His late father had had a gifted tongue, able to charm the very birds from trees. What lies had he and Agnes spun on this woman? Was it even worth his time to try and disabuse her of her beliefs?
No. It wasn’t.This interest was akin to a scientific experiment he wanted to comprehend, so he could actively avoid its deficiencies.
She was staring out of the window, at the hive of activity below. At the authorities who would shortly cart her away.
Nelios leaned against the doorway, a sliver of interest piercing his rigid guard. Her hair had almost fully escaped the knot at the back of her head, several heavy strands of rich chestnut battling with gravity to stay put. It drew attention to the sleek line of her neck, her slim shoulders and the tiny movement of her throat as she swallowed.
She sucked in a breath through parted lips and Nelios recalled her unguarded expression when he’d turned. The tiny flicker of her tongue ignited that same spark low in his belly, his jaw gritting as the spark gravitated south. No. He was absolutely not attracted to Apostolis’s and Agnes’s deluded little charity case.
And yet, when she took another, deeper breath, his gaze followed it to her firm breasts straining against the cheap suit she’d attempted to use as a disguise. Nelios cursed as the spark flamed higher.
‘If you’ve come here to gloat, just get on with it, will you? You’re running out of time.’
She kept her gaze on the window for several more seconds before pivoting to face him. The sight of her fighting tears whileher chin lifted in clear defiance should have been laughable. But he wasn’t laughing. He was wondering why the words he needed to utter remained locked in his throat. Why the two reasons continued to clamour ever louder as he slowly approached her.
Step aside. Cut her loose. Be done with this.Nelios shook his head, his brow furrowing tighter.
She blew out a breath, half-relieved, half-puzzled. Then, still eyeing him, she attempted to sidle past him. He would probably not understand why his hand shot out then, any time soon. Why he gripped her elbow to stop her taking another step. And why he gave life to the words that fell from his lips in that moment.
‘I will stay your execution—not because of your entirely foolish offer to do anything, although we will revisit that later.’
Her eyes grew wide and, this close, Nelios saw the ocean-blue held green and gold specks that sparkled and dimmed at will. They could almost have been considered mesmerising if one were foolish enough to succumb to their allure.
‘What do you want in return?’
A science experiment. That is all this is. Information gathering too. Knowledge is power, right?
‘You’re coming to Argentina with me. Make no mistake, your dilemma hasn’t changed. With a single phone call I can have you thrown in jail and then deported, a process that could last weeks or months. You’ll be in no position to help Agnes then. Or I will offer you an alternative: for the next forty-eight hours, you’ll tell me everything I wish to know about them. And you will leave nothing out. Agreed?’
On the one hand, it felt like the easiest thing in the world to agree to. But Vayle knew that, scratch the surface, there were all sorts of traps waiting for the unsuspecting. Traps that could well givehim the ammunition he sought against Agnes, the mother he believed had wronged him.
If she was going to agree to this she would have to play this very carefully—and from the appearance of Nelios’s right-hand man in the doorway, she knew her time was up, just as she knew prison in a foreign country was the very last thing she wanted.
‘Why do you want to know about them? I thought you didn’t care.’
His jaw clenched tightly, once. ‘That is my business, not yours.’
She searched his features for some humanity. Vayle was reminded that he’d helped her with her cramp, despite coming across as ruthless and unfeeling. He’d fed her when he could easily have had her removed from his presence. But a trap was still a trap, whether disguised with flowers or lined with barbed wire. So she pushed just that little bit harder. ‘Your illusions were shattered so you want mine shattered too? Because what—misery loves company?’
‘Should it be an illusion to expect the people who decided to sire you to give you a modicum of care and consideration?’
The memory of being locked in a dark room for hours on end threatened to upsurge her already rollercoaster emotions. ‘No, it’s not. But expecting me to view my history through your warped lens is equally inconsiderate.’ She raised her chin. ‘But I will accept your deal. And, by the end of it, you’ll see nothing you say can sway me about Tolis and Agnes.’
His mouth twisted, along with a hint of angst crossing his face, swiftly stifled. ‘Tolis. How benign you make him sound. When exactly did he start calling himself that?’
The bitterness in his voice shook her to the core. ‘I always knew him as Tolis. And I wasn’t quite finished. I will accept your deal on condition that nothing I say will be used in this…vendetta against Agnes.’
The snort came from behind him, from Andreas. But Nelios raised his hand before his friend could put his clearly incredulous feelings into words. ‘You’re very bad at your job if you believe I’d need a lowly marketing and PR manager of a three-star hotel to give me the dirt I need to best my enemies. No, Miss Lancaster, I will not give you my word because it isn’t needed. Agree without conditions or get the hell off my plane.’
Time ticked loudly and ominously in her head. Andreas levelled a narrow-eyed gaze at her, almost daring her not to take the deal. It was clear the other man despised her, that he wanted her gone.
In some abstract part of her brain she wondered what his story was; what exactly the two men had been through together. But she corralled her wayward thoughts. She was on the brink of buying herself two days, which was much longer than she’d anticipated when she’d hightailed it to London City airport half a day ago with her passport and a leaky plan with more holes in it than Swiss cheese.
She refocused on Nelios, on the laser beam gaze fixed squarely on her.
For better or worse… ‘Yes. Agreed.’
CHAPTER THREE
