But that letter had been damning… Her arched brows knotted then eased again as Miles Hunter answered, and after a few pleasantries she asked, as coolly as she could, ‘Do you know where I could contact Piers? I haven’t heard from him since Christmas. Four months is a long time, even for him.’ In her state of heightened awareness, she felt the Spaniard’s black eyes boring into the back of her head, monitoring every word she said, and instinctively held the receiver closer to her ear. If, by a stroke of good fortune, Miles knew and divulged her father’s whereabouts, she had no intention of allowing the looming, murderous brute to overhear it, get to him before she could.
‘You’re the second person to ask today,’ Miles confessed, and she could hear the grin in his voice as he told her, ‘This arrogant Spanish Don practically threatened me with the Inquisition. Obviously, I acted dumb. I don’t know what your dear daddy’s been up to this time—and don’t really want to—but from the prolonged silence I’d hazard a guess that he’s got his head down, working hard. In Spain, more than likely,’
‘Well, I’m so sorry to have bothered you,’ Sarah said, her voice coolly apologetic. ‘If he does get in touch, let me know, would you, please?’ Then she changed the subject, asking about his wife and family, allowing herself time to grab back her control.
She really should have made the connection herself. Encarnación was Spanish, her removal from her family home—wherever—obviously sudden. So it was highly unlikely that Piers would have met her in any other country but Spain. And therefore she knew exactly where to look!
When the spurt of elation had died down sufficiently she said her farewells and replaced the receiver, turning in her chair, her cool eyes fixed on a point beyond those intimidating shoulders, her voice clipped but not antagonistically so as she stated, ‘As you’ve probably gathered, Miles doesn’t have a clue either,’ and mentally crossed her fingers, hoping he hadn’t picked anything out from the agent’s conversation. Expecting a renewed outburst of ferocity, she risked a direct look, but he was leaning against the filing cabinet, his arms crossed over his chest, and, far from snapping, the black eyes were almost slumbrous, their expression hidden by lowered olivetoned lids and sweepingly thick, lustrous black lashes.
Then, almost lazily, he levered himself upright and, with an almost imperceptible shrug, gave her, ‘Then there is nothing left but to thank you for your time, señorita,’ and sketched a bow of such courteous gravity that she was left speechless, staring at the space he had occupied for several long seconds after he had walked out of the office.
Somehow, strangely, she felt incomplete, as if his going had left something dangling, unresolved, oddly regretted. Which was, of course, she rebuked herself, utter nonsense. She had fully expected him to continue to harass and harangue her, had psyched herself up to deal with it—only to watch him capitulate gracefully, accept that she could tell him nothing, do no more. Which left all that adrenalin with nowhere to go.
And prodded her into immediate action.
She hadn’t expected Francisco Garcia Casals to give up quite so easily. But as he had she took advantage of it thankfully, ignoring the irrational sense of disappointment. Checking that he had indeed left the premises, she sat at her desk, opened her personal directory and pulled the phone towards her.
Half an hour later she had booked her flight and cancelled her date with Nigel, who had, to her astonishment, turned quite nasty.
Their relationship of six months’ standing was purely platonic as yet, although she had wondered, in her off-moments, if it could progress to something more, and permanent, because he was sober enough, conscientious enough to be that rare animal—a male she could possibly be persuaded to entrust her future contentment to.
But now she was quite sure he wasn’t. If she ever allowed a man to become part of her life she certainly wouldn’t expect him to throw a tantrum because, as she had explained, something urgent had cropped up, making the cancellation of their plans unavoidable.
Registering that she felt no regret at all, she contacted Jenny and asked her to take over the office for two or three days, phoned a local taxi firm because she didn’t have time to waste on making her way home to her apartment—four rooms in a converted Victorian villa—by public transport, booked the same driver for the morning to take her to Gatwick and spent the evening packing and congratulating herself that by this time tomorrow she could well have cleared up the mystery of the missing Encarnación without ever having to clap eyes on the daunting Francisco Garcia Casals again.
CHAPTER TWO
SARAH, bouncing about in the back of the taxi, almost wished she’d given in to temptation and hired a car. The drive from the airport to Arcos de la Frontera was a long one and her ears were being assaulted by the raucous music coming from the radio, her nose by the aroma of cheap tobacco and a particularly violent brand of aftershave, and her eyes by the plethora of tawdry fluffy and glittery mascots bouncing around on lengths of coloured string.
But as she only intended to be in Spain for two days at the very most she had deemed the expense of hiring a car a luxury she could do without. No one could accuse her of being mean, but she had learned to be careful, not throwing her money around unnecessarily.
Awkwardly, she wriggled out of the severely styled dark grey blazer she had chosen to wear over paler grey linen trousers and a matching shirt Even in April the heat was astonishing. She had forgotten how fierce the sun could be in southern Spain and couldn’t wait to get back to the cool English spring she had left behind. It was far more suited to her temperament, she decided tiredly, feeling an annoying crop of perspiration spring out on her upper lip.
Closing her eyes on the vibrant landscape, the terrifyingly twisty road, she picked over the situation that faced her.
