Indecent Exposure (13 page)

“Did you know?” Mitch demanded. “Did you know he was filming?”

When she shook her head, Mitch whirled on Costas. “You fucking lowlife scum.”

Costas shrugged, but his face paled. “I needed leverage. You’re a businessman. You know how it works.”

Silence filled the air, but Gina swore that every muscle in Mitch’s body tensed. She could barely hear him when he finally spoke. “You used this video to make her do your bidding.”

“You use what you have.”

“I don’t use women,” Mitch growled, taking a step toward Costas. For one awful moment as Costas grinned, Gina feared she may have been right when she’d thought his intention had been to provoke Mitch into a physical confrontation. If Mitch did respond that way, he could be brought up on criminal charges.

She started to stand, intending to step between them if required, when Mitch turned his attention on her. His eyebrows came together in an ominous frown. “Did he threaten to expose this if you didn’t get the dirty on me?”

“I made a mistake,” she said, holding Mitch’s steady glare. “I got myself into a…situation, and now I’m going to face the consequences. You can leave. This is nothing to do with you anymore.”

She prayed that he’d go before Costas forced him to retaliate, or watch the video. But he didn’t seem inclined to go anywhere right then. “You made it my business when you dragged me into it.”

“I deleted the photo,” she reminded him. “He has nothing on you. There’s no need for you to stay.”

He looked at her long and hard, as if he were trying to work it all through in his head. Then he whirled on Costas. “This is how it’s going to work. I’m going to make a deal with you.”

“No, Mitch—”

“Quiet.”

His terse command made her stiffen, but she understood she really wasn’t in a position to challenge him. She hated the thought of him making deals with the devil. The last thing she wanted was for him to do something against his better judgment, like lend Costas money for some dodgy deal or investment. Knowing that, she couldn’t keep quiet.

“You don’t need to do anything. He’s making these threats because he’s panicking. You can leave now, just walk out. This is my mistake and I’ll deal with it.”

“You didn’t know this lowlife was going to blackmail you.” He turned to Costas. “Like I said, we make a deal.”

“What kind of deal?”

Mitch moved leisurely toward the empty chair beside Gina, a deceptive action because she could still feel the tension emanating from him in waves. He sat back in the same manner Gina suspected he used in all his business negotiations. The difference being that in business he likely had the upper hand, whereas now he was firefighting.

“The kind that keeps you out of jail.”

Costas visibly paled. “You’ve got nothing on me.”

“Ah, now that’s where you’re wrong.” Mitch popped his ankle on the opposite knee. “Two words, asshole. Jetpole Development.”

Gina thought Costas might pass out, he looked so ashen. Jetpole was a modern development of shops, offices and apartments near the London docklands. Ritzy and highly desirable.

“There were rumors of, shall we say, less salubrious goings on with one of the smaller developers who’d quoted for work on part of the site,” Mitch told Gina. “Apparently, they’d quoted low, and had been able to do this because they were planning to use substandard materials. Their quote was turned down.”

“That was all fucking rumor,” Costas spluttered, leaning forward across his desk. “You can’t prove it.”

“Maybe not. At least not for Jetpole.” Mitch stroked his chin. “But this latest venture of yours, the one you’re going all out to get funding for, now that’s a different matter.”

Costas fiddled with his tie. “What about it?”

Mitch shrugged. “At first, I thought you sending your goons to put pressure on me to invest was just the way you do business now. Hardly surprising, I thought. Seeing as how you’re basically scum in a suit, trying to compete with the professionals. But now I see what lengths you’re prepared to sink to in order to get that funding, I understand the reason behind their strong arm tactics. ‘You’ll be sorry,’ I think were the parting words of one of your boys as I booted him out the door. Very original, if perhaps prophetic.”

“You can’t blame a man for playing hardball in business. There’s no law against it. Shit. You’re not exactly known for the softly-softly approach yourself.”

“I don’t use blackmail. Or women.”

“Someone wants me out of this deal,” Costas reasoned, ignoring Mitch’s remark. “They want to ruin me and are trying to do it by implicating me. Just like before.”

“That’s not what the evidence says.”

Costas swallowed, his throat contracting. “What evidence?”

