Savage Destiny Read online

  Collecting her briefcase and handbag, she left her office and halted by her secretary’s desk. ‘I’m going to visit my father, Ruth. There’s something important I have to discuss with him.’

  Ruth looked slightly crestfallen. ‘Didn’t Mr Martineau make you an offer you couldn’t refuse?’ she quipped.

  Alix pulled a wry face at the very apt pun. ‘That’s what I’m afraid of. I’ll see you tomorrow.’ She left, very much aware that Ruth was staring at her retreating back in perplexity. However, she didn’t have time to explain, even if she had felt capable of it, which she didn’t.

  The traffic was horrendously snarled, but at least it gave her brain a rest tackling it. None the less, she was still very hot and bothered by the time she parked her car in the hospital car park. Her father had the use of a private room, so there were no restrictions on visiting. Alix wasn’t surprised to find her mother there too when she walked in, still knitting away while her husband slept.

  ‘Have you been here all night?’ Alix reproved in fond exasperation after they had greeted each other with a kiss.

  ‘Not all night. You know they’ve let me use one of the rooms to sleep in, Alix,’ Emily Petrakos explained, with that kind of mild determination which was hard to fight.

  Realising it, Alix sighed. ‘Look, I’ll sit with Dad for a while. Why don’t you go out for a breath of fresh air? There’s a lovely day outside, and you’re missing it. The change will do you good.’

  ‘Well, if you’re sure, dear,’ her mother said hesitantly. ‘I must admit there are some things I have to get. It’s silly, I know, but I can’t bear leaving him. I get the awful feeling something will happen while I’m away,’ she admitted, and Alix gave her a squeeze.

  ‘I understand, but I’ll be here. So off you go,’ she chivvied, relieving her parent of her knitting before helping her into her jacket and from the room, a fond smile hovering about her lips. Only then did she turn to the bed again, taking the empty seat and drawing it a little closer to the sleeping figure.

  Though she needed to talk to him, she couldn’t wake him. She would just have to wait until he stirred. Unfortunately, that merely left her with more time for thought. There had been no such delay when she had gone to see her grandfather five years ago, although, at that time of night, he had been in bed too. Then the catalyst had been the same as now: Pierce Martineau. She had gone reluctantly, unwilling to believe a word Pierce had said...

  * * *

  Yannis Petrakos came from the bedroom of his Manhattan apartment, still in the process of tying the belt of an exotic silk dressing-gown around his portly frame. His manifest irritation at being disturbed turned to surprise as he saw his granddaughter hovering by one of his Louis Quinze chairs.

  ‘Alix? What goes on?’ His frowning glance scythed between her and Pierce who stood beside her. ‘Who is this man?’

  Before Alix could form an answer, Pierce spoke up. ‘Allow me to introduce myself,’ he drawled mockingly, paying only lip-service to the usual courtesies. ‘My name is Pierce Martineau, and I am Alix’s husband.’

  Yannis Petrakos looked pole-axed. ‘Her husband? Why wasn’t I informed?’ he demanded in an impressive explosion of injured pride, which only served to curl Pierce’s lips even more.

  ‘We’re informing you now,’ he said shortly, causing the older man to stare at him intently, eyes narrowing as his brain began to tick over.

  ‘Martineau? The name is familiar. Have we met?’

  ‘Not directly. I made you an offer for the Petrakos shipping line. You refused.’

  Her grandfather’s frown deepened at the sardonic comment. He was unused to meeting people who were patently unimpressed by his presence. ‘Ah, yes. I remember now. You were very persuasive, but the line has never been, nor ever will be, for sale.’ The matter was closed as far as he was concerned, and as suddenly as his frown had appeared he smiled and held his hands out to Alix. ‘But what has this to do with your marriage? You’re a bad girl not to have told your grandpa, but I cannot be angry with you on this day of days. Come, let me kiss you. We should celebrate.’

  Pierce sent Alix, who was reluctantly suffering an effusive embrace, a mocking smile. ‘I wouldn’t send for the champagne just yet. I think you’ll find Alix wants a divorce. Isn’t that so, darling?’

