Escapade (9 page)

CHAPTER

SEVEN

J
osh
had flown back to Opal Cay relieved to find that I his brother had done m
ore than his share of work. He
worried that Brad might think he was being spied on, but he’d smooth that over later.

What really bothered Josh was some gossip he’d heard while he was having drinks with the business group in Montego Bay. One of Mikapoulis’s associates who gambled had mentioned seeing Brad at Marc Donner’s casino in Las Vegas recently.

Josh knew his brother. Once Brad started gambling, he wouldn’t quit, and lately he was losing heavily. Josh knew Marc Donner all too well through one of his former executives. Donner always collected when someone owed him, and he was precise about his methods. Brad hadn’t mentioned that he owed money or that he might be in trouble. But lots of odd little comments from Brad began to form an unpleasant picture in Josh’s mind.

If he was right—if Brad had Donner breathing down his neck—it was amazing that his brother hadn’t asked for help. Was it because he knew Josh wouldn’t give it?

Bailing out Brad again would only send him right back into the casinos. He would have had to say no. But could he risk letting Brad get himself killed in the process?

He couldn’t do much until he could get Brad to confess his situation, if he was really in one. So many complications, Josh thought wearily. He took another draw from his cigar. Before Harrison Todd’s death, his big worry had been acquiring a new prospect in the Bahamas and closing the deal in the Middle East. Now he had the financial headache Harrison had left and the grief of losing his business partner, who was also a friend. Amanda’s presence had stirred thoughts and feelings Josh preferred to keep buried, and Brad might be in danger of being destroyed by a gambling debt. He chuckled with black humor as he considered dropping himself into a shark’s mouth. With his luck, he mused, the shark would throw him back up and complain that he tasted of tobacco— which was not a bad excuse for smoking, he thought. He’d have to try it out at his next executive meeting. Yet he was going to give up smoking. He’d asked Dina to enroll him in that seminar.

He wasn’t really hooked, of course. It was just something to do with his hands. But it made a good impression with his board of directors, since many of them were also hooked.

He strolled outside and drank in the tropical atmosphere of the cay. All around, hibiscus and bougainvillea and jasmine bloomed in royal splendor. Ordinarily he enjoyed their perfumed beauty, but today he was much too preoccupied. He went back inside. Amanda hadn’t come down for dinner yet, and he imagined she was packing for her trip back tomorrow. He would miss her,
but he had no choice other than to let her go. Her job would help her cope.

The fax he’d just received from Ward Johnson was still lying on his desk. He pursed his lips as he studied it again. Everything looked solvent. But Amanda had said that although it might look solvent on paper, the production was far from efficient. He believed her. Johnson had every reason to stack the deck in his favor, and there were some dubious entries on the spreadsheet.

There was a tap on the door. Amanda stood just in the doorway, dressed in jeans and a yellow tank top, her hair in a bun. She looked young and defensive.

“
Mima’s putting supper
on the table, if you’re ready.
” She started to move away.

“Come in and close the door,
”
he said unexpectedly.

She was reluctant to be alone with him after her honesty earlier in the day. Thinking it silly to show her fear, she closed the door and turned to him, her hands behind her as she leaned against the door. “What is it?” she asked.

He perched himself on the edge of the desk. “Johnson faxed me
the la
test figures on the paper. It looks solvent.”

She smiled wickedly, with a trace of her old humor. “From a distance, a white duck looks like a sea gull. He hasn’t raised job work prices in two years.”

“The figures indicate that he has.”

She shifted. “Then it must be a recent change.”

He nodded. “Very recent.
Say, in the past few hours.”
He smiled at her stare. “I told you I could read a spreadsheet. I know padded figures when I see them.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “You can try your luck at rearranging things, if you like,” he told her. “If
push comes to shove, and he threatens to kick you out, remind him who you are. There are ways to get around reactionaries, Amanda, if you use your brain. You don’t have to confront him head on.”

She laughed gently. “Something I’ve learned from you,” she agreed.

“Another thing,” he said with narrowed, threatening eyes. “Has my brother said anything to you about being in hock up to his eyes to a Las Vegas casino owner?”

She frowned. “No. Is he?”

“I think so,” he replied. “He hasn’t asked me for anything. I’m not sure he will. But if he mentions it to you, I’d like to know. I still think he needs counseling, but I'm not going to throw him to the wolves. Whatever his weaknesses, he’s my brother.”

“I know that. So does he, I’m sure.”

“Gambling is a disease,” he said wearily. “If I bail him out, he’ll go right back to it again. I wish I knew the answer.”

“Brad is jealous of you sometimes,” she told him. “He’s smart and he can charm, but he’s not you.”

“We were raised very differently,” he replied. His eyes fell to his cigar. “I had nothing of love. My mother was a gadfly, and my father was just as bad. They stuck me in military school and put Brad in the care of one governess after another.”

“
Most of whom he seduced when he was in his teens,” she said dryly.

He didn’t smile. His dark eyes were somber. “Then they sent him to high school. So he could only seduce girls his own age. How did you ever escape?”

“I was off limits,” she said. “Brad told me so once.
I’m the only woman he can talk to about his other women,” she said, laughing.

He stuck a hand in his slacks pocket and puffed on the cigar. The air-conditioned room had a huge, expensive filtering system that took out the pungent smell. Josh indulged his habit, but he was very careful not to subject anyone to secondhand smoke.

“Why do you smoke?” she asked abruptly.

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s to keep from overeating.”

“You’ll never be fat. You’re too busy.”

“Wearing out from the inside, I think you said.”

Her pale green eyes scanned his face. “I hope you won’t kill yourself with work. You don’t have anyone around you who would sit up with you if you got sick or collapsed. Brad is very rarely here. Ted is kind, but he lets you intimidate him.”