“Emails, transcripts of phone calls.” When Costas didn’t say anything, Mitch went on. “Evidence of shady dealings with dodgy companies prepared to cut corners on materials and on construction. The health and safety boys will have a field day.”

Although he said nothing, Costas’s eyes couldn’t seem to settle on one spot.

Mitch waited a beat. “So the deal is I don’t go to the police and you hand over every copy of that video you have.”

Gina’s mouth dropped open. She’d expected the deal would be that Costas kept out of Mitch’s business. That he would use the evidence to protect his own interests. After what she’d done to him, she’d never expected that his primary aim would be to help her.

As silence hummed, Gina kept her gaze firmly on Mitch. Suddenly, she didn’t really know why she should be so surprised. This was Mitch, after all. One of the good guys.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Costas sit back. “You’re bluffing.”

Mitch shrugged one large shoulder. “Then call me on it.”

The look in his eyes said
I dare you
, and in that moment, Gina knew she’d never want to be on Mitch’s wrong side, at least not in business. Bad enough—perhaps far worse—that she was most definitely on his wrong side on a personal level.

“Look, let’s all calm the hell down,” Costas said in a conciliatory tone, although his voice trembled. “We’re men of the world. We know how these things work.”

“How many copies of the video?”

For a long moment, the men faced each other across the desk, reminiscent of a showdown in an old western movie. Gina held her breath.

After what seemed an interminable wait, Costas’s voice broke the tense silence.

“Three,” he said, but Mitch only waited until the man shrugged. “Okay. Maybe four.”

“You’d best get it clear in your mind, because I want every one or the deal’s off.”

“What about my quote for this deal?”

Mitch’s laugh was cold. “It’s in the toilet, buddy. If I were you, I’d be more interested in saving my ass right about now.” He held out his hand. “The video copies.”

Gina held her breath, her heart pumping violently. She lowered her gaze to Mitch’s outstretched hand, not daring to look at Costas for fear he’d call Mitch on the supposed bluff.

Costas reached for his briefcase, and seconds later held out another pen drive. He threw it on the desk. “The others are at my house. Plus, there’s a hard copy on there,” he said, nodding at the computer. “I’ll want the same courtesy. That evidence you say you have.”

Mitch took the pen drive and placed it with the other one in his pocket. “You’re in no position to dictate terms, asshole.”

“Come on. You get the videos, I get what you have on me. That was the deal.”

“Pull up the video,” Mitch ordered nodding to the computer. “Delete it.”

Costas looked as if he might argue, but then tapped his keyboard. Gina strained her neck to see the screen as Costas swiveled it toward Mitch. Her heart sped up when she realized he was about to bring the video up on screen and she lurched from her seat, intending to push the delete button herself. Mitch grabbed her wrist, but glared at Costas.

“Delete it. Now.”

Costas sneered at Gina, then reached out and tapped the appropriate key. Gina felt some of the tension leave her shoulders. Although she couldn’t quite relax yet, since Costas was still sneering at her.

“He’s lying,” she said to Mitch. “He has more copies.”

Mitch released her wrist. “If that’s the case, he’ll be seeing the inside of a jail pretty damn soon.” He pointed a finger toward Costas. “I want the other copies couriered to my office by close of business tonight.”

“That’s not—”

“If they fail to arrive,” Mitch interrupted, “I’ll be contacting the police and the tabloids. You’ll be reading the morning editions from your cell.”

“I need more time.”

“By close of business,” Mitch repeated. “If you’ve got copies of the video stored on any other device, you’d be wise to destroy them right now. And don’t even think about crossing me.” The look he threw Costas was even more threatening than his verbal warning. “I’d start looking for a new line of work, Zarikas. As of now you’re finished in the property development business.”

Mitch turned and started walking to the door. Without breaking stride, he nodded to Gina. “You. With me. Now.”

Gina wasn’t entirely sure which was more nerve-wracking. Being subjected to Costas’s threats, or having to deal with a very angry Mitch. While he waited at the door, she stood and faced Costas across the desk. “I’ve done some pretty stupid things in my time, but I’ll regret getting involved with you for as long as I live. You’re a despicable excuse for a human being, and I’d like nothing better than to see you rot in jail. As it is, you’ve gotten off too damn lightly.”

