Making Over the Billionaire (Italian Connection)

by Joan Kilby

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you,” she said quietly, as if she understood his turmoil. “It’s not your fault. Not Tina, not your brother, not your father. None of it.”

  “Leo’s death was my fault.” He concentrated on taking a hairpin on the steep cliff face. “I…I urged him to go faster.”

  “That wouldn’t surprise me. But he was driving. He was the older brother. His foot was on the gas pedal, not yours.”

  Giorgio’s chest tightened. Five cars and another truck whipped past on the opposite side of the road before he could bring himself to speak again. When he did, his voice cracked. “I was driving that night.”

  “What?”

  “I taunted Leo. I told him he drove like an old woman.”

  “What little brother doesn’t taunt his older brother? I used to call my little brother an annoying brat.” Her mouth turned down at the corners. “Now I wish I could take every harsh word back.”

  “So you can understand a little of what I’m feeling.” He pushed a hand through his hair. “Taunting rolled off Leo’s back. But it was my birthday so he let me drive. I was behind the wheel. It was my foot on the gas pedal when the accident happened.”

  Her eyes widened, and for a moment she just stared at him in shock. Then she put a hand on his thigh and pressed, her face soft with understanding and compassion. “And you’ve been beating yourself up ever since.”

  His eyes pricked at this display of sympathy and he placed his hand over hers. Then he remembered that she’d betrayed him, and the pain was fresh all over again. He removed his hand and turned his gaze back to the road. She was helping him with Tina. It was nice of her but he wasn’t ready or able to forgive. “No more than I deserve.”

  Layla curled her hands in her lap. “Why wasn’t that in the news accounts at the time?”

  “They hushed it up because my father was rich and influential.” His eyes burned and he blinked hard. He’d loved Leo. His brother had been everything he wasn’t—smart and determined and unselfish.

  “It’s easy to idolize someone who’s not alive. He can never do anything wrong.” She seemed to sense what he was thinking. “I’ll say it again. It’s not your fault your brother died.”

  “Whose fault was it then?” he demanded. “Leo’s for wanting to please his little brother? The truck driver for being in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

  “Sometimes shit just happens.”

  A siren behind him sounded a warning. He slowed and pulled to the right as a police car zoomed past. Then he put his foot down harder on the gas. Layla braced as he went into the tight corner. He came out the other side and immediately went into another turn. Cursing the twisting road that didn’t allow him to see what was coming ahead, he used all his concentration to drive safely. Abruptly, the siren ahead stopped.

  Giorgio pulled out of the bend into a short, straight stretch and hit the brakes. The Maserati and the police car were parked in a viewing point bay. Fabio and a cop in a black uniform and a peaked cap were nose to nose. Fabio was arguing loudly and flinging his arms. Tina stood off to one side, hugging herself around the waist, looking wretched. A second officer got out of the police car carrying a pair of handcuffs.

  “Tina!” Giorgio flung open his door and ran over. “Are you all right?” He took her by the shoulders, scanning her for injury. Nothing. Thank God she was safe. He folded her into his arms and hugged her tightly.

  She pushed him away. “What are you doing here? Are you following me now?”

  “I had to. That man is a maniac. You could have been killed.”

  “We wouldn’t have even left the restaurant if you hadn’t tried to rip me away from Fabio like some Neanderthal.” Angry tears filled her eyes. “If you hadn’t been chasing us I might have gotten the keys from Fabio.”

  “I couldn’t take that chance,” he said. “Surely you can see that—”

  “The problem with you, Gino, is that you don’t listen to anyone. You want everything your own way.” Tina stabbed him in the chest with a forefinger. “I told you I was backing Fabio in a fashion photography studio. Well, that’s not all. We’ve decided to expand that to our own fashion house. I’m quitting the House of Borlenghi.”