  Yannis’s face clouded again as he took a step back from his granddaughter. ‘A divorce? What foolishness is this?’

  ‘Not foolishness. I’m prepared to give her that divorce—at a price,’ Pierce countered smoothly, not in the least alarmed by the older man’s huffing and puffing. ‘Providing you meet my price, I won’t contest. However, should you fail to do so, I promise you, I could tie you up in litigation for years.’

  That sent her grandfather’s head back in outrage, and he drew Alix protectively to his side. ‘What kind of man are you? You marry my granddaughter only to divorce her?’

  Pierce smiled, eyebrow quirked mockingly, as he received the opening he had been hoping for. ‘I’m a Greek by blood. And by that same blood I want revenge for my family. I want back what you stole from us, Yannis Petrakos, and in return I give you your granddaughter.’

  For the first time since she entered the apartment Alix found the strength to speak. ‘Grandfather, he wants Petrakos Shipping,’ she declared in a choked voice. ‘That’s why he married me. He said you stole it, and—’

  The change that came over Yannis Petrakos was a surprise to Alix, but Pierce looked as though he had expected no less. ‘Quiet!’ he ordered, cutting her off so harshly that she gasped. His eyes remained fixed on the younger man ranged opposite him. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘Haven’t you guessed yet?’ Pierce taunted. ‘I am the grandson of George Andreas, and I’ve come to claim that which was ours,’ he answered, with a natural majesty which, hate him though she did, Alix could only watch with awe. Somehow he dominated the room, and the figure of her grandfather.

  The older man returned the words with a fine scorn, his accent becoming more pronounced. ‘You are a fool, and the spawn of a fool. I, Yannis Petrakos, am not such a one. The document signing the ships over to me was legal and binding. Those ships are mine by law, and what is mine I keep!’ In the same breath he drew Alix tightly to his side. ‘And now you have brought my granddaughter to me I will not let her go. Never will I allow an Andreas to sully a Petrakos! The marriage will be annulled, and you will get nothing!’

  Alix stiffened, knowing then the exact nature of the ace Pierce had up his sleeve. Words choked in her throat, and she could only stare at him in horror.

  Pierce, for his part, gave her one long look, then turned all his attention on his enemy. ‘The marriage cannot be annulled. I’m afraid you’re too late, Petrakos. Alix and I were married yesterday. She spent the night in my bed, and gave every appearance of enjoying it,’ he revealed in a voice devoid of all emotion.

  Alix had thought she had plumbed the depths of humiliation today, but Pierce managed in that one brief statement to show her that the pit she was in was fathomless. She felt the tension that swamped her grandfather, and looked up to meet his accusing eyes.

  ‘Tell me it is not so,’ he demanded. ‘Tell me, Alix, that you have not shamed us by lying with an Andreas.’

  She had always known her grandfather was a very proud man, but had never expected to be accused of shaming the family. He made what she and Pierce had shared seem dirty, when she had slept with him out of love, and in good faith. Yet she knew it would be useless to admit that she had been ignorant of who Pierce was. It was the act, not the knowledge, that counted. The damage had been done.

  All she could do was turn her anger on the man responsible for all of this. ‘I cannot,’ she admitted, and even as she spoke her eyes were transmitting her hatred and loathing to her husband.

  There followed a long torrent of Greek which she didn’t understand, but which Pierce apparently did, for he stiffened angrily, using his own knowledge of the language sparingly but with great effect. Her grandfat
her fell silent, although the look he sent her was chilling. Alix had the strangest feeling that Pierce had been defending her, but she couldn’t imagine why he should. She glanced at him, but there was nothing to be read in his granite-like features. She decided she must have been mistaken, and was surprised to feel a stomach-twisting wave of disappointment. Which had to be the craziest thing ever, when he had used her so cruelly.

  A moment later, her grandfather began speaking again, only in English this time. ‘You are a clever man, Mr Martineau. You knew the one thing that would compel me to agree to your demands. You may have won, but I have a few conditions of my own. I will arrange for the divorce, and this marriage will be as if it had never existed. Neither you nor my granddaughter will ever mention it to anyone, not even your family. Should I ever hear that you have done so, then I have it in my power to make you extremely sorry.’

