The Millionaire Falls Hard (15 page)

'I've never thanked you Jake, for taking care of everything. I'm sure everything has been so much easier as a result of your intervention. Thank you. You have a beautiful villa here, but, I think, I'm ready now to go home.'

With that little speech made, Carrie turned away and walked inside.

Jake stared after her, dumbstruck at her behaviour. She was just so cold, so distant. He couldn't profess to know Carrie as well as he wanted to but her behaviour seemed out of character.

He huffed out a long breath as he too made his way inside. This was going to be one hell of a long weekend!

*

Carrie was rushed off her feet. With Lynne now on her honeymoon and Carrie due to jet off to the States for a week, she was trying to finalise her contract with the Inner City project, sign off on charitable donations from her own Trust, respond to the local newspaper's story competition for children and get her ideas down for her impending visit to the film studio in the States.

She was thrilled that Lynne was happy and away on a well-deserved honeymoon but the timing of everything sucked. Carrie paused for a minute and thought back to Lynne's wedding. What a beautiful day it had been. Lynne's son, Josh, had looked so handsome in his kilt, and so serious as he'd handed over the rings. The dress Lynne had found had floated around her as she'd walked into the church. The strapless dress with its flattering embroidered corset had accentuated Lynne's figure. No-one would have guessed she was three months pregnant, or that she had had the most horrendous bout of morning sickness just hours beforehand. The full skirt of handkerchief layers of silk organza had been flouncy yet incredibly graceful. The layers had gently flounced with each step Lynne had taken.

It had been a small and intimate group who had witnessed Lynne and Phil committing themselves to each other as lifelong partners. The intensity of their obvious love for each other had brought tears to Carrie's eyes. How she longed to have someone love her in that way. Even now, nearly two weeks later, Carrie felt a loss that caused a pain in her heart.

Sitting here feeling sorry for herself wasn't going to get everything done, but she now felt maudlin. A feeling she'd fought for the last five weeks or so since they'd returned from France.

She gave up all pretence at trying to work, made herself a cup of tea and went to sit in her porch swing. As she stared out into her sunlit garden, she drew in a sharp breath as she remembered seeing Jake again.

The wedding had been the first time their paths had crossed since France as he'd taken himself off on a European tour of his offices. Carrie couldn't understand why she still felt embarrassed when she knew Jake was near. It kept her aloof from him. She remembered the strain she'd put herself under at the wedding pretending everything was normal between them. No-one had commented so she must have got away with it.

To give Jake his due, he hadn't made any comment about the strain between them. He'd been polite and supportive when, as best man, he'd had to partner her in her role as matron of honour. She'd had to endure the compulsory dance with him, but he'd held her as if there was nothing between them. Part of Carrie had felt a sense of loss that his arms held no warmth and yet part of her had been relieved. Confused or what! She wished she could make sense of her feelings.

Helping to organise the wedding and concentrating on avoiding Jake as much as possible had helped Carrie recover from her terrifying ordeal. At least she could concentrate again. The nightmares had subsided too and she'd only had one in the last five weeks. When she had returned to her home, everything had looked as it always had, except that the security system remained.

God, her thoughts were jumping all over the place. She had no cause to return to the week after the shooting and yet she seemed powerless to prevent it. She felt herself drift back to that Friday evening in the South of France when Jake had arrived with Phil and Alan.

It seemed that only she had felt uncomfortable that night at dinner. Increasingly, she'd worked herself up into a state over being in Jake's home following the shooting and waking up to discover that Jake had been her prime carer. Unable to do justice to her meal, pushing the remainder of her food around on her plate, she'd become more and more wound up as Jake had joined in with the conversation and laughter around the table.

She remembered thinking
'How dared he sit here with my friends and enjoy himself when my life had been in such danger. How dared any of them carry on as if I hadn't been shot at by a stranger in my own home!'

The irrationality of those thoughts had shaken her. And yet, that had been the catalyst for her to remember something of critical importance - no-one had told her who it had been.

She'd stopped pushing the food around and lain down her fork. The talk had quickly stopped, and Carrie had asked Alan the question they'd all been dreading.

'Who was it?' She'd asked softly. Clearing her throat, she'd said more strongly. 'You've never said. Who was it that threatened me and shot at me?'

All eyes had looked at Alan. Moira had nervously glanced at the children to check if they'd heard. Breaking the awkward silence she'd encouraged the children to leave the table and get ready for bed. Once the three of them had left the room, Alan had spoken.

'Are you sure you're ready to hear this Carrie?'

With an imperceptible nod of her head, she'd given Alan permission to continue.

'Roderick Gemmell.' Two words, one name. That's all he'd said, giving her time to absorb the information.

She remembered going white with shock and leaving the room.

She'd asked nothing more and nothing more had been said. Although she'd caught Jake watching her occasionally, life had carried on and they'd actually managed to have a reasonably pleasant weekend.

Everything seemed to kick off though when they'd returned home.

Oh boy, had it kicked off!

Unbeknown to Carrie, and despite Jake's efforts to contain it, the newspapers had been full of the shooting, and to generate sales and keep it going, her ex's suicide had also been dug into. Despite the positive press releases regarding her involvement in the Inner City project and the release of more information on the film deal, the gutter press had basked in the mud churning. They'd arrived home from France to a sea of camera flashes as the press had been waiting for her, trying to gauge her reaction. Despite being a well-known author, and despite having once inhabited her ex's rock world, she'd never experienced anything like it.

Yet again, Jake had been there to guide her through the melee.