  “What? You can’t.” Giorgio reeled. For her to break apart from the Borlenghi Group was unthinkable. He didn’t even care about the business aspect so much, but it would destroy them as a family. “Don’t do this. And definitely not with Fabio. You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

  “You can’t tell me what to do anymore. The first contract I’m going to award will be to Layla.” She glanced over his shoulder as the other woman approached. “Layla, I’m starting my own fashion house. Will you work for me?”

  “Yes, please!” Layla said without hesitation. Then she looked uncertainly at Giorgio. “I mean…I would like to if that’s possible.”

  “Excellent. I’ll be in touch.” Tina nodded briskly. “Now I’d better talk to the police and find out where they’re taking Fabio.” She strode over to where the two cops were pushing the other man into the back of the police car.

  “Will you work with a criminal?” Giorgio demanded of Layla. “Because that’s who she’s going into business with.”

  “I doubt very much she’ll go ahead once she’s had a chance to read your email,” Layla said. “But she may proceed with her threat to start her own fashion house.”

  “Well, I hope you’re happy. You’ve driven her away from the family.”

  Layla’s mouth dropped open. “Me? I’ve driven her away? It was you!”

  All his frustration and impotent fury boiled over. “If I hadn’t been entertaining you I would have been more on top of what was happening. Maybe I could have stopped her from making the biggest mistake of her life.”

  “I don’t believe it!” Layla threw her hands up. “You’re blaming me?”

  “You were in collusion with my sisters. You used me to get to Tina,” Giorgio said, circling her. “I knew it from the beginning.”

  “At first, I did. I admitted that already—” She did a double take. “Wait a minute. Did you say you knew all along?”

  “Of course. I’m not stupid. Why else would you concoct an elaborate plan and come to my office with a change of clothes to sneak me out for ‘lunch’ at your villa?”

  She jammed her hands on her hips. “You went along with it. Hell, you upped the ante by flying us to your yacht. If you weren’t interested in doing me, then what was that about?”

  “You threw yourself at me. I merely called your bluff. I was curious to see just how far you were prepared to go to get a contract with the House of Borlenghi. Pretty far as it turned out.”

  “You used me, too,” she accused. “You brought me here purely for pleasure, fully intending to dispose of me afterward with no thought or care for my feelings. You manipulated me. Just like you try to control all the people in your life.”

  “As you were using me,” he shot back. “All those ‘fun facts’ and playing the tourist and getting me to relax were a distraction so you could fulfill your end of the bargain with Tina and get me to stay on the yacht until they arrived. And if you did that, you would get your contract.”

  “That wasn’t the only reason I wanted to stay. Can’t you believe anyone would want to spend time with you because they like you? No, because you’re too uptight. And if you relaxed your iron grip on the company and let your sisters make their own decisions, then they wouldn’t have to resort to subterfuge to get what they wanted.”

  “Leave my sisters out of it.” He threw Layla a contemptuous glance. “All you wanted from me was a means to further your career. Once or twice I actually thought…” He shook his head. “Never mind. The truth is plain now. All that interest you showed in me meant nothing. You’re no better than a…a prostitute.”

  “How dare you!” Layla’s hands clenched as the blood drained from her cheeks. “Yes, I want to work for Tina, but if it doesn’t happen I’ll survive. I was kee
ping you here for your sake. Not mine. Not your sisters’. Although they are very worried about you.”

  “They want more authority in the company.”

  “They’re businesswomen. Of course they do. They’re also afraid you’re going to stroke out from all the stress you put on yourself. Wake up, Giorgio! You’re a danger to yourself.”

  She stormed away a few feet and turned back. “If you think I would sleep with a man purely for monetary gain then you don’t know me very well.”

  “How could I know you?” he shot back. “We’ve been together for a total of four days.”

  “Some of the most intense, joyful days of my entire life. If you’re so out of touch with your feelings that you can’t tell when something is real then I can’t help you.”

  She called out to Tina, who was climbing into the Maserati, to wait for her. Then she turned back, a single tear spilling down each of her cheeks. “I’m going to the yacht to change into my own clothes. Then I’ll catch the next train to Rome.”

