The Costarella Conquest (13 page)

Yes, he would think that. But he wouldn't contact her when the business with her father was all over. Not now.

‘I didn't believe in him enough. I didn't
stay strong
,' she cried, gutted by her failure of faith in his caring for her.

Eddie frowned. ‘You think there was genuine feeling for you on his side?'

‘Yes! It was just the situation making everything too hard. He promised me we'd meet again but I've messed it up, Eddie, taking Dad's word instead of his. I've completely messed it up!'

‘Not necessarily. You must have his home address if you posted the photos to him,' he said thoughtfully. ‘You're free of Dad now, Laura, and so is Mum. Why not pay Jake a visit, find out where you stand with him? Better to know than not know.'

‘Yes!' She jumped up from her seat at Eddie's table where they had laid out the photographs, gripped by a determination to set everything right, if she could. ‘I'll go. It's a chance to nothing, isn't it?'

He nodded. ‘If you have to go there, go there.'

She did.

A wild hope zinged through her heart every step of the way, right until the front door of Jake's house was opened and she was faced with a young woman holding a baby on her hip.

‘Hello. Are you one of our new neighbours?' the woman asked with bright-eyed interest.

‘No, I…I was looking for Jake Freedman,' Laura blurted out.

‘Oh, I'm sorry. He's gone, I'm afraid, and I don't have a forwarding address. We bought the house from him two months ago and moved in last week. I have no idea where you can find him.'

‘It's okay. Thank you. Have a nice life here.'

A nice life in the house Jake had worked on and sold…and he had now moved on.

And Laura had no idea where to, either.

But it wasn't the absolute end, she told herself on the long trudge back to Paddington. The case against her father was set down to be heard in March next year—three more months away. Jake was the prime witness against him. He had to attend the court hearing, give evidence—fulfil the mission that had driven them apart.

A court of law was a public place.

She could go there.

She would go there.

L
AURA
dressed carefully for the first day of the hearing, choosing to wear the professional black suit she donned for business meetings. She wanted Jake to see her as a fully adult woman, established in her career and capable of standing on her own. However, the suit was figure-hugging, accentuating her feminine curves, and she left her hair loose, wanting him to see her as sexy, too, reminding him of the pleasures they had shared.

She had all week to make contact with him, having arranged for the time off work, but her heart was set on sooner rather than later. Arriving early at the court house, she tensely searched the waiting rooms and corridors, hoping to cross paths with Jake. Having no luck at even catching a glimpse of him, she entered the inquiry room, settling on one of the back seats, sure that she would see him here sometime today.

Her father was seated beside his barrister. He saw her, giving her a bulletlike stare before turning away.
She didn't care what he thought of her presence. Only what Jake thought mattered.

The hearing started. Jake had not entered the room. Laura set aside her frustration and listened to the accusations her father had to answer. This was what Jake had been secretly working on—more important to him than their relationship.

Sixteen companies were named—JQE amongst them. Struggling companies that could have been saved by arranging bridging loans but which her father had chosen to bury, gouging millions out of selling off their assets by charging outrageous fees for his services as liquidator.

The judge described it as ‘Churning and burning.'

The day dragged on with no sight of Jake, not in the morning session, not in the lunch-break, not in the afternoon session.

Her father was the only witness called. He admitted to earning between four and six million dollars a year from failing companies but belligerently insisted it was by carrying out due process and he was innocent of any wrongdoing. His air of contempt for the court did not endear him to the judge. Laura hated listening to him. She kept darting glances around the room, hoping to see Jake, willing him to appear.

Why wasn't he here?

Surely this was the culmination of his mission for justice.

Shouldn't he be listening to what her father said so he could rebut it?

 

Jake was sitting in the consultation room, waiting for the prosecuting barrister to report on the afternoon session, feeling buoyantly confident that Alex Costarella would finally be nailed for the fraudulent bastard he was. The glass panels of the door gave him a view of the area directly outside the enquiry room. A rush of people into it signalled that the session was over.

Jake recognised the reporters who had tried to interview him. The case was drawing quite a bit of interest from the business sector of the media. Which was good. Too much skulduggery was hidden from the public. The more people were aware of what went on, the more they could guard against it, or at least question what was happening.