“Not as lightly as you,” he scoffed. “Saved by your white knight, intent on protecting your honor. I’d say you’re the one who has gotten off lightly.”

Gina knew otherwise. She hadn’t gotten off lightly at all. She’d lost the only man she’d ever loved, and what made it worse was that she now had to face his wrath.

Chapter Fourteen

Gina all but ran alongside Mitch when he strode out of the building and into the busy street. On the ride down in the elevator, he’d kept his gaze straight ahead, his shoulders stiff, arms rigid at his sides. He’d said nothing when the doors opened, but merely stepped aside and inclined his head to let her pass.

She had no idea where they were heading, or even if he expected her to follow. All she did know was she had to try and get him to understand. “Mitch, I need to explain.”

Silence.

“I know you probably don’t want to hear anything I have to say right now, but I’m so sorry for all of this.” Still he didn’t respond, and she sucked in a few needed breaths while attempting to match his unrelenting pace. “Can you slow down a bit?”

Obviously, slowing down wasn’t on the cards. Instead, he veered to the left and strode into an underground parking lot.

“Won’t you at least listen to me?” She watched him push a parking ticket and credit card into the meter slot, her temper starting to hike with his continued silence. “I care about you, Mitch. I want to apologize.”

“For what?” He stabbed in his PIN. “For stringing me along? Or for getting caught?”

He retrieved the ticket and card and Gina hurried after him when he took off again. “For getting you involved in all this.”

“I was already involved.” He aimed his key at the black convertible and yanked open the passenger door. “Get in.”

Biting her tongue against the instinctive response to being spoken to in that fashion, she did what he ordered. Maybe she owed him that.

When he got behind the wheel, she turned to him. “What do you mean, you were already involved?”

He fastened his seat belt, nodded for her to do the same. “Costas was coming after me. You were just a convenient patsy.”

That hurt. On many levels. “I’m nobody’s patsy.”

“Why do you suppose he took that video? For his own private viewing?”

She turned away from his hard gaze and looked out the windscreen. They drove out into the London sunshine, but Gina found no comfort in the warmth of the day. Her body felt chilled.

“I didn’t know I was being filmed,” she felt compelled to remind him as they inched their way forward at a snail’s pace. “And maybe I was an idiot getting involved with him in the first place, but I—”

“He’s a user. Always was, always will be.”

“I know that, but in my defense, you got involved with him on a business level.”

The lights turned red and he brought the car to a halt. “The only reason I had anything to do with that scum was to help bring him down.”

“How did you know?” Gina shot him a sidelong glance. “About Costas and that iffy deal?”

“Did some digging. Nobody could have quoted as low as he had and be using
bona fide
materials and construction methods. I knew he was cutting corners. ” Mitch reached into his pocket, slipped on dark glasses, then pulled out as the lights changed. “All I had to do was find a disgruntled employee of his who was willing to work with me and get the evidence I needed. I got copies of emails and phone numbers of his contacts, but nothing that would stand up in court.”

“You couldn’t tell the police anyway?”

“The evidence was scratchy. Zarikas might skirt the boundaries of the legal system, but he’s careful not to step over them. I’d imagine incriminating documents, if there ever were any, were shredded or disposed of long before I even started sniffing around.”

Gina’s stomach rolled uncomfortably. She hated the thought that Costas might work out that Mitch had no hard evidence, and then they’d be back to square one. “Wouldn’t that employee have given evidence? Couldn’t he have been a witness?”

“Hearsay. Besides which, most of the men who work for Zarikas are not exactly your average construction worker who pays his taxes and goes home to his wife, two point four kids and Golden Retriever every night.”

His explanation didn’t exactly put her mind at ease. “So they’d want to keep a low profile. But why did that man come forward in the first place?”

They came to another terminable halt at a red light, and Mitch shifted in his seat. “Why do you think?”

“You paid him. Which wouldn’t go down well with the police, even if he had been a trustworthy source.” She shook her head. “You were taking a risk.”

