Keeping the Peace (41 page)

‘How could you, Finn?’ she whispered.

His hold on her arm softened and he dropped his gaze.

She stepped back, her personal space violated by this stranger.

‘You lied. You’re – you’re a fraud, aren’t you?’ Her heart twisted in anguish. She so wanted the façade which he’d been upholding to have been real. ‘You bastard, Finn. Look at me, dammit!’

He raised his eyes, but couldn’t hold her accusing gaze.

‘You deceived me. You deceived
Jack
,’ she said, tears bubbling at the back of her throat. She backed away from him. ‘You can’t ride Peace Offering tomorrow. I can’t trust you.’

‘Wait, Pippa!’ Finn exclaimed as she tried to escape to her room. He grasped her by the tops of her arms and looked at her with a deep intensity. ‘You
can
trust me. If you’d just let me explain –’

‘Finn, you’re fixing races. What is there to explain?’

He glanced nervously over their shoulders to check for stray ears and licked his lips.

‘Let me explain, please. Come into my room and let me explain.’

For the first time in Finn’s presence, Pippa felt a pang of fear for her safety. Locked in a room with a man whom she thought she knew, but had now turned out to be a criminal?

Finn’s brow furrowed in hurt as her hesitancy betrayed her feelings.

‘
Please
? I won’t hurt you, Pippa. You know that,
a thaisce
.’

Reluctantly, she allowed Finn to guide her into his room, making sure the door was left ajar in case she needed to make a hasty escape.

‘Take a seat while I get us a couple of drinks,’ he said, gesturing to the small lounge suite.

She perched on a chair, her fingers gripping her handbag and watched him pour two generous whiskies and sodas. Her mind swirled with questions, most of which she was too afraid to hear the answer to.

‘What’s going on, Finn?’ she asked at last.

Finn handed her a drink and sat down opposite her.

‘Nothing anymore,’ he replied with a sigh.

‘Are – are you fixing races?’

‘It was only the once, I swear, Pippa,’ he said, leaning forward in his seat. ‘I didn’t want to do it. But I had to. You must believe me.’

‘Why? Why must I believe you? Why did you have to?’

Finn sighed again and swirled his drink around the glass.

‘I couldn’t let Virtuoso win the Gold Cup,’ he mumbled, looking down at his hands.

Pippa’s hand trembled as she took a gulp. Her eyes watered as the fiery spirit burned her throat.

‘You fell off on purpose?’ she whispered.

Finn nodded.

‘It was the only way I could let Skylark win –’

‘Skylark?’ Pippa interrupted. ‘You were on the phone to Cara just now, weren’t you? She works for Skylark. Did she make you do this? Why are you dating her, Finn?’

Finn held up his hand at her barrage of questions.

‘I’m not dating her,’ he said patiently. ‘She’s not my girlfriend, Pippa. She’s –’ He paused and bit his lip. ‘She’s my sister.’

Pippa choked.

‘Your
sister
?’ she echoed. ‘But I thought you said you were an only child.’

‘I know,’ he nodded. ‘It’s a long story. My father was a well-respected jockey. Sportsman of the Year and all that. He was clean as a whistle. Then when I was just a lad, he went AWOL, had an affair with a model from Dublin. Cara was the result. I didn’t know about it at the time. Hell, I was only knee-high. Nobody knew. My da had a reputation to uphold. My mother took him back and Cara was brought up by her mother and took her name. Then when she was old enough, she came looking for her real father. And that’s when I found out I had a half-sister.’

Pippa stared, wide-eyed. She tried to imagine what it must feel like to have grown up thinking you are the sole progeny of your parents, only to find out you’ve had a sibling all along.

‘Anyway, Cara became a model like her mam. But it’s a tough business, Pippa, you have to understand. She did some stupid things when she was a teenager. She was taken advantage of.’

‘What happened?’

‘Some sleazy photographer persuaded her to do a glamour photo shoot, told her he’d make her famous. The usual shite.’ Finn shook his head. ‘Cara believed him. But he never published the photos so she moved on. Then she got a break with Skylark and moved over here. She met Melissa at a fashion gig and she was so excited to have found a connection with me that she told her about us being brother and sister.’

Pippa forgot how to breathe.

‘Melissa knows?’