  Giorgio wanted to call her back, but his heart and mind were filled with confusion. He watched first the police, then Tina and Layla drive away. He picked up a stone from the pavement and threw it as far as he could over the cliff. A few days ago his world had been his to command. Now everything had spun out of control. He didn’t understand anything anymore. Least of all, himself.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Work was the only antidote Giorgio knew of to take away the pain of loss.

  “Thank you, Anna,” he said as she handed him the final copy of the contract with Chang Lee ready for both parties to sign. In the three days since Layla had left he’d flung himself into negotiations, staying at the office until late at night to make up for lost time.

  He attempted to read over a document, but the words blurred in front of his eyes. Sometimes he wondered if he’d dreamed the whole weekend with Layla. He slid two fingers between the buttons of his business shirt to feel the soft cotton of the Napoli football jersey she’d given him. He felt marginally better with her gift lying next to his skin.

  She’d asked him once what he was afraid of. Now he knew. He was afraid of feeling too much. He hadn’t experienced pain like this since Leo and Papa died. As hard as he’d tried to protect himself by walling himself off from love, it hadn’t worked. The emotion had come anyway, sneaking up on him when he wasn’t looking. Those two days on the yacht, when he’d thought he was giving into lust, he’d really been falling in love.

  He couldn’t think of anything but her. He snatched at the slightest excuse to say her name or bring her into the conversation. He constantly thought about her, not just having sex—although he thought about that a lot—but also doing mundane things with her like swimming, going to the football game, having a meal. The ache in his chest simply wouldn’t go away.

  The intercom buzzed. It was Anna. “Tina’s here.”

  “Send her in.” Giorgio hadn’t seen or heard from his sister since Fabio had been arrested. Yesterday, she’d finally accepted his call. He’d asked her to meet with him. Angela and Francesca were coming too. It was long past time to have a meaningful dialogue with his sisters about the way the corporation did business internally.

  Tina entered, pale and soberly dressed, her luxuriant hair tamed into a sleek ponytail. She offered first one cheek then the other. “I’m early but I wanted a few minutes alone.”

  “How are you?” He was dying to know what had happened with Fabio but mindful of Layla’s advice, he didn’t ask. “You look tired.”

  “I haven’t slept a lot in the past few days, but I’ll be fine,” Tina fidgeted with her purse. “You were right about Fabio. I showed him the police report and asked for an explanation. He blustered that it was all a lie and ranted about you spying on him. While he was in jail for drunk driving the Italian police checked his record. Now Interpol is involved, and he’ll be sent back to France to face charges.” She passed a trembling hand over her face. “It’s been a nightmare.”

  “Sit down, cara.” Giorgio guided her to a chair.

  When she was settled she lifted her gaze. Her eyes were moist but fierce. “Obviously I’m not going into business with him, but I’m serious about breaking away on my own.”

  “Don’t do anything hasty, please. Not till you’ve heard what I have to say. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I wish I hadn’t been the bearer of bad news.”

  “Oh, Giorgio, it’s not your fault.” Her eyes filled with tears again. “I was so furious with you for interfering, but if it hadn’t been for you I would have made a terrible mistake. I’m sorry I doubted your motives.”

  “If it weren’t for Layla, I would have kept blundering and driven you further away.”

  “She’s really gone?” Tina asked. He sighed and nodded. “You should go after her.”

  “What’s the use?” he asked. “Before everything blew up I offered her an apartment, business help, anything she wanted. She said no.”

  “I bet there was something you didn’t offer her.”

  “A contract with the House of Borlenghi?”

  Tina shook her head. “Yourself, silly.”

  He frowned. Wasn’t that just what he’d done? Well, no, not really. He’d offered her a financial arrangement, not a personal commitment. Not a declaration of love. He was a fool.