Once the press had exhausted the muck and failed to find any more, they'd moved on to the next poor soul as was their want. It had been one more thing to add to all the things that were tightening the coil she felt around her emotions.

A sob of despair caught her unawares. Carrie refused to give in, to let Roderick Gemmell win. How had he come to the fore in her mind? Oh God, she was a mess. She realised now, as she sat here drinking the rest of her tea, that she had somehow blocked him out.

The son of her birth father, Lord Gemmell. How could someone so twisted and evil be born to a man so gentle and kind? Her half-brother! Although she'd never seen him as that.

In all the years she'd lived as his neighbour, she'd had no idea what he was truly like.

According to Alan, they'd found scrap book upon scrap book with articles in about her, going back years. All the pictures of her defaced in some way. As he'd drunk the Estate into bankruptcy, his focus had turned more and more to Carrie and his hatred of his father's 'bastard child'. Once he'd been forced to sell the Estate, Carrie's house and her success had eaten into him all the way to his rotten core. Now he was in custody he was claiming he'd not meant her any real harm. That wasn't garnering any support as he awaited trial for owning an illegal weapon, assault, harassment and attempted murder.

Lord Gemmell would turn in his grave if he knew what his son had become. It was easier to feel sorry for him though than to focus on what could have happened if she'd been in the living room when he'd fired. Feeling sorry for him stopped her turning in on herself and constantly living the fear of the last few months.

If only she had some other focus to stop the turmoil she felt over Jake. Goodness knows what would work though - being busy hadn't.

As she heard Moira return with Charlie from his trip to the park, Carrie roused herself and went out to catch up with his day.

*

Jake gave up all pretence at trying to concentrate on the figures in front of him. He put them down on his tray stand and rubbed his hands wearily over his face. With his eyes closed, he reclined his seat and wondered how his life had gone so spectacularly belly up in just over three months!

It all began and ended with an auburn haired, green eyed beauty. No, that wasn't fair, Carrie couldn't possibly be blamed for the mess his american operations were in. Still, at least flying out to the States to get them back on track was giving him further distance from said beauty.

He mulled over the last three months.

He'd moved his complete operation to Scotland - major success.

He'd moved into his newly renovated apartment in the old ancestral home. He loved it - success.

He'd bought two puppies who were turning out to be great characters and loyal 'friends' - success.

He'd met Carrie - mistake, well, in the early days as they hadn't exactly hit it off! Understatement.

His best friend had fallen in love with, and was now married to, a single mother - not a mistake for Phil, but not a success for Jake because he missed his buddy always being there. He'd never thought he'd see the day when he'd have to share his closest friend's time.

He was going to be a godfather to Phil and Lynne's baby - new experience! Good experience, he thought.

Hmm, maybe things weren't that bad. He continued on with his musings.

He hadn't dated in what felt like forever - mistake. He'd never felt sexual frustration the like of which he'd suffered in the last couple of months.

He'd kept bumping into Carrie and felt drawn to her in a way he'd never experienced before. And 'get involved and solve the world' guy that he was, he just had to be there every time she'd needed him. Mistake. Well, not so much in that he'd genuinely helped, which was good. But he'd only gone and fallen into the same trap as Phil. Single mother!

Carrie had started to respond - success, almost. A few cold showers and the knowledge that he'd been winning her trust had kept him going.

Carrie had retreated. Spectacularly! If only he'd been able to do the same. Just when he'd accepted the inevitable that his dating days were over and he was ready to be exclusive, Carrie had withdrawn to a place he couldn't reach. New experience! Another one. Emotional turmoil.

He'd thrown himself into a punishing schedule of visits - success. He'd expanded the bottom line by another couple of million.

America had gone pear-shaped. Really, really pear-shaped. Bad timing! He was now knackered and fed up on the road but here he was on a flight out to the States to straighten out the management and get the operation back on track.

Whilst in America, he was going to visit a business for sale that looked like it would be a good fit with his existing portfolio.

When he thought it all through like that, it really wasn't so bad. So why did he feel that it was?

Carrie!

It all came back to Carrie and the emotional turmoil of letting a single mother who had more baggage than Mary Poppins get under his skin. Despite that, he admired her - her strength, her success, even her sharp tongue when she was in retreat from what was going on between them! And her hair, her face, her body. He groaned. She had a body to die for. Beautiful on the outside as well as on the inside. By God, he wanted her. And when he got home, he was going to have her. Enough retreating! She was stronger, the memories were fading. Time to turn her focus on them.

On that, he slept, not stirring until they were circling over New York.

After a couple of long days at the New York office where he'd spent time with every member of staff, gone through every client account and met a few of the key clients, he was now on his way to Miami where he was due to meet with Glenn Bush, the owner of the business he was thinking of buying.

Thanks to Phil's analysis and his in-depth meetings, he was now clear that he had two options: get out of America altogether and sell the business, or buy the Miami business and merge it with the New York operation. Either way, his existing management structure in the States needed major overhaul. He was going to use this time in Miami to consider the options before returning to New York.

Jake found a huge difference in the way in which GB Dynamics ran its operations and the way his New York office ran theirs. His New York manager had tried fobbing him off with a load of bull about America having to be managed differently to the rest of the world and that Jake's tried and tested methods hadn't worked. Well, Miami was giving him evidence that he was far closer to the mark than they were. Glenn Bush had uncannily similar practices to himself. In fact, from the minute they'd shaken hands, they'd been in tune with one another. Within two days, and a weekend in between to analyse it, they'd shaken on a deal. GB Dynamics was now his.