Rescued by the Brooding Tycoon (3 page)

‘No, I wasn’t given the chance,’ Darius snapped. ‘Rancing has vanished. Next thing, I received papers that transferred ownership of Herringdean to me. His cellphone is dead, his house is empty. Nobody knows where he is, or if they do they’re not talking. I can either accept the island or go without anything.’

‘But it’ll be more trouble than it’s worth,’ Amos spluttered.

‘I’m inclined to agree with you,’ Darius murmured.

‘So you know something about it?’

‘A little. I need to go back and inspect it further.’

‘And you’re counting on it to pay your debts?’

‘I don’t know. But in the meantime I could do with an investor to make a one-time injection of cash and help me out.’

‘Meaning me?’

‘Well, as you’re always telling me, you’ve survived the credit crunch better than anyone.’

‘Yes, because I knew how to treat money.’

‘Like a prisoner who’s always trying to escape,’ Darius recalled.

‘Exactly. That’s why I came to live here.’

He pushed open the door that led out onto the balcony overlooking the view over the bay that now glittered with lights against the darkness.

‘I talked to a journalist once,’ Amos recalled. ‘She asked me all sorts of tom-fool questions. Why had I chosen to live in Monte Carlo? Was it just the tax relief or was there something else? I brought her out here and became lyrical about the view.’

‘That I would have loved to hear,’ Darius said.

Amos grinned. ‘Yeah, you’d have been proud of me. The silly woman swallowed it hook, line and sinker. Then she wrote some trash about my being a man who appreciated peace and beauty. As though I gave a damn about that stuff.’

‘Some people think it has value,’ Darius murmured.

‘Some people are fools,’ Amos said firmly. ‘I’d be sorry to think you were one of them. You’ve got yourself into a mess and you need me to get you out.’

‘Two firms I did business with went bankrupt, owing me money,’ Darius said grimly. ‘I hardly created the mess myself.’

‘But you made it worse by giving Mary everything she asked for in the divorce settlement.’

‘That was before the crisis. I could afford it then.’

‘But you didn’t leave yourself any room for manoeuvre, no way to claw any of it back. You forgot every lesson I ever taught you. Now you want me to pour good money after bad.’

‘So you won’t help me?’

‘I didn’t say that, but we need to talk further. Not now. Later.’

Darius spoke through gritted teeth. ‘Will my father invest in me, or will he not?’

‘Don’t rush me.’

‘I have to. I need to make my decisions quickly.’

‘All right, here’s a way forward for you to consider. A rich wife, that’s what you need, one who’ll bring you a thumping great dowry.’

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘Freya. She’s already my stepdaughter, and I want her properly in the family as my daughter-in-law.’

Darius stared. His ears were buzzing, and somewhere there was the memory of Freya, on the drive from the airport, saying, ‘Your father’s got some really mad ideas. Someone needs to tell him to forget them.’

She’d refused to elaborate, but now he understood.

‘Why not?’ Amos asked genially. ‘You like the girl, you were laughing together at dinner—’

‘Yes, I like her—far too much to do her such an injury, even if she’d agree, which she wouldn’t, thank goodness. Do you really think you could make me crawl to do your bidding? If I have one thing left it’s my independence, and I won’t part with that.’

‘Then you’ll buy it at a high price. Don’t blame me when you go bankrupt.’

Darius gave a cold smile. ‘I’ll remember.’

He turned and walked away, resisting the temptation to slam the door. Within an hour he’d left the house.

CHAPTER TWO

T
HE
storm that swept over Herringdean had been violent, and nobody was surprised when the lifeboat was called out to an emergency. A small crowd had watched the boat plunge down the slipway into the sea, and a larger one gathered to see it return later that night.

Soon the rescued victims had been taken ashore into the waiting ambulance and the crew were free to exhale with relief and remove their life jackets.

Harriet took out her cellphone, dialled and spoke quickly. ‘Is he all right? Good. I’ll be home soon.’

When they had all finished making their report she slipped away and was followed by Walter and Simon, fellow crew members and friends.

‘Hey, Harry,’ Walter called. ‘You sounded worried on the phone. Is someone ill?’