‘Aye. And when Melissa pretended to be her friend, Cara told her about the dodgy photos. She was worried they’d come back and bite her on the arse.’ His lip curled into a distasteful snarl. ‘Melissa must have thought all her Christmases had come at once. She’d been trying to persuade Aaron Janssen to go into business with her for ages when Rhys Bradford broke his leg, putting me in the driver’s seat. She tracked down the photos and told me if we wanted Cara’s past put to bed then I should let Skylark win the Gold Cup. Everyone knows Janssen is just using horseracing as a marketing strategy so Melissa fixing the Gold Cup for him to win allowed their business venture to go ahead.’

‘Melissa fixed the Gold Cup?’ Pippa cried. ‘No way, Finn. She’s not exactly my favourite person, sure, but not even she is capable of doing something so evil.’

‘You’d better believe it.’ He gave a mirthless chuckle. ‘Melissa the Malicious. She’s too ambitious for her own good – for anybody’s good.’

‘And Aaron Janssen? I can’t believe he’d agree to any of this...’ Her voice faded away at Finn’s sceptical look. ‘Really?’

‘Racing’s nothing more than a marketing tool to him, like I said. I don’t know the exact agreement they came to. All I know is Melissa came to me – in fact you saw us.’

Pippa’s jaw dropped as the memory flooded back.

‘The night at the Turkish restaurant.’

Finn nodded.

‘Yes. She showed me the photos – they were something brutal, Pippa. Really bad.’ His face contorted in anguish. ‘It would have ruined Cara’s career just when it was picking up. Melissa told me she’d destroy the pictures if I let Skylark win the Gold Cup.’

‘But he
didn’t
win the Gold Cup!’

He shrugged and took a sip of his drink.

‘I did all I could. Virtuoso was going to win it doin’ handstands. When I looked around, the only other horse vaguely in contention was Skylark. I put him wrong at the fence, scuppered our chances. No one saw Zodiac coming. What more could I do?’

Pippa stared, unable to answer. She swallowed. Fear for her safety was now replaced with fear for Finn.

‘Wh-what happens now?’ she said. ‘You’re up against Skylark tomorrow in the National. Are you going to make Peace Offering lose too?’

Finn shook his head with vehemence.

‘No,’ he frowned. ‘I’m not doing it again. I did what Melissa asked. It’s not my fault Skylark didn’t win the Gold Cup. It’s not my fault Janssen won’t do this business deal with her now. The photos should have been destroyed already. Cara was just on the phone in a panic because apparently Melissa still has them. Cara thinks I should let Skylark win tomorrow.’

‘You can’t, Finn!’ Pippa cried.

‘I know, I know. That’s what I was saying to her. The National is anyone’s race. Feckin’ hell, there’s forty horses in it. Any of them could win. I’m not going to put my neck on the line again on the off-chance Janssen gets his name on the big screen.’

Pippa licked her lips. Finn was being so sincere. But he had been sincere in the past and look what had happened. Another terrifying thought occurred to her, making her throat contract.

‘What about Jack?’ she whispered. ‘Does he know?’

‘No. Jack is as straight as they come in racing.’

Her shoulders sagged as a sigh of relief washed through her.

‘You have to tell him.’

‘No!’ Finn replied in horror. ‘He’d have me hung, drawn and quartered if he even found out.’

‘But how are you going to get Melissa to destroy the photos? She’s blackmailing you, Finn! Jack would help, I know he would,’ she insisted.

Finn shook his head, a small smile on his face.

‘You are too trusting, Pippa, you know. I didn’t want to involve you in this, it’s an ugly business. Best leave Jack out of it if we possibly can.’

‘Leave Jack out of what exactly?’ an icy voice from the doorway spoke up.

Finn choked on his drink. Pippa spilt hers all over her lap as Jack appeared through the open door.

‘Oh, fuck,’ she murmured.

He walked into the room and looked at them expectantly. Finn and Pippa shrunk in their seats like naughty schoolchildren.

‘Well?’ A muscle jumped in Jack’s jaw and he tapped his fingers against his hips, making him seem even broader and more intimidating.

Pippa darted a look at Finn. He was sitting, dumbstruck in his chair, paralysed with fear. If they could keep Jack calm then he was sure to help, she reasoned with herself. Annoying him by keeping him in the dark would just make things worse.

‘Finn?’ she prompted gently. ‘Tell him.’

The Irishman continued to stare at their boss.

Pippa realised he couldn’t speak even if he wanted to. She glanced behind her at the door.

‘Where’s Melissa?’ she asked.

Jack looked irritated at the diversion.

