Mistresses: Blackmailed For His Pleasure. Annie West

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Название Mistresses: Blackmailed For His Pleasure
Автор произведения Annie West
Жанр Короткие любовные романы
Серия Mills & Boon M&B
Издательство Короткие любовные романы
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9780008905996



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      Gemma shot to her feet. “No! Emilio doesn’t have that kind of money. How could he think to take that risk?”

      Stefano ruthlessly blocked her troubled image from his mind and spoke to Jean Paul. “In case you did not hear the lady, where did Cardone come by that much capital?”

      “He has steadily won all day, the last round being the largest take yet.”

      Enough to pay the debt to Marinetti and then some, Stefano would wager. But the gambler’s blood in Cardone lured him to increase it. To risk all. To ruin his sister?

      “Has Cardone made any calls this evening?” Stefano asked.

      “Not that I could tell. Although his phone did ring a while ago,” Jean Paul said. “He answered it then promptly hung up.”

      Gemma’s narrow shoulders lost a bit of their stiff edge to bow in as if on the verge of collapse.

      What was the American saying? No honor among thieves?

      Her brother knew full well she’d be waiting here with Stefano. He knew the consequences if she failed to make the payment tonight.

      Her brother had left her to sink or swim.

      Yes, he wanted the woman with a ravenous hunger.

      Yes, he would have her.

      But it wouldn’t be to save her brother from ruin.

      “Watch him,” Stefano said, then ended that call and assessed his dinner companion.

      Gemma’s frantic gaze flicked over him. Her obvious pain was a gut punch he hadn’t expected.

      She had used his father. She’d caused his mamma pain. But the satisfaction he’d expected from besting her didn’t come.

      “You have less than an hour to meet the first loan payment,” he reminded her. “Will you concede defeat now?”

      She shook her head and he knew before she opened her mouth that she’d voice a protest. “The least you could have done was extend the deadline until morning when the banker is scheduled to give me his answer on my loan request. Cesare would have.”

      How dare she drag his papa into this argument! “I am sure you would have done your best to persuade Papa to let the debt ride longer. You have succeeded in draining his accounts to the extreme already!”

      “I’ve done no such thing,” she shot back.

      “No? Then explain why my father transferred five hundred thousand euros into a private account bearing your name? What did you do with that money, plus all the monthly with-drawals he placed in your name?”

      Her face turned whiter than Carrara marble. “I can’t.”

      “Or won’t,” he said. “You were given enough money to build a five-star hotel that would gross millions. There will be no extensions. No second chances.”

      She shook her head and rubbed her temples. Her distress failed to stir his pity. She and her worthless brother had brought this on themselves. Now she’d suffer the consequences.

      Revenge was in his grasp.

       CHAPTER SIX

      “I HATE you!” She tossed her napkin on the table, unwilling to sit here a moment longer with such a ruthless man. Mio Dio, what a nightmare!

      “I could care less what you think of me, Miss Cardone.”

      She wasn’t surprised for he was surely the most heartless man she’d ever had the displeasure of meeting. “Did you gain great satisfaction stripping my brother of his means to make a living?”

      Stefano’s muscular frame tensed, like a large cat waking from a nap and sensing trouble. “Your brother offered the vessel in order to remain in the game. If I hadn’t paid his price, someone else would have.”

      She knew he was right, but facing the awful truth was crushing. Behind her back Emilio had been living the life of a playboy even though he didn’t have the funds to squander. For how many months had he deceived them all?

      Too many, she feared. She truly believed her brother had beaten his addiction over a year ago. But she’d been wrong.

      She’d never dreamed he’d lie and hide the truth from her and in the process lose the business their father had worked and died for. And now because of his false promise to help her tonight, because she’d trusted her brother, she stood to lose her half of the inn!

      “Scusi,” she said and made for the door, her mind racing to find the swiftest means to reach Monte Carlo.

      “Where are you going?”

      “To my brother.”

      “Why? What do you hope to accomplish by going there?”

      “To stop him from this gambling binge he’s on.” And if possible, claim what was due her before the dreaded deadline.

      “He won’t listen to you, bella.”

      He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him, his gaze darkly intense and pulsing with anger and vengeance and another emotion that was there and gone before she could recognize it. And then there was the power of his long, lean fingers snaked around her arm and the fire and energy arcing from him to her like a lightning storm, making her knees weak and her heart heavy.

      Why did he have to be so ruthless?

      He cupped her cheek in his palm and she blinked back sudden tears, for his tenderness mocked the animosity he held for her. “Even if you could reason with him, he’s in a high stakes game that plays hard and fast.”

      She wasn’t sure what that meant, but she knew she could only do one thing. Honor the promise she’d made to her parents. To Nonna.

      “All the more reason for me to go there now.”

      She jerked from Stefano and ran from the room, hating that she drew attention to herself, hating that she didn’t know how she could stop this avalanche of doom descending on her family.

      Stefano caught up to her just as she reached the main room. As before he pressed a hand to the small of her back and she came up short, as if there was an invisible thread between them that only he controlled.

      “How do you intend to get there at this hour?” he asked in a deceptively low calm voice.

      “I don’t know. A plane, perhaps.”

      “You will end up waiting for hours. The game could be over by then.”

      “Then I’ll rent a car and drive the distance.”

      “Unacceptable.”

      They stepped outside and he snapped his fingers, sending the attendant rushing to fetch his car.

      “I suppose you have a better idea?” she asked.

      A darkening scowl crossed his features, giving him that fierce gladiator mien again. At that moment she believed him capable of conquering anything. Her brother. Her. The world.

      “Let your brother sink or swim. It is over, bella. You can’t change him and you can’t meet the deadline. Accept it.”

      “I won’t stand by and do nothing.”

      The tendons in his neck stood out and his dark eyes blazed with anger at her defiance. Not that she cared what he thought.

      It was her family who would suffer.

      But even if Stefano had any concept of family, he’d not care about the turmoil she suffered. She had to talk sense into her brother and get him help before he was in debt so deeply he’d never get out.

      “I