  A knock sounded at the door. Angela and Francesca entered, kissed him in greeting, and then joined Tina around the coffee table. Giorgio stayed on his feet. He had too much pent-up energy as it was, and if he had to deal with his feisty sisters he preferred to have a height advantage.

  “Okay,” he said. “Tell me what you want.”

  Tina, Francesca, and Angela all looked at each other, eyebrows raised. Slowly, smiles dawned on their faces.

  Tina took the lead. “We want equal say in running the company.”

  “Full control of what goes on in the companies under our direction,” Angela added.

  “No more veto power for you,” Francesca said.

  “I’m not sure that will work,” he said, trying to be reasonable. “The corporation needs a single, unified vision for it to prosper and grow. You three are so individual. I can’t have you all going off in different directions.”

  “We understand that,” Tina said. “We’ll cooperate with each other and with you. We want to be part of the vision for the future.” She leaned forward. “This expansion into China is a huge step for Borlenghi Group. We want a say in what happens because it affects us all.”

  “Are you against going global?” He’d never thought to ask them. Had always assumed they would naturally want to, as well.

  “No, we think it’s good but with certain safeguards,” Francesca said. “We need to have more discussion before we can be certain. What if it fails, for instance? What are the consequences?”

  “Will the House of Borlenghi be sacrificed to save some Chinese subsidiary?” Tina asked. “We don’t know the answers to these questions because you haven’t included us in the decision-making process.”

  “On a more basic level, we should have equal say simply because—” Angela paused, and again his sisters shared a maddening glance with undercurrents he didn’t understand—”if you need a holiday, for example, important matters don’t grind to a halt.”

  He lifted his hands impatiently. “What are you talking about? I don’t take holidays.”

  “What she means,” Francesca said. “Is that if you go on working too hard and stressing yourself beyond belief you’ll end up dying prematurely like Dad. We want to know how to run the corporation before we have to take over.”

  “They’re trying to appeal to your business sense because they think that’s the way to get through to you.” Tina met his gaze, her dark eyes sad. “The real reason is that if anything happened to you, we would be lost. We love you and want you around for a long time.”

  Layla had told him that’s what they felt and how they thought. Giorgio felt as if an iron band was tightening across his c
hest. Was he was having a heart attack right now? He’d agreed to this talk because he was tired of feuding with his sisters. But he still had his doubts. The changes would mean the biggest upheaval in his life since their father died—

  He went to the window and stared blindly as thoughts swirled through his head. He wanted to deny his sisters’ fears but he didn’t relax enough. Stress was a killer. Even his father, who spent more down time than he did, had suffered two heart attacks in his fifties, the second one fatal.

  Was he, Giorgio, really such a control freak? Why was he so driven?

  Layla insisted he needed balance. The weekend they’d spent together had been the first time in nearly a year that he’d taken time off. It had left him reinvigorated, with a clearer mind to tackle the final steps in the deal with Chang.

  He’d thought a lot about what else Layla had said that day on the road to Positano. His guilt about his brother’s death had skewed many of his decisions about the company. Maybe Leo should share some of the responsibility. And the truck driver. Otherwise it meant Giorgio regarded himself as some sort of god, all-powerful and all-knowing.

  Had he become overbearing and authoritarian, not listening to Tina, Francesca, and Angela? Over the past ten years, he’d gradually stopped paying attention to what anyone else said, even those who cared about him. His work ethic came at a heavy personal cost. Until now it was a price he’d gladly paid. Until Layla had come into his life.

  What did he want?

  He wanted it all. He wanted family harmony and a thriving business. He wanted to grow his corporation and to have his sisters working alongside him.

  And he wanted Layla.

  It was up to him to work out how to achieve the balance he knew deep down he needed in his life. He needed to change. He needed to act. And he needed to do it now.

  “All right. A good businessman knows when to take advice from experts.” He picked up a stack of briefing notes on the Chinese deal from his desk and plunked them on the coffee table. “Start reading. The meeting with Chang to sign the contract is tomorrow, but I think we should delay till you three are up to speed.”