Laura!

Jake bolted to his feet, shocked at seeing her amongst the departing spectators, his mind instantly torn by uncertainty over what she was doing here and the wild urge to stride out and sweep her into a fiercely possessive embrace. It had been so long—almost a year—but just the sight of her had his body buzzing with the need to have her again.

She looked stunning, the black suit barely confining her voluptuous curves, her glorious hair bouncing around her shoulders. His fingers itched to rake
through its silky mass. His groin was tingling hotly from a swift rush of blood. He'd never wanted a woman so much. If he reached out to her now, would she happily respond, or…?

More likely she would spurn him, he realised, the surge of excitement draining slowly away. Given that she had believed whatever story her father had spun around the photographs she'd sent him, no doubt believing she'd been used as a malicious thrill on the side, as well, the probability was she was here to support her father against him.

Love…hate—they could colour anyone's judgement.

He watched her join the group of people waiting for the elevator, watched her until steel doors closed behind her, and ached inside for what had been lost. He'd let the past rule his decisions, the long-burning need for justice. It was a crusade for good over evil, yet he knew he would feel no joy in the victory. Satisfaction, perhaps, but no joy.

He had to take the witness stand tomorrow. If Laura attended the hearing again… A violent determination rampaged through him. He would make her believe every word he said, every revelation of the kind of man her father was. It might not win him anything from her on a personal level, but at least she wouldn't be able to sustain any support for her rotten father, who had ruined any chance they might have had for a future together.

The second day…

Laura had no sooner settled on a back-row seat in the inquiry room than her father was on his feet, pushing back the chair he had occupied at his barrister's table so violently it tumbled over. He ignored it, glaring furiously at her as he strode down the aisle, obviously intent on confrontation.

She sat tight, steeling herself to ride out his wrath. Since she and her mother had left the Mosman mansion before Christmas, none of the family had had any personal contact with him. No doubt he contemptuously considered them rats that had deserted the sinking ship, but he had no power over them anymore. He couldn't actually
do
anything to her, not here in public, but if looks could kill, she'd certainly be dead.

‘What the hell are you doing here?' he demanded, the thunderous tone of voice promising punishment for her sins against him.

‘Listening,' she answered curtly, refusing to be cowed.

Burning hatred in his eyes. ‘Are you on with Jake Freedman again?'

‘No.'

His lips curled in a sneer. ‘Chasing after him.'

She met his vicious mockery with absolute self-determination. ‘You lied to me about him, Dad. I've come to hear the truth.'

‘Truth!' he scoffed. ‘You benefited from his
stepfather's fall. That's the truth. And Freedman isn't about to forget it, not when he's been brooding over it for years.'

The judge's entrance demanded her father's return to his barrister's side. Laura was shaken by the encounter. She'd been all keyed up, hoping that a meeting with Jake might lead to a resumption of their relationship. Fixated on the photographs, she hadn't given any thought to other factors. When all was said and done, she was still her father's daughter, and Jake may well have killed any feeling he'd had for her and moved on, especially after she'd used false evidence to blow him away.

A chance to nothing, she'd said to Eddie, and the truth was she was probably fooling herself about having any chance at all. She sat in a slump of silent despair, not hearing anything until Jake's name was called.

Tension instantly stiffened her spine and pressed her legs tightly together. Her eyes automatically drank in everything about him as he entered the room and was led to the witness box. He wore a sober grey suit and the air of a man all primed to carry out deadly business. James Bond—sleek, sophisticated, sexy, making her heart kick at how handsome he was, making her stomach flutter at how devastating this day could be to her. Even the sound of his voice as he was sworn in evoked memories of intimate moments, making her ache for more.

He shot his gaze around the room before sitting
down. For one electric moment it stopped on her. There was no smile, not the slightest change of expression on his face at seeing her. She didn't smile at him, either. The feelings inside her were too intense. She fiercely willed him to know she was here for him. The moment passed all too quickly, his gaze flicking to the prosecuting barrister as he settled on his chair.

He didn't look at her again.

Not once.

