bartender slid their shots across the polished counter.
Theo picked up the nearest shot glass and raised it. ‘In that case, I look forward to welcoming you all as my guests tomorrow evening. Saúde.’
‘Saúde,’ Benedicto and his son responded.
Theo threw back the drink and this time didn’t hold back from slamming it down.
Again he saw father and son exchange looks. He didn’t care.
All he cared about was making it out of the ballroom in one piece before he buried his fist in Benedicto da Costa’s bony face. The urge to tear apart the man who’d caused his family, caused him, so much anguish reared through him.
The sound of his phone vibrating in his jacket pocket brought a welcome distraction from his murderous thoughts.
‘Excuse me, gentlemen.’ He walked away without a backward glance, gaining the double doors leading out to the wide terrace before activating his phone.
‘Heads up, you’re about to get into serious trouble with Ari if you don’t fess up as to why you’re really in Rio,’ Sakis, his brother, said in greeting.
‘Too late. I’ve already had the hairdryer treatment earlier this evening.’
‘Yeah, but do you know he’s thinking of flying down there for a face-to-face?’
Theo cursed. ‘Doesn’t he have enough on his hands being all loved up and taking care of his pregnant fiancé?’ He wasn’t concerned about a confrontation with Ari. But he was concerned that Ari’s presence might alert Benedicto to Theo’s true intentions.
So far, Benedicto da Costa was oblivious as to the connections Theo had made to what had happened twelve years ago. The older man had been very careful to erase every connection with the incident and sever ties with anyone who could bear witness to the crime he’d committed. He hadn’t been careful enough. But he didn’t know that.
Having another Pantelides in Rio could set off alarm bells.
‘You need to stall him.’
‘He’s concerned,’ Sakis murmured. Theo heard the same concern reflected in his brother’s voice. ‘So am I.’
‘It needs to be done,’ he replied simply.
‘I get that. But you don’t need to do it alone. He’s dangerous. The moment he guesses what your true intentions are—’
‘He won’t; I’ve made sure of it.’
‘How can you be absolutely certain? Theo, don’t be stubborn. I can help—’
‘No. I need to see this through myself.’
Sakis sighed. ‘Are you sure?’
Theo turned slowly and surveyed the ballroom. Rio’s finest drank and laughed without a care in the world. In the centre of that crowd stood Benedicto da Costa, the reason why Theo couldn’t sleep through a single night without waking to hellish nightmares; the reason anxiety hovered just underneath his skin, ready to infest his control should he loosen his grip for one careless second.
Inexorably, his eyes were drawn to the female member of the diabolical family. Inez was dancing with a man whose blatant interest and barely disguised lust made Theo’s fist curl over the cold stone bannister.
His stomach churned and adrenaline poured through his system the same way a boxer experienced a heady rush in the seconds before a fight. This fight had been long coming. He would see it through. He had to. Otherwise he feared his demons would never be exorcised.
He’d lived with them for far too long, and they needed to be silenced. He needed to regain complete, unshakeable hold of his life once more.
His other hand tightened around his mobile phone, his heart thundering enough to drown out the music. He spoke succinctly so his brother would be in no doubt that he meant every word.
‘Am I sure that I need to bring down the man who kidnapped and tortured me for over two weeks until Ari negotiated a two million ransom for my release? Hell, yes. I’m going to make him feel ten million times worse than what he did to me and to our family and I don’t intend to rest until I bring all of them down.’
‘A DOUBLE-SHOT AMERICANO, por favor.’ Inez smiled absently at the barista while she tried to juggle her sketchpad and fish out enough change from her purse to pay for the coffee.
It was barely nine o’clock and yet the heat was already oppressive, even more than usual for a Thursday morning in February. Normally, she would’ve opted for a cool caffeine drink but her energy levels needed an extra boost this morning.
She’d slept badly after the fund-raiser last night. And what little sleep she’d managed had been interspersed with images of a man she had no business thinking, never mind dreaming, about.
And yet Theo Pantelides’s face had haunted her slumber…still haunted her, if truth be told.
The last time she’d seen him he’d been leaning against the terrace bannister outside the ballroom, his eyes fixed firmly on her. Inez wasn’t sure why her attention had been drawn outside. All she knew was that something had compelled her to look that way as she danced with a guest.
Even from that distance the tension whipping through his frame had been unmistakable, as had the blatant dark promise in his eyes as his gaze raked her from head to toe.
More than anything she’d wished she could lip-read when she’d watched his lips move to answer whoever was at the other end of his phone conversation.
That last look plagued her. It’d held hunger, anger and another emotion that she couldn’t quite decipher. Brushing it off, she smiled, accepted her coffee and headed outside. She was a little early for her class with the inner city kids but she hadn’t wanted to spend another moment at the tension-fraught breakfast table with her father and brother this morning.
In contrast to Pietro’s third degree as to what exactly had happened with Alfonso Delgado, her father had been cold and strangely preoccupied. The moment he’d stood abruptly and left the table, she’d made her excuses and walked away.
Even Pietro’s reminder that they had a dinner engagement she couldn’t recall making hadn’t been worth stopping to query. All she’d wanted was to get out of the mansion that felt more and more as if it was closing in on her.
‘Bom dia, anjo.’ The deep murmured greeting brought her thoughts and footsteps to a crashing halt.
Theo leaned casually against a gleaming black sports car, a pair of dark sunglasses hiding his eyes from her. But her full body tingle announced that she was the full, unwavering focus of his gaze. Her breath stalled, her heart accelerating wildly as her pulse went into overdrive.
‘What the hell are you doing here?’ she blurted before she could stop her strong reaction.
Aside from the devastation his tall, lean suited frame caused to her insides, the thought that he could discover where she was headed or what she did with her Tuesday and Thursday mornings made her palms grow clammy. By lunchtime today, if Pietro were to be believed, Theo would be firmly entrenched as a business partner in her family’s company. Which meant constant contact with her family. Which meant he could disclose parts of her life she wasn’t yet ready to disclose to her family.
‘Are you following me?’ she accused hotly as she approached him, her senses jumping with the possibilities and consequences of her discovery.
‘Not today. My trench coat and fedora are at the laundry.’
‘Keep them there. In this heat, you’d boil to death.’
A smile broke across his face. ‘Do I detect a little unladylike relish in your voice, anjo?’