“One worth taking. There was no way I was about to stand by and let him get his foot in the door for this new development he’s got his sights on.”

“Those goons you mentioned,” Gina said as they inched along again. “Were they the lawyers you’d met with that day we had lunch in the park?” And had wild lunchtime sex in a hotel room straight after, although she didn’t think this was the time to mention that.

He shot her a heated look, making her wonder if his thoughts had traveled along the same lines. Until he gave a casual shrug, and signaled left. “I thought they’d gotten the message. They’d tried pretty much everyone else for money, and I guessed from the threats that headed my way, I was the last on the list. Zarikas knew I’d been the one who’d essentially spread the word to other investors about his bid for Jetpole, so for him to come to me to invest in this latest development had to be a last resort.”

“He was desperate.”

“It’s a prestigious and innovative scheme. Offices, apartments, retail, leisure, clinics and a school. Anyone who’s anyone wants their name associated with it. No way on God’s earth was I about to stand back and let him or any other shyster anywhere near the site. Not without a damn fight.”

All the dots started to connect, and Gina sighed. “That’s why he tried to blackmail you.”

“No investor worth his salt will touch him. He was effectively shut down before because of Jetpole. Tucked away in some backstreet dealing in import/export, as far as my sources were able to determine. He came out of the woodwork from nowhere when bids were open for this new scheme.”

“You kept track of him?”

“Not closely enough.” His jaw tightened, his hands fisting around the steering wheel. “He’s not the type to fade away, or take kindly to someone blocking his way. I don’t trust him. And I should have expected he’d pull a stunt like this.”

“What happens now?” Gina could no longer hold back on the question that had been slowly burning within her. “What if he finds out you don’t have that evidence you threatened him with?”

Mitch spared her a glance, his smile feral. “He won’t.”

And that, Gina supposed from his terse tone, was as much as he’d be prepared to divulge on the matter.

Conversation had flowed pretty well while they’d talked about Costas, but now they fell into silence again as they bumped their way through the heavy flow of traffic.

Several minutes later, Mitch pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex. He brought the car to a halt, slipped off his seat belt and opened the driver’s door. Gina stayed where she was, again not sure if she was meant to follow or simply wait for him to get back in.

As she deliberated, the passenger door came open and Mitch released her seat belt. He stood back and waited for her to get out.

Again, there was silence as they rode the elevator up to his apartment. Once inside, Mitch stabbed a finger at one of the leather sofas. “Sit.”

Sit. Get in. Quiet.
She’d had just about enough of his terse commands. “Will you stop speaking to me as if I’m someone you can order around? Okay, I get that I screwed up, but I’m not about to let you treat me any way you like.”

“You said you wanted to explain. Sit if you want, stand if you prefer. It’s all the same to me.”

He went and stood by the window, facing out. Damned if she was going to explain to his back. “I’d prefer you face me when I tell you everything.”

She didn’t think he was going to react, but slowly, he turned and slid his hands into his pockets, his eyebrows drawing together in a scowl. Her stomach fluttered, but she wasn’t about to be intimidated by him. Hoping that he’d follow her lead, she sat where he’d earlier indicated, but he remained standing.

“Okay.” She put down her bag and clasped her fingers together.
Hell.
Where did she start? “I’d been seeing Costas for a few months. It was fairly regular. We’d hook up three or four times a week. Things were…okay, but this one night he…” She glanced down at the floor, her face starting to burn. It was awful having to explain her sex life with Costas to the man she’d fallen in love with, but she owed him the truth. All of it.

“We’d done the bondage thing before, but this particular night, I think I knew something was off. He tied me up. First my hands, then… I didn’t want him to tie my ankles, but he ignored me.” She looked up at Mitch and saw his nostrils flare. “Anyway, he tied my ankles and…well…afterwards, he went to this shelf and grabbed a camcorder. He told me he’d been videotaping the whole thing. I felt really uneasy, but expected him to show me and then delete it. But he kept grinning in this awful way and I knew. He told me that if I didn’t want it released on the internet, I’d better do what he asked.”

