One Hour to Midnight (31 page)

"Later," he said softly as he swung her in a wide arc putting some space between them as the singer aptly crooned.
..being tired of waiting for love
...
 

To all intents and purposes, they looked the perfect couple which just proved how deceptive could be.
 

When the song ended Leon tucked her hand under his arm and escorted her back to their table. He picked up her silk shawl and draped it around her shoulders, the very attentive husband.

Matt sauntered by and Veronica itched to wipe the smarmy smile from his face.

"Leaving us so early?" he asked, his tone saccharine sweet.
 

"Matt," Leon acknowledged the other man with a frosty smile. "We don't like leaving Jordan for too long."

Matt ran insolent eyes over them and Veronica stood proudly at Leon's side, refusing to shrink from that smirk.
 

"Your style will start a new fashion, Veronica, although not everyone can wear your unadorned simplicity."

"Simplicity has its own beauty," Leon's grey eyes flashed, a lean hand tensed into a fist, "A concept obviously beyond your comprehension, Yorke. Don't let us detain you."
   

Veronica went hot and cold all over. A mortified flush heated her exposed skin. With a sweep of one arm Leon escorted her towards the group he'd been talking to previously. With smooth finesse he said their goodbyes.

Veronica was sure she wasn't the only person who noticed the grim expression in her husband's grey eyes.

 
Leon slanted Veronica a shrewd look as she settled in the passenger seat of his Lexus. Although still, he sensed a gulf widening between them. Something had made her withdraw into herself.
 

"What did Matt say to upset you?" he asked negotiating his way from the portico of the hotel.

Veronica remained silent for long moments and then said in a quiet, emotionless voice, "Nothing I didn't already know."

He frowned. And slanted another keen appraising look her way but gleaned nothing from her still, composed features. Only the clenched hands betrayed her inner turmoil.

He silently cursed his oversight. Every other woman in that room tonight wore jewellery except Veronica, and she was the wife of the CEO of Karvasis Incorporated.

He, more than anyone, knew and understood the social mores of their society. And that it was Matt Yorke who pointed out that glaring omission didn't sit well with him.
 

He would rectify the omission, but would never do to buy Veronica jewellery immediately. Even he wasn't that crass.
 

What the hell else had that obnoxious man said to put that stricken expression on her face? Veronica was the person least able to dissemble that he knew and Yorke had cut her to the heart.
         

"And what was it you already knew?"

She looked at him, eyes shielded by a sweep of dark lashes and gave an expressive shrug. "It's not important."

He laid a hand over the two clenched in her lap. Despite the warm night her hands were icy cold. She shuddered at his touch then went unnaturally still.
       

He cursed silently.

Something in her absolute stillness warned him to be very, very careful. Veronica had shut him out. And for all that the wall was invisible, he sensed it was nigh on impenetrable.

Chapter Nineteen.

R
estlessness was driving Veronica crazy.
 

Two hours of lessons with Jordan every day wasn't enough to keep her unhappy thoughts at bay. Jordan was resting, Leon was working from home today and Cassie was busy supervising staff.

Veronica tapped on Leon's study door and opened it. He looked up from his computer monitor, grey eyes cool and distant.
 

Distinctly uncomfortable, she rushed into speech. "I've an appointment to get my hair done. Jordan's resting. Can you keep an ear out for him?"

"Okay." He glanced down and saved his work and then stood and walked across to her. "Make sure you go with Kelley."

"Why?" Although she liked Kelley, Veronica hated being shadowed by a security agent. "I want to drive myself."

Leon sighed softly and lifted her chin with a firm hand and made her meet his eyes. "I'd prefer you didn't. At Flynn's insistence, we've stepped up security."
 

Of all the things about her life at Claremont, being dogged by a security agent was what she hated most. Veronica wanted to defy Leon then shrugged it away.
 

Flynn, the head of security, was the most pragmatic man she'd ever met and wasn't at all the type to bat at shadows. He must have a reason to beef up security.

"Okay," she conceded with a disgruntled sigh. So much for putting down the hood and blowing the cobwebs from her brain! She alerted Kelley over the intercom and went to retrieve the bag she'd left in her car.
 

Mind elsewhere, Veronica opened the driver's door.

For endless moments she stood rooted to the spot, her shocked mind desperately spinning to assimilate what she saw.

Blood was splattered over the entire car interior. Pinned to the steering wheel was a photo of a blood splattered corpse. An obscene message screamed at her.

You escaped last time. Watch your back.
     

Veronica slammed the car door and backed away from the awful sight, dimly aware that someone was screaming.

Then Leon was there, crushing her against him. His harsh, guttural oath vibrated through her body. He yanked an electronic gizmo from his pocket and pressed a button as he carried her into his office. She collapsed in a chair, her legs incapable of support. Leon crouched in front of her and took her hands, firmly rubbing them to impart some warmth.

Gradually shock gave way to coherent thought.

"Wh-wh-who would do that?" she stuttered.

"I don't know," Leon looked grimmer than she could ever remember seeing him. "But I will find out."
 

Veronica began to shake. "Someone wants me dead?"

"That's my take." Leon gripped her hands, trying to comfort her. "Don't be frightened. We'll keep you safe."