  Pierce looked down his straight nose. ‘Save your threats, Petrakos, for those you can scare. All I want is what rightfully belongs to me. The matter can be settled here and now. I know you always travel with your lawyer. Have him draw up the document tonight, and by morning I will be out of your life.’

  * * *

  And that was how Alix’s brief marriage had ended, in the small hours of the night, by the signing of a document that bartered her for a shipping company.

  Pierce had come to her before he left. A nerve had ticked in his jaw as he looked into her pale face. ‘I regret that it had to be this way.’

  The scorn in her eyes told him she didn’t believe him. ‘I don’t expect it will keep you awake nights. I hope you find it’s all been worth it, Pierce, that your sordid piece of paper brings you joy. But if it doesn’t, you can be sure the laughter you hear will be mine!’ was all she had been able to bring herself to say. She had turned away, and he had gone...she hadn’t seen him again until yesterday.

  Her grandfather had never forgiven her for causing him to lose his pride and joy, and had died a few years later. But she had kept her part of the bargain and never spoken of her marriage to Pierce. It had been a part of her life which she had been only too happy to forget—although she never really had forgotten. And now Pierce had come back, with another of his deals, and she felt just as trapped as she had before.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ALIX was still brooding on Pierce’s sudden reappearance in her life when a sigh from the bed brought her head round swiftly, to find her father watching her.

  ‘You were a long way away, Alix, and your thoughts didn’t seem happy,’ he said in a voice still distressingly lacking in power.

  She rose to kiss his cheek, then perched herself on the edge of the bed, holding his hand. ‘Hospitals tend to make me think negative thoughts, I’m afraid. How are you feeling? Honestly,’ she added warningly.

  Stephen Petrakos chuckled and smiled at his only child. ‘All the better for seeing you, but not too pleased to see you frowning.’ His smile faded, eyes clouding with concern and self-reproach. ‘I should never have left you to deal with the mess I made! Curse it, why did I have to get ill now? The last place I need to be is tied to a hospital bed!’ he exclaimed in frustration.

  Alix felt her heart sink as she watched him, knowing it was bad for him to get worked up like this. ‘Calm down, Dad. You won’t be helping anyone if you make yourself ill again. Besides...’ She bit her lip, hesitating over what to say, and how to say it. Honesty forced her to admit that a great portion of her hesitation was due to the fact that she was afraid to hear the answer.

  ‘Besides what? Besides nobody will lift a finger to help you?’ her father continued angrily, before collapsing weakly back against his pillows.

  Really alarmed now, Alix quickly took the only way she knew to calm him down. ‘Actually, that’s not true,’ she denied, and was relieved not only to see the high colour fade from his cheeks, but the reappearance of that sharpness of eye which had been a byword.

  ‘What do you mean, Alix?’

  Now she had begun, she knew she had to go on, but choose her words very carefully. She licked dry lips before plunging in the deep end. ‘Well, someone does want to help, but his offer is...unusual.’ And that had to be the understatement of the year.

  Her father was instantly intrigued. ‘Unusual, you say? In what way, precisely? After all, we’ve got problems now, but basically we were a good company. We can be that way again if we can make good my mistakes. I’d assume anyone willing to inject cash would want shares in the company, and some control over what happens.’ Catching sight of the wooden set of her face, he did a rapid rethink. ‘You’re not trying to tell me someone wants to take over completely?’

  Knowing how this was her father’s worst nightmare, Alix quickly reassured him. ‘Not at all. In fact, quite the opposite. The thing is, there’s a man who...wants to marry me. He knows about our troubles, and he’s willing to help you financially, but...there is a problem. His name is Pierce Martineau.’ She said his name quickly, then tensed, waiting for the bomb to drop. Only it never landed.

  For a moment her father was speechless, then words fell over themselves in their rush to get out. ‘You mean the same Martineau who’s a multimillionaire?’ he queried, visibly brightening. ‘You call that a problem?’

