“Have you discussed
any of this
with your father?”
Matthew
enquired. “
Because if you had you’d realise that he got a very good deal from me,” he pursed his lips and watched her. She didn’t flinch. “Deverells’ never went into administration,” he confirmed. “I took the company on debts and all. But that meant I had to compromise somewhere, Gina. There was a great deal of money owed to various suppliers and I had to completely reorganise the way the place operated in order to get it back into profit. And yes, there was redundancies, there had to be. But not until your old
workforce
knew the score and were offered the opportunity to transfer to one of my subsidiaries or take a generous package.”
“You
can sit there and make out you’re ‘Mister nice guy’ but I don’t believe you. I think you are far more devious than
that,” she spat
at him. “A lost order here, bills that can’t be paid there and suddenly there you are money in hand and ready to pounce. The truth is you wanted that business and you made damn sure things went your way.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about, Gina. Your father approached me with a proposition and I did need premises in
London
so I went along with his ideas.”
“So now you’re blaming my father for all this, that’s rich coming from you. You’re a crook and deserve everything you get.”
“OK
Gina
,
I can’t change your opinions about the deal I struck with your father but take my word for it they’re totally wrong. But I will accept
that you didn’t
steal my plans to sell them to the highest bidder,” he allowed. Then shaking his handsome head he continued. “
But essentially that doesn’t
really
change much
, does it?
”
“You have the papers
back
,
you know
I’m not an industrial spy, so you can go
now knowing your new development
’s safe,” she told him.
“It’s not that simple though, is it,” he replied watching her
nervously
winding a lock of blonde hair around her fingers.
“You see
all that might be true but these documents will still be on your computer
,” he continued. “A
nd you
know what my plans are for and, more importantly you must have worked out what makes the product different,” he paused watching her mouth the word ‘
price
’ and nodded.
“So that, plus
all you’ve
just
told me
means
I can’t trust you, Gina. What guarantees do I have that
Carlotti
isn’t still an option
you’ll go for the minute my backs turned
?”
“You’ll just have to take my word for it,” she emphasised
, her eyes blazing at him
. “I don’t lie, so if I say I won’t discuss this with anyone else, then I won’t.”
“But you
do lie, Gina, you
have already lied to me,
many times in fact,
about your name for a start, when you applied for the job. I need m
uch better odds than that,” he told her firmly.
“A
nd frankly, right now
you are not convincing me that I
have them
. This entire development and the launch have cost a great deal of money and it’s just too important for me to leave any loose ends behind.”
So now she was nothing more to him than a ‘loose end’, how
very
flattering!
“So what now, just how do you plan to ensure I won’t continue to wreak havoc behind your back? You can hardly take me captive and hide me away somewhere,” she scoffed.
“You’re very perceptive, Gina. You see I’ve had all morning to think about this and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
END OF PART ONE