The Moretti Heir by Katherine Garbera

long gulp.
    “Again I say, what does this have—” She put her drinking glass on the table as she connected the dots. “You think I’m the spy?”
    “Are you?”

Eight
    M arco watched Virginia for some kind of reaction. At first she seemed to cave in on herself, and then he saw anger. But anger didn’t necessarily mean innocence. Yet in this case, he had the feeling that Virginia was innocent.
    For one thing, she’d shown very little interest in Moretti Motors, although that could have been her plan.
    “Are you going to answer me?” he asked, walking to the wet bar to pour himself another two fingers of Scotch.
    “Do I really have to? I mean, are you serious that you think I’m giving information to another company?”
    “I am serious,” he said, turning back to face her. He’d never really trusted any woman. Maybe that was why his relationships were all short-term. He’d always put it down to the time he spent on the track.
    “I don’t know anything about your business, and I don’t really care about it. This obsession you Moretti men have with Moretti Motors is detrimental to your lives. I think that Nonna had a point when she cursed your nonno. ”
    Marco had no idea where she was going with that line of thinking, though to be honest he wondered if there wasn’t a hollowness in being so obsessed with the company. His parents had never cared that Moretti Motors wasn’t the leader in automotive design under his father’s tenure, and they were insanely happy together.
    “So my family deserves to be cursed.”
    “That’s not what I meant,” she said.
    “What did you mean?”
    “Just that Moretti men seem to think the world revolves around their car company.”
    “Don’t paint my brothers with the same brush as you paint me. You don’t even know them.”
    “From things you’ve said, it’s pretty clear that the company is all you guys think of. There is more to life than being the best automotive company in Italy.”
    “We are the best in the world.”
    She raised her hands and turned away from him. He thought about pushing this argument until she got fed up and walked away entirely. He didn’t need the distraction that she presented. He didn’t need this vulnerability he’d discovered in caring for her.
    Damn. When had that happened? He hadn’t meant for Virginia to mean any more to him than any woman in his entire adult life had meant. But somehow, she did.
    That was why her answer to his question was so important to him. He wanted to be able to trust her.
    “Just answer the question, Virginia. Did you pass anyone information on our new Vallerio production car?”
    “What is that?”
    “A new luxury production car that is the fastest in the world and also one of the most expensive. We are launching the car later this year…but you already know that, don’t you?”
    She crossed over to him and stopped less than a foot away, putting her hands on her hips. “No, I don’t. I don’t even know who your competitors are.”
    “Has anyone approached you and asked about the Vallerio car?”
    “No. How would I pass information, anyway?”
    “You’d take it from my home computer or from the faxes that I get from the head office and then copy it and take it to your contact.”
    “You’ve obviously given this a lot of thought. Why would I do this?” she asked.
    “The information is worth a lot of money,” Marco said. He wanted to make very sure that Virginia understood where he was coming from.
    “I don’t need money, Marco.”
    She was really ticked off and he didn’t blame her. “I didn’t miss it. But Americans are obsessed with money.”
    “The same way that Morettis are obsessed with Moretti Motors. That’s a path to emptiness, Marco, and I for one am not interested in an empty life. Have you learned nothing about me in the weeks we’ve been living together?”
    He reached out and snagged her wrist, drawing her into his arms. She squirmed, trying to push away. “I’m