She swallowed and longed for a glass of water, but since Mitch hadn’t moved and was looking at her with murder in his eyes, she thought it best to just continue. She looked at her clasped hands. “At first, I thought he was prolonging the sex, that he wanted me to do what he asked in bed or something like that. But then he told me.” She looked up at him. “He wanted me to sleep with you and get a compromising photo to use against you.”

She waited, hoping he’d say something, but the only sign of movement was the muscle that jumped along his jaw. “He said if I did what he wanted, he’d delete the video and that would be that.”

“So you schemed and manipulated me into having sex.”

His terse statement hit so close to the truth, her breath caught. “I know that’s how it seems, but I didn’t know what else to do. Believe me, if there’d been any other way, I would never have gone through with it. Even when I’d taken the photograph, I decided to delete it, but you snatched my phone away before I could do it.”

“Convenient,” he huffed. “And you decided you’d be prepared to have naked images of yourself plastered all over the internet?” He scrubbed his hand through his hair. “Fuck it to hell, Gina. That type of thing goes viral in minutes. Don’t you know how these things work?”

“Of course I know,” she snapped. “I’ve done little else but think about the consequences for days.”

Mitch started to pace. “Shit. I could strangle that bastard.”

He pulled his cell from his pocket and keyed in a number. “Annie, I’m expecting a package before close of business. Call me when it arrives, and have it couriered over to my apartment immediately, okay?”

He disengaged, stared at the phone for a long moment, then pushed it back in his pocket. “So what changed your mind?”

“What?”

“You were apparently prepared to go through with Zarikas’s plan. What changed your mind?”

Because I fell in love with you. Because I could never hurt you that way.
“You didn’t deserve it.”

“And you do?” His tone softened, although his eyes were still fierce. “You deserve being violated that way? You deserve having your life turned upside down? Being subjected to God knows what when the media got hold of it?”

He began pacing again, scrubbing his hand through his hair in a gesture of frustration. Gina squeezed her nails into the palms of her hands. Having him lay it out in cold terms brought it all to the foreground again. What would she have done if he hadn’t threatened Costas with the police? What if he’d simply kept walking through that door when she’d prayed he would? She couldn’t bear to think about it any longer. Couldn’t think about the consequences.

“Shit.” Mitch stopped pacing and turned toward her. “Your mother.”

Gina met his gaze and nodded. “Just before Costas sprang this on me, I was going to end it with him. I didn’t want to jeopardize my mother’s aspirations in any way. Of course, Costas knew that the media would jump at the chance of having scandal associated with a mayoral candidate.”

“He used your mother to blackmail you.”

“He said the scandal of having her daughter show up on the internet in such a way would pretty much ruin her chances of becoming mayor and kill her reputation. She’s fought so hard for her standing in the community, pulled herself up time and time again, I wasn’t about to be responsible for bringing her down. Not if I had a thing to do about it. I’ve been a thorn in her side all my life, Mitch. She deserves better than this. I’ve never seen her as happy as she’s been lately, what with her career and her personal life going so well. She so deserves to be happy.”

“When I get the tapes, the threat to her will be over.”

It wasn’t the only thing that would be over. While she was grateful to him, and she would never be able to say how much, she felt unable to fully celebrate because underlying everything was the realization that she had lost Mitch.

Had her heart ever felt this heavy?

“Do you really think he’ll hand over the tapes?”

“If he doesn’t, he knows I’ll make good on my threat.”

“What did he think he would gain by having evidence to use against you? Did he plan to threaten you in the same way he threatened me?”

Mitch pursed his lips. “It’s likely he planned to post the photo on the internet in the hope it would cause me embarrassment among my colleagues and put me in a bad light with my competitors.” For the first time since that night in Paris, he gave her a brief smile. “You’re not the only one who thinks I’m conservative and staid. My professional reputation seems to have been built on those very qualities, and Zarikas perhaps hoped that by sullying that reputation, my standing in what he perceives as the ultra conservative world of finance would be compromised. What he doesn’t seem to grasp is that a naked photo of me circulating among my peers would barely cause a blip. And even if it did, all I’d have to do was deny it, claim it was manipulated to look like me. The whole thing would blow over before the print was even dry on the image.”

“Do you really believe that? You seemed pretty fired up when you stormed into Costas’s office.”