In Safe Keeping (24 page)

He was right, it wasn’t illegal. And how he invested his money was no-one’s business but his own.

Still, his words played on a loop in her mind.
See what can be achieved by staying friendly?
I have a lot to lose too, you know.

She glared at him. Like an idiot, she’d believed he was referring to her, and all along his first priority had been the development.

‘You had an ulterior motive for staying friendly with me.’

‘I’ve always had an ulterior motive for staying friendly with you.’

Laila shook her head, blocked out the words, refusing to let him sidetrack her. Holding her resolve, she faced him again, nearly lost it when she caught the look of disappointment in his eyes.

‘I think you should go.’

He blinked, seemed to lose his way for a moment, then gathered himself again. ‘Listen to me. You’re linking this note to my five percent share, and the two issues are unrelated. The share I have was a commercial decision I made years ago, when this deal was in its infancy.’

‘I don’t buy that. Whether you made that deal years ago, or yesterday, you’d still do everything in your power to protect that investment.’

He threw his hands in the air in frustration. ‘What more can I say Laila? I’m telling you the truth.’

It sounded like he was speaking from his heart, but how could she be sure? She was terrible at this. She’d fallen victim to this kind of thing all her life, fallen for her parents’ manipulation, deluding herself that they loved her. Wanting to believe.

But wanting didn’t make it real.

‘I don’t get you, Laila. You fight for other people, and yet you won’t fight for yourself, for us. Why would I create a deliberate conflict of interest if it could have been avoided? That fact should reassure you I didn’t believe Scarlett would go through with it.’

Laila went icy cold all over.

‘
Don’t fight for anything?’
She moved closer, jabbed herself in the chest with her index finger. ‘I fought for my independence, to have a life free of abuse, but you’ll never know about my struggle, never know what it took for me to walk away. It nearly killed me, would have, except for Will. And here you are, the product of some fancy boarding school, telling
me
I need to fight.’

She didn’t miss the flare of his nostrils, the rapid rise and fall of his chest underneath the soft fabric of his hoodie.

‘You’ve shared so little of yourself Evan, what would I have been fighting for exactly? For you to come over and fuck me twice a week? I can get anyone to do that.’

He closed his eyes for a few seconds, as if she’d physically wounded him. And when he opened them again, he was looking at her with so much hurt and disappointment, as if
she’d
betrayed
him
, not the other way around. As if he expected better of her.

Laila’s heart quivered in her chest and she blinked away the hot tears swelling in her eyes. ‘My parents always made me feel like a failure at life, and you just did too. But there’s one thing I can be proud of, Mr Hotshot. I got to where I am on my own, and I never needed the Peytons as my pimp.’

He swung away from her to stand rigid, head bowed. ‘You think I
prostitute
myself for the Peytons?’

‘They own you.’

5:15 p.m. Friday

The call from Duncan came through the Bluetooth, his voice reverberating around the car’s interior.

‘Finally! I’ve been trying to get you all bloody afternoon.’

‘I’m on my way. See you in ten.’ Evan cut the call before Duncan could say any more, shifting down a gear as he took the car over a speed hump.

Laila was wrong. The Peytons didn’t own him.

He wasn’t his mother’s son.

A sudden mist clouded his vision, and he clenched his teeth and banged his wrist on the sports wheel.

He hadn’t looked at Laila again, just gone straight to her room, grabbed his bag and shot through. She was right about one thing. He hadn’t shared details of his early life with her. She didn’t know it, but they had more in common than she thought.

Now, he needed to fix things.

Ten minutes later, he was parking the car between two late-model Range Rovers. What the hell was going on here? There were cars everywhere.

For once he didn’t look at the view, just opened the front door and stepped inside the massive hallway with the curving staircase. A chorus of female voices rose from the dining room, and he skirted around the bottom of the stairs and headed for George’s study, hoping he didn’t run into anyone.

Outside the study door, he paused, dragging in a few deep breaths and clearing his mind.

Laila was a lawyer, and if you looked at the evidence against him, it was damning. Weigh in her fear of being manipulated, and he could understand how she’d come to the conclusions she had.

