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loathed him so much she was tempted to have a little surf and find a job—just to prove him right!
    Just to prove her word wasn’t enough.
    Just to convince him that his eternally suspicious mind was again merited.
    And then he walked past, his leg dragging just slightly, and she watched as Lavinia gave him an intimate smile and tried to engage him in conversation that would be fed back to Nina.
    His own mother was trying to destroy him.
    Why would he trust anyone?
    Why would he even contemplate trusting her?
    All Kate knew was that he could.

Chapter Three
    R IMINIC I VAN K OLOVSKY .
    Aleksi put the name into an internet search engine and got nothing.
    He didn’t really know where to start, and then he glanced over to his mother, who was going through the messages on her phone, and toyed with flicking the name on an e-mail to her, just to watch her reaction—except Lavinia was buzzing like an annoying fly around him, asking for a password so she could get some figures that were needed for tonight.
    ‘Kate will sort it out,’ Aleksi uttered, without looking over from the computer, saying the same words he spoke perhaps a hundred times a day.
    It was Friday afternoon, but there was no end-of-week buoyancy filling the building. Aleksi had been back for a week now, and had made it exceptionally clear that, whatever Nina or the board might think, for now he was certainly in charge.
    There had been several sackings—anyone who had dared question him had been none too politely shown the door—and everyone was walking on eggshells around him.
    Everyone, that was, but Kate. She had long since learnt that Aleksi smelt fear like a shark smelt blood, and she refused to bend to his will.
    Refused to be beholden to him.
    It was the only way she knew how to survive.
    ‘I really need to get things prepared for your conference call with Belenki,’ Lavinia insisted. ‘The meeting won’t be till six p.m. our time, and Kate leaves at five…’
    There was more than a slight edge to her voice, and Kate looked up, saw the dart of worry in Lavinia’s eyes, and knew for certain then that Lavinia was gathering information for Nina.
    ‘She has to pick up Georgie.’
    ‘Actually, I don’t tonight,’ Kate said sweetly. ‘So there’s no problem, Lavinia. I’ll sort out the meeting.’
    Aleksi chose not to notice the toxic current, but carried on with his work. He didn’t look over, and neither did Kate look up as Lavinia huffed out.
    ‘You look tired,’ he commented.
    Which dashed the forty minutes that she’d spent that morning in front of the mirror!
    ‘I haven’t been getting much sleep.’
    ‘Look…’ Aleksi was a smudge uncomfortable. ‘What I said on Monday—’
    ‘Has nothing to do with it,’ Kate interrupted. ‘I’ve been up at night with Georgie.’
    ‘How is she?’ Aleksi asked.
    ‘She’s just having a few problems settling in at school.’ Kate tried to sound matter-of-fact. ‘But she’s doing well.’
    ‘Still too well?’ Aleksi asked, and Kate managed a smile at the fact that he had remembered her plight from before the accident. ‘You were going to speak with the school?’
    ‘I did,’ Kate said. ‘They’ve tried to be accommodating. They’re going to see how she goes and then assess her. They might put her up a year…’
    ‘She’s not even five yet.’
    ‘But she’s so bright.’
    ‘She should still be mixing with five-year-olds—laughing and playing with them—not sitting with the six and seven-year-olds who think she’s a baby and whose work she can already do!’
    Aleksi got it.
    He was the one person who truly got it.
    ‘Did you look at the school I suggested?’
    ‘Yes,’ Kate said. ‘But I wish I hadn’t.’
    ‘The offer is still there. You can work full-time—I have told you that I will fund Georgie’s education if you are able to make more of a commitment.’ He must have read her worried frown. ‘With or without the House of Kolovsky, Kate, I’ll more than