Within moments, it seemed, the house was filled with people. A man in black camouflage scanned the room with an electronic device.

"McKenna will bring the car to the front door. A security officer you will leave with him as a decoy," Leon instructed tersely. "He'll book her into a hotel in the central city under your name."

Veronica, caught in the grip of an obscene nightmare, stared at Leon in horrified confusion. "Where do I go?"

There was a knock on the door. A man came into the room and they conversed so quietly Veronica couldn't follow the conversation then he beckoned to someone in the corridor.

She stared at the newcomer, aghast.

The woman could have been her double. This had all the hallmarks of some pre-planned manoeuvre.
 

"Veronica this is Amanda. Cassie's getting her one of your outfits."

Appalled, Veronica stared. Cassie appeared with the garments and handed them over.

Unnerved, Veronica realised this was her life, and she wanted no part of this drama. Leon approached, dark clothes tossed over his arms. "We want you to change into these, Veronica."
 

"Why?" Was that shaky voice hers?

"Veronica, I know this is a shock." He gripped her hands tightly. "You do realise Yannis was mixed up with some very ruthless people? Now your life has been threatened and we need to move swiftly to ensure your safety. We wouldn't ask this of you, unless we thought it necessary, okay?"

"Where do you want me to go?" Her voice trembled on the words. She was terrified. "What happens now?"

"After your look-a-like has gone, we're going to secrete you away from here."

"Where to?"

"A chalet in the mountains. It's secure and safe, fully wired and the grounds are alarmed. There's an around the clock security team going with you."

Shoulders stiff she looked at him. "Tell me this is some kind of weird joke?"
 

"That photo, threatening note and blood splattered interior is not a joke. It's a warning. Security is treating it as one."

"What about Jordan?"

"Security here will be beefed up. He'll be safe enough." He paused a moment. "Your reaction in walking out is predictable, and was probably the intention behind that threat."

The quiet, prosaic words hurt. Veronica wondered what it would take to stir Leon to a show of real emotion. Did he even care?
 

"How long am I to be incarcerated?" Indignation leached into her voice. "I'd much prefer to return home to New Zealand."

"A week, Veronica." Leon's grim expression gave Veronica her answer. "Give me one week and if we haven't tracked down the perpetrator by then I'll arrange for you to return to Auckland."
 

Chapter Twenty

T
he rustic chalet in the Dandenongs wrapped Veronica in its spell. Her determination to hate it died when she saw it nestled among the towering gum trees. Within a day, the bush gripped her.

She filled the bird feeders and spent hours watching parrots of every shape and colour, honey-eaters, finches and doves visit the feeding stations. At dawn and dusk, kangaroos and other wild animals drank from the dam at the bottom of the rough garden.

And Veronica discovered why Leon and Jordan loved their time in the ranges.

It was quiet and so peaceful.

Of her bodyguard, the taciturn Flynn, Veronica saw nothing except for a quiet greeting morning and night. The house was fully provisioned down to bush clothes, the ubiquitous fawn shirts and shorts, the uniform of country Australians.

And Veronica allowed herself to relax. The burdens and the pressures of Claremont fell away. Jordan was no longer so ill. There was no passion filled nights in Leon's arms. None of the trepidation and anxiety she'd harboured over their relationship.
 

The solitude gave her time to think.

Could she go on with this loveless marriage? Had she been insane to agree to it in the first place? Would her love alone be enough?
 

Fate, and some-one intent on mischief, allowed her time to gather some much needed perspective.
 

~***~

Leon drove towards the chalet his mind in turmoil.
 

He glanced at Sonia, silent in the passenger seat, and knew she shared his disquiet.

"I'm still struggling to believe Andreas could do such a thing."
 

"That young man is in for the shock of his life. He won't like Craven. The regimen they run at that school makes St Augustins look like playschool."

"There's nothing you can do?"

Leon gave her an exasperated glance. "I'm not even about to try, Sonia. I've tried to warn you that Andreas was headed for trouble, but you refused to listen."

One glance at his sister-in-law and he knew that although she was shaken by the events of this past week she was still trying to find excuses for her son's diabolical actions. Her sigh was heavy.

"I know, now his fate rests on Ricki." Sonia gave a derisive snort. "How bloody ironic."

"None of this is her doing, Sonia." Angry, Leon slapped a palm on the steering wheel. "My wife's name is Veronica, use it. She doesn't like being called Ricki, and I for one can't fault her for that stance. Can you blame her? And your son frightened the life out of her, so don't try and make light of it."

"I'm not making light of his actions. But he is only a boy." Sonia pouted but had the sense not to challenge him over Veronica.
 

"He's old enough to know in today's climate, acts of terrorism are not tolerated."

"For god's sake Leon, it was only a harmless prank."

He gave her a disbelieving glance. "You keep telling yourself that Sonia and when he ends up in jail, who will you blame then?"

"You're impossible." She gave an angry huff. "I'm glad I'm flying to Argentina with José next week. I can't take much more of this."

"It's the best outcome for all of you. I hate seeing you so bitter and twisted." Leon laid a hand over hers. "José's a good man, and after marriage to my brother you deserve some happiness. Yannis was despicable."

Sonia's scornful laugh grated. "You, like your parents, only saw in Yannis what you wanted to see. He had a dark, evil side."