Counterfeit Love (16 page)

Lucy dragged her suitcase through Hong Kong Airport, feeling strangely homesick. Mandy had stayed in Singapore, so Lucy was travelling on her own.

Even though she was perfectly capable of sitting on a plane by herself, Lucy was feeling very conspicuously alone as she walked into the throng of people in the arrivals hall. All around her couples and families were being reunited – hugs of relief, tears of joy and welcome-back kisses filled the space.

Lucy glanced around enviously, then looked at the name boards being held up by drivers, half-hoping to see
Yang
among them, even though she knew no-one would be waiting for her. The only friend who knew her arrival details was Charlotte. She wouldn’t be there to meet her because it was 10 a.m. on a Friday morning, so she’d be at work.

Lucy took a moment to enjoy everyone else’s happiness before pulling her suitcase towards the train station. She was on the late shift and had just enough time to get home and get sorted before she had to be back in the office. She had only taken a few steps when someone tapped her on the shoulder from behind. She turned, and a huge smile spread across her face.

‘
Byron
!’ Before she’d had time to work out if it was a good idea or not, Lucy had thrown herself into his arms.

Byron pulled her towards him and they kissed as if nothing had ever gone wrong between them. And as though they’d been separated for years, not days. She let herself enjoy the pleasure of his arms around her back, his chest pressed against her body, the smell of his freshly showered skin, the feel of his lips against hers.

‘I’ve missed you,’ Byron whispered, when they finally managed to ease themselves apart.

Lucy laughed. ‘How could you miss me? I’ve been on camera all day, every day. You must be totally sick of seeing me.’

‘Never. But you’re a terrible distraction! I’ve spent the whole time glued to TVi waiting for your next report, when I should have been … ’ He looked down and grabbed the handle on Lucy’s suitcase. ‘I should have been working.’

Lucy smiled, but a twinge of tension crept in between her shoulders as she wondered what he was working on. She pushed it aside.

She’d decided to trust him. If he had secrets, he had reasons for them. She wasn’t going to let them get in the way of loving him. He looked even dreamier than she’d remembered – good enough to eat, in a mauve checked shirt and silver tie. She didn’t want to think about secrets – she just wanted to get on with the champagne at his apartment. Just a shame she had to go to work in the meantime.

‘It’s nice to be back,’ Lucy smiled, taking Byron’s hand.

‘My car’s this way,’ Byron said as they walked towards the exit.

‘Oh,’ Lucy said, surprised. ‘I didn’t know you had a car.’

Byron smiled. ‘I didn’t know you looked so good after a flight.’

Lucy cringed. She hadn’t given her appearance a second’s thought until now. She’d been obsessively retouching her makeup and worrying about her hair the whole time she was at the summit (especially when she realised Charlotte and Byron were keeping tabs on her). But she’d given herself the morning off – partly because she was in a rush, and partly because she hadn’t expected anyone to meet her at the airport.

She wondered how bad she actually looked in her jeans and ballet flats, her face unmade and her hair limp. It was sweet of Byron to pretend she looked all right, but in truth she must have looked like just another girl getting off a flight from Singapore. Certainly not like a TV reporter.

‘Sorry, I would have made a bit of an effort if I’d known you were coming to meet me.’

Byron shook his head and kissed her hand. ‘Save it for the camera. You’re perfect exactly like you are now.’

Lucy smiled.
What a charmer
. ‘So, how did you know when I was arriving? I don’t remember giving you my flight details.’

Byron shook his head. ‘Charlotte told me.’

‘You spoke to Charlotte?’

Byron stopped beside a new black BMW in the car park, unlocked the car and opened the boot. ‘I was on my way past your apartment yesterday, so I called in to check when you were arriving.’ He put her bag in the boot and slammed it shut.

‘That’s very thoughtful of you.’ Lucy climbed into the car, wondering how Byron could afford a car like that. Owning any car in Hong Kong was a luxury that most of her friends did without. ‘Nice car,’ she said.
Maybe I should get into digging dirt
, she thought.

Byron got in. ‘A gift.’

Lucy felt a tiny knot in her stomach.
What kind of guy gets a car as a gift?
She tried to remind herself that she was trusting Byron and not questioning him, but as she breathed in the fresh leather upholstery her resolve began to waver. She wanted to have faith in him, but she also wanted to know more about his work – not even the details, but she just needed to know a little bit.

