The Art of Retaliation (23 page)

They sat back as the food was put in front of them.

“Look let’s stop fighting and just enjoy tonight,” he said trying to
diffuse another argument.

She watched him taste the wine and then give his approval.
 
Mara leaned towards him.

“You’re impossible.
 
You
expect me to forget everything that you’ve done to me and act like we are out
on a date.”

“Yes I do for one night.
 
Let’s just be friends.”

He laid his hand
on top of her own
on the
table.

“Please.”

She glanced down at her hand and sighed before drawing it away.

“Tell me about your family.
 
Do you have any brothers or sister?” he asked feeling down at the loss
of her touch as he used it to pick up his wine glass.

He was well aware of her family background but it was a good
distraction and a way of putting her at ease.

“Well there is my mother and my brother.
 
My father died when I was young.
 
We are very close.
 
My mother is staying in Canada with
family at the moment and my brother is a consultant at Guy’s Hospital in
London.”

Stephane
watched
her pick at the warm goats cheese that had melted onto the small triangles of
toast.
 
A delicious sweet aromatic
smell emanated from the bed of lettuce that was bathed in oil and on which the
display sat.
 
It looked appetizing
but Mara seemed reluctant to eat it.
 
He couldn’t help fearing for her health and the toll the whole situation
was taking on it.

“Please try to eat something.
 
You were probably dizzy before because you haven’t eaten much all day,”
he asked softly.

“No I can’t.”

“Damn it, Mara.
 
You are
ill.
 
If you don’t I will lock you
in your room and force feed you.”

Mara looked at him petulantly but began to eat what she could.

“What about your brother?
 
What is he a consultant of?”

“Trauma.
 
He looks after
patients when they come in to Casualty and then sees to them right through
their treatment when they go on to the ward.
 
He’s really very good.” she smiled in
admiration.
 
“He’s always so busy
though I hardly see him.
 
I feel as
if I need to have an accident to see him.”

She put a glass of mineral water to her lips.

“I wonder what’s happening at work?
 
I’m supposed to go back on Monday and I
was supposed to meet with Matisse.”

“Have you always corporate lawyer?”

No I used to do criminal work.”

But he already knew that.
 
What he didn’t know was why she had given it up and gone in to Business
Law.
 
He’d found out everything he
could about her before arranging her kidnap but this was the one area of her
life that appeared to be shrouded in secrecy.

“Why did you change?”

“It’s a long story.
 
I
failed in a case I was trying to build.
 
I never even managed to get it to trial.
 
I was working for the Crown Prosecution
Service at the time.
 
People
suffered because of it.”

She fell silent.

“Tell me about it.
 
Sometimes it helps to talk about things and I am a good listener,” he
gently probed.

Mara put her napkin on the table next to her plate and he knew now
she wasn’t going to eat any more food.

“I lost all of my confidence after that case.
 
I felt that everything I did was wrong,
I had to get out.”

“Is that when things started to go wrong with Ryan?”

“Things had always been wrong but I chose to ignore it.
 
I let him take advantage of me when my
confidence had jumped ship.
 
I was
frightened to leave him in case I didn’t get anyone else.
 
Why am I telling you this?
 
What do you care?”

“Tell me what happened with Ryan and the case,” he enquired ignoring
the hurtful comment that he didn’t care about her.

“The night he hit me I realized what he was doing.
 
He said he loved me but it was more like
wanting to control me.
 
I left him
and here we are now.
 
He had the
cheek to tell me it was all over the next day and that he was leaving me for
another woman.”

She said nothing more and pushed her plate away.

“What happened with the case?
 
Don’t keep it bottled up inside.”

 
He wasn’t going to give
up.

“I was building a case around a violent high profile corporate
criminal who defrauded his business partners, laundered money and ran
protection rackets.
 
One of the
people arrested when we tried to round up his associates had been innocent and
simply duped by him.
 
I persuaded
him to come forward and be a witness but he was murdered.”

Mara dipped her head and her voice trembled.

“His wife had just given birth to twins and she did all she could to
persuade him not to come forward.
 
I
had a real battle on my hands but I won.
 
After she found him shot in the head on their doorstep two months later
she committed suicide.
 
The family
blames me.”

Stephane
immediately placed his hand over hers on the table and held it tightly.
 
