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CHAPTER ONE

MURPHY’S LAW STATED that if anything could possibly go wrong, then eventually it would

Jess did not subscribe to this theory, despite the fact that her surname was Murphy But her father was a fir happened, such as a flat tyre when he was driving a bride to her wedding—Joe owned a hire-car business—then he blamed it on Murphy’s Law: bad weather at the weekends; down-turns in the stock market Recently, he’d even blarand final on Murphy’s Law

Admittedly, her dad was somewhat superstitious by nature

Unlike her father, Jess’s view of unfortunate events ay s happened, not because a perverse twist of fate was just waiting to spoil things for you without rhy someone had done or not done Flat tyres and stock-ical reason

Jess didn’t bla decided last er wanted to drive around Australia with her, having opted instead to go backpacking around the whole, stupid world for the next year! With a one into hock to buy a brand-new four-wheel drive for their ro heenough to face it, was that Colin had caught the travel bug and obviously wasn’t ready to settle down just yet He still loved her—he claimed—and had asked her to wait for him

Naturally, she’d told him what he could do with that idea!

Neither had Jess bla lost her much-loved part-time job at a local fashion boutique She knew exactly why she’d been let go Soht up the Fab Fashions chain for a bargain price—Fab Fashions was in financial difficulties—and had then sent over soers of all the stores that, if they didn’t show a profit by the end of the year, all the retail outlets would be closed down in favour of online shopping Hence the tri of staff

Actually, Helen hadn’t wanted to let her go Jess was an excellent salesgirl But it was either her or Lily, as a single mother who really needed her job, whereas Jess didn’t Jess had a full-ti at Murphy’s Hire Car She’d only taken the weekend job at Fab Fashions because she was mad about fashion and wanted to learn as much as she could about the industry, with a plan one day to open her own boutique or online store So of course, under the circumstances, she couldn’t let Helen fire poor Lily

But she’d seethed for days over the greed of this American company Not to mention the stupidity Why hadn’t this idiot they’d sent over found out why Fab Fashions wasn’ta profit? She could have told hience And time!

Before she’d been let go last weekend, she’d asked Helen if she knew the name of this idiot, and she’d been told he was a Mr De Silva Mr Benja had revealed a news ite the takeover of several Australian co Fab Fashions—by De Silva & Associates, a private equity firm based in New York When she looked up De Silva & Associates, Jess discovered that the an De Silva, as sixty-five years old and had been on the Forbes rich list for yonks Which meant he was a billionaire He was divorced—surprise, surprise!—with one son, Benjamin De Silva: the idiot they’d sent out A clear case of nepotis

The office phone rang and Jess snatched it up

‘Murphy’s Hire Car,’ she said, trying not to let her irritation show through in her voice

‘Hi, there I have a problem which I sure hope you can help me with’

The voice was male, with an American accent

Jess did her best to put aside any bias she was currently feeling towards American males

‘I’ll do e

‘I need to hire a car and driver for three full days, starting first thing to’

Jess’s eyebrows lifted They didn’t often have people wanting to hire one of their cars and drivers for that length of tian and ended on the one day: weddings; graduations; anniversary dates; trips to Sydney airport; that sort of thing Based on the central coast a couple of hours north of Sydney, they weren’t an overly large concern They only had seven hire cars which included three white lis and other flash events, thite Mercedes sedans for less flash events and one black limousine with tinted s for people with plenty of money anted privacy