  Alix almost gasped herself, because she hadn’t realised Pierce was that wealthy. Which made her wonder why, when he could buy anything he wanted, he should choose to help her father for no visible advantage. ‘There’s something else. His grandfather was George Andreas.’ She dropped the name into the pool and waited for the ripples to widen. She didn’t have to wait long.

  Stephen Petrakos pulled a long face. ‘Ah, the man my father loved to hate. I never told you about this, Alix, but the reason your grandfather and I fell out was over Andreas. He tried to make me join in the feud too, something about some ships, but I refused. That’s when I came back to England and started my own company. So you see, darling, I bear no ill will towards the Andreas family. Now you say the grandson wants to marry you, and help me out of a tight spot?’ Her father sat up, a broad smile spreading across his face. ‘Good lord, that’s the best news you could possibly have brought me. Why on earth should you think there would be a problem? I couldn’t think of a better marriage for you. Have you known him long?’ It was a measure of his love for her that his first thoughts were for her happiness, and not the saving of his company.

  Alix had to swallow a huge lump which blocked her throat before she could answer. This was not the reaction she had wanted, and she knew now that she had hoped her father would give a flat refusal. He hadn’t, and by doing so had proved Pierce right at the same time. On the face of that, it was hard to sound enthusiastic, but she did her best, albeit stiltedly.

  ‘I...first met him some years ago. We went out, but nothing came of it.’ She nearly choked on the downright lie, and cleared her throat before continuing. ‘Then he turned up at the function last night, and...’

  ‘He told you how he hadn’t forgotten you in all those years, and asked you to marry him? So that’s what your mother meant when she told me you might have some good news!’

  Alix glanced down at her fingers, which were tying themselves in knots. Trust her father, the ultimate romantic, to see it all through rose-coloured glasses. ‘You don’t think it was rather too sudden?’

  ‘Nonsense. When a man sees what he wants, he goes for it! Why should he wait? And why should he not want to marry you? You’re beautiful and intelligent, the perfect wife for any man. What could be better?’

  Her heart sank even further. She gave him a wry smile. ‘You haven’t asked me if I love him, Dad.’

  He waved a dismissive hand. ‘If you don’t love him now, you’ll grow to. I’ve been concerned about you, darling. What would happen to you if I weren’t here? This marriage will stop me worrying.’ Impulsively he squeezed her hand. ‘There are worse things than arranged marriages, Alix. Your mother and I had one, and it couldn’t have been happier. You just have to learn to give and take.’
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  She knew that to her cost, but in her experience some took more than they gave. However, she kept her own counsel. Nor did she tell her father that she hadn’t said yes yet. The difference her news had made on him was proof enough that there was only one course open to her. Inwardly fuming at the trap which had closed so firmly around her, she put on a brave face and smiled.

  ‘You’d better wish me happy, then. And this time when I tell you to stop worrying you’ll know that you can, hmm?’

  Her father laughed, and was still chuckling when her mother came back. Of course, the news had to be broken to her, and she wept with mingled relief for her husband and joy for her daughter. Alix found herself having to promise to bring Pierce to meet them, a prospect that strained her smile to its limit. When she eventually left, half an hour later, she felt emotionally drained by the need to keep up the pretence, and the knowledge that the eventful day was still very far from over. There was Pierce to see.

  Of course, she could have put the meeting off until tomorrow, but it would not have been any easier. Experience had taught her that it was better to take bad medicine quickly. Get the worst over with.

  She drove herself to the Savoy in a mood of fomenting anger. She had hoped, when their divorce had been made final, that she would never see Pierce again, but now she was going to have to tie herself to him for the rest of her life. For that had been his offer, and it wasn’t negotiable. The money was only available in exchange for her becoming his wife again, and there was no prospect of divorce. The thought brought a sharp stab of pain to her temple.

  She hated being trapped this way, but what she really couldn’t understand was why Pierce should want her as his wife when he surely knew how she felt about him. Nor was she stupid enough to imagine his offer was in any way altruistic. There had to be something else behind the move, something other than merely helping her father out of trouble. He was an extremely handsome and extremely wealthy man, and could have had any woman he wanted as his wife, so why tie himself to someone who hated him?