On the one hand she could find her father alone, working like a man possessed, never having heard of the absconding Encarnación, in which case she would stay overnight and leave first thing in the morning with a huge sigh of relief.
Or—and this was the worst-case scenario, her secret fear—she could find him with his new young mistress and have the disagreeable task of making him see sense, pointing out, with graphic emphasis, what he could expect if Francisco Garcia Casals ever got within thrashing distance, trying to make the wayward young minx see the error of her ways and return to her family home.
That Piers would be at the house in Arcos, innocently or not so innocently, was in no real doubt now. When her mother had been alive they had often spent the spring there because Piers had always felt spiritually at home in the Andalusian mountains, executing some of his best work there.
After her death—when Sarah herself was only thirteen—Piers had closed the house up for a time but in later years he had often used it as a bolthole when he wanted to get down to serious, concentrated work.
He called it his cabaña, but it wasn’t, of course. It was a small house in a tiny warren of streets in the old town, but, as he said, he liked the way the word cabaña rolled off the tongue. Her father, she thought resignedly, wasn’t spectacularly clever when it came to seeing things as they really were.
And no matter how often she told herself that there had to be some mistake, the letter had been all too explicit. Impatiently, she dabbed her damp forehead with the back of her hand. It was all too tiresome to be borne and she could only pray that, as Encarnación had obviously met Piers at some time or other, the little minx had picked his name out of the ether and used it as a smokescreen for her own questionable activities.
The Spaniard had described his sister as being sheltered and protected—and that, of course, pointed to innocence. From the little Sarah knew of Señor Casals she guessed that translated into the fact that the eighteen-year-old had been utterly dominated by his sledge-hammer personality, that he expected his female relatives to stick to rigidly old-fashioned codes of behaviour, gave them no freedom whatsoever in a changing world, a world where female emancipation was the accepted thing in all levels of soc
iety, even here.
She didn’t blame the unknown girl for wanting out of such a stultifying situation. But that didn’t excuse Encarnación’s abuse of Piers’ name, if that was what had happened—and oh, how she prayed that it was. He was more than capable of making trouble for himself; he didn’t need help in that direction from a Spanish teenager who wanted to toss a red herring or two in front of her big brother’s aristocratic nose.
At last the driver flourished to an untidy halt, the ramshackle old Seat splayed across the narrow street, and Sarah scrambled out thankfully and paid him off, standing in the scorching sun for long moments after he’d reversed flamboyantly away in a cloud of exhaust fumes, trying to recover her poise after the hair-raising drive into the mountains.
Not many things gave her the jitters but bucketing around in the back of a car that had obviously long since passed its use-by date, driven by a man who took hairpin bends and horrifying gradients with as much apparent care as a swallow testing the thermals, was one of them.
Shuddering, she pulled herself together, becoming aware now of a round señora clad in voluminous black who was observing her with brightly inquisitive eyes from the doorstep of one of the neighbouring houses.
Alone in the tiny street, her father’s house looked neglected and shabby. The others were brightly painted, the window-boxes and balconies brimming with abundantly flowering plants, whereas Piers’ so-called cabaña had peeling paintwork, rusting balconies and seemed to sag, held up only by its neighbours.
But that was no surprise. When Patience had been alive she had done her utmost to keep up outward appearances, pretend that they were a normal family just like everyone else, creating a comfortable home wherever they happened to behere in Spain in the fecund months of spring or in the rented stone cottage on a remote mountain-flank in Wales which had been the nearest thing to a settled home Sarah had had during her early childhood.
Her mother, she decided, not for the first time, had been aptly named.
Her father had never cared what his surroundings were like. He actually seemed to thrive in an atmosphere of chaos and turmoil.
Bracing herself for the coming encounter with her wayward, irresponsible parent, she pushed on the bleached-wood door and found it securely locked, then hammered without any real hope on the grainy surface.
He would almost certainly be out in the surrounding countryside, sketching or painting. Why hadn’t she thought of that? She might have to wait for hours before he decided to come back.
The watching woman shuffled off her doorstep, bombarding her with a rapid carillon of Spanish, and Sarah, who had long ago forgotten the few words of the language she had picked up in her childhood, smiled tightly, shrugging her slim shoulders.
Her shirt was sticking to her in the heat. She was getting a headache, felt almost sick with thirst and almost had to add a threatened heart attack to her list of unpleasant physical inconveniences when the arrogantly confident, uncompromisingly masculine Francisco Garcia Casals said from directly behind her, ‘Having trouble, señorita?’
She twisted round, her insides clenching, her heart palpitating wildly under her breasts. How in the name of everything sacred had he got here? Followed her? All the way from London? Determined to get to Piers and beat him to a pulp?
She couldn’t ask because she couldn’t breathe. He filled all her space, stole the air from her lungs. And he was talking to her father’s neighbour, his Spanish smooth and rich, a deceptively soothing counterpoint to the elderly woman’s shrill stacatto. Deceptive, because he turned and held her eyes with the penetrating blackness of his, telling her with a twisted sardonic little smile that curled her toes, ‘Papá is away from home and not expected back for a number of weeks. But I have been reliably informed of his exact whereabouts.’ His smile as he turned to his compatriot was warm and beguiling, making him look thoroughly gorgeous, and watching the way the woman bridled, a grin splitting her face, made Sarah feel ill.
