The Count's Christmas Baby. Rebecca Winters

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СКАЧАТЬ had some claim on his deceased father’s legacy, then she hadn’t met Ric and was deluding herself. “What’s her name?”

      “Christine Argyle.”

      The name meant nothing to him. “Is she married? Single?”

      “I don’t know. Her passport didn’t indicate one way or the other, but she wasn’t wearing a ring. She called the traveler’s aid department and they turned it over to me. At first I thought this must be some sort of outlandish prank, but she’s not backing down. Since this is about your father, I thought I’d better phone you and learn your wishes before I tell her I can’t help her and order her off the premises.”

      “Thank you for handling this with diplomacy,” Ric said in a level voice, but his anger boiled beneath the surface. To go straight to Genoa’s chief of police to get his attention was a clever tactic on her part. She wouldn’t have taken that kind of a risk unless she thought she had something on Ric’s father that the family wouldn’t like made public. How convenient and predictable.

      She’d probably met Alberto at a business party last fall when he’d decided he didn’t want to be in mourning any longer. More often than not those dinners involved private gambling parties. Many of them were hosted for foreign VIPs on board one of the yachts anchored in the harbor where the police had no jurisdiction.

      There’d be plenty of available women, including American starlets, to please every appetite. But it would be catastrophic if this last fling of his father’s was the one that couldn’t be hushed up and resulted in embarrassing the family morally and financially.

      Not if Ric could help it!

      Anything leaked to the press now could affect Ric’s future plans in ways he didn’t even want to think about. He saw red. Before the wedding, the negotiations in Cyprus had to go through as planned to safeguard his deceased mother’s assets so Eliana’s father couldn’t get his hands on them. Ric refused to let anything get in the way.

      “Per favore—keep her in your office until I get there. Don’t use my title in front of her. Simply introduce me as Signor Alberto Degenoli and I’ll go from there.” This woman wouldn’t have gotten involved with his father if he hadn’t had a title, but Ric intended to play along with her ruse until he’d exposed her for a grasping opportunist.

      “Understood. She went out for a while, but she’ll be calling me in a few minutes. If you’re coming now, I’ll let her know you’re on your way.”

      His thoughts were reeling. “Say nothing about this to anyone.”

      “Surely you don’t question my loyalty to the House of Degenoli?”

      “No,” Ric muttered, furrowing his hair absently with his fingers. He stared blindly out the window of the Degenoli Shipping Lines office. For well on 150 years it had overlooked the port of Genoa, Italy’s most important port city. “Forgive me, but when it comes to my family …”

      “I understand. You know you can rely on my discretion.”

      “Grazie.” Ric’s voice grated before he hung up.

      Whatever was going on, Ric didn’t want wind of this to reach his siblings. Claudia and Vito lived with enough pain and didn’t need to take on more, especially with Christmas only a week away. It was absolutely essential this be kept secret.

      After he told his driver to meet him in the side alley, he rang security to follow them and left the office with his bodyguards. He needed to take care of this matter now, before he left for the airport.

      For the second time today, Sami paid the taxi driver and got out in front of the main police station in Genoa with trepidation. The police chief had told her one of his staff had found the number of the man she was looking for and had contacted him.

      It was a miracle! She couldn’t have done it without the phone operator’s help. After searching for Alberto Degenoli without success, she’d almost given up hope.

      No telling what would happen at this meeting, but she had to go through with it for her baby’s sake. His existence would come as a total surprise to Mr. Degenoli, but her son deserved to know about his father’s side of the family.

      Of course, the baby was too little to know anything yet. It was up to Sami to introduce them and lay a foundation for the future, if Mr. Degenoli wanted a relationship. If not, then she’d go back to Reno and raise him without feeling any attendant guilt that she hadn’t done all she could do to unite them.

      Once through the doors, she realized it was just as busy at four o’clock as it had been earlier. Besides people and staff, it was filled with cigarette smoke, irritating her eyes and nose. The nativity scene set up on a table in the foyer reminded her how close it was to Christmas and she’d done nothing to get ready for it yet. But she’d had something much more important on her mind before leaving Reno than the upcoming holidays.

      Having been in the building earlier, she knew where to go. She’d just started to make her way down the hall when a man strode swiftly past her and rounded a corner at the end. He was a tall male, elegantly dressed in a tan suit and tie. Maybe he was in his mid-thirties. For want of a better word, he left an impression of power and importance that appeared unconscious and seemed to come as naturally to him as breathing.

      Sami passed several men and policemen who eyed her in masculine appreciation before she turned the corner and entered the reception area of the police chief’s office. With the exception of the uniformed male receptionist she’d met before, the room was empty. Where had the other man gone?

      After she sat down, the receptionist picked up the phone, presumably to let the chief know she’d arrived. Once he’d hung up, he told her she could go in. After removing a few blond hairs from the sleeve of her navy blazer, Sami thanked him and opened the door to the inner office.

      To her shock, the stranger who’d passed her in the hall moments ago was standing near the chief’s desk talking to him. Obviously the chief of police was busy, so she didn’t understand why his secretary had told her she could go in.

      At a glance she took in the other man’s lean, powerful physique. Her gaze quickly traveled to the lines of experience etched around his eyes and mouth. Maybe she was mistaken, but beneath his black brows, those dark eyes pierced hers with hostility after he’d turned in her direction. That wasn’t a reaction she was used to receiving from the opposite sex.

      Of medium height, she had to look up to him. His unique male beauty fascinated her, especially his widow’s peak formed by hair black as midnight. Swept back like that, it brought his Mediterranean features and gorgeous olive skin into prominence.

      The chief spoke in heavily accented English, drawing her attention away from the stranger. “Signorina, may I present Signor Alberto Degenoli.”

      Sami’s spirits plunged. This isn’t the man I’m looking for. But perhaps he is a relative? “How do you do?” she murmured, shaking the hand of the striking Italian male who’d extended his. He had a strong, firm grip, like the man himself.

      “How do you do, Signorina?” His polished English was impeccable with barely a whisper of accent. But it was the depth of his voice that sent a curious shiver through her body, recalling an echo from the past. Maybe she was mistaken, but she thought she’d heard that voice before.

      But that was crazy. They’d СКАЧАТЬ