‘No, I was just checking on Phantom. I left my neighbour looking after him. She promised to keep him safe.’

‘Safe? Why suddenly? You never worried before.’

‘I never had cause before. But now I worry. He’s a very powerful man.’

‘Who?’

From her pocket she took a newspaper cutting with a photograph and passed it to Walter.

‘“Darius Falcon,”’ he read. ‘“Giant of commerce, skilled manipulator, the financial world is agog to know if he will avert disaster—”’ He lowered the paper. ‘How does a big shot come to know Phantom?’

‘Because he’s bought the island,’ she said. ‘Rancing had money troubles and he solved them by selling this place.’

Simon swore. ‘And not a word to the people who live here, of course.’

‘Of course. What do we matter to men like that, up there on their lofty perch? If you could have seen him as I did, arrogant and sure of himself—’

‘You’ve met him?’ Simon demanded.

‘He came here a couple of days ago and I saw him on the beach. Phantom made a mess of his suit and he got mad, said he’d make me pay for a new one, and Phantom shouldn’t be allowed out. So tonight, I asked my neighbour to watch over him while I was away, in case…well, just in case.’

‘Hell!’ Walter said. ‘But is he really as bad as you say? If you two had a dust-up he probably just got a bit peeved—’

‘You didn’t see his face. He was more than a bit peeved. Now, I must get home.’

She hurried away, leaving the two men gazing after her, frowning with concern.

‘Surely she’s overreacting?’ Simon mused. ‘A bodyguard for a dog? A bit melodramatic, surely?’

‘She’s been that way for the last year,’ Walter sighed. ‘Ever since her husband died. Remember how good she and Brad were together? The perfect marriage. Now all she has left is his dog.’

‘Hmm,’ Simon grunted. ‘Personally, I never liked Brad.’

‘You say that because you fancied her rotten.’

‘Sure, me and every other man on the island. Let’s go for a drink.’

Harriet’s car made quick time from the harbour to Ellarick, then to the little shop that she owned, and above which she lived. As she looked up the window opened and Phantom’s head appeared, followed by that of a cheerful middle-aged woman. A moment later she was climbing the stairs to throw her arms about the dog.

‘Mmm,’ she cooed, and he responded with a throaty growl that sounded much the same.

‘No problems?’ she asked Mrs Bates, the neighbour who’d kept watch in her home.

‘No sign of anyone.’

‘Let me make you a cup of tea,’ Harriet offered gratefully.

But Mrs Bates refused and departed. She was a kindly soul and she knew Harriet wanted to be alone with Phantom, although how she could bear the loneliness of the apartment Mrs Bates couldn’t imagine.

But to Harriet it would never be lonely while Phantom was there. She hugged him fiercely before saying, ‘Come on, let’s take a walk. You need space to go mad in.’

They slipped out together into the darkness and walked down through the streets of the town, heading for the shore.

‘But not “the ogre’s” private beach,’ she said. ‘From now on, that’s out of bounds.’

They found a place on the public sands where they could chase each other up and down in the moonlight.

‘That’s enough,’ she gasped at last. ‘Yes, I know you could go on till morning, but I’m out of puff.’

She threw herself down on the sand and stretched out on her back. Phantom immediately put a heavy paw on her chest, looking down into her face while she ruffled his fur.

‘That’s better,’ she sighed. ‘How could he not like you when you were trying so hard to be friendly? Being hurled to the ground by you is a real privilege. You don’t do it for everyone.’ She gave a soft grunt of laughter. ‘Just people with expensive clothes. If he really does send me the bill you’ll be on plain rations for a long time. So will I, come to think of it.’

He woofed.

‘The funny thing is, when I first saw him…he seemed decent, as if he really loved the sun and the fresh air; like someone who’d found himself in heaven. But when I discovered who he was he looked different. And then he was so rotten to you—’

Suddenly she sat up and threw her arms around the dog.

‘You must be careful,’ she said fiercely. ‘You must, you
must
! If anything happened to you I couldn’t bear it.’

Harriet buried her face against him. Phantom made a gentle sound, but he didn’t try to move. This often happened, and he knew what he must do: keep still, stay warm and gentle, just be there for her. Instinct told him what she needed, and his heart told him how to give it.

