Page 106 of Modern Romance December 2025 5-8

‘My business…?’

‘I will pay for a temp to fill in for you. I am assuming that your alcoholic helper will be able to cope without you.’

Anger blazed in her soft eyes as she drew herself up to her full height. ‘How do you—’ she began and stopped. It was pointless to ask why Leo’s position gave him a reach that she couldn’t even begin to imagine. ‘Ben hasn’t had a drink in ten years and he is my business partner, equal partners. He put money in, and his knowledge has made all the difference.’

‘An older man to lean on,’ he mused, pressing a finger to his chin. ‘Am I seeing a pattern here…?’

‘My father is trying hard—’

‘To do what, exactly? Set himself up as the go-to man for drug dealers with some cash to launder?’

The blood drained from her face, the colour change so dramatic that any doubts that she had any involvement in George’s extracurricular activities vanished.

‘Drugs?’ she stuttered out. ‘He wouldn’t!’ Hearing the question in her own voice, she rounded on him furiously. ‘I suppose you don’t believe in second chances.’

‘I believe they’re wasted on most people.’

‘God, when did you get so cynical?’ she flared.

‘I think you can take some credit for that,cara.’

He managed to make the endearment sound like a mocking insult. ‘Stop calling me that!’ she hissed in frustration.

‘I’ll take that as a yes, shall I?’ He smiled and turned towards the door, pausing as he swung back. ‘Oh, and as my employee I think a bit of courtesy might be in order for our working relationship.’

She lowered herself into a mocking curtsey.

‘I’ll have the contract sent over for you to sign.’

‘What, in blood?’ she snarled.

He laughed and she remembered a time when his smile had not been an exercise in cynicism. Remembering all the times he had teased her and made her laugh, she was seized by a quite crazy sense of loss.

She had lost Leo years ago.

‘We leave on Friday.’

She shook her head, her brow pleated in a perplexed frown. ‘Friday? Where to?’

‘For Tuscany.’

‘Tuscany in Italy?’

He arched a brow and regarded her as if she’d just made a totally facile comment.

‘That’s too soon. I will have things to—’

He brushed aside her objections. ‘You don’t have to do anything except just be ready. You do have an up-to-date passport?’ he asked, already moving through the door.

She nodded and he was gone.

Chapter Five

Friday came andas Amy sat waiting with her bag packed she began to wonder again if this had all been an elaborate hoax. It had the hallmarks of an elaborate ‘gotcha’ for someone who had too much time on his hands. He wasn’t going to show; she was just going to sit here all day.

She had signed the contract, not in blood but in black ink. Not that it had made the act any easier. Before she had signed the next six weeks of her life away, she had confronted her father, hoping,willinghim to deny everything, tell her this was some terrible mistake.

It wasn’t a mistake, it was the truth, and almost as shocking as his eventual admission after a lot of waffle was his utter lack of remorse, the way he had taken no responsibility at all for his actions.