Prima Donna (59 page)

A titter of laughter swept through the horde of fans as the burly security guard started bunching them all out of the corridor. ‘I promise I’ll sign everything you put in front of me
after the prize-giving,’ she said to them all.

She shut the door and closed her eyes, thankful for the sudden peace. She needed some quiet, a little time on her own to absorb the enormity of the past hour’s events. It was scarcely
credible that she wasn’t alone any more, that Antonio was alive and returned to her after all these years!

She sank down at the dressing table and rubbed her face in her hands. She stared at herself in the mirror. The ghosts had left her, like shadows. She could stop running now. The nightmare was
over, but she knew it was going to be weeks – months, even – before she fully woke up.

She noticed an envelope in front of her and opened it absent-mindedly. She was frowning at the ‘I Am Twelve’ badge as the door opened.

She read the message inside and it was a few moments before she saw the shiny black tips of his shoes. Instinctively she stood up.

‘We had an agreement,’ Will said, walking slowly towards her. ‘Surely you didn’t think hiring a bodyguard was going to stop me from cashing in my chips?’

She stared at him, the colour in her cheeks building. She refused to step back.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said in a low, dangerous voice. ‘But I think you’ll find that agreement’s null and void. Not worth the paper it was written on.’

Will stared at her, and knew that she knew.

‘Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?’ she hissed, tossing the card at him.

He opened it and read Sophie’s purple scrawl. He looked back at her, smiling.

‘Does this mean I’m not going to get the little bonus I was all set to award myself, then?’ he drawled chillingly, combing his eyes up and down her.

‘
Bonus?
’ she cried.

‘Sure, why not? You’ve certainly tried my patience over the past six months. I figure I deserve some kind of reward.’

‘You deserve nothing but contempt,’ she spat. ‘I see you exactly for what you are. A spoilt, indulged child out for revenge. And all because I didn’t dance a second act?
You’re pathetic.’

‘Revenge?’ he repeated, nodding his head slowly.

‘Yes, revenge. Don’t try to deny it. Why else would you be doing Ava’s dirty work here?’

‘
Am
I doing her dirty work?’ he mused, pursing his lips. ‘Or is she doing mine?’

She stopped short.

‘What do you mean?’ she asked, her voice smaller. The threat that he was masterminding something bigger than Ava’s ambition hung in the air. ‘What’s going on, then?
Why did you spend all those months trying to get my career back on track, just so that you could derail it out here? It doesn’t make sense.’

‘That’s because you’re looking at it from the wrong viewpoint,’ he said contemptuously. ‘As usual, your ego is taking up all the room and you can’t possibly
conceive that I had any reason for caring about your recovery, other than being desperately in love with you.’

Pia stared at him. He was bluffing, trying to salvage some pride. Of course he’d done it because he wanted her. There was no other explanation for it. Why else would he have looked after
her, kept her close – too close – for all those months? He wasn’t a Samaritan.

‘I don’t believe you,’ she snapped. ‘You told me lie after lie to try to make me beholden to you, because you knew that you had no other chance of having me. But I would
never
have slept with you – no matter how many times you pretended to save my life, or how many galas you threw. I would never have been grateful enough for
that
. You
repulse me.’ She sneered at him. ‘Your seedy little rendezvous at the boathouse? It was never going to happen. It never will.’

A slow smile crept across Will’s face. ‘On the contrary, Pia. Tonight you’re going to give me everything I’ve ever wanted from you.’

Pia let out a cry of distress and raised a hand to slap him, but he caught her wrist and held it firm. He kissed her hard and their teeth clashed. She tried to pull away but he easily
overpowered her, ripping at her tutu with one hand, the other jammed between her legs. She started to cry as he began carrying her back to the wall, slamming her against it so violently that she
felt the breath knocked out of her. She closed her eyes instinctively and felt a strong pressure building against her chest.

‘And we’ll start with this,’ he snarled. ‘Sign it!’

Pia opened her eyes and looked at him. What? She glanced down. He was holding a piece of paper against her.

‘What? What’s this?’ she whispered, incredulous.

‘I bet I can guess,’ said a low voice to the side of them, as clear as a bell.

Will turned in shock, dropping her carelessly as he clocked their intruder.

‘It’s a contract, isn’t that right, Silk?’ Tanner said, sauntering lazily into the room as though he’d just come in to make some tea.

