His Personal Agenda
‘Thank you, Mr Crosby.’ He clipped the identification label to his ancient denim jacket and took the press pack he was offered by a well-preserved woman wearing a flowing dress, her long hair loose about her shoulders and with a New Age name pinned to her embroidered bodice.
‘Thank you,’ he said, and smiled. ‘Sky…’
‘Just go through. We’ll be starting in a minute or two. There’ll be drinks and a buffet afterwards.’
‘That’s very generous,’ he said, inclined to linger. He wasn’t interested in propaganda; he wanted gossip. ‘Who’s paying for all this?’
‘Our supporters are very generous.’ She gave him a warm, earth-mother smile. ‘Of course we hope you’ll make a donation towards your supper.’
He’d walked right into that one, but he found himself smiling back, even as he stuffed twenty pounds of Charles Parker’s money into the tin she offered. ‘Is there any chance of an interview with Miss Blake? After the press conference?’
She consulted her list. ‘You’re a freelance, aren’t you?’
‘I am, but I have a commission to write a piece on Miss Blake.’ Well, he did. Of course whether the results ever saw print rather depended on what he unearthed in his investigations.
‘It’s always difficult to arrange private meetings at this kind of occasion, Mr Crosby…’
‘Matt,’ he said.
‘Matt.’ Her smile took on a new depth and he realised he had her undivided attention. Which could be useful. ‘Nyssa will be mingling afterwards; maybe you could catch her then? I’m afraid that’s the best I can do today. Shall I ask her to call you and arrange a time when you’ll be able to talk undisturbed?’
‘I’ll leave my number.’ He produced a card that simply bore his name, and on the back he wrote the number of a new mobile phone acquired for the investigation. She stapled it to a folder, along with half a dozen similar offerings, then turned to a new arrival. ‘Can I catch you later?’ he suggested. ‘For a drink? Maybe you could fill me in on the background?’
‘Ten o’clock in the Delvering Arms?’ she offered, rather too eagerly.
He really needed to look for a new career, Matt thought as he moved on into the foyer, glancing at the press pack he was holding, complete with glossy colour photographs and ‘sound-bite’ notes.
The whole thing was well organised and very well attended, he realised as he looked about him. Nyssa Blake was news. It took more than a free glass of wine and a sausage roll to tempt the press pack out of London on a summer’s evening.
Even if they had no intention of joining her, their readers were eager to know how this young woman intended to set about stopping the developers in their tracks. Youth and innocence against entrenched power always made a good story.
But apart from the local radio and television crews, who were too busy checking equipment and recording their lead-ins to socialise, the newsmen had gathered in small groups, more interested in the latest media gossip than the blown-up photographs of the cinema in its heyday.
Only three or four latecomers were, like him, looking at the photographs and apparently totally absorbed by the notes pinned alongside them. Except the latecomers weren’t totally absorbed. They were giving the appearance of deep interest in the exhibition, but their eyes were everywhere as they checked out the gathering crowd. He recognised the type. Minders. Nothing, it seemed, had been overlooked.
Matt watched them for a few moments and then turned as the inner doors were opened. There were chairs put out in rows, a slide projector in the centre with a screen at the front, and a small lectern with a lamp on a slightly raised dais to the side.
Nyssa Blake clearly wasn’t relying on the photographs to get her message across. She had a captive audience and they were going to listen and learn before they got to the free food. Sky began to usher people towards the seats.
Two of the men with the restless eyes took seats on either side of the projector. Another sat in front of the lectern. A fourth leaned against the wall, near the entrance. They were covering all the vantage points.
Matt settled himself in the end seat of the back row and, out of habit, looked about him to check for an alternative exit. If trouble was expected he had no intention of being caught up in it.
Nyssa waited in the corridor behind the main hall, her throat dry, her pulse beating too fast. She was always nervous before a presentation, afraid she wouldn’t be good enough…
‘Ready?’ Sky asked, joining her. ‘It’s showtime.’
‘How many…?’
‘It’s a good turnout. You’re big news these days.’
‘Right.’ She took a deep breath, opened the door, walked up to the lectern, set to the side of a projection screen, and spread out her notes. For a moment the burble of noise continued and then, as she waited, looking around, acknowledging people she recognised, the room gradually grew quiet. That was when she saw him.
He was sitting right at the back, almost as if he didn’t want to be there. She knew most of the journalists who covered this kind of story but, wearing antique 501s, and with a mop of thick dark hair that looked as if it had been combed with his fingers, he didn’t look like any kind of small-town newspaper man she’d ever met. He looked like a man made for a much bigger stage. Casual he might be, but he made the elegant main hall of the Assembly Rooms look small.
She was smaller than he had imagined from her photographs, and reed-slim, but the neat burnished cap of bright hair, the pale delicate skin, the elegant black dress were pure drama, and every eye in the room was fixed on her, waiting for her to speak.
Matt was not easily impressed, nor, he suspected, were the journalists who had gathered there, and yet he felt a quickening in the air, a stir of anticipation as she looked around the room, acknowledging acquaintances with the briefest of smiles.
