LITMIR.BIZ

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idea how big it is going to be tomorrow with the press and everything?’ he checked.

      ‘I’m starting to,’ Sophie said. ‘I saw on the news that the press are already camping out by the court.’

      ‘They think he’s going to be there when the ruling is made,’ Luka said. ‘Hopefully he can slip out of the infirmary before the press work it out. Is there anything else that I need to know?’

      ‘I don’t think so. We can talk over dinner.’

      ‘I’ve changed my mind about dinner,’ he said.

      ‘Where are you going?’ Sophie asked, as he went to walk out.

      ‘What the hell does it have to with you?’ he asked.

      ‘If we’re supposed to be engaged...’

      ‘The games begin tomorrow, Sophie.’ He came right up to her face. ‘Tomorrow we lie in that bed, tomorrow we pretend that we care. I’ve just realised that tonight I don’t have to even pretend that I like you, so I won’t. I intend to enjoy my last night of freedom before my sentence begins.’

      He walked off and Sophie knew she should hold her tongue but it had never been her forte. ‘Oh, I’m sorry to have thrown such a spanner into your charmed life.’

      ‘Charmed?’ Luka turned. ‘Tell me, Sophie, what part of my life exactly is charmed? I’ve worked eighteen-hour days for this. You talk as if it has been handed to me on a plate.’

      ‘The share in a hotel from Daddy was a rather nice start.’

      ‘He had nothing to do with it. I worked for that myself,’ Luka said. ‘What I didn’t say in court was that I knew for years that my father was rotten to the core and that your father was his yes-man. So, tell me more about this charmed life, Sophie. When I came back to London I practically had to go on my knees to my partners at the hotel. Six months in prison takes some explaining. Do you really think my colleagues embraced me on my return? Do you not think that I had to prove over and over that I could be trusted?’

      She stood with pale lips as he told her how things had been for him.

      ‘Do you not think that when somebody looks me up and finds out that I was in prison, awaiting trial, for six months that it doesn’t slur my name? I took nothing from my father. I have done everything I can to make right what he did. I handed back everything that man gave me. The only thing I couldn’t return was the education. You can’t unlearn things unfortunately but God knows there are things I’ve tried to forget...’

      He was talking about them, Sophie knew it. He was back in his bed and taking her for the first time with his eyes. ‘I washed my hands of Bordo Del Cielo. I only came back that time to rid myself of you once and for all. I should never have opened that door to you!’ Even before she could move he grabbed her wrist. ‘Slap me again...’ Luka warned.

      ‘And you’ll slap me back?’ Sophie challenged, and she didn’t understand because he almost smiled.

      Yes, he almost smiled because on so many levels she matched him and in so many ways he adored her. How he would love to end this row in a different way, to kiss her right now into submission, yet he refused that pleasure for himself.

      ‘Slap me again,’ he amended, ‘and before the fingermarks have faded the engagement will be off and you can tell your father why if you must. I mean it, Sophie, and you should know that I don’t give second warnings.’

      She stood there and he had won but even as he passed the finish line he kept on sprinting.

      ‘I’m going out now and I’m going to be with a woman who does not question, a woman who is sweet and warm...’

      ‘Give Claudia my love,’ Sophie spat, and hoped that the fact she knew his lover’s name meant that she sailed past him on shock value alone, but Luka just grinned at the jealous snarl to her voice.

      ‘Claudia?’ Luka checked.

      ‘You were with her at Hotel Fiscella.’

      ‘Because Matteo and I are thinking of buying it,’ Luka said, and Sophie was grateful that she had handed in her notice as she realised how close she had come to having Luka as her boss. ‘Claudia is one of my lawyers.’

      ‘She was there for the purchase of the hotel?’

      ‘No,’ Luka said. ‘I hired her to get your father released.’

      She stood there frozen to the spot, hating how he was always one step ahead, how this man continued to sideswipe her.

      ‘Why?’ Sophie asked. ‘Why would you hire a lawyer to get my father out?’

      No, he didn’t tell her about the necklace burning a hole in his pocket and the hellish guilt that had made it his mission to see Paulo freed.

      ‘For this moment, Sophie.’ Luka lied. ‘So that you would come to my office and ask me to be with you. For the pleasure of lying in bed with you and doing nothing...’ Black was his smile.

      ‘Why do you hate me so much?’

      ‘You’ll work it out,’ Luka said. ‘I’m going out now. I’ll see you tomorrow when the real games begin.’

       CHAPTER TWELVE

      SHE DIDN’T WANT her father to be released.

      Sophie decided she must surely be the most terrible daughter in history because at midday, when still nothing had been said on the news, when still the judge had not ruled, she had this brief fantasy that his application would be denied and she could walk out of the apartment and away from Luka without a single word.

      Instead, late in the afternoon, she got a text.

      Your father has left the infirmary and will be with you shortly. The judge made his ruling in private for security reasons. It will shortly be announced.

      Aside from the hell of what lay ahead, Sophie still wondered what sort of a nightmare her father’s release might have been without the well-oiled machine of Luka’s life swinging into action.

      She saw on the news the crush of reporters both at the court and another group that was now outside the prison infirmary and she shuddered at the thought of her and Bella dealing with this.

      Even as the journalists jockeyed for position at the prison gates Paulo was sitting in Luka’s home.

      ‘I thought Luka would be here,’ Paulo said.

      ‘He was at court,’ Sophie said. ‘He has been keeping me up to date with all that is going on.’

      ‘It is a beautiful home,’ her father said, and then he looked at the view from a huge leather chair. ‘Is there a balcony? I would like to breathe fresh air...’

      ‘There’s a balcony in your room and there is also a rooftop garden,’ Sophie said.

      ‘I would never make the stairs.’

      ‘There’s an elevator.’ Luka deep voice caught her unawares and again, to the sound of him, she jumped, not that her father noticed.

      ‘Luka!’ She heard the sheer joy in her father’s voice as he pushed himself to stand and then she watched Luka’s eyes briefly shutter as he embraced the old man.

      ‘Thank you,’ Paulo said in a heartfelt voice as he took Luka into his arms. ‘Thank you for all you did. I know it was you who got me out...’

      ‘Nonsense.’ Luka’s voice was gruff. ‘The judge was right, there were many mistakes made at the trial. You deserve to have your freedom.’

      ‘You knew it was Luka who was behind this?’ Sophie checked.

      ‘Of course,’ Paulo said. ‘There are not many files that just happen to be picked up. I

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