‘So, a very generous gift … ’ Lucy began tentatively as Byron started up the car and drove off. The car tyres squealed as they wound their way out of the car park.

‘Embarrassing, really. I shouldn’t have even mentioned it.’

‘Why is a gift embarrassing?’

Byron shrugged. Then his mobile went off, providing him with the perfect excuse to avoid the question. ‘
Crap
,’ he muttered, glancing at his phone. He ignored the call, but a few seconds later a text beeped.

Lucy watched Byron as he checked his phone, concerned that he was driving while reading his text, but more annoyed that he’d wriggled off the hook so easily. She considered her next move as Byron put the phone down.

‘Everything all right?’ Lucy asked.

‘Yep, all good,’ Byron replied, but his expression suggested it was anything
but
good.

‘You sure?’

‘Yep, couldn’t be better.’ He smiled tensely.

‘So, you haven’t even mentioned the results of the race,’ Lucy said brightly. She’d caught some coverage of the China Sea Race early that morning.

‘Which race?’

‘The China Sea Race,’ Lucy said, surprised. It seemed pretty odd that Byron had been support crew for a big ocean race and then forgotten about it so quickly.

‘Oh,
that
race. Yeah,
Hound Dog
took line honours. A bit odd, really.
Impetuous
snapped its keel and had to turn back and
Carthage
screwed things up, went too far south and missed the wind.’

Lucy smiled. ‘A big celebration, was it? Your boss must have been pretty happy.’

Byron nodded. ‘A wild night last night. That’s why I’m still looking a bit grey this morning.’

Lucy frowned. He looked fine. He looked more than that – he was glowing. ‘You were out with your boss, then? I’ve forgotten what you said his name was.’

Byron glanced at her sideways, looking slightly confused. ‘No, he was in Manila for the end of the race. That’s where the real party was.’

‘Surprised you’re not there, too,’ Lucy said.

Byron shrugged. ‘I had to get back to work. Hence this.’ He tugged on his tie, then turned and gave Lucy a smile that was enough to give her goosebumps.

No more questions
, she thought.
Just leave it alone, just let it go.

Then Byron’s phone went off once more.

What timing!
It was almost as if he’d programmed it to ring whenever he was faced with a tricky situation.

Lucy turned away as Byron answered the call. But the caller was talking so loudly she could practically hear everything he said.

‘I need you in Malaysia,’ the guy was saying.

‘What about Cal?’ Byron mumbled.

‘I need you with Tang! Cal’s going to Guangzhou.’

‘Gotta call you back,’ Byron muttered and ended the call.

He glanced at Lucy. She pretended she was busy on her phone, but a chill ran down her spine. She looked ahead, into the glare of another smoggy day, but it was like she was seeing clearly for the first time in a week as the words
Tang
and
Malaysia
came together in her mind. There was one Tang in Malaysia that everyone wanted to know about, and that was the match-fixing kingpin. That had to be the one Byron’s caller was talking about.

Lucy’s mind ticked over at a thousand kilometres a second, trying to make sense of the brief conversation.
Is Byron involved in the match-fixing syndicate, too?
Lucy shivered at the thought – it would explain why Byron had been glued to the news over the past few days and knew so much about the story – gang members were being busted all over Asia. Lucy glanced at Byron. His left knee was jiggling up and down. Something was putting him on edge. Byron tossed his phone onto the console, his eyes focused on the road.

‘All good?’ Lucy asked nervously.

Byron flinched, looking slightly startled at the sound of Lucy’s voice, as if he had forgotten she was still there.

‘Just my boss – asking for the impossible – as usual.’

‘I know that feeling,’ Lucy smiled. ‘Are you sure you’ve got time to take me home? Maybe you should get back to the office.’

‘No, it’s all fine, all fine,’ he said, running his hand through his hair. ‘I get a lot more done when I’m out of the office.’

‘Like when I saw you at the Art Bar?’ she asked.

Byron frowned, kept his eyes on the road and ignored her question completely.

As the road drifted down into a cross-harbour tunnel, Lucy’s mind went back to the yacht race.
Hound Dog
had been an outside chance to get line honours, but it had won in very strange circumstances. Anyone who’d put money on
Hound Dog
would surely have got fantastic odds. She wondered if the meeting at the Art Bar had anything to do with race fixing. The whole thing still didn’t add up in Lucy’s mind – the secretive drop-off, Byron sitting near Mr Safari Suit, but not with him.