They said all men were suckers for a pretty face but the same could be said for women. If a sexy man turned on the charm they went to mush.
Not this one, though. She had far more sense. Very aware of the problems her father could be facing, she fixed the wretched man with cool blue eyes and demanded, ‘Then I insist you share the information.’
‘Do you indeed?’ One black brow drifted slowly upwards and she flinched under the impact of that slight, lopsided smile as he reminded her, ‘Did you share your information with me? I think not, señorita. I suspected the agent had said something to turn the wheels of your cold little brain. You put me to the trouble of following you.’
He examined his square-cut, perfect fingernails briefly before shooting her a fiercely derisive look. ‘I found the exercise highly tedious. Regard the withholding of my information as punishment. A just punishment, you must agree, when I tell you that the señora here described the “friend” who left with him. She was either my sister or her nonexistent twin.’
Hot temper glared in his eyes and, seared by it, by the damning information he had relayed, Sarah stepped back, her legs shaking.
And then he turned his back, the silky white fabric of his shirt falling in graceful folds from his wide shoulders, his mean and moody narrow hips and long black-clad legs moving with eloquent dismissive arrogance as he stalked away.
For a moment she simply stared. She couldn’t believe this was actually happening, that he was walking away, refusing to tell her where Piers was, leaving her to stew in this heat, expecting her tamely to return to London, knowing that her headstrong, selfish parent had indeed seduced an innocent girl away from her deeply protective family, and wait for a call from a Spanish hospital to tell her that her father was hooked up to a life-support system in Intensive Care!
She gritted her teeth until they hurt. How could he do this to her? How dared he? He was not, she decided toughly, going to get away with it!
Grabbing her overnight bag and her jacket, she hared after his tall, receding figure, and was out of breath, her hair beginning to come down, falling all over the place, damp tendrils clinging to her temples, when she finally caught up with him.
And only just in time. He was already opening the door of an intimidating scarlet Ferrari. There was only one thing for it. Since she couldn’t follow on foot she would have to prevent him leaving.
Using her last gasp of breath, she swooped over the cobbles and neatly inserted her body between him and the door, really hating him now for forcing her to behave like a hoyden, lose all her dignity, her highly valued poise.
He barely moved, only enough to accommodate her, and he didn’t even look surprised. His conceit was monumental, his self-confidence appalling, she thought disgustedly, mentally grinding her teeth as she struggled to regain enough breath to make a few succinct demands.
But her breathlessness, if anything, was getting worse. And she was horribly aware of the hot metal burning her back as she was forced against the door by the infinitely more searing heat of his body. There was a strange tingling, burning sensation where her heaving breasts were thrusting against the heated male skin beneath that sinfully expensive shirt and she wasn’t even going to think about what the pressure of those mean hips was doing to her abdomen…
‘Did you want something, señorita?’ The voice was slow and rich and smooth, and was the slight glide and gyration of that hard pelvis really accidental?
Sarah gulped, her lungs fighting for air, and at that moment the rest of her hair fell down from its normal careful restraint, slithering in a silky blonde tumble to cloak her shoulders.
Her dazed eyes narrowed furiously; she hated feeling uncontrolled, hated him for making her feel this way, looking at her as if she were somehow amusing. Amusing! And much as she wanted to get as far away from him as physically possible she couldn’t do it.
He knew where Piers was and intended to get to him and wreak his terrible vengeance. Even if he hadn’t said as much the intent was there, deep in those black Spani
sh eyes. Come what may, she had to be there when the two men met up, to act as intermediary, a calming influence, at the very least.
He put his hands against the gleaming bodywork of the car, trapping her, the pressure of his hard, lean body increasing to dangerous proportions, and she shot out hoarsely, ‘I demand to know—’
He cut in smoothly, ‘Save your breath. I have no intention of telling you where el diablo is hiding, or of taking you with me when I go to take my sister away from his evil influences. It is a matter between him and me. You understand what I am saying?’
His white teeth gleamed dangerously and her stomach lurched. He meant it, he really meant it, and despite the years of embarrassment and annoyance, the times when she would have preferred not to have a father at all rather than one as wild as Piers, she knew she would do anything to save him from physical damage at the hands of this avenging devil. Her father, for all his faults and failings, she realised with momentary shock, meant far more to her than she had ever supposed.
Yet what could she do? He had already stepped back, removing the shatteringly unwelcome pressure of his body, his hands on her elbows as he shifted her dispassionately out of his way.
‘Please, señor…’ Her voice emerged as a disgraceful whimper but if she had to beg she would do it. Piers wasn’t a young man and a violent encounter between him and this hard-jawed Spanish aristocrat with his damaged family pride and his lust for vengeance was beyond bearable thought.
‘Please?’ An eloquent black brow lifted in shaming derision. ‘Don’t try to appeal to my better nature. When my sister has been damaged, it doesn’t exist. And you have no bargaining power. I have the information I need and you have nothing to offer that could tempt me to reveal it.’
Hostage of Passion Page 2
