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CHAPTER ONE

IT ONLY TOOK Daisy Wyndhauard She grinned as she joined her two teaching friends inside the Las Vegas hot spot nightclub where they planned to kick off their half-term holiday before the winter school terh-fived Belinda and then Kate ‘I told you I’d make it before the first round of drinks That’s a new record too It usually takes me at least five blocks to lose Bruno when I’m abroad’

Kate, recently appointed to teach Year Three, handed her a glass of cha to happen every night we’re here on holiday?’

Belinda from Grade Four rolled her eyes ‘I did warn you, Kate Travelling abroad with Daze uy carrying a concealed weapon Get used to it It ain’t going to change any time soon’

‘Oh, yes it is’ Daisy set her posture in a deter treated like a little kid I’h to take care of myself And this holiday is the perfect chance to prove it’

Once and for all

Her father would have to get over it She wanted to live her life the way she wanted to live it Not be answerable to her dad, who thought she was still twelve years old

‘Why’s your dad so protective anyway?’ Kate asked

Daisy took a sip of her drink before she answered She hadn’t told anyone of her father’s former and thankfully brief connection with the underworld It was far easier to pretend he was overly protective because she once wentfor half an hour as a child That her disappearance had been nothingfrom her mother behind a rack of dresses in Marks and Spencer was beside the point ‘My dad watches too many scary n country so to kidnap me and demand a ransom’

Kate raised her brows ‘I realised you came from money but—’

‘Pots and pots of lass out for a refill ‘You should see her dad’s estate in Surrey Massive He has villas in Italy and the South of France too I didn’t realise being an accountant could be so lucrative Maybe I should’ve done that instead of teaching’

Daisy chewed the edge of her lower lip She had always believed her father’s wealth was gained through hard work and discipline, building up his London accounting firm from scratch She still believed it…sort of How could she believe anything else? He was a loving dad who consecrated the ground she walked on So what if he had once done a teensy weensy accounting job for a Mafia boss? That didn’t make him a crio and there was no reason to be worried now, although why he insisted she have top level security at her flat and always travel abroad with a bodyguard did eon of disquiet if she were to be perfectly honest But that was so she had always put up with because it was easier than arguing with hi and pointless exercise, which her mother, Rose, had found out the hard hen she’d tried to divorce him

‘If you’ve got so ?’ Kate asked

‘I love teaching,’ Daisy said, thinking of her kindergarten class with their sunny and earnest little faces ‘The kids are so innocent and—’

Belinda gave a half snort, half laugh as she wiped up a dribble of bubbles off the side of her glass with her fingertip ‘Yeah, like you’

Daisy sent her a in doesn’t mean—’

‘Technically?’ Kate frowned in puzzleuy?’

Here we go, Daisy silently groaned Why was being a virgin such an oddity these days? Plenty of girls didn’t sleep around What about Aious persuasions? Nuns, for instance Anyway, having an overprotective father was like being raised in a convent He’d practically strip-searched every suitor she’d ever had He did background checks on the Which was how she had ended up twenty-six years old without having done the deed

But this holiday was going to change all that Or so she hoped Away from her father’s watchful eye, she would be able to stretch her dating wings Flirt a little Relax instead of being uptight about the whole process in case her father suddenly appeared, waving a warrant for her date’s arrest

‘Not yet,’ Daisy said ‘But I’ to do it just for the sake of it I want it to uy too’