And she didn’t know of the suspicions he held about the Peytons. He couldn’t clear things up between them with that hanging over his head. His conscience wouldn’t allow it. He needed confirmation.

He rapped on the door and stepped inside the room.

George and Duncan looked up as he came in. They were sitting on brown chesterfields facing each other, a carved wooden chess set on the coffee table between them. But there was no game underway tonight. Deep in conversation, their bodies were angled forward, tense. Duncan stood up as he came in.

‘About time. Not like you to go missing in action. Drink?’

Duncan wandered towards the drinks cabinet as Evan leaned over and shook hands with George. The old man eyed him up and down, as if his lateness alone indicated a problem.

‘No thanks.’ Evan jiggled his car keys in his hands. ‘I can’t stay.’

‘You can’t stay?’ Duncan came back, an empty beer glass in his hand. ‘That crazy lawyer’s after thirty mil payout for my wife — and you can’t stay?’

Evan’s temper flared at the slur on Laila. ‘That crazy lawyer has more ethics in her little finger than you’ll ever have.’

‘What the fuck’s up your nose?’ Duncan demanded.

‘As I said yesterday, Ms Richards merely conveyed Scarlett’s outrageous demands. She won’t be party to any kind of blackmail. She knows thirty million is excessive, and she’s aware Scarlett won’t get an extra thirteen million if it goes to court.’

‘Jesus!’ George puffed on his pipe, shaggy eyebrows pulled into a frown. ‘How’d Scarlett get this information she’s bribing us with anyway? That’s what I’d like to know.’

‘I have no idea how she obtained it. It came as a complete surprise to both Laila Richards and myself. But I understand from Duncan the allegations are true.’

‘Hmm,’ George said.

Taking that as confirmation, Evan went on. ‘You know I’m not privy to the day-to-day workings of the family business. But what you have to think about over the weekend is how much you’re prepared to pay to keep the family’s reputation intact, and a potential criminal charge against Duncan at bay.’

‘I’m not fussed on thirty million if the settlement’s worth seventeen,’ George said.

‘I can guarantee she won’t get any more money by taking it to court. The family court will only give her what’s fair, regardless of any allegations she makes. But what she can do in court is trash the family’s reputation, which could result in Duncan being charged. So, one, do you pay it, and that’s the end of it? Or, two, do you make an offer of around nineteen or twenty and negotiate from there?’

‘What do you suggest?’ asked George.

Here was his opportunity! This could turn out to be the worst decision of his life, but it had to be done. For the first time since he was nine years old, the spot fires were flaring up faster than Evan could put them out.

‘I’d offer nineteen and give Laila Richards time to convince her client it’s a more realistic offer. At the moment, Scarlett’s adamant she wants thirty. It’s whether we can hold our nerve.’

When nobody spoke, Evan went on. ‘There’s something else. Laila Richards was attacked on her way home from work last night, and earlier in the week her office building caught fire.’

He watched George as the older man’s eyes dropped to the sticking plaster still on his hand, and then back to his face.

‘A man was caught on CCTV in the office building, and she’s pretty sure he’s the same man who attacked her in the park.’

Evan held his breath, watching as Duncan and George exchanged glances, but they said nothing, just waited for him to go on.

He turned to George. ‘The last time I was here, you asked me if we had anything on Laila Richards. You told me to find out her secret, so pressure could be brought to bear.’

‘Jesus, Dad!’ Duncan voice was a low whisper. He stared at his father as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘Why would you do that?’

‘That’s what I need to know.’ Evan said. This was something he could never have imagined asking George Peyton in his lifetime. ‘Did you get someone to try and stop Laila Richards?’

George leaned on his stick and struggled to his feet, more fire in his eyes than Evan had seen in years. ‘You have a hell of a hide, son, coming in here and accusing me of that.’

‘They were your words. What was I supposed to think?’

‘I think you need to pick your side.’

When George wouldn’t answer his question, Evan turned to Duncan. ‘You told me something once. You said the family had hired someone to recover a debt, someone outside the law.’

‘That was a long time ago,’ George interrupted. ‘Some low-life ripped me off, to the tune of three hundred thousand dollars of payments to subcontractors who depended on the money. But the grub went into voluntary bankruptcy, and shifted all his assets into his wife’s name. He was living in luxury, and no-one could legally touch him.’