She didn’t object and he felt her cling
to him it for support.
 
When she
raised her head there were tears in her eyes and one of them was rolling down
her cheek.
 
The Count couldn’t help
himself.
 
All he wanted to do was to
soothe her pain.
 
He caressed his
fingertips along her pale cheek and brushed away the tear.

“It isn’t your fault.
 
You were doing your job.
 
Somebody has to have courage and stand up to these people.
 
You have to stop carrying this pain
around, Mara.”

A thought began to form quickly in his mind.

“It is Abdul
Hasseem
isn’t it?”

She simply nodded.

“He is laundering money through Matisse’s company via a board member
and this time we are collectively going to get him.
 
That’s why he told you he would come for
me whether you handed me over to him or not.
 
He knows what we are planning.
 
I think Matisse has gone in to hiding
and that is why he didn’t turn up at the office the other day.
 
Why would you involve yourself with a
cromininal
like Abdul?
 
I don’t understand.”

She paused and took a gulp of her wine.
 
Stephane
ran
his hands through his hair.

“It wasn’t me.
 
It was my
father.
 
He tied us in to a contract
with Abdul before we died.
 
I have
tried everything to get out of it.
 
My father wouldn’t listen to me about it.
 
Then he died and left me the mess to
sort out.”

“You know he is going to ruin you?
 
The project he has going with you is a
con.”

“I suspected it.
 
But he
keeps his tracks covered.
 
When this
situation with Louise is over I will help you and Raymond bring him down.
 
I promise you that,” he said with
conviction.

Stephane
placed
his hand over hers again.
 
“And I
won’t let him hurt you again,” he told her firmly narrowing his eyes with
determination.

She seemed to stare at him for a moment and then slowly nodded.

The waiter came and took away their plates and replaced them with
the main course.

Stephane
ordered a
bottle of champagne.

“What’s the occasion?” she asked cutting in to her steak.

He had high hopes of her eating this time.

“I just thought it might cheer you up.
 
Look the band is setting up.
 
May be I could get you dancing later.”

Mara laughed.

“I don’t think so.
 
You
know I am surprised at you,
Stephane
, I wouldn’t have
thought that this was your scene, an old fashioned band.”

“No it isn’t really but my father liked it and it reminds me of
him.”

“Excuse me.
 
I’m Max
Spencer and you are?”

The billionaire looked up impatiently to find the blonde man
standing over him extending his hand.

“
Stephane
Garreau
,
” he said taking it amused by his rival’s quaint formality.

“I just wanted to ask whether or not Mademoiselle would like to
dance and if you wouldn’t mind if she did,
Stephane
.”

“Oh I am not sure,” Mara gushed and then grinned.
 
“He gets very possessive.”

She looked to
Stephane
for mock approval.

“Why not as long as you promise to dance with me later,” he insisted
frowning at the man and then her for taunting him.
 

Why do you want to dance
with him when I am here?
 
We were
just getting somewhere.
 
You are
doing this to tease me and get your own back.
 
Have it your way, I don’t give a
damn.
 
I know you belong to me now
and there is no escape.
 
Dance all
you want with him but you are mine and don’t forget it.

“I have a call to make anyway.”

The smile quickly disappeared from Mara’s face.
 
For a moment she looked hurt and he felt
remorseful.
 
He hated hurting her.

The man said nothing and led her to the dance floor beginning to
fill with couples.
 
He held her hand
in his and slipped an arm around her waist as they moved slowly around the
dance floor in time to the music.

“I see you are English as well.
 
What’s your name?” he asked her.

“Mara Logan.”

“I’m over here on business and how about you?”

As he spoke she was aware that he was glancing around the room and
back
Stephane
speaking on his mobile.
 

“Oh you could say that I’m on business here as well,” she answered.

Mara smiled at him but he wasn’t looking at her.
 
She couldn’t understand why he had
bothered to ask her to dance if he wasn’t going to pay her any attention.
 
Anyway if the truth was known she was
only dancing with him to get back at
Stephane
.
 
She looked back at him hoping he was
sitting watching her with those possessive eyes she loved to sweeping over her
but he had finished his call and was talking to a waiter.

Max seemed to be moving them to the other end of the room as they
danced.
 
Through the busy dance
floor she strained to see
Stephane
again. He was
anxiously looking for her as the waiter talked to him.