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CHAPTER ONE

‘HE’S COMING!’

Mia James’s stomach clenched unpleasantly as she hurried to stand behind her desk, shoulders back, chin up, heart pounding

‘He’s in the lift now…’

The nulowed, one after another Two…three…

Mia watched out of the corner of her eye as her fellow colleagues at Dillard Invest up straight They were like schoolchildren awaiting an inspection by the head teacher A particularly strict and perhaps even cruel head teacher…the notoriously ruthless Alessandro Costa, self-made billionaire and, as of yesterday, the new CEO of Dillard Investments

Yesterday the company had been taken over by Alessandro Costa in a calculated and clever manoeuvre that had shocked everyone involved in the co Mia’s boss and the CEO, Henry Dillard Poor Henry had looked terribly shaken, aging ten years in ahe could do to stop Costa International fro shares; it had all happened before he’d even had a chance to realise, Costa stalking the company the way a ruthless predator would a prey

Four…five… The lift doors pinged open and Mia drew her breath sharply as the new CEO of Dillard Investh the done an exhaustive internet search last night when the news had been confirmed that Dillard’s had been taken over What she’d learned had far from reassured her

Alessandro Costa specialised in hostile takeovers and then stripping the companies of their assets and employees, to be absorbed into his behemoth of a corporation, Costa International

A few o, he’d taken over a company similar to Dillard’s—sone, sed up by theDillard’s owned in Mayfair

Mia tried not to make eye contact with Alessandro Costa, but she found she couldn’t stop looking at him The photos on the internet didn’t do hi of physical awareness They didn’t coy, as if a force field surrounded him, as if he crackled

Cropped dark hair, as black as les and hard lines, from his jaw to his nose to the dark slashes of brows over cold, steel-grey eyes His body, tall and lethally powerful, was encased in a hand-tailored suit of dark grey silk, the silver tie at his throatthe colour of his eyes Hepowerful and lethal A weapon

He came onto the floor with its open-plan desks wit