Bid Me Now (21 page)

“Damn, damn,” he mumbled, putting his head in his hands. “Damn Lockart!”

Confused, Miri racked her brain, trying to figure out the connection. “Lockart? That’s the construction company that built your medical center.”

“Yeah.” Marcus pressed a thumb and forefinger to his eyes. “Why couldn’t she just let it go? If she’d just kept out of it…”

“What has Alex got to do with Lockart Construction?” She put a hand on his arm. “What’s wrong?”
 

He laughed bitterly through her words. “It seems I’ve got some horrible unconscious need to get it out. I can’t let Alex go on thinking…it’ll ruin her.” He paused, shaking his head.
 

Miri tightened her grip, feeling her blood cool. “Let Alex think what?”
 

“How can I say it? It wasn’t them. It was John Lockart…and me.”

“Oh, God,” she breathed through a sudden dizziness. “Marcus, what did you do?” When he didn’t answer, Miri tugged at his suit sleeve. “Tell me.”
 

Marcus took a deep breath and stared into his beer. “I met with John Lockart the morning of the sealed bid deadline. The meeting was to discuss the fit-out of the medical center’s offices, but I asked him if he knew anything about the sale of the mill. Out of the blue he told me he knew the other bidders’ offers. I don’t know how he got them, but somehow he had them. Anyway, it seemed an opportunity…”
 

He stopped. Miri’s stomach churned with dread, but she urged him on with another fierce tug at his sleeve.

“So I, uh, asked him if your bid was the highest. He said Brannagh Enterprises had it.” Marcus’ words slowed, and his breath shuddered. “So then…I asked him to top their bid and then offer the mill to you. Say Lockarts was financially over-committed or something. He said he would. After all, I’d saved his boy’s life a couple of years ago. Heart surgery.”
 

This couldn’t be real. “Marcus…”

“Except Lockart didn’t go through with it,” he continued through shaking lips. “He called me a few days later to say it was too risky.” He looked at her with wretched eyes. “It seemed everything would be okay. All the bids were legal. But then Alex found out about the leak and started poking around…making accusations against Brannagh Enterprises.”

“Did you…do you know who leaked the information at Wilkins and Davies?”

He shook his head.

Miri sat very still, her mind struggling with the implication of his words. “I accused Nick of cheating. You said nothing. You let Alex take out an injunction against his company without saying a word.”
 

His hands made fists on the table. “I couldn’t do or say anything, don’t you understand? I was losing you to that bastard.”

“Oh, dear Lord.”
 

When he tried to take her hand, Miri snatched it away, almost knocking her glass over.
 

“Please, Miri, try to understand. I love you. I’ve loved you from the moment I first saw you all those years ago. Do you remember that day? You came to the hospital with your father.” His face twisted in a flash of naked jealousy. “Brannagh doesn’t care for you. But I care. I’ve waited. We could be so happy. Marriage. A family.”
 

Miri had to bite back the urge to scream at him. “You did all this because you thought we’d be fucking married?” she whispered through clenched teeth.
 

Her curse turned him white. “Of course…it would take time. There’s no need to rush.”

Miri pushed slowly to her feet, wanting to escape but too stunned to move. “I have to call Alex,” she mumbled faintly, putting a hand on her forehead to help organize her thoughts. “This lie can’t go on.”

Marcus stood and took out his wallet. “I’ll drive you home.”
 

That gave her impetus enough to move. “
No
!”
 

Her shout turned every head in the place. Miri watched in humiliation as a beefy regular in a baseball cap climbed off his stool and advanced toward them. “Is
he
bothering you?”
 

Miri looked around at the faces staring at them. For a moment she was tempted to say she was bothered. Very bothered. But the thought of Marcus being thrown out of the place or worse, punched, seemed too cruel. “I’m fine,” she answered weakly, waving a reassuring hand when the man looked unconvinced.
 

With a glare at Marcus, he walked back to his stool.
 

“Nothing like a floor show,” said the waitress between chews.

More like a freak show
, Miri noted sourly. How ridiculous she and Marcus must look to them. Well, it was true. They were ridiculous. Totally out of place. In every way.

She left Marcus slumped in his chair.