Laura listened to his testimony, hearing a biting edge in every word. It became perfectly clear that her father's intent as a liquidator was exploitation, without any regard to the interests of any company or its creditors. Billable hours extended to clerical staff, even to the tea and coffee lady—each at three hundred dollars an hour. At one meeting with creditors, the coffee served to them came to eighty dollars a cup.

‘Nice cup,' the judge remarked acidly.

‘Not exactly sweet when the creditors never get their entitlements,' Jake said just as acidly.

The flow of evidence went on and on, backed up by facts and figures that could not be denied. They painted a picture of shocking corruption. Laura felt ashamed of her connection to the man who hadn't cared how many people he hurt in amassing more and more money for himself. She'd known he had a cruel nature. She hadn't known his contempt for others extended so far.

It was sickening.

She understood now how much this mission had meant to Jake, especially given what had happened with his parents. Apart from the personal element, it was right to take her father down, saving others from suffering similar situations. He was doing good, more good than she had ever done in her life, showing up the faults of a system that was a feeding ground for liquidators without any conscience.

It took a big person to stand up and blow the whistle on it, regardless of any cost to himself. She admired Jake's drive to get it done. But her father was right about one thing. She was his daughter and her life had been cushioned in the luxury of his greedy profiteering. It wasn't her fault but she was definitely tainted by it in Jake's mind.

I don't want to want you.

And there was no sign of him wanting her now.

He wouldn't even look at her, though she had been willing him to all day. He probably hated the sight of her—a memory of weakness on his part, not to be revisited.

Stay strong.

His whole demeanour, his voice, his laying out of undeniable facts, had been relentlessly strong today. He was not going to reconnect with her. Laura slipped out of the inquiry room as soon as the afternoon session ended, carrying the misery of lost hope with her. There was no point in coming back
tomorrow. Jake had obviously shut the door on her and she must now do it on him.

She forced her legs to walk straight to the elevator, forced her finger to jab the
down
button. Other people clustered around her, waiting for the elevator to arrive. Minutes crawled by. There was a buzz of voices commenting on the hearing. Laura heard her father called
one hell of a shark
. No sympathy for him. Nor should there be.

Her own heart suddenly rebelled against leaving Jake believing that she had been here to support her father. The elevator doors opened. The surge forward carried her into the compartment but she wriggled out again, telling herself there was one last stand she had to make—a matter of self-respect if nothing else.

Jake emerged from the inquiry room with his barrister, the two men conferring with each other as they walked out. Laura didn't care if she would be interrupting something important. What she had to say would only take a couple of moments and it was important to her. Her hands clenched in determination. Her chin instinctively lifted. Every nerve in her body was wire-tight as she closed the short distance between them.

As though sensing her approach, Jake's head jerked towards her. His gaze locked on hers, hard and uninviting, twin dark bolts boring into her head. The barrister murmured something to him. Jake's hand sliced a sharp dismissive gesture, his attention not wavering from Laura. She stopped a metre short
of him, close enough to be heard, her mind totally focussed on delivering a few last words.

‘I found out that my father lied about the photographs. I'm sorry that I let him influence my belief in you, Jake. I wish you well.'

That was it.

She turned and walked back to the elevator where another group of people had gathered, waiting for its return. She could go now, having righted the wrong she had done Jake. And she did wish him well. He was a good man.

 

She didn't hate him!

The steel guard Jake had put around his feelings for Laura Costarella cracked wide open at this stunning realisation. He was in instant tumult over her apology, wanting to know more, but she had already turned away and was heading for the elevator, not waiting for any response from him. What did that mean? She didn't want one? Didn't expect one?

How long had she known about her father's lie? If it was before this hearing, she wouldn't have attended it to support him. Was it simply curiosity that had drawn her here, a need to know everything that had limited their relationship and made it so impossible to sustain? But surely she wouldn't have bothered unless…she still had feelings for him.

I wish you well…
?.

It was a goodbye line.

He didn't want it to be. He wanted…

The elevator doors opened. Laura was following the group of people into it. She was going and everything within him violently rebelled against letting her go.

Without any conscious thought at all he lifted two fingers to his lips and whistled the most piercing whistle he'd ever produced in his life.