Then her gaze came to rest on him, lingering in a look that seemed to single him out, to hold his attention, and just for a second he had the disconcerting sensation that she could see right through him, recognise him for what he was.
He had wondered, looking at her photograph in Parker’s office, if her eyes could really be that impossible shade of blue, or whether, like her hair, the colour had been enhanced for effect.
But there was no need to enhance anything. The effect came from something that lit her from within and he knew what it was. Passion.
And her look, he discovered, as for just a moment their gazes locked and held, had a kick like a mule.
Matt hadn’t been affected in that way by a woman since Lucy Braithwaite had kissed him in the vestry after choir practice, cutting short a promising career as a solo treble.
He was still struggling to recover his breath when Nyssa Blake took a sip of water before finally beginning to speak.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming to Delvering today,’ she began.
Her voice, unexpectedly low and slightly husky, rippled through him, stirring the small hairs at the nape of his neck. Was that how she did it? How she drew supporters to her, twisted cynical newspaper hacks around her dainty fingers, walked past security guards without let or hindrance? Did she just turn on the lamps behind her eyes, murmur in that low voice and turn them into her willing slaves?
He rubbed his hand over his face in an attempt to pull himself together. He hadn’t come to the press conference to join the Nyssa Blake fan club. He simply wanted to get the measure of the girl…woman…
Well, he was doing that all right. But it sure as hell wasn’t what he had expected.
‘I do hope you have all taken advantage of this opportunity to look around Delvering, to talk to local people, to discover for yourselves what exactly is at stake here,’ she continued. Then quite unexpectedly she grinned, and for a moment he saw the girl, still there behind the sophisticated veneer. ‘But don’t worry if you haven’t,’ she said, indicating the projector with a wave of her hand. It was a gesture that would have done justice to a geisha, controlled, exquisitely graceful, and for just a moment his body seemed to do a loop-the-loop as he imagined what that hand could do to him. ‘I’m about to enlighten you, so save your questions until after the show.’
There was a murmur of laughter as the light dimmed until there was just a small shaded lamp over the notes on the lectern, the powerful beam from the projector directing all eyes to the screen with its aerial view of the small market town of Delvering.
As if this was a prearranged signal, several people leapt to their feet in the darkness. There was an angry yell that turned into a cry of pain from the man standing by the projector as it was overturned, hitting the floor was a crash that blew the lamp, plunging the room into darkness.
The heavies. He didn’t have to see them to know. He’d recognised them for what they were, despite their suits and their careful interest in Nyssa Blake’s work, and he’d assumed they were minders. He’d been wrong.
And there was one right in front of the lectern.
Without pausing to consider the wisdom of his actions, Matt Crosby hurled himself towards the shaded light that illuminated nothing but Nyssa Blake’s small hands, frozen in the act of turning over the first page of her notes.
CHAPTER TWO
STARTLED by the crash, Nyssa looked up. The room was dark beyond the small circle of light illuminating her notes and for a moment she froze. Then, as her confused wits began to make some sense of the sounds coming out of the darkness, she began to move.
Too late.
She stepped straight back into the waiting arms of a man who, as he seized her from behind, clamped his hand over her mouth, cutting off her instinctive shout for help.
Matt was still feet away when she let out a startled protest, instantly muffled, and it didn’t take much imagination to supply a picture of a large hand covering her face, a burly arm pinning her arms as she was lifted from her feet.
Surging forward, Matt carried them both down onto the floor and, just to make sure he’d got the message, crashed his fist into the man’s nose. It was something he’d regret later, when he had time to feel the pain. But not now. Now he simply had to get Nyssa Blake out of there.
He leapt to his feet and, without stopping to waste time or breath in explanations, caught hold of her as she scrambled up, determined on escape. Assuming he was her attacker, renewing his assault, she struck out at him and her bunched fist connected with the side of his face as he lifted her to her feet. Ignoring the dizzying blow, not stopping to explain, he shouldered her and carried her through a small door that led into a corridor, blinking in the sudden light.
Ignoring the main entrance, he headed for the rear of the building and burst out into the fading light of the late August evening, crossing to the narrow side street where he’d left his car.
Nyssa Blake was yelling and kicking all the way, but all hell appeared to have broken out on the pavement in front of the Assembly Rooms and no one was taking any notice. Anyone whose business it was to notice undoubtedly assumed he was the guy now trying to put his nose back together.
Neatly done, Parker, he thought grimly as he opened the driver’s door of his car, pushed her in and, still hanging onto her, followed. She immediately stopped struggling, and as his grip was hampered by the awkward angle gave a deft wriggle and escaped his grasp. Matt slammed the door behind him and pressed the central locking switch before she reached the door handle.
Small she might be, but when she turned and lunged furiously at him, nails outstretched, it was all he could do to hold her off. And the mule kick effect wasn’t confined to her eyes.