He took a few steps closer to Evan. ‘You weren’t qualified then. We were using a different firm. They couldn’t do a damn thing, and I wasn’t going to stand for it. A mate told me he had a contact, a guy in a motorcycle gang. They scared the crap out of him, promised they’d be back to break his kneecaps if he didn’t cough up the money. He got the cash. The bikies got their cut. The subcontractors got their money. Everyone was happy except the scumbag.’

‘Which motorcycle gang?’

‘The Altar Boys,’ Duncan said.

Evan’s scalp crawled and he lowered his voice, looked from George to Duncan and back again. ‘John Holt was the person who attacked Laila. Just give me a straight answer. Did you hire John Holt to follow her?’

‘What do you take us for?’ The old man said with a roar, thumping his pipe down on the table. ‘Coming in here and accusing us of something we know nothing about, and after all we’ve done for you.’

Evan thought of Laila’s words from last night, the words her parents used to say.
How could you do that to us, after all we’ve done for you?

‘I think I’ve paid my dues George, given as much as I’ve taken. I might be your lawyer, but I’m no puppet.’

‘
Jesus!’
Duncan was staring at Evan in amazement. ‘I know what’s going on here. You’re sleeping with the enemy.’

Red in the face, Duncan advanced on him, went to shove him in the chest but Evan stepped sideways, out of reach.

‘Hold on,’ he heard George’s warning from behind as Duncan wheeled around.

‘You’re screwing her, aren’t you?’ Duncan’s pupils were dilated, and one side of his mouth curved in a sneer. ‘It must be great to be you. Just crook your little finger and they all come running.’

Evan shook his head and looked at George. ‘We were seeing each other before Scarlett began proceedings.’

Duncan advanced on him again. ‘Bullshit! You’re pointing the finger at us because some broad’s leading you around by the dick.’

Evan threw out a hand and grabbed Duncan by his collar, shoving him against the wall and pinning him with his body weight. ‘I. Love. Her.’

The air was thick with tension, and in the silence, laughter could be heard coming from the direction of the dining room.

‘Then you’re not the best person for the job.’ Duncan said.

Heart knocking against his ribs, Evan let go of his collar and swung away. ‘That’s what I came here to tell you.’

George Peyton stepped closer to Evan. ‘You’re going to give up the work you do for this family — for some broad?’

‘I think he’s saying he’s prepared to give up his relationship with this family for her,’ Duncan added.

‘Maybe if you’d given up something you’d still have your wife.’ Evan’s words came hard and fast like a battery of quick blows.

‘You bastard!’

‘Duncan!’ George’s voice rang out, strong and clear despite his advanced age. ‘May I remind you this is still my house and your mother has guests in the dining room.’ He pointed his stick towards the chesterfields. ‘Sit down there and shut the fuck up.’

He turned to Evan, and for the first time ever the two men gazed at each, anger and disappointment in their eyes.

‘I did nothing to harm that lady lawyer. I was simply thinking aloud that night. Wondering whether she’d been in trouble with the Law Society — temporarily struck off the roll — or something in the family she wanted to keep secret. I’ll admit, I wouldn’t have been above offering her a monetary incentive to speed things up if necessary.’

Evan thought of Laila’s Blackhawk Foundation. ‘She would have been above taking it.’

George Peyton nodded and gave a sad smile. ‘It seems you know her well, by the sounds of it.’

Did he?

The two men looked at one another again, the old man, and the kid who was now a man.

Was it the last time?

Evan thought so.

He shifted his gaze to Duncan, but his school friend was staring at the floor, shaking his head, mouth set in a hard line.

Evan inhaled sharply and nodded at George Peyton.

‘Thank you for telling me.’

He turned and left, pulling the door closed behind him.

His vision blurred as he caught sight of George’s wife standing in the hallway looking towards the study.

‘Evan?’ Marcie’s gentle face was etched with worry as he walked towards her. ‘What’s going on? What’s all the shouting about?’

Too choked up to speak, he shook his head, leaned down and planted a quick kiss on her forehead as he passed.