca stared one more time at the image frozen on the screen, then gave a terse nod as, on his command, Dario picked up the telephone. ‘Tell the police you will let them know when she returns to the casino.’ It was said entirely without feeling, his orders exactly as they would be for any other common thief who attempted to get one over on Luca Fierezza, but if Dario had looked up as Luca stalked towards the door he might have noticed the rigid shoulders and bunched fists as his boss made to leave the room. He did look up, though, as Luca turned and gave one unusual final instruction. ‘Page me when she arrives—this I want to see.’
Luca was used to burying himself in work, the casino just one of his many business ventures, each one demanding scrupulous attention to detail, ruthlessness and resolute indifference, so why couldn’t he concentrate? Why was it that, over and over, he kept staring at his phone, checking his pager?
‘ConcentrarsV. He snapped the order to himself, answered a red-flagged email, and with a few strokes of the keyboard gave the order to fire one of his CEOs in the UK as well as ordering an internal audit on one of his growing business ventures on the Gold Coast in Australia….
Where Meg was from….
What was it with her? Dio! She wasn’t the first woman he’d met who’d shown her true colours and it certainly wasn’t the first time he’d had to have someone arrested, so why, no matter how hard he tried not to think about her, did every road, every thought he had lead to Meg?
Burying his head in his hands, Luca sucked in air and, closing his eyes, he gave into a rare moment of introspection.
She wasn’t the problem, Luca decided; it was the rather confronting talk he’d had with his grandfather, King Giorgio, just a few days before that was making her attractive—making this thief who came in the night the ultimate forbidden fruit.
“Stay out of trouble, Luca.’ The king’s voice, though weak from his declining health, hadn’t wavered as he’d delivered his order for Luca to keep his nose clean—to stand up and face the fact that he was a potential heir to the Niroli throne.
And though he’d been born a prince, though technically the chance he might one day rule Niroli had been explained to him as he’d grown up, deep down it had never really seemed plausible. Two years ago he’d been way down in line to the throne—the king had had, as the saying went, an heir and a spare: his first-born son, Antonio, and then Luca’s father, Paulo, and any possibility of one day ruling Niroli had seemed far away in the distance.