Will said nothing. He watched as Pia hastily scrambled back up to standing, trying to read the piece of paper.

‘A contract? For what?’ she asked, but her hands were shaking too much to read it.

‘Can’t you guess?’ Will growled. ‘Is your brain really so tiny that you haven’t joined up the dots yet?’ he said, flicking her temple contemptuously with his
fingers.

Tanner advanced rapidly and hurled Will against the wall. ‘You don’t speak to her like that. You don’t touch her. Period.’

‘She’s got you hook, line and sinker, I see,’ Will said calmly, unperturbed by Tanner’s temper. ‘Well, you’ll live to regret it. She’s just a
prick-te—’

Tanner delivered a solid punch to his left cheek, followed by a swift uppercut that caught him just below the ribs. Silk fell to his knees with a groan. Tanner raised his fist to hit him again
– after years of suppressing his rage against this man, it felt good, so good, to let it all out now.

‘Don’t, Tanner! Stop. He’s not worth it,’ Pia cried, rushing forward.

There was a pause. Tanner squatted down to his heels, looking closely at his old enemy.

‘You’re right there,’ he said. ‘You’re really not worth much at all, are you?’

The comment stunned Silk more than any punch. ‘I don’t know what you’re on about,’ he muttered, but Tanner saw the fear in his eyes.

‘I think you do,’ he smiled, standing up again.

Will dropped his head.

‘That aborted gala really cost you, didn’t it? You lost far more than your pride when Pia ran out on you. Such a high-profile failure really scarred your brand; people lost
confidence in you overnight and that’s when the
first
run of investors redeemed their positions. You’ve had to liquidate assets – fast. Selling the polo team, for
example?’

‘I was bored of it,’ Will snarled, getting up and dusting himself down.

Tanner ignored his bravado. ‘But it would all still have been okay as long as you delivered on your terms to Perry Everleigh. That was the one that really mattered.’

‘Everleigh?’ Pia repeated. ‘You mean Lord Everleigh? The Royal Ballet’s—’

‘Chief executive?’ Tanner nodded, turning to face her. ‘Yes. He was Black Harbour’s principal investor. He invested over half a billion and launched Silk into the big
time a year ago. It was one hell of a coup landing him. Silk had had to get extra-creative to succeed where the others failed. But all it took was a little lateral thinking, isn’t that right,
Silk? Once my father got you into White’s and you were in the club – well, he listened to you then.’

‘I don’t understand,’ Pia said quietly, trying to keep up.

‘Ever since Everleigh sold the family publishing empire to Herald News Inc. he was the big fish to reel in. All the financiers wanted his money, but Everleigh’s old school. He had no
interest in exposing his portfolio to a high-risk area like hedge funds. So our friend here thought outside the box.’

‘He did?’ Pia asked nervously.

‘He became a patron of the Royal Ballet – a big one – and went straight to the top of the tree. He homed in on Everleigh’s big passion and made it his own, then pitched
him with a proposal – the only one – that didn’t cap performance fees. He brought something else to the table instead.’

Pia shook her head. ‘And what was that?’

‘Can’t you guess?’

She looked at him, puzzled. ‘No,’ she shrugged.

‘Everleigh wanted something even
his
money couldn’t buy,’ he smiled. ‘He wanted—’

‘Me!’ Pia gasped, her eyes suddenly wide as she remembered the countless offers, the ridiculous pay deals far and above what anyone else was being given. She realized now that they
must have been coming from Will’s private resources. There was no way the Royal had access to the funds he’d been offering.

She looked down at the crumpled paper in her hand. She saw now that it was a contract formalizing her position as principal dancer at the Royal Ballet in London. She looked back at Will,
aghast.

‘
That
’s what it’s all been about? Getting me to sign to the Royal Ballet?’

Will shrugged. ‘What can I say? Rich men and their foibles. They do pride themselves on having what no one else can buy. It was the condition attached to the bond.’

‘So you used me. I was just a commodity to you . . . part of a trade,’ she whispered. She looked up at him. ‘And
everything
you did – paying to meet me in New
York, rescuing me in Switzerland, my rehabilitation, the gala – it was all just for a deal . . .’

