Chapter Thirty
Nick took a step back and tried to work out what had just happened. How could he possibly have got outside before her – and then the penny dropped. The man upstairs must have been Rafe. Gabe’s identical twin.
‘You utter bastard. Are you all in this together? Did you arrange for your twin to evict me? Did you tell your father about Ohana? How could you?’ So much for not making a scene, she was now shouting at him. ‘All that talk about how important family is. God, I’m a mug. You made it clear from the start how important it is. Christ.’
Pushing past him she stumbled out into the bright sunlight. The afternoon was just tipping over into the first stream of early rush-hour traffic – everywhere was noise and confusion and for the first time ever, Nick looked at the City with hatred.
‘Letta, wait.’ Gabe had caught up with her again. ‘What are you talking about? Why would we evict you?’
‘Why? Because you are sick. This is some sort of pathetic revenge. Because a year ago I happened to notice that your family bank was over-extended. Which again is not my fault but yours.’
Nick was puffing with rage. She had run out of things to say. She had a million words but every one of them dried up as she looked at him, her heart breaking.
He ran his hands through his hair and continued to frown .
‘Look, I don’t understand what you’re talking about. I didn’t even know you were being evicted. That has nothing to do with us.’
‘You own the sodding property I live in and the office that I rent. It has everything to do with you.’
‘We run thousands of properties in the city, it’s one of our businesses. I’m sure it’s a coincidence.’
‘Rubbish! Your father just said as much.’
For the second time she ran out of steam. Just looking at him was reminding her of how much fun they had had in Ireland. A commuter walked past her, shoving her out of his way. As she stumbled, Gabe put his hand on her arm to steady her and called after the commuter to watch where he was going. He turned back to Nick and realised he was standing too close to her. Stepping back he guided the pair of them to the lee of the building.
‘Look. Can we talk about this? Let’s go and sit down and thrash this out.’ He stopped and looked at her, his face unusually grave. ‘And can I just say how incredibly good it is to see you again. I can’t tell you how much I have missed you and how wretched I’ve been.’
The brutal honesty completely disarmed Nick and she nodded mutely as he flagged a taxi down. It was foolish, but she was desperate to hear him out. That somehow this was all a terrible dream.
‘Let’s go somewhere where none of this lot will pry.’ He glanced back over his shoulder towards the office block then as the taxi pulled up he opened the door and she climbed in. As she watched him take charge she wondered if she was still being duped – was this some elaborate plan ?
‘It really is great to see you. Where’s Ohana?’ He felt his pocket and pulled out his phone. Looking at the screen, he paused and then muttered, ‘Hang on, this might shed some light.’
Having read the text on the screen he passed it to Nick.
-Where are you? Table is booked. Just seen your girl Letta. Hell of a mess. Turns out we’ve been renting her some property. Father has known all about it and for some reason chose now to evict her. You might want to call her after all. Our family stinks.
Nick read through the text and then handed it back to Gabe who quickly typed something and handed it back to her.
-Met Letta outside. We’re going for a drink. Make my apologies. Don’t mention Letta.
Nick looked up and saw that Gabriel was watching her closely.
‘Hit send if you are okay with what I’ve typed.’
Nick liked the level of trust that he was trying to establish but still felt at a loss. He worked for Harrington’s. He was a Harrington, for heaven’s sake. He went to Ireland to spy on her didn’t he? Hadn’t his brother’s company just evicted her?
The phone buzzed in her hand and she saw the message before she had time to return it to Gabe.
-Dur. Will say you’ve met a girl. Tell her I’m sorry .
She handed the phone back to Gabe and leant back against the seat looking out the window. The brothers seemed so genuine, but they were Harringtons. She needed more information.
‘One drink only. I don’t want to leave Ohana too long. No doubt your father has the RSPCA on speed dial. First thing’s first, how did Rafe know to call me Letta?’
Gabe sighed. ‘That, at least, is easy, because I haven’t stopped talking about you since I first met you. Rafe and I chat every day. So naturally when I discovered you were Nick de Foix, I told him that as well.’
‘Okay,’ muttered Nick. It made sense – she shared everything with Paddy after all. ‘It was quite a shock when I saw him. I thought he was you. I might owe him an apology for swearing at him.’
‘He’s heard worse and to be honest, I think obliquely we both deserve it anyway.’
The taxi pulled to the side of the road and they both got out. Nick had chosen a large pub, its only really claim to fame was a large riverside patio. Whilst Nick went and found a table, Gabe got the drinks in.
He sat down and handed her her wine. ‘No Argentinian, I’m afraid, but they claim the South African is decent?’
