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Chapter 1

Angelo Ricardo climbed out of his limousine, a heavy-duty vehicle arlass, built to withstand a rocket attack The heat outside was relentless His sunglasses screening his hard dark gaze fronored the uneasy chatter of the English interreet him at the airport While he understood the man’s tension he was also irritated by it

Angelo had not experienced fear since childhood and the sha, rage and bitterness, but fear no longer had the power to touch him His relentless rise to power and influence had featured in hundreds of e had always been shrouded in a haze of uncertainty When he was eighteen he had been told the truth about his ancestry Any idealistic notions he’d had had died that same day when his chosen career had become a complete impossibility With every successive year that had passed since then he had grown tougher, colder and more ruthless He had used his brilliant intellect and razor-sharp instincts to build a huge business empire That he had not had to break the law to become a billionaire was a harsh source of pride to him

‘There’s a colossal security presence here,’ his co, muttered uneasily

It was true, Angelo acknowledged Aruards were everywhere: on the rooftops of the ranch buildings, in every manicured clump of trees or bushes, their state of alert palpable ‘It should elo quipped

‘I won’t feel safe until I’ his round, perspiring face

‘Perhaps this was not the job for you’ He dealt Angelo a look of dishted to be of service’ Angelo said nothing He was surprised that such aBut then, how many outwardly respectable men accepted the kind of undercover favours that forced them into uncomfortable repayments? He strode into the cool air-conditioned interior of the opulent ranch house where a lantern-jawed olderwas diselo was looked over and greeted with a level of respectful curiosity that bordered on awe

‘It is a very great pleasure to meet you, Mr Riccardi,’ the older man declared in Italian ‘I’er to see you’ ‘How is he?’ The other rimaced ‘His condition is stable at present but it’s unlikely that he has more than a couple of elo nodded He had thought long and hard before he had agreed to visit and the oldhealth had provided the spur

The infamous Carmelo Zanetti, head of one of the er to hiet that the same blood that ran in Carmelo Zanetti’s veins ran in his own

The elderly man lay propped up in a hospital-style bed surrounded by medical equip stentorously, he feasted his clouded dark gaze on Angelo and sighed ‘I can’t tell you that you look like your mother because you don’t Fiorella was tiny…’ Alelo’s features softened, for his mother had shown him the only tenderness he had ever known’Sì…’ ‘But you have the look of my father and your own Your parents were the Roeneration,’ Don Carmelo recited with caustic humour ‘A Sorello and a Zanetti, not a match made in heaven as far as either faroo’ ‘Is that why elo enquired slass

The oldthat because she deserted her husband and disowned her family Who would credit that she was e her every wish’ ‘So, elo sliced in with sardonic bite, unimpressed by the misty fairy-tale aspect of that assurance

‘Don’t mock what you don’t know about’ Carmelo Zanetti sent him an impatient look ‘Yourmamma had the whole world at her feet And what did she do? She turned her back on all that education and fine breeding and married your father

Compared to us, the Sorellos werecafoni …uncouth people Gino Sorello was a handsoht She couldn’t handle him or his extra-marital activities’ ‘How did you deal with the situation?’ Angelo was impatient to have the facts that had so far evaded his every attempt to discover them