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He jackknifed forward, picked up the telephone from his desk, made a call, still frowning as he waited for a response which came within a few moments. ‘Patrick, it’s Mitch. Have you heard from Ric today?’
The reply must have been negative because he quickly ran on, ‘I think he’s heading your way. Took Johnny’s plane out. If you hear from him would you please let me know?’
Another pause, a grimace, then, ‘He left me with a problem and I’d appreciate more instructions. If he calls you, tell him to call me. Okay?’
Phone down. He knew Johnny Ellis, too, Kathryn thought, and all three men were obviously connected to this Patrick whom Mitch had just called.
‘Ric didn’t tell me where he was going,’ she offered.
The laser-sharp eyes bored into hers again. ‘He wouldn’t. Not in these circumstances. Fill me in on the whole story, Kathryn, as much as you know.’
His gaze alone seemed to be picking at her brain. Kathryn felt constrained to remember every little detail in case it was vitally important. ‘You know Ric’s business,’ she started.
‘Brokering photographs to all forms of media around the world,’ he rapped out, tapping the one he’d now laid on the desk in front of him. ‘This one was e-mailed in?’
‘Yes. Taken at the airport. Dated yesterday. We were checking through the computer file this morning…’
‘What time was it when Ric saw this?’
‘About nine-thirty. Normally we don’t deal in shots that might cause people problems. I was about to delete this one when Ric stopped me. He asked me to print it, give him a copy, put five more copies in the office safe and buy the copyright from the photographer so no-one else could print it. He said he didn’t care how much it cost…just get it.’
Mitch nodded thoughtfully. ‘Did you acquire the copyright?’
‘Yes. After Ric left. Which he did as soon as I’d printed out his copy. He took it with him. I didn’t know what he was going to do. He simply said he and Lara Chappel…Lara Seymour…went way back and she wouldn’t want that photo published. I felt…’ She hesitated, wondering if she should colour the facts with her feelings or not.
‘Tell me,’ Mitch encouraged.
She sighed. ‘All this was out of character. That photo got to him personally. In a big way. It wasn’t normal business, if you know what I mean.’
It evoked a wry little smile. ‘I guess we all have moments that aren’t…normal.’
A flood of heat whooshed up her neck and scorched her cheeks. Kathryn couldn’t remember the last time she had blushed. She was thirty years old, a successful career woman, adept at handling all sorts of people and situations. Yet here was embarrassing proof of how abnormal her reaction was to this man. Was it horribly obvious that he’d put her in such a spin, even her blood temperature was affected?
Stick to the facts, girl, she berated herself. Best to steer right away from feelings, because she was in a high state of confusion about her own.
‘It was just past eleven when Ric called me from his car,’ she went on briskly. ‘He said he was heading back to the office, should be there in ten minutes. He had Lara Chappel with him and he needed my help. He instructed me to tell my secretary I’d be away for a couple of hours at a business meeting with a magazine editor—nothing unusual about that—and meet him in the basement car park with my bag and car keys.’
‘You didn’t question what help Ric wanted?’
Kathryn shrugged. ‘He’s my boss.’
‘How did he sound?’
‘Very much in command.’
Mitch Tyler nodded. ‘Ric has worked in war zones. He’d keep his head.’
Kathryn didn’t know if Mitch was reassuring her or himself. Certainly the familiar way he spoke of Ric’s past suggested a long and close friendship.
‘So you were there waiting for him when he drove into the basement car park,’ he prompted.
‘Yes. Ric said they’d been followed by a grey sedan—male driver wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses—bound to be hanging around outside since there was no entry to the private car park without an official identification card. He wanted me to drive him and Lara Chappel to Bankstown Airport. They got into my car and scrunched down in their seats while I drove out, and they stayed down until I could assure them we weren’t being followed by the pursuit vehicle.’
‘Did Lara Chappel say anything to you?’
‘Not until we arrived at the airport. She simply did whatever Ric told her to.’
‘How did she appear to you? Her reactions to what was going on?’
Kathryn paused, wanting to be accurate in her impressions. ‘Nervous, frightened, distracted,’ she answered slowly.
Mitch cocked his head to one side, a musing expression on his face. ‘Did it occur to you that you could be accused of assisting in an unlawful abduction?’
Kathryn was shocked into protesting. ‘It was a getaway, not an abduction. Lara Chappel was willingly following Ric’s lead.’
He leaned forward and tapped the photograph on the desk. ‘Ric might have used this for leverage.’
‘He wouldn’t do that.’
