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CHAPTER ONE

RIO D’Aquila was known for s

He ealthy beyond most people’s gedly good-looking as any man could hope to be

Not that Rio gave a damn about his looks

Who he was or, rather, who he had become, hat mattered

He had been born to poverty, not in Brazil, despite his name, but on the meanest possible streets of Naples, Italy

At seventeen, he’d stoay on a rusting Brazilian freighter The crew had dubbed hied on the “Aquila” because he’d responded with the fierceness of an eagle to their taunting

The name had suited him much more than Matteo Rossi, which hat the sisters at the orphanage where he’d been raised had called him “Rossi” was pretty much the Italian equivalent of “Sift from God

Rio had always known he was hardly that, so he took the name Rio D’Aquila and made it his own

He was thirty-t, and the boy he’d been was a distant memory

Rio inhabited a world in which ua franca, and often as not handed down as an absolute right from father to son

Rio’s father, or ht-black hair, dark blue eyes, a handsoed face and a leanly muscled, six-foot-three-inch body

Everything else he owned—the hole Enterprises—he had acquired for himself

There was nothing wrong with that Starting life without any baggage, getting to the top on your oas all the sweeter If there was one drawback, it was that his kind of success attracted attention

At first, he’d enjoyed it Picking up the Ti his name or his photo in the financial section had made him feel, well, successful

Inevitably, he’d not only wearied of it, he’d realized how less it was

The simple truth was that a man who ranked in the top ten on the Forbes listAnd when thathe had not yet been snared by so female anted his name, his status and his money …

When that happened, a man lost all privacy

Rio valued his privacy asa topic of conversation

Not that Rio cared much what people said, whether it was that he was brilliant and tough Or brilliant and heartless He ho he was, and all that mattered was his adherence to his own code of ethics

He believed in honesty, deteric—and e

Still, on this hot August afternoon, cicadas droning in the fields behind hiainst the shore, he was ready to adrasp

He was, to put it bluntly, angry as hell

In Manhattan, when a business deal drove hi in its center for a couple of rounds with a sparring partner, but he wasn’t in New York He was as far east of the city as ahis feet in the Atlantic

He was in the town of Southa Island’s exclusive South Shore He was here in search of that increasingly elusive thing called privacy and, godda to let some fool named Izzy Orsini spoil the day for him

For the past hour, Rio had taken his temper out on a shovel

If any of his business associates could have seen him now, they’d have been stunned Rio D’Aquila, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt and work boots? Rio D’Aquila, standing in a trench and shoveling dirt?

Impossible

But Rio had dug ditches before, not that anyone in his world knew it And though he sure as hell hadn’t expected to be doing any digging today, it was better than standing around and getting more ticked off by the minute

Especially when, until a couple of hours ago, he’d had a daood day

He’d flown in early, piloting his own plane to the small airport at Easthampton where he’d picked up the black Chevy Silverado his property er had left for him Then he’d driven the short distance to Southampton

The toas s Rio had parked, gone into a suy as putting in the infinity pool at the house he’d recently had built The pool would extend over the dunes from the second floor terrace, and they’d talked about its size and the view he’d have The conversation had been pleasant, al able to sit in a restaurant without being the unwilling center of attention

That was part of the reason he’d decided to build a weekend hoeously expensive acres of land that overlooked the ocean

For the most part—and there were always exceptions to the rule, of course—nobody bothered celebrities in these ses And Rio, God help hi to the crazy media

H

ere, he could be himself Have a meal Take a walk It was like an unwritten code Build here, become, for the most part, invisible

For a uards or with a li at the curb so he could duck into it, fast, and be whisked away, it was a minor miracle

So Rio had enjoyed his bacon and eggs, strolled the streets for a while, even checked the hardware store as if he really were going to need to buy hammers and saws

In fact, there’d been a time he’d owned such tools and used theht aboutin some shelves in his new house, if he could find a place in it that needed the with your hands gave you speciala simpler life

At , he met with the security specialist who’d installed an ultrasophisticated systestone patio of a little ice crea blue umbrella

Rio tried to remember the last time he’d had a strawberry ice cream sundae and couldn’t

He felt … what? Lazy Content He almost had to force himself to pay attention to the conversation

There was a ate The intercoht His caretaker had told hi over the intercoate’s locking mechanism didn’t alork

The area was pleasant, there was nothing but a discreet plaque on the gate that said Eagle’s Nest, but Rio wasn’t a fool A man like him needed security

“Not to worry,” the security guy assured hi”

At noon, Rio had driven to his house The long driveway had not yet been finished and the tires bounced along over s could dim the pleasure he already took in the place

The house was just as he’d wanted it Light wood Lots of glass It would be his retreat fro world he inhabited 24/7

The guy he’d hired as his contractor aiting They had soether, they’d interview three applicants for the job of landscaping the rear terrace and two decks

No Not three applicants Four Da that Rio had some definite ideas about what he wanted Whomever he hired would have to understand that he’d be an active participant in the plans he drew up, just as he’d been an active participant in the design of the house

The caretaker was there, too, but just leaving He told Rio he’d taken the liberty of filling the freezer and fridge with a few things

“Breakfast stuff You know, eggs, bacon, bread And steaks, some local corn and tomatoes, even a couple of bottles of wine Just in case you decide to spend the night”

Rio thanked hiht As it was, he’d canceled a couple of et here but it had turned out to be the only chance for all three landscaping candidates to show up for interviews on the same day

Four Four candidates How come he couldn’t keep that in his head?