Walking out into the bright afternoon sunshine, Miri paused for a few moments, breathing in the warm air, taking in the everyday sounds of the street. A beautiful summer’s day, but she felt cold. Cold and desperate to put things right.

It took almost twenty minutes to find a cab to take her home. By then, she had texted Alex with the truth. Alex would be shocked, but only for as long as it took to call her attorney. Miri felt little sympathy for Alex. She deserved to pay for her vindictiveness. But Nick didn’t deserve any of this.
 

Sitting in the back seat of the cab, Miri felt sick with grief, whispering Nick’s name over and over, trying to find comfort. But even his name on her lips couldn’t stop her relentlessly rising guilt. This was all her fault. And all because she’d wanted to buy an abandoned textile mill.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Nick, your sister is here.”

Nick glanced up from his pile of financial printouts as his personal assistant’s freckled face appeared around the door. “Thanks, Amy. Give me two minutes and then show her in. Oh, a coffee for me, and check what Cate wants.”

He leaned back in his chair. Back-to-back financial meetings all morning had him tired and on edge. But being tired was the least of his problems. The cancelled fifty-million-dollar Spanway contract had put a serious dent in the half-yearly revenue forecast, and if the Olivet woman opened her mouth again before he could get her legally gagged, the pain would really set in.
 

Swiveling his chair, Nick stared down at the gray mist shrouding the city. From the sixteenth floor, the Thames was barely visible. Two weeks of constant drizzle over the capital, but he had no complaints. The weather pretty well matched his mood. And being in New York would put him too close to the source of his mood.

The door opened at the same time he turned. Cate looked stunning as usual, but with the extra radiance of pregnancy.

Nick walked around his desk and hugged his sister, mostly pleased to see her, despite knowing there had to be a reason for her turning up.
 

“I’m glad to see it arrived,” she said, nodding toward a corner of his office. Shrugging off her red Burberry coat, she flung it over a chair, her hazel eyes twinkling pure mischief as she turned to him. “But surely it should be in your apartment, considering all the action that goes on there.”
 

Nick momentarily followed her gaze, then looked back at his smiling sister. Yeah, she had something on her mind, all right. “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.”

She chortled, sweeping past him to run a gloved finger over the gleaming metal. “It came up for auction in Edmonton. Anyway, I put in an anonymous bid. Apparently the previous owner was eighty-five. Too much for the old boy, perhaps. Do you like it?”

Nick sank back in his seat and stared moodily at the work. What wasn’t to like? It was stunning. Miri’s sculpture of
Lust
, one of her “seven deadly sins” works that she’d talked about that day in the Round Bean. Six feet of gleaming steel featuring two embracing figures and a small plaque at the base bearing the title and the artist’s name.
 

Delicate, graceful, sensual. Like the woman who created it. Even before the delivery men had fully uncovered it, he’d known it was one of her works. That artistic brilliance could only be Miri.

“You shouldn’t have bought it.”
 

He meant it. It might be magnificent, but he wasn’t up for the constant reminder. Not in his office. And definitely not in his apartment.
 

Cate sank into the chair opposite his desk, patting her rain-dampened hair. “It was a pleasure to buy it for you. The bidding was fierce, of course, but I couldn’t resist. Her work has skyrocketed in value. The
Circle of Life
is on the cover of
Sculpture Quarterly
, and anyone and everyone who matters in the sculpting world is talking about Marisa Jamieson.” Cate’s eyes rounded coaxingly. “Have you spoken to her recently?”

Nick frowned his warning. “Not since I left Charmford weeks ago. Stay out of it, Cate.”
 

Not that he hadn’t wanted to call her. Every day he’d picked up his phone, only to put it down again. He’d even booked a flight to New York, but cancelled at the last minute. He couldn’t deal with the mess. No, that wasn’t true. He couldn’t deal with his guilt for walking out on her.

Cate sneezed into a tissue, interrupting his thoughts. “Hope I’m not getting a cold. What about that building she wanted…that old mill? Is it still standing?”

“Uh-huh.”
 

“Why?”

Fair question. The developer had demanded the demolition start immediately after the injunction was lifted, but then had backed off. Nick suspected he now wanted out. The bad publicity could potentially make the whole apartment complex a real estate disaster.

