Chapter 4

Theo Calloway has known Cavan Wendell for fifteen years, and he had long ago accepted that his best friend was brilliant, ruthless and almost entirely incapable of being polite.

"Try to smile tonight," Theo said, as the car rolled up a driveway lined with trimmed hedges.

"No."

"We're guests."

"We're here for information. Richard Collins is raising capital and desperate men talk too much. Twenty minutes, then we leave."

Theo sighed and straightened his cuffs.

The Collins house was large and expensive and slightly too bright, like a stage set built to look wealthy from a distance. Richard Collins met them in the hall with both hands outstretched and a smile so wide it looked painful.

"Mr. Wendell! What an honor. Welcome."

Cavan shook his hand briefly.

"Mr. Collins."

"Please, call me Richard. My family has admired Wendell Group for years."

"Thank you for the invitation."

The words were polite and the voice was flat. Theo had heard that voice at a hundred negotiations. It was the voice Cavan used when he had already decided how the conversation would end.

In the dining room, a woman in pearls hovered at Richard's elbow like a nervous bird, and a pale young woman in cream silk lay curled in an armchair with a blanket across her knees and a faint, tragic smile.

"My daughter Sophia," Richard said fondly. "She's been unwell but she insisted on meeting you."

Cavan gave her a slight nod and nothing more.

"You're too kind to come, Mr. Wendell," Sophia murmured.

"I'm here for business."

Her smile wavered for a fraction of a second, then returned.

Theo took two glasses of wine, handed one to the man beside him and settled in to enjoy himself.

He did not notice the girl until she walked past them.

She wore a plain navy dress and carried a silver tray of canapés. Her dark hair was pinned simply, and her eyes stayed lowered. She moved like someone who had been taught to take up as little space as possible.

Theo assumed she was staff and so did Adrian.

"You."

He did not look up from his phone. He snapped two fingers and held out his empty glass.

"Plain water, no ice."

The girl stopped and looked at the glass for a long moment, then she looked at Adrian. Something flickered across her face, too quick to read and she lowered her eyes again.

She took the glass and walked away without a word.

Across the room, Sophia's lips curved very slightly.

"Mila is so helpful," Margaret Collins said brightly. "We don't know what we'd do without her."

Theo noticed that Richard didn't look at her at all.

Cavanwas done in twenty minutes.He spent most of them in Richard's study, where he asked six questions, listened to three long answers and said almost nothing in return. When Richard finally ran out of words, Cavan stood and buttoned his jacket.

"My team will review your figures."

"Of course and the terms we discussed..."

"My team will review your figures. Good evening."

He walked out and Theo followed behind him hiding a smile.

The hallway outside the study was long and dim, lined with portraits of ancestors who had probably never existed. Halfway down it, the girl in the navy dress stood alone beside a side table, setting a glass of water on a napkin.

She looked up as they approached.

Cavan did not slow down. He stopped directly in front of her close enough that she had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes.

Theo stopped at the corner and decided he would stay exactly where he was.

"You didn't bring the water," Cavansaid.

"I brought it twenty minutes ago." She nodded at the table. "But you were busy."

"I don't wait."

"Then you shouldn't have asked someone who isn't staff."

Adrian's gaze sharpened.

"You aren't staff."

"No."

"Then why were you carrying a tray?"

"Because the caterer is short two people, and my father would rather humiliate his daughter than hire a third."

"And you said nothing when I gave you an order."

"I wanted to see what you'd do when you realized you were wrong."

The hallway went very quiet.

"And?" Cavansaid, in a low voice.

"You haven't realized it yet."

Theo bit the inside of his cheek.

Cavan took one slow step closer. Most people would have backed away. Most people had, every time he had done it, in every boardroom in the country.

The girl stayed exactly where she was.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked.

"Yes. You're the man who snaps his fingers at strangers." She picked up the glass of water and held it out to him, perfectly steady. "Your water, Mr. Wendell. Next time, say please."

He did not take it.

"Careful," he said softly.

"Of what?"

"Of me."

She considered that, and then, to Theo's quiet astonishment, she smiled.

"I'm not afraid of you," she said gently. "It must be very lonely when people are."

She set the glass in his unmoving hand, stepped neatly around him and walked away.

Her footsteps faded down the corridor. Cavan did not turn.

He stood there for three full seconds with a glass of water in his hand and an expression Theo had never once seen on his face.

Then he set the glass on the nearest table, with great care, as if it might break.

"Say a word," he said, without turning, "and you walk home."

Theo made it as far as the car.

Then he laughed so hard he had to brace one hand against the door.

"She handed you a glass of water," Theo gasped. "And told you to say please."

"Drive."

"I'm going to remember that at your funeral."

"Drive."

"She wasn't even afraid of you. Do you know how long it's been since someone wasn't afraid of you?"

Adrian's eyes were on the dark window. "Be quiet."

Theo wiped his eyes and, for once, obeyed.

The city slid past in long golden streaks. Cavan sat perfectly still, one hand resting on his knee, his face cold and unreadable. Then he reached into his jacket and lifted his phone.

"Graham."

"Sir?"

"Investigate Mila Collins, Richard Collins's younger daughter. Look into her education , employment, finances and associates. I want everything you can find by the end of the week."

There was a short pause.

"Is this connected to the Collins investment, sir?"

"By the end of the week," Cavan repeated coldly.

"Yes, sir."

He ended the call and slid the phone back into his pocket.

Theo opened his mouth, looked at Adrian's face and closed it again.