we, sweetheart?
She didn’t respond—couldn’t—because the phone had fallen from her nerveless fingers.
Another full minute passed. ‘Hello?’ came the impatient echoing voice. ‘Anna?’
Numbness spreading through her, she picked up the phone. ‘I told you there...there’s no one by that name working here.’
But it was too late. She recognised the taunting, reedy voice at the end of the line. It was a voice she’d been dreading hearing again since her return from Point Noire.
‘I can play along if you prefer, Anna. Hell, I’ll even call you by your new name, Brianna Moneypenny. But we both know to me you’ll always be Anna, don’t we?’ mocked Greg Landers.
‘WHAT DO YOU want, Greg?’ Brianna snapped into her mobile phone as she threw her bag on the tiny sofa in her small living room.
‘What? No hello, no pleasantries? Never mind. I’m glad you were sensible enough to return my call. Although, I don’t get why you didn’t want to speak to me at your office. I made sure Pantelides wasn’t there before I called.’
Shock made her grip the edge of the seat. ‘You’re having him watched?’
‘No, I’m having you watched. You’re the one I’m interested in.’
‘Me?’
‘Yes. For now, at least. Tell me, why the name change?’
Bitterness rose in a sweltering tide, bringing a sickening haze that made the furnishings of her small flat blur. ‘Why the hell do you think? You destroyed my life, Greg. After you lied and swore under oath in court that I embezzled funds from your company, when we both know that it was you who set up that Cayman Islands account in my name. Do you think after what you put me through anyone would’ve hired me once they knew I’d been to prison for embezzlement?’
‘Tsk-tsk, let’s not blow things out of proportion, shall we? You served well under half of the four-year prison term. If it’s any consolation, I only expected you to get a slap on the wrist.’
‘It’s not a consolation!’
‘Besides,’ he continued as if she hadn’t interrupted, ‘I hear those prisons are just a step down from glorified holiday camps.’
The scar on her hip—the result of a shiv, courtesy of an inmate whose attention she wouldn’t return—burned at the careless dismissal of what had been a horrific period of her life. ‘It’s a shame you decided not to try it out for yourself, then, instead of turning coward and letting someone else take the blame for your greed. Now, are you going to tell me what this call is about or shall I hang up?’
‘Hang up and I’ll make sure your salacious past is the first thing Pantelides reads about when he steps into that ivory tower of his tomorrow morning.’
Brianna’s hand tightened around the phone at the ruthless tone. ‘How did you find me, anyway?’ Not that it mattered now. But she’d used every last penny to erase her past, to make sure every trace of Anna Simpson was wiped clean as soon as she’d attained her freedom.
‘I didn’t. You found me, through the wonderful medium of TV. Imagine my surprise when I tuned in, like every environmentally conscious individual out there who’s horrified about the Pantelides oil spillage, to find you right behind the main man himself. It took me a few minutes to recognise you, though. I much prefer you blonde to the brunette you used to be. Which is the real thing?’
‘I fail to see...’ She stopped because the Greg she’d known, the man she’d once foolishly thought herself in love with, hadn’t changed. He believed himself a witty and clever conversationalist and was never one to get to the point until he was ready. It was one of the things—many things, she realised now—that had irritated her about him. ‘Blonde is my natural colour.’
Greg sighed. ‘Such a shame you chose to wear that dull brown when I knew you. Maybe I’d have thought twice before taking the route I took.’
‘No, you wouldn’t have. Your slimy nature makes you interested in taking care of number one. Are you going to tell me what you want any time soon?’
‘You’re distressed so I’ll let that insult slide. But be careful now or I’ll forget my manners. Now, what do I want? It’s very simple: I want Pantelides Shipping. And you’re going to help me get it.’
You’re out of your mind was the first of many outraged responses that rushed into her head. She managed to stop herself before they spilled out. Slowly, she sank onto her sofa, the only piece of furniture in her living room aside from a lone coffee table, as her mind raced.
‘And why would I do that?’
‘To protect your dirty little secret, of course.’
She licked her lips as fear threatened to swamp any semblance of clear thinking. ‘What makes you think my boss doesn’t already know?’
‘Don’t take me for a fool, Anna.’
‘My name is Brianna.’ The woman Greg thought he knew no longer existed.
‘If you want to keep calling yourself that, you’ll give me what I want. And don’t bother telling me Pantelides knows about your past. He’s scrupulous when it comes to any hint of scandal. You’re the last person he’d employ if he knew your past was as shady as his father’s.’
This time her gasp was audible. It echoed around the room in tones of pain, shock and anger. ‘You know about his father?’
‘I do my homework, sweetheart. And if he’d bothered to do his he’d have discovered who you really were. But I’m glad he didn’t, because now you’re in the perfect position to help me.’
The vice tightened harder around her chest. ‘What exactly is it you want me to do?’
‘I need information. As much as you can get your hands on. Specifically, which of the board members hold the largest shares, aside from Pantelides. And which of the other members will be amenable to selling what shares they have.’
‘You know this will never work, don’t you? Sakis—Mr Pantelides—will crush you if you come within a whisper of his company.’
‘God, you haven’t gone and done it again, have you, Anna?’ came the soft taunt.
Brianna shivered. ‘Done what?’
‘Offered that foolish little heart of yours on a silver platter to another boss?’ he murmured in a pitying voice.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ But deep down there was no hiding from the truth. Her feelings for Sakis had morphed from purely professional to something else. Something she was vehemently unwilling to examine right now, when she needed all her wits about her to defend herself against what her grimy ex was intent on pulling her into.
‘You have four days, Anna. I’ll be in touch and I expect you to have the information I need.’
Her mouth went dry. Her heart hammered with sick fear and loathing and the unmistakeable, sinking feeling of inevitability. ‘And if I don’t?’
‘Then your boss will wake up to a most tantalising double-page spread of his treasured assistant in the tabloid press on Saturday morning. I’m pretty sure with very little effort I can get Pantelides Shipping to start trending again on all social media.’
Her belly quivered and she clenched her muscles hard. ‘Why are you doing this? Haven’t you done enough? Aren’t the millions you squirrelled away enough?’
‘Every Joe Bloggs knows how to make a million these days. No, sweetheart, my ambitions are set much higher than that. I’d hoped my association with Moorecroft would