Broken French: A widowed, billionaire, single dad romance Natasha Boyd (i read books .TXT) đ
- Author: Natasha Boyd
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âJosie?â Madameâs voice called softly, and I tried not to feel disappointment it wasnât Xavier. âTu vas bien?â
I padded to the door and opened it. âOui. Iâm okay.â
She cocked her head to the side, assessing me. âWould you like to come downstairs? I know it is late, but we will hear the news of what happened. Oui?â
âMerci.â I nodded and followed her downstairs.
Evan, dressed in distressed jeans and a white polo, sat in the chair where Iâd fallen asleep. He was leaning forward, resting his forearms on his elbows. Xavier was standing by the bookshelves, leaning his fists on a table. He looked exhausted and shell-shockedânot relieved as Iâd imaginedâas if everything he knew could no longer be counted on.
Madame and I perched on the sofa.
âAlors,â Madame began. âQu'est-ce qui sâest passĂ©?â
âWe will talk in English for Josie and Evan,â Xavier said.
âYes, of course.â Madame shook her head. âSo what happened? How did they get to her?â
I could tell she was still blaming herself, and I squeezed her hand. My gesture didnât escape Xavierâs notice.
âWe wonât know all of it until the police have been through the surveillance tapes,â Evan said, âor Dauphine can tell us. But she isnât saying much.â
Poor girl was probably in shock and exhausted.
âThere isnât much surveillance footage in that part of the marina due to the recent construction so whatever Dauphine shares will be critical in the case against Michello.â
âMaybe she will talk tomorrow,â Xavier said.
âWhere did you find her?â I asked.
Evan explained that heâd known about a boat Michello had been sleeping on since getting out of prison because heâd been having him followed just to keep an eye on him. âHe took Dauphine there with the promise of ice cream and pictures of Arrietteâthatâs how we think he got her to trust him. What we are piecing together is how Michello knew Dauphine was with her grandmother. Someone must have informed him of our movements.â
My stomach clenched tightly. And I looked to Xavier, who dropped his eyes from mine. So this was it. I was still the suspect? Grief almost felled me.
âWe think itâs Rod,â Evan went on.
Wait.
What?
âRodney?â Madame asked, shocked.
âWhat?â I asked. âRod, as in the deck hand, oi-all-right-mate-Rod? No.â I shook my head in bewilderment. âHe wouldnât hurt a fly.â I swallowed. âWould he?â And here I should just be happy I wasnât the suspect anymore ⊠but Rod? Oh my God. Poor Xavier. Weâd all trusted him. âHow ⊠why do you think that?â
Evan pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked exhausted too, and like he realized he shouldered much of the blame. âWe donât think he did it on purpose. But, when I offered him the job a few years ago, he was ⊠letâs just say he was headed down the wrong path, with the wrong people, and his mom is a family friend. I knew he was a good kid, just needed direction and gainful employment. But Iâve always kept one eye open with him just in caseâafraid for the right amount of money someone might get to him. I also detected a feed from the Wi-Fi on the boat a few days ago. Someone had obviously opened a bad link and well, some of Xavierâs business documents were compromised. Luckily, we think they only got a fraction before it was detected. When I asked each of the staff, Rod was acting all ⊠off. Not much, but enough that I pressed him. He said heâd been approached a few weeks ago by a âtotal tenââhis words not mineâand spent the night with her. He almost missed the boat, showed up in the wee hours. Anyway the next day, she texted him and sent a link. Thinking it was a nude, he clicked.â Evanâs eyes rolled. âNot a nude of course. It was a wildlife picture. And yeah, bobs-your-uncle, we got ourselves some malware on the Wi-Fi.â
âWhat is this, bobs?â Madame asked.
âIn this context it just means âof course.â Bien sur,â Evan added the translation for her.
God, the trap could have happened to any one of us. âBut what about Dauphine?â And how did Xavier get from malware to accusing me?
Xavier paced over to the other armchair and sank into it, weariness oozing out of every molecule. âDauphine has an uncle, I mentioned him?â
I nodded.
âMichello,â Madame spat. âCâest une racaille.â I could surmise what that meant. âŹâŹâŹâŹâŹâŹâŹSomething distasteful.
Xavier went on. âWeâve been watching him, and heâs been down at the port keeping an eye on us. We think he even had someone at Les Caves the night you and Andrea were there. Were you approached?â
âNo.â I shook my head. âOh. Wait. There were these two guys. Young. Gorgeous. They were all over Andrea and me. Quite insistent, actually.â
Xavier tensed. âInsistent how?â
My irritation simmered. What, was he jealous now? âPersuasive. Handsy.â
His eyes narrowed.
âIt was nothing over the line,â I added, relenting.
Evanâs eyes flicked between us. âAhem. I think we get the point. Iâd just found the discrepancy in the data feed and shut it down. Thatâs when I told Xavier I thought we had some malware.â
âI remember not being able to get online or send an email that day,â I said.
âWe think they were trying to get another link in by approaching you and Andrea. Anyway, it took a few days to go through what was compromised. But Xavierâs calendar and our itinerary definitely were. We assumed corporate espionage. Especially when the day before yesterday, while you were sailing to Corsica, I had Xavierâs assistant at the office in Sofia Antipolis reach out to the older Monsieur Pascale and tell him not to invite another person to meetings with his son before clearing it with us first. Thatâs when he said he hadnât known Morosto was coming, that the reservation had been changed to add Morosto at the last minute. He thought Xavier had done it. So Morosto had known where we were going and when. It was a hunch that Morosto had been using Michello to
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