‘They think I’m crazy,’ she whispered, ‘getting paranoid over your safety. Well, perhaps I really am crazy, but you’re all I’ve got—without you, there’s no love or happiness in the world…only you…’

She kissed him and gave a shaky laugh.

‘I expect you think I’m crazy too. Poor old boy. Come on, let’s get home and you can have something special to eat.’

They left the beach, climbing the gently sloping road that led to the town. Suddenly she stopped. Far away, she could just make out the house where Rancing had lived before he fled, and where ‘the ogre’ would soon appear. It went by the grandiose name of Giant’s Beacon, which might have been justified in its great days, but seemed rather over-the-top now that it was in a state of disrepair. At this distance it was tiny, but it stood out against the moonlit sky, and she could just make out that lights were coming on.

‘He’s here,’ she breathed. ‘Oh, heavens, let’s get home, fast.’

They ran all the way, and as soon as they were safely inside Harriet locked the door.

Within hours of Darius’s arrival the news had spread throughout the island. Kate, who’d kept house for Rancing, had a ready audience in the pub that evening.

‘You should see the computers he’s brought,’ she said. ‘Dozens of ’em. One for this and one for that, and something he calls “video links” so he can talk to people on the other side of the world, and there they are on the screen, large as life. It’s like magic.’

The others grinned. Kate had never quite come to terms with the dot-com revolution, and most modern communications struck her as magic. She had little idea that behind its sweet, traditional image Herringdean was a more modern place than it looked.

Darius was also making the discovery, and was delighted with it. For a while he would be able to run his main business and his many subsidiary businesses, controlling everything from the centre of the web. It would be enough until he was ready to turn this place to his financial advantage.

Checking through the figures, he discovered that it was larger than he’d thought, about a hundred square miles with a population of a hundred and twenty thousand. Sheep and dairy farming flourished, so did fishing, and there were several industries, notably boat building and brewing. Ellarick was not only a flourishing town, but a port with its own annual regatta.

One source of prosperity was tourism. Now summer was coming, the hotels were filling up as visitors began to flood the island, seeking tranquillity in the country lanes or excitement in the boats.

Ellarick also contained an elderly accountant called James Henly, who had dealt with Rancing’s business. An early visit from him pleased Darius with the news that the rent paid to him by the other inhabitants was considerable, but also displeased him with the discovery that he was the victim of yet another piece of sharp practice.

‘Mr Rancing persuaded several of his larger tenants, like the breweries, to pay him several months’ rent in advance,’ Henly explained in his dry voice. ‘Apparently, he convinced them that there would be tax advantages. I need hardly say that I knew nothing about this. I was away and he took advantage of my absence to act on his own account. When I returned and found out, it was too late. He’d pocketed the money, and within a few days he’d vanished.’

‘Meaning that it will be some time before I can collect rent from these establishments again,’ Darius said in a mild manner that revealed nothing.

‘I’m afraid so. Of course, what he’s done is legally open to question since he made over everything to you, so technically it was your money he took. You could always try to get it back.’

His tone made it clear that he didn’t attach much hope to that idea. Darius, who attached none at all, controlled his temper. It wasn’t his way to display emotion to employees.

‘How much are we talking about?’ he said with a shrug.

He felt less like shrugging when he saw the figures. Rancing had staged a spectacular theft and there was nothing he could do about it. But at all costs Henly mustn’t be allowed to suspect his dismay.

‘No problem,’ Darius said as indifferently as he could manage. ‘The tourism season is just starting. I shan’t let a detail get me down.’

Henly’s eyes widened at the idea of such a financial blow being a mere detail. He began to think the stories of Mr Falcon’s impending ruin were untrue after all.

Darius, who’d intended him to think exactly that, asked casually, ‘Did he leave owing you any money?’

‘I’m afraid he did—’

‘All right, just send me a detailed bill. That’s all for now.’

For several days he remained in the house, rising early to link up with business contacts on one side of the world, eating whatever Kate brought him and barely taking his eyes from the computer screen. As the hours wore on, he turned to the other side of the world where he had business contacts whose day was just beginning. Day and night ceased to exist; all he knew was what he needed to do to survive.