The Billionaires Collection. Оливия Гейтс

to do with making things right.

      This was just about catching up on so many unattended wrongs.

       CHAPTER TWELVE

      ABBY WOKE AFTER MIDDAY.

      Like a sad Miss Havisham she was still wearing her silver gown and her face was all swollen from crying till dawn.

      Matteo hadn’t come dashing to her door to explain, when she had hoped he might, but Abby understood why.

      And he hadn’t answered his phone when she’d tried several times to ring, and she understood why too.

      She had put him in the same league as her father and, worse than that, Hunter, and that was the very last place he deserved to be. To a man like Matteo, who had been put in the same league as his father his entire life, it had been a very low blow she had served.

      Abby simply didn’t know how to put this right.

      Yes, he had lied to her, but now, every time she got cross, every time a rush of anger rose, she remembered his kindness, his sexiness and how he had helped her to find herself.

      She had everything she thought she ever wanted.

      The Henley Cup.

      A winning team.

      Revenge.

      Her sexuality back.

      But not him.

      No wonder he didn’t want a relationship, Abby thought, only she tried one more time to reach him on his phone.

      It was the Monopoly of love because she got sent straight to voicemail.

      ‘Matteo, it’s Abby. Last night...’ She’d taken the low road. ‘Last night,’ Abby attempted again, ‘I said some things that you didn’t deserve to hear. I’m sorry for that and...’ What else? Abby thought. The truth. ‘I don’t know what else to say. You’re right, I can’t believe that I didn’t hear you out. I want to though.’

      She rung off and sat there, then pounced on her phone when a text came through but sagged when she saw it was just Bella.

      Have you heard the news? :-)

      Abby frowned.

      What news?

      Turn it on.

      Abby did and saw the serious face of a news reporter standing outside the venue where she was supposed to have been for the presentation last night. The reporter was talking about the tight-knit world of the racing community and denying that Hunter had been loaded and got behind the wheel.

      ‘The Lachance team manager insists that he fell...’

      And then they flashed to an image of Hunter leaving a medical centre and Abby swallowed because if he fell, then it must have been from some considerable height and in several directions!

      She called Bella.

      ‘What the hell happened?’ Abby said. ‘Did he take out a car?’

      ‘Oh, this was no car accident,’ came the gleeful reply. ‘Your lovely sponsor paid him a visit last night.’

      ‘Matteo?’

      ‘Yep.’

      ‘Oh, no...’ Abby felt sick. ‘Has he been charged?’

      ‘That’s just it—Matteo wants to be charged!’ Bella laughed. ‘In fact, when he’d finished with Hunter he took out a business card and dropped it on him and said that he was looking forward to explaining his actions in front of a judge. Oh, Abby, it was one of the best nights of my life. We’re all still drinking and cheering.’ But then Bella was serious. ‘Hunter came on to me once. God, Abby, don’t ask but...’

      ‘It’s okay,’ Abby said. ‘I get it.’

      They would talk properly some day.

      ‘Where is he?’ Abby asked.

      ‘Having his teeth reimplanted, I think.’

      ‘No, I mean, where’s Matteo?’

      ‘I don’t know,’ Bella answered. ‘He just left afterwards and no one knows where he is...’

      Abby did.

      As she rung off she heard the door and then his voice and there, swaying in the doorway, looking rather the worse for wear, was Matteo.

      ‘I know you hate violence...’ he started.

      Abby did.

      ‘But he had to pay.’

      Matteo had a black eye and bruised knuckles and a chipped front tooth. It would have been some fight; Abby knew how hard Hunter worked to stay in shape and she also knew, firsthand, how violent his temper could be.

      ‘Come in,’ Abby said and she held the door open but Matteo shook his head.

      ‘Nope, I’m just here to tell you one thing. Two actually.’

      ‘Well, can we at least do that inside?’ Abby asked and finally Matteo nodded and in he came. She spoke first. ‘I tried to call you.’

      ‘I threw my phone out the car.’

      ‘Why?’

      ‘Because I didn’t want you to talk me down,’ Matteo said, ‘which you would have tried to and then you’d have worried all night.’ Then he was more direct. ‘And I was cross with you.’

      She’d thought that he might be.

      ‘What Hunter did to you was despicable. What he’s still doing to you, you shouldn’t allow. Stop wasting your life exacting revenge.’

      ‘I know that now.’ Abby was trying not to cry. ‘Even when we won the cup, I kept wanting to explain that I was happy, just that we’d won, not because of beating him.’

      ‘Good,’ Matteo said and then he gave in standing and went and took a seat on a large dark sofa.

      He looked around her apartment and, after the night he had had, it was nice and relaxing just to sit in silence. There must be a huge tree outside because the only view he could see as he stared out was green leaves.

      ‘I’ll get to the second thing in a moment,’ Matteo said and rested his head back for a while.

      ‘Can I get you anything?’ Abby offered.

      ‘A drink.’

      She guessed he didn’t mean coffee.

      ‘I don’t think you should be drinking,’ Abby said but then went and poured him a very nice cognac.

      ‘I thought you didn’t drink,’ Matteo said, taking a long, slow sip.

      ‘I run a motor team,’ Abby said. ‘They get tired of lemonade. Actually, my friend Bella gave it to me when we came fifth last year. I’ve been hiding it from them since then.’

      ‘Good.’

      But the small talk didn’t last for very long.

      ‘Second thing,’ Matteo said and he watched as her cheeks went pink and her eyes, which were still red from crying all night, blinked a few times. ‘Don’t ever again compare me to him.’

      ‘I’m really sorry for what I said.’

      ‘And so you should be,’ Matteo responded, ‘because I would never treat any woman that way.’

      ‘I get that, Matteo. I was cross, I was upset...’

      ‘No excuse!’ he said and he pointed his finger at her. ‘Because I love a good row but if you ever hurl that at me again I’ll be straight out of the door.’

      He served her a very serious warning but even as he