‘Oh I’ve done so much more than that, Pia,’ he snapped tersely. ‘Behind the scenes I’ve been hard at work, I can assure you. I’ve been manoeuvring you for
months now. I had Ava lined up in the wings for weeks, just waiting for you to make a wrong move. Luckily for me, you make a lot of those – double-dating with Victoria’s Secret? That
was perfect ammunition for getting you suspended and bringing her in. Flirting with Cartier when you were under contract to Patek Philippe. Dating a married man . . .’

‘So you’ve been . . . what? Dismantling my life?’ she asked, horrified.

‘I guess you could put it like that. I’ve thought of it more as shepherding you. Shutting down your exit routes. Forcing you into position. And I’ve tried to do it
nicely,’ he said, walking towards her. He looked down. ‘I flattered you, looked after you, played your games. I suggested the right move to you, even arranged meetings for you –
that
was the purpose of the boathouse by the way – but you’re such a prima donna. You just won’t do as you’re told, will you?’

Pia didn’t respond. She felt chilled to the bone by the level of deception he had kept up around her, all these months.

‘You look upset, Pia. Tell me, did you prefer it when you thought I was just doing these things because I was trying to get between your legs?’ he mocked. ‘You should be
flattered really. I’ve spent far more time, money and effort just trying to corral you to the Royal than I have ever spent on any other woman before.’

She bit her lip. ‘So Ava’s been working for you all along? You’ve been using her to block me?’

‘Now you’re getting it,’ he smiled. ‘She’s the only one good enough to compete with you. Whatever you want, she’s the only one who can feasibly stop you from
getting it.’

‘And her sudden desire to go to La Scala . . . ?’

‘Purely to stop you going there. She likes to piss you off but her real desire is to please her manager.’

‘Her manager?’

‘Well, he’s been more of a broker to me, but he’s actually her husband. Daft girl’s only gone and fallen in love with him. And to think she only married him in the first
place to be emancipated from her parents and leave Russia.’ He shook his head pityingly.

‘But
he
’
s
Russian.’ Sophie had told her that he’d been the balletomaniac she’d met in St Moritz.

‘No,’ Will said, blinking slowly. ‘He’s Polish. Europe? Access all areas.’

She shook her head, appalled by his tactics. ‘All of this just so that I would be left with no option but to sign with the Royal.’

‘Well, he had a six-hundred-million pound investment riding on the back of it,’ Tanner interjected, almost chuckling. ‘You’ve got to feel sorry for him actually, Pia. He
must have thought he’d done all the hard work getting Everleigh to commit. How could he ever have known that his company, with such massive resources at its disposal, would come unstuck by
something as
innocuous
as a pretty ballerina refusing to sign on the dotted line? You were just the small print to him, a postscript at the end of the contract. But it’s all
unravelled now. You’re the mouse that roared, Pia.’

‘Maybe,’ Will said tersely. ‘But it doesn’t change the fact that you’re all out of options now. You’re never going to win here. I’ll be seeing to that
myself. Face it – La Scala’s gone, Pia. Even if you had won, I’d have given them a sweetener that they wouldn’t be able to
afford
to turn down. You can’t
win.’ He took a pen from his pocket and held it out to her. ‘Just sign it. You know I won’t stop until you do. I’ll just keep blocking you, humiliating you. I don’t
lose, Pia.’

Tanner stepped forward. ‘Don’t do it,’ he said, seeing the confusion cross her features. The shock was too much. He had been stalking her, coercing her all this time . . .

‘It’s hardly as though she’s being asked to dance in Timbuktu!’ Will snapped back at him. ‘They’re one of the top three ballet companies in the world,’
he said, turning back to her. ‘You’ll enjoy all the prestige, the profile, the tours, the roles that you would in Milan. More so, in fact.’

‘But not the rank. I’ll never get it there,’ Pia replied flatly.

‘Fuck that!’ Will growled. ‘It’s a title. Get over it.’

‘No. It’s so much more than that,’ Pia said quietly. Will inhaled sharply. He had no idea what she was on about and he didn’t care. ‘Just sign it, Pia.
There’s still time.’

‘Not for you, Silk. You’re the one who’s out of time – isn’t that right? She doesn’t need to sign anything.’ Tanner looked straight at her.
‘You’ve already got your redemption, Pia. You’ve got him back.’

‘Who? Who’s she got back?’ Will asked.