The blue eyes glittered mockingly. ‘How can you tell what a man will do…when he wants a woman very badly?’
His gaze slid down to her mouth and Kathryn found herself holding her breath while her heart skittered, reacting to what felt like a simmering passion aimed directly at her. Was he just projecting what he thought Ric might feel toward Lara Chappel? Was a clever barrister a brilliant actor, as well? But why target her like this? It felt really personal. And terribly unsettling.
‘It wasn’t like that,’ she burst out in an urgent need to defend herself. ‘It was obvious that Lara Chappel trusted him. She was with him willingly, anxious to make good her escape. Once we arrived at the airport, she thanked me very sincerely for my help. And I noticed she wasn’t wearing any rings.’
It reminded Kathryn of the ring she was wearing herself—the ring proclaiming she’d agreed to marry Jeremy Haynes. Her gaze dropped to the flashy solitaire diamond he’d chosen for her and she told herself once again it was a measure of how much he valued her, not a status symbol of how much he was worth. Of course, money was useful. Life was a lot easier with it than without it. But sometimes…
She twisted the ring around on her finger, wishing it was an emerald, something more personal to her. Jeremy knew she loved green. Yet she couldn’t very well argue against his romantic declaration that ‘Diamonds are forever.’ She heaved a rueful sigh and raised her gaze to the man who was stirring all sorts of troubling confusion in her.
He was staring at her ring, watching the agitated movement of it around her finger. She instantly stilled her hands and spoke very firmly. ‘If a woman takes off her rings, it’s a very deliberate action, meaning that relationship—her commitment to it—is over. Lara Chappel wanted out of her marriage. I have no doubt of that. Ric wasn’t abducting her. She looked at him as though he was performing a miracle for her.’
‘A miracle…’ Mitch Tyler’s mouth twisted with irony as his gaze flicked up to meet hers. ‘I see you’re engaged to be married, Kathryn.’
‘Yes.’ Why did she feel defiant about that? He wasn’t attacking her on it…was he?
‘When is the happy wedding day?’
‘We haven’t decided yet.’
‘No keen rush to the altar?’
She frowned, uneasy with these personal questions. ‘It depends on work factors.’
‘Your work or his?’
‘I don’t see how this is relevant to the situation that brought me here,’ she flared at him.
‘I assure you it is highly relevant,’ he retorted, making a languid gesture that denied any attack. ‘I’m simply ascertaining how long you want to remain in the position of Ric’s executive assistant. Should your fiancé be happy for you to walk out of it today…’
‘I wouldn’t be happy,’ she cut in emphatically.
‘So you want to keep your job, regardless of any threat Gary Chappel might pose?’
She glared at him. ‘You’re supposed to take care of that.’
‘Ah yes, the miracle worker,’ he drawled. ‘Ric plays knight to the rescue of his fair Lara, and I’m handed the job of slaying the dragon and keeping you safe.’ His eyes beamed hard relentless purpose at her. ‘And I will. I will keep you safe, Kathryn. But the legal moves will take a day or two and I’m just wondering how much your fiancé cares about you and your safety.’ One eyebrow lifted in challenge. ‘As much as Ric, taking his woman right out of reach?’
‘I’m not stupid. I can take care of myself,’ she protested.
‘Not against a man like Gary Chappel,’ came the flat retort. Then more softly, insidiously touching a raw memory, ‘How did you feel when he confronted you in your office?’
She shuddered.
Mitch Tyler instantly pounced on the response. ‘You were frightened.’
‘He was in a rage.’
‘Breathing fire. He not only has a lot of fire-power, Kathryn, but he has no conscience about using it. If Gary Chappel thinks you’re standing in his way…’
The telephone rang. Mitch Tyler snatched up the receiver and listened to the person on the other end of the line.
It was a relief to have his attention withdrawn from her, focused on something else. Kathryn reflected on what he’d said about Gary Chappel, whom she’d found a very scary man, having no regard whatsoever for appropriate or even reasonable behaviour. She’d managed to get rid of him once, but if he stormed into the office again…or came to her home…
A man who had his wife watched and followed…a battered wife…violence toward women…it was beginning to look very ugly to Kathryn. She remembered how he’d repeated her name, committing it to memory for further reference, his contemptuous manner toward her, the sense of threat.
‘Okay. So you’ve agreed to let Lara stay with you. That’s fine but Ric can’t stay, too.’
Mitch’s curt words broke Kathryn’s train of concern, alerting her to a new development.