“Would you sit up with me?” he asked cynically. “Soothe my fevered brow and spoon-feed me?”

Her face closed up. “Isn’t that what friends are for?” She turned and put her hand on the doorknob.

“I’d do it for you, too,” he said curtly. His face hardened. “I’d do anything for you, Amanda.”

Her eyes half closed. “Anything except let me get close to you,” she whispered.

With a rough sigh he turned back to his desk and braced his hands on it. They turned white. He didn’t move. After a minute he heard the door open and close. The finality of it echoed in his ears.

D
espite the way they’d parted, Amanda was gay and pleasant over the rather late dinner that Harriet prepared.

Brad showed up midway through dessert, looking smug and weary.

Josh recognized the look, but he didn’t say a word. Brad’s private life, and the way he conducted it, was his own business. He’d been coddling his baby brother too long already. It was time to step back and see if Brad could handle life by himself.

“Want some dessert?” Amanda offered.

“No thanks. I ate in Jamaica before I flew home. I saw Terri,” he added, glancing at Josh and unaware of the stiffness of Amanda’s face at the news Josh hadn’t mentioned to her. “She said you’d been by to shake a few hands. How’d I do, boss?”

“I’ll slip a bonus into next month’s check,” Josh said, chuckling. “I’m proud of you.”

Brad tried not to look too pleased. “Thanks. I think I’ll have coffee, anyway. Harriet!”

A
fter they ate, Josh was called to the telephone, as was usual in the evenings. Brad and Amanda walked out onto the porch to sit on wicker chairs and listen to the sounds of the night. The surf was muffled here, but pleasant and calming.

“I gather that you closed the deal,” she murmured.

“The original one, and another besides,” he said smugly. “It feels pretty good to have my big brother proud of me once in a while. God knows I hardly ever please him.” He glanced at her. “If you’re still determined to go home tomorrow, I’ll go with you. I can’t leave my department hanging by Frederick Karlan’s fingernails much longer, or he’ll have my job! He’s ambitious that Karlan.”

“You’re irreplaceable. Ask anyone,” she said glibly. He stretched and yawned. He hadn’t had much sleep. He’d promised to phone Barbara the next time he was in Jamaica, and he would. She was a pleasant little diversion.

“Brad, can I ask you something?”

“Sure. What?”

“Are you in some sort of trouble?”

He hesitated, but only for a minute. “Yes,” he said. He folded his hands on his knees and leaned forward. “But that bonus Josh promised will help. And I’ll turn up something,” he added. “It’s nothing I can talk about.”

“You and Josh and your secrets,” she mused sadly. “Everybody’s got a secret.”

“Even you?”

She had, but Josh knew it. He knew exactly how she felt. But he didn’t want her to love him. Her inferiority complex told her that it was her lack of beauty, of sensuality, of talent, that kept him away. It might be the specter of Terri, too. He hadn’t wanted to marry Terri, whatever he’d felt for her. Amanda couldn’t help wondering if Josh had some dark secret that made him afraid of commitment. Perhaps it was something from his childhood.

“
Was your father unkind to you and Josh?” she asked.

“He was distant,” he replied. “Not very communicative or very affectionate. Josh had less attention than I did. He was always alone. No one ever did anything for him unless he paid them.”

She winced at the thought. At least he knew she’d never cared about his money.

“Women would love him anyway,” he said dryly.

“He’s very good looking,” she agreed.

“Terri and her new husband are coining to stay at the cay next week,” he said absently. He’d invited them, and Terri had accepted. He hadn’t told Josh yet, and he was totally unaware of what had happened between Josh and Amanda in his absence. “I hope to God Josh doesn’t involve himself in a manage a trois while they’re here and kill a million-dollar deal with that Greek tycoon Terri married. I know he still aches for her, but Greeks are possessive and vengeful. Terri looks sad when she talks about him. Marriage or not, she hasn’t stopped caring about Josh
.
” He hoped he hadn’t committed a real blunder by making the invitation without checking with Josh first. He’d have to mention it to his brother later.

Amanda’s ego took a nose-dive. Certainly Josh hadn’t mentioned Tem or her husband or any visit to her. Perhaps that was why he didn’t mind if she went back to San Antonio. Perhaps the reason he had rejected her had nothing to do with her appearance, but everything to do with Terri. Maybe he still loved Terri after all this time.

That would make sense. Amanda couldn’t imagine letting anyone except Josh touch her. If he felt that way about Terri, then his withdrawal from Amanda was terribly understandable.

She felt sick.

“You’re very quiet.”

“I’m thinking about work Monday,” she said, faking pleasure that she didn’t feel. “I’m going to make a few little changes around the old place and see what happens. Brad, my boy, I think I have it in me to become the Lady Astor of the job press set.”

“More power to you,” he replied dryly. “Put me on
the invitation list when you hold your first presidential primary. I can hardly wait.”

“President Todd. That has a nice ring to it,” she agreed. She leaned toward him. “But if I married, wouldn’t my husband balk at having to wear an evening gown to receptions?”

He laughed lazily. Amanda could always cheer him up. “You have to get married first.”

“Not me,” she said. “Not even to get control of the
Gazette.”

“That’s right,” he said to himself. “You would get control immediately if you married, wouldn’t you?”

“Forty-nine percent of it, anyway,” she replied. “I’ll be twenty-five in two years. If I can survive that long.”

Brad didn’t say a word. His eyes narrowed as he looked more closely at Amanda, the girl he had known forever. He had no doubt that she would somehow succeed and one day run the paper and job press more profitably than ever. Whoever married Amanda would not only win a devoted wife, but probably a small fortune as well.

A
manda was on her way up to bed the next time she saw Josh. He and Brad had been closeted in the study for a long time, and then Brad had gone to the living room to watch a movie on a satellite channel.