Nick sipped her glass and disagreed, but it was better than nothing and she needed some fortification. Her stomach was churning, and she wanted to wind the clock back to when she thought Gabe was one of the good guys.
Gabe took a drink of wine and winced and then cleared his throat .
‘Full disclosure then. My name is Gabriel St Clair, Giles Harrington is my father. After the divorce, my brother and I took our mother’s name in solidarity with her. That said, we both work for our father. The law company I work for has Harrington’s on retainer. And Rafe runs the property arm.’ He took a smaller sip. ‘God, this really is nasty wine. Anyway. Adam is one of my half-brothers and works for the financial wing of the business and is father’s right-hand man, followed by my other two half-siblings, Paul and Rebecca. On the record, they are not the most impressive examples of human beings. But they are family.’ He shrugged and reached for his glass before withdrawing his hand.
‘A week ago I got a phone call saying that the architect of our family’s fall from grace – that’s you, by the way – was heading over to Ireland and could I check, as Adam had heard a rumour that you were doing a spot of insider trading.’
He took a gulp of wine. ‘If you remember, I said it wasn’t something I wanted to do, but I thought if Nick de Foix was guilty of insider trading, then that wasn’t on.’
Nick had listened to everything he said so far and could see how it had all come to pass from his side, but it still hurt to hear that someone was fabricating claims of insider trading against her. She sipped her wine and then paused looking around until she caught the eye of a server.
‘Excuse me. This is revolting. What wine have you got that’s decent?’
The server smiled at her sympathetically and suggested a lager.
Gabe continued as they waited for a change in drinks .
‘So there I was waiting to spy on some hard-nosed London whizz kid when I saw you talking into your overnight bag, and I was fascinated. And when you introduced yourself as Letta, I completely failed to spot who you were.’
The drinks arrived with a small apology and she asked if they were finished with their wines. With a laugh both Nick and Gabe agreed, and Gabe took a sip of his beer.
‘God, that’s so much better. So. My total apologies but I honestly never knew who you were. When I heard you booking your return crossing, you used your full name and I wanted to howl. Honestly, I was having such a good time with you. I thought we had a real connection and suddenly I find myself in the middle of a Shakespearean tragedy.’
‘So you legged it?’ asked Nick sourly.
‘Guilty as charged. And yes, I knew that made me a coward, but I needed to regroup. I didn’t want to spend another second with you in case you said something that might implicate you in whatever my brother was accusing you of.’
‘But I wasn’t doing anything. I was there for family research.’
‘I know but honestly – I thought for a minute you must have known who I was and had given me a false name deliberately.’
‘What? Why would you think that?’
‘My mind was a mess. I had met this amazing, wonderful, gorgeous girl who suddenly was not who she was meant to be.’
‘And who was that?’
‘My ideal partner. ’
He paused and drank, waiting for a silent Nick to respond. A loud party boat made its way down the Thames towards Tower Bridge. A champagne cork popped, and cheers rose up and drifted across the river on the warm air.
‘You hardly know me,’ said Nick quietly. Everything she had hoped for was coming true but now she knew he was a Harrington what was the point?
‘So what?’ tutted Gabe. ‘When you know something, you just do. I had been looking forward to seeing if she felt the same way that I did. I thought that maybe we had something.’
He looked hopefully at her. Confused, Nick looked at her watch, in a pretence to stall for time and suddenly remembered Ohana.
‘Hell. I have to go.’
Gabriel’s face fell slightly and then returned to a polite smile. In a light tone of voice, he said, ‘Of course. Can we meet again tomorrow? I can let you know about the evictions, maybe I can get them delayed?’
God, those bloody evictions. It was either the Harrington family hounding her out of her home or the FCA hounding her into court. She wanted to escape all of it and just spend time with Gabe. She was about to say so when she realised that he didn’t know about her investigation. Overwhelmed with disappointment she saw that she couldn’t have the life she wanted. Not right now.
‘Leave it. I have other places I can go.’ She didn’t want to draw attention to herself right now. She’d been mad to storm down to the Harrington offices – although the FCA must be nearly finished with their investigation into her she needed to keep her head down. Storming in and arguing about leasehold violations had not been smart. That said, she did want to see him again very much, but she didn’t want to make another stupid mistake.
‘Tell you what. When I have my new address, I’ll text it over, but I’ll be pretty busy over the next few days with the move.’
‘Can I help? I’m a dab hand with cardboard boxes and parcel tape?’
Well, he was persistent; she’d give him that. But was that evidence of sincerity or just another opportunity to spy on her? Declining his offer, she pushed back her chair and walked out of the pub. She refused to look back at him as she walked away and only when she got in the taxi, did she turn around – wondering what she might be driving away from.