‘There have already been aggressive moves made by Gary Chappel to recover his wife,’ he continued. ‘I have Ric’s executive assistant, Kathryn Ledger, here in my chambers, a protective move against further harassment in her office. In all fairness, Ric must become an open target for Chappel to pursue. Best if he flies out of the country as soon as possible—I mean tomorrow—get the heat off his Sydney office.’
Yes, Kathryn thought. She certainly didn’t want another encounter with Gary Chappel.
A pause for listening, then, ‘Get them both to call me when they arrive. I’ll talk to Ric first but I also need ammunition from Lara Chappel to make legal moves stick. I have a plan of action in mind but it will only work with Lara’s full co-operation.’
A plan of action… Kathryn breathed more easily. She instinctively had faith in Mitch Tyler’s ability to counter-punch anything. If anyone had the power to take on a problem and beat it, he did. Ric had trusted him with it. She did, too. And now that communication with the escaping couple could be reestablished, everything should be quickly settled.
Mitch put the receiver down. Kathryn tensed as his riveting gaze zeroed in on her again. ‘Do you live with your fiancé?’ he asked point-blank.
‘Yes.’
‘He’ll be at home with you tonight?’
She shook her head. ‘He’s in Melbourne on business. He won’t be home until tomorrow evening.’
‘You can’t be on your own, Kathryn. Not with Gary Chappel in a state of raging frustration. Believe me, I know what that man is capable of. Without some restraining force—and I can’t even begin to apply that until tomorrow—he’s a loose cannon.’ He gestured to the phone. ‘Want to call your fiancé? Ask him to fly back to Sydney this evening?’
While he was in the middle of negotiations for his future career in financial services? Calling him away from critical meetings to nurse-maid her? Because of something that had happened through her job? Which didn’t matter as much as his, given that he’d be the main source of financial support when they had children.
‘I don’t want to do that,’ she quickly decided. Jeremy would consider it totally unreasonable.
The blue eyes bored in. ‘Aren’t you more important to him than business?’
‘I can take care of myself,’ she asserted again.
‘You’re a woman…against a man with resources he’ll have no compunction in using to get his own way.’
Jeremy would blame her for getting involved with something that was not really her job, bringing trouble upon herself, messing everything up for him. ‘I can go to a hotel,’ she said, desperately seeking an alternative course.
Mitch Tyler shook his head. ‘If you won’t call your fiancé to come home and stand between you and any threat from Gary Chappel…you stay with me.’
Her heart skipped a beat. ‘Stay…with you?’ She could barely get the words out, her mouth had gone so dry.
‘Ric made me responsible for you. I take that responsibility very seriously.’
‘But…’
‘I have a house in Woollahra. It has a guest suite which my sister and her husband use when they come to Sydney. You will be safe with me, Kathryn.’
He wouldn’t allow anyone to get to her. She was sure of that. But safe with him? When he seemed to be driving stakes through her relationship with Jeremy with everything he said, everything he was?
I need to call Jeremy, she thought. Stop this now.
Yet she knew it would only cause an argument…in Mitch Tyler’s hearing…and he’d be making silent judgements…stirring her up even more…making her wish…
No.
Better that she did stay with him. If she was so strongly attracted to this man, and the attraction remained strong throughout the evening, maybe she shouldn’t be marrying Jeremy Haynes.
Kathryn looked down at the ring on her hand.
And the most troubling thing of all was…she wished she wasn’t wearing it.
CHAPTER THREE
MITCH’S whole body was buzzing with adrenaline. He’d thrown down the challenge and every nerve was keyed to piano-wire tension, waiting for which way Kathryn would jump. Her gaze had dropped to the ring on her finger.
Take it off, Mitch fiercely willed. If the guy won’t drop everything to look after you at a time of need, he’s not worthy of you.
He was tempted to screw the challenge up another notch, offer to speak to the man himself, make him aware that Kathryn was in serious danger. But that might be tipping the scales which were delicately balanced at the moment. She was not stupid. He’d spelled out what the situation was. The ball was in her court. If she chose to stay with him…well, that choice would be very telling, indeed.
‘I don’t want to interfere with Jeremy’s business,’ she said slowly.
His heart kicked with excitement as she lifted her gaze to his, her eyes returning a challenge that demanded he measure up to his own promises.
‘You claim I’ll be safe with you…’
His groin tingled. It was definitely a sexual challenge. Did she feel the attraction, too? He cocked an eyebrow at her. ‘Are you asking me if I’m a man of honour? If you can spend a night under my roof without my coming onto you?’