‘Downstairs waiting for me to fetch you. We were supposed to be meeting for drinks, in case you’ve forgotten.’

‘I – I got side-tracked. Here, you’d better sit down while we explain things.’

‘Explain what?’ he scowled.

Pippa gave him a meaningful look and he grudgingly sat down. She took a deep breath. She wasn’t so sure now how he might take her accusing his girlfriend of blackmail and race-fixing.

‘Right – um. Where shall we start?’ She gave a nervous laugh and looked at Finn.

Now that Jack was sitting down and looking less imposing, Finn seemed to have regained some composure. He downed the rest of his whisky and soda in three giant gulps.

‘I fixed the Gold Cup,’ he announced. ‘I fell off Virtuoso on purpose.’

Pippa held her breath and watched Jack for his reaction.

The trainer became very still. He stared silently at his jockey. His eyes were black.

‘You fixed the Gold Cup?’ he repeated.

‘Yes.’ Finn exhaled as if a burden of consciousness had shifted off his shoulders with his confession.

‘You got the ride on the surest favourite in the biggest race of the season and you threw it away?’ Jack’s voice trembled with rage yet his posture remained still.

Finn nodded.

‘After all the hard work everyone put in, you threw it away for
corruption
?’ Jack’s voice rose like an imminent volcanic eruption.

‘He was being blackmailed though,’ Pippa said quickly.

Jack transferred his glare to her.

‘What for? By whom?’

She exchanged a nervous look with Finn.

‘By Melissa,’ she said in a quiet voice.

Jack’s eyes widened and he sucked in his breath.

‘Ridiculous. Absolutely fucking ridiculous! She
owns
Virtuoso, for God’s sake!’

‘Exactly,’ Finn said. ‘Which is how it was so easy for her.’

Jack stood up and shook a finger at Finn.

‘Be careful what you say, Finn. You are on very shaky ground right now.’

Finn shrugged.

‘In for a penny, in for a pound,’ he said. ‘I was being blackmailed by Melissa to lose on Virtuoso so that Skylark could win.’

Jack stepped backwards, as if he’d been struck and sat down with a thud.

Pippa remembered Melissa’s reaction to the Gold Cup result and how she’d misinterpreted it.

‘Remember how she was so upset, or distracted I think you said, after the Gold Cup?’ she said.

Jack frowned, but nodded.

‘It wasn’t because Virtuoso had fallen. It was because Skylark got beaten on the line by Zodiac.’ Her heart ached to see the confusion raging in Jack’s eyes.

‘But why?’

‘She’d done a deal with Aaron Janssen to combine their labels if she bought him some publicity.’

Jack blinked at her, trying to process the information then looked at Finn.

‘How did you get involved then? What was she – they blackmailing you with?’

Pippa turned to Finn. This part of the story was for him to tell.

‘...but now it turns out the photos are still at large,’ Finn finished his tale for the second time.

Jack, who had sat wordless throughout, continued to stare at him.

Pippa twisted her hands in her jumper. She so wanted to shield Jack from the hurt, yet at the same time she desperately wanted him to believe Finn. His silence became too unbearable.

‘You believe him, don’t you?’ she said.

Jack looked at her, an intense challenge sparking his eyes.

‘Only one way to find out.’ He dipped into his pocket and withdrew his phone. He keyed in a number and without taking his eyes off Pippa, waited while it rang.

‘Hi Melissa – yes, I know you’re still downstairs. Change of plan. Can you come up to Room 288? I’ll explain when you get here... Just come up, will you? Thank you. Okay, see you in a minute.’ He snapped his phone closed and looked at them both, like a courtroom judge awaiting the final witness to testify on their case.

Pippa gulped. She felt like an amateur swimmer who’d just survived one tidal wave, only to see another approaching. Above the deathly silence in which they sat awaiting Melissa’s arrival, she could hear Jack grinding his teeth. She hazarded a look. He was watching her in a curious yet distracted way. His outward composure was surprisingly calm, only the movement of his jaw betrayed his tension. She bit her lip, wanting to apologise to him. She knew she had nothing to be sorry for – hell, all she had done was come round to raid the minibar. But the need to protect Jack was almost overwhelming.

Ridiculous! She mocked herself that he should need her protection. He was the most strong-minded, strong-willed man she knew, who could withstand the hardest knocks yet for some reason...

‘Jack, are you in here?’ Melissa called from the doorway.

His eyes flickered away from Pippa and he spoke over his shoulder.