‘Byron, what were you really doing at the Art Bar?’

He looked at her sharply, then went through his nervous ritual – his hand running through his hair and then his fingers tapping out a monotonous beat on the steering wheel.

‘I’ve told you,’ he said, stiffly. ‘Remember?’

Then he stopped drumming his fingers, reached out and put his hand on Lucy’s. He squeezed it gently. ‘How about breakfast at the American Club?’

Lucy shook her head. She’d lost her appetite. ‘Not today. I just need to get home and get sorted before I go into work.’

‘Sure, no problem. Maybe on the weekend.’ Byron smiled. ‘I bet you’d like the pool there.’

‘I’m sure I would,’ Lucy said curtly. What she really wanted was a few straight answers. ‘Byron, why can’t you tell me what you do?’

Byron glanced at Lucy. ‘I promise I’ll tell you about it. When this is all over. I know this must be really frustrating. But I’ll tell you everything. Just not right now.’

Byron was probably trying to reassure Lucy, but she felt more worried than ever about what he was doing. ‘Is it something illegal?’ she asked tentatively. ‘You’re not involved in match fixing, are you?’

Byron looked shocked for a moment and then laughed. ‘No,
that
I can promise you.’ He took her hand and kissed her fingers one by one. Lucy felt her doubts about Byron’s work slip to the back of her mind.

‘You have to trust me on this. I’ll tell you everything. Soon.’

Lucy wanted more than anything to believe him. But by doing so, was she letting the biggest story of her career slip right through her fingers? She just didn’t know. But as Byron’s lips moved to her wrist, she was beginning to feel like it didn’t really matter. By the time they reached Lucy’s apartment, she’d pushed the match-fixing story in the dark recesses of her mind. All she could think about was getting inside and rediscovering Byron.

They kissed all the way up the stairs, unable to wait until they got into the apartment. Lucy fumbled in her bag for her keys in between kisses, then she turned and found the front door ajar. That was strange. Charlotte should have left hours ago.

Lucy gently pushed the door open. ‘Char …’ she began. Then she gasped at the sight in front of her.

‘
Holy crap
,’ Byron breathed.

The apartment had been ransacked.

Lucy dropped her handbag and stumbled inside in a daze. A trail of destruction stretched from the entry into the kitchen and around the lounge room. Lucy picked her way into her bedroom. The whole room had been turned upside down – drawers upended, shoeboxes emptied, makeup everywhere. Lucy rushed to the bedside table where she kept her few valuables. The drawer had gone but the jewellery was on the floor. Even the cash that she kept with it was still there.

Byron followed her into the bedroom and put his arm around her. ‘I’m glad you weren’t here when these guys came through.’

Lucy gasped. ‘What about Charlotte?’

She reached for her bag, then remembered she’d put it down somewhere. Her apartment was such a mess that she couldn’t see where. ‘Where’s my phone?’ She could hear the panic in her voice.

Byron pulled his phone out of his pocket, called Charlotte’s number and handed the mobile to Lucy. She breathed a sigh of relief when her flatmate answered on the second ring, sounding her usual bubbly self. Lucy was tempted to not spoil Charlotte’s day by telling her the bad news, but it just came out anyway. Charlotte responded the way she always did in a crisis.

‘
Oh, bollocks
. You okay?’

‘Yes, fine. I guess.’

‘Right. Everything is mad in the office today with this event on tonight. But I’ll be there in an hour and I’ll bring a team of maids to sort out the mess. I’ll call a locksmith. You call the police. Byron’s still there?’

‘Yes, he’s here.’

‘Thank god. Make sure he stays with you until the locksmith arrives.’

‘Of course, thanks. Thanks Charlotte.’

Lucy ended the call and handed the phone back to Byron.

‘You think they took anything?’ he asked, looking around the room.

Lucy shrugged feebly, feeling violated by the break-in and exhausted by the mess in front of her. ‘I can’t tell. It doesn’t look like it. But why would someone break in and not steal anything – money, a TV, stereo?’

‘Guess they were looking for something in particular.’

Lucy frowned. ‘Like what?’