Free Shopping With the Enemy by Carmen Reid Page A

needed.
    Although Ed and Dinah lectured her constantly, Annie was perfectly aware that her daily diet still revolved almost completely around buttery toast, chocolate bars, endless cups of milky coffee and large glasses of wine.
    Svetlana took her mobile from her tiny alligator clutch bag and looked at the screen a touch anxiously.
    ‘Everything OK?’ Annie asked.
    ‘Yes. Yes I think so. Harry and Maria know exactly what the boys are doing over the weekend. There is no chance of anything happening to them. I know this. I know this, but still the worry rises up, now and again, that Igor will try to take them.’
    Svetlana’s sunglasses covered most of her face, so it was difficult to read her expression. Annie felt that if she was in this situation, she’d find it hard to leave her children alone for a moment, but Svetlana always managed to handle the high-powered problems her high-powered life seemed to bring.
    ‘Why is Igor so desperate for the boys to go to his old school, anyway?’ Annie asked.
    ‘In his opinion, this is the best way to train the body and mind for the future,’ Svetlana replied, shaking her head. ‘But I think if you go to military school, you turn out like Igor: always at war. He is at war with me, at war with everyone who does business with him, at war with himself. This is result of military school.’
    ‘But he is a phenomenal success,’ Annie pointed out. ‘Maybe he wants his sons to be a success just like him and he thinks—’
    ‘They need to be like him,’ Svetlana interrupted. ‘This will never happen. Michael could be like him, if he went to Russian military school, so I will not let him go. Petrov is a totally different child: quiet and sensitive. Petrov will never, ever go to military school. If Igor tries to do this – I will kill him.’
    For most people this was simply an expression, but when Svetlana said it, it sounded like a terrifying threat.
    ‘How long will it take Igor to accept this?’ Annie asked.
    ‘I don’t know. He has never given up on anything ever before. Tschaaaaa!’
    The Bentley had purred smoothly from the airport autostrada, past the motorways encircling Milan and out into the glorious Italian countryside. As they drove by terracotta tiled houses and dark cypress trees set against a bright and blue sky, Annie wished Micky hadn’t yanked both arms off her only pair of sunglasses three minutes before her taxi had arrived.
    She shaded her eyes with her hand and gazed out of the window until Svetlana noticed the problem, clicked open her clutch and offered up a spare pair of vast black Chanel shades.
    Another half an hour or so into the countryside and the Bentley slowed, indicated, then waited in the road to make a right turn. Two black metal gates set between carved stone gateposts began to part. The Bentley swung through the gates and began to move up the driveway, gravel crunching under its tyres.
    ‘I could get used to this,’ Annie told Svetlana, ‘being driven about in my Bentley, through my electronic gates, up my driveway. Do
you
have other houses?’ she wondered. Maybe Svetlana had a castle or two like this tucked up in a tax haven.
    ‘Ah … so many other houses when I was Mrs Wisneski, I lose count, but now just a farmhouse in Portugal,’ Svetlana replied. ‘I’ve not been there since 1984 when it was fashionable to play golf.’ She gave a little snort: ‘
Golf?!
Can you imagine?’
    ‘You’ve not even been there since 1984?’ Annie could hardly take this in. ‘But why don’t you sell it?’
    ‘It’s rented out; it makes some money. Anyway, from Igor I learn if you keep property for long enough, you always win.’
    ‘But how long is long enough?’
    ‘For ever. The best length of time to keep real estate is for ever.’
    The Bentley purred up the driveway, through jewel green lawns studded with bright flower beds, towards a beautiful old building. This Italian-style stately home came complete with pale stone columns,