“That’ll be costing you a pretty penny,” Cate continued, a wide, innocent smile on her face. “Why don’t you just give it to her?”
 

Nick stifled a sigh. “Where is all this going?”

“What happened?”

“I told you,” he snapped impatiently, wishing he’d never started this conversation. “Miri and that idiot friend of hers accused us of cheating on the sealed bid process.”

“And did you?”

“Jesus, of course not.”

“What about that site manager you talk about?” She waved a hand. “You know, Pete somebody or other?”

“What about him?”

“Maybe he did it?”

“Don’t you think I had Fitz checked out? Made me feel like a fucking traitor. There were no leaked bids to Brannagh Enterprises.”

“Don’t swear, brother. It’s crude. Did you tell Miri all this?”

Nick sat back, working hard to conceal his exasperation. “Of course, for all the good it did. Why are you asking, anyway?”

“Because Miri is the first woman you’ve ever cared about. I’d given up that you’d ever find someone. Your apartment practically needs a revolving door with all those women coming and going.”

“That’s not something for a sister to be talking about.”
 

For a fact, no woman had so much as quickened his pulse in the past month, let alone been in his bed. Miri had ruined him for anyone else, and that didn’t help his mood. But then, he no longer wanted his old life back. It had been empty. He’d put his company above everything, including the one thing he now wanted more than anything. That he would always want.

 
“Anyway, here’s your tea.” Nick stood, gratefully taking the tray from Amy, meeting her sympathetic “I know what you’re going through” grin with one of his own.
 

Cate’s eyes followed him as he set the tray down on the desk. “You need to shed all that commitment baggage.”

Shit, she could be irritating. “Give it up, Dr. Phil. Besides, Miri has more baggage than American Airlines.”

“Well, you did start off on the wrong foot over that stupid building,” she countered with a shrug. “Stop pouting and go talk to her.”
 

“It wouldn’t make any difference.”

“What
would
make a difference?”

He glared at her. If she didn’t shut up in the next ten seconds, he’d pretend he had a meeting and walk out. “This is none of your damned... ” he started to say, then stopped as his sister’s eyes pooled with tears. “What the hell, sis?”

“I’m sorry. It’s the pregnancy or something. I keep crying over things. I wish you would talk to me.” She blew loudly into her tissue. “Not just brush me off like I’m some irritating person to be tolerated.”

“That’s not true.”
 

But it was. He loved her. He admired her. She just annoyed the hell out of him every so often. Like now. It wasn’t anything in particular. It didn’t help that they lived totally different lives, with her in Toronto and him traveling constantly. He’d pretty much forgotten how to be a brother to her. “What can I say? I don’t mean to come across like that.”

“I just want to be part of your life. Tell me what went wrong.”

This was all he needed. A sobbing sister. He dragged a hand across his jaw, his analytical mind wondering how to deal with the situation. She was pregnant. She was emotional. She was…his annoying sister.
 

He didn’t want to discuss Miri, but Cate looked so damned pathetic, fobbing her off would start her crying again. And she cared about him.
 

Nick rested his elbows on the desk and pressed his fingertips together, working through his thoughts. “From the start, I knew Miri came with complications, and it wasn’t just because she wanted that building so badly. She was wary. So wary that just having dinner with me was a big deal. I found out why at that dinner. She’d lost her parents to a drunk driver a couple of years ago. Being so young, it would have taken every ounce of her strength to get through that hell. To trust her emotions to anybody, let alone someone she barely knew.”
 

He stood and paced to the window, suddenly lost in the memory of that night in his hotel suite. Miri had trusted him completely. Emotionally and physically. And he’d loved that she trusted him.
 

“Go on. You were saying that Miri doesn’t easily trust her emotions.”

“Yeah,” he sighed, returning to his seat. “Anyway, when Alexandra Olivet told her that we’d cheated, that was pretty much it. I was a lying asshole who’d…well,
seduced
her.” He laughed bitterly. “That’s how she thought of it. Like I was some old-fashioned cad who’d taken advantage of her. The thing is, the day after you and I were at the Atlanta Bar, I met Miri at the mill. It seemed like things might work out. The injunction had been lifted, she believed me. All good.”