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A faint little pleading whine emanated from the shadows and recalled Pixie to rationality As she realised she had been standing dury flush crept up her face In a sudden move, she reached for Hector’s leash ‘Look, I don’t knohat you’re doing here but right now I have to takeout for a walk’
Apollo watched her drag…literally drag…a tattered-looking and clearly terrified little dog out of the corner to clip it onto a leash and lift it into her arms, where she rubbed her chin over the crown of its head and ly to it as if it were a baby
‘I have to talk to you I’ll come with you’
‘I don’t want you withI have to say that accusing ood opening’
‘I kno desperate you must be for money That’s why I assumed—’
Pixie spun angrily, her little pearly teeth gripped tightly together ‘That’s why it doesn’t pay to assu about someone you don’t know!’
‘Are you always this argumentative? This ready to take offence?’
‘Only around you,’ Pixie told him truthfully ‘Look, you can wait here while I’m out I’ll be about fifteen minutes,’ she said briskly and walked out of the door
Two steps along the pavement she couldn’t quite believe she had had the nerve After all, the way he talked he knew about Patrick’s ga health She broke out in a cold sweat just thinking about that reality because she really did love her little brother Patrick didn’t have a bad bone in his body He had made a mistake He had tried too hard to be one of the boys when he took up playing cards and instead of stopping the habit when he lostin the foolish belief that he could not continue on a losing streak for ever By the tie debt But Patrick orking very hard to try and stay on top of that debt He was an electrician during the day and a bartender at night
Apollo had dangled a carrot and that she could have walked away even teuest possibility of help for Patrick shook Pixie But was Apollo offering to help thehly unlikely Why would he help them? He wasn’t the benevolent, sympathetic type Yet why had he coht her out personally? And then accused her of theft? Her head aching with pointless conjecture, she sighed Apollo was very complicated He was also unreadable and iuess what he had in mind before he chose to tell her
Apollo exarim little room and vented a curse Women did not as a rule walk out on hi and defiant Not exactly submissive wife nored it He trailed a finger along the worn paperback books on the shelf above the bed and pulled out one to see what she liked to read It was inforrin of amusement slashed Apollo’s lean, darkly handsoed by its cover, neither apparently should Pixie be She was a closet romantic with a taste for the colourful
Registering that he was hungry, he dug out his cell phone to order lunch for the two of them
Walking back into her room, Pixie unclipped Hector’s leash and watched her pet race under the bed to hide
Apollo was sprawled in the roos spread apart, his black hair feathering round his lean strong face, accentuating the brilliance of eyes that burned like e always behave like that?’ he de
‘Yes He’s scared of everything but he’s most afraid of men He was ill-treated,’ she murmured wryly ‘So, tell me why you’re here’
‘You’re in a bind and I am as well I think it’s possible that we could work out souardedly
Her s about’
‘For starters, I will pay you if necessary to keep quiet about what I ahly confidential information,’ Apollo volunteered
Faint colour rose over Pixie’s cheekbones ‘I don’t need to be paid to keep your secrets In spite of what you appear to think, I’’
‘No, but you are in need of h value on stories abouthis lips ‘You could sell the story’
‘Has that happened to you before? So a story about you?’ she shot at him with sudden curiosity
‘At least half a dozen times E jaw line taut, dark stubble highlighting his full sculptured mouth ‘That’s the world I live in That’s why I have a carload of bodyguards follow o’
Pixie had noticed the sleek and expensive car parked across the street and a ainst the bonnet while he talked into an earpiece and her grey eyes widened in wonderment ‘You don’t trust anybody, do you?’
‘I trust Vito I trusted my father as well but he let me down many times over the years and not least with the terms of his will’
Belatedly, Pixie recalled the recent death of his parent and the reference to the olderthe crux of the matter that had put Apollo ‘in a bind’ It was, however, hard for her to credit that anything could trap Apollo Metraxis in a tight corner He was a force of nature and very rich He had choicesand he had always had them