‘For crying out loud, will you stop that? I’m not trying to hurt you,’ he said sharply, then swore as the toe of her fashionable shoe connected with his shin for a second time. She wasn’t listening. As she came at him again he was forced to abandon passive defence and instead grabbed both her arms, pinning them behind her as he dragged her hard against him so that she could no longer strike out. His leg thrown over her, pinning her to the seat, dealt with her feet.
For a moment she continued to struggle furiously. He simply hung on until she realised she was wasting her time. Then she went quite still and opened her eyes to look up at him.
‘Okay, you win,’ she said huskily, her chest heaving as she gasped for air.
Matt deeply distrusted her sudden surrender. He might have subdued her temporarily, but the minute he let go she would undoubtedly let fly at him. And, having tested him to the point where she knew he wouldn’t hurt her, she could let rip without fear of the consequences.
But holding on had its dangers too. Her body was pressed beneath him and he was practically drowning in the deep, dangerous currents of her eyes, in the scent that came from her hair, her skin. And her full red mouth was lifted towards him, unconsciously seductive, but seductive nonetheless.
‘This isn’t a contest, lady,’ he said, more harshly than he had intended, and released her so suddenly that she fell back, her dress halfway to her waist where the buttons had parted. He wanted to look away. He really needed to look away. But he knew the minute he did she would fly at him again. So he swallowed hard and tried not to think about the glimpse of black lace and thighs that would give a monk disturbing dreams. ‘For your information I just saved you from being kidnapped.’
‘Kidnapped?’ Impossibly, her eyes widened further.
‘You don’t think that the projector fell over all by itself, do you? Or that the guy who grabbed you just wanted to dance?’ He didn’t elaborate; he was sure she was quite capable of working it all out for herself.
Kidnapped? Everything had happened so quickly. Disruption she could understand. The threat of it was always there. But what would be the point of kidnapping her? After a long pause, when all that could be heard inside the car was the sound of ragged breathing being brought under control—his as well as hers—she said, ‘You were at the back of the hall.’ He was the man she’d known on sight wasn’t just some small-town news hound. ‘You must have moved very fast…’ She eased up in the seat, aware that he was watching her carefully, as if expecting her to bolt at any moment, and began to rub absently at her wrists. ‘Unless, of course, you knew what was about to happen.’ Which begged the question…if he wasn’t a journalist, what was he? Exactly? ‘Who are you? What do you want?’
Her eyes narrowed. They did that pretty spectacularly too, Matt thought. She should be shouting, yelling, screaming for the police. It was what any normal girl would do under the circumstances. Her control was slightly unnerving. He sensed she knew that, was using it to her advantage, waiting for an opportunity to flee the moment his guard was down. That was something he could not allow. Not until he was sure she was out of danger. Her reputation was one thing…but that she might be hurt—or worse—he could not allow.
‘I’m a freelance journalist—’ it depressed him how easily he said the lie ‘—and I was hoping for an interview.’
She continued to regard him steadily, as if deciding whether to believe him. ‘Couldn’t it have waited until after the presentation?’ she asked finally, then managed a slightly shaky laugh. ‘You didn’t have to hijack me, you know. If you’d left your number, I’d have called you.’
He managed a grin. This was one cool lady. ‘Maybe I have a tight deadline,’ he offered. ‘Perhaps now, over a brandy, might be a good time.’ He needed one even if she didn’t. The feeling was beginning to come back to his knuckles with a vengeance.
She regarded him coolly. ‘You think that saving me from being kidnapped entitles you to jump the queue?’
‘It seems only fair,’ he countered. ‘After all, I was in the front of the queue when that thug grabbed you.’
‘Maybe you do have a point,’ she admitted. ‘Shall we retire to the bar of the Delvering Arms?’
He hadn’t anticipated such instant agreement; it made him suspicious. And shouldn’t she be demanding he take her back to the television cameras so that she could tell the world what had happened?
Needing time to think, he turned his head away, looking back to where a noisy crowd had gathered in front of the Assembly Rooms, with people carrying placards demanding the jobs a supermarket would bring to the town and indicating rather graphically that the protesters should get lost.
‘They weren’t there ten minutes ago,’ he said. ‘Where have they come from?’
‘Mobs-R-Us?’ she suggested, with disdain. ‘Does it matter? They’ve done what they were paid for.’ Clearly it was the payment that had earned her disdain, not their methods of protesting.
‘At least you’re certain of making the evening news,’ Matt agreed, and even as he spoke the television cameras were being trained on the angry crowd. ‘That’ll be good for business.’
Her expression suggested otherwise. ‘I’d hoped to put our case in a reasoned and thoughtful manner.’
‘Do you want to go back and try again?’
‘There’s no point. I’ve lost control of the situation. If I go back they’ll just shout me down, drown me out. Besides, I’m not dressed for a scuffle.’ She smiled a little. At close quarters the blue eyes were lethal. ‘Isn’t that why you grabbed me? To keep me out of the way? Give them a free run at this?’
He’d thought he’d convinced her. Clearly he had been kidding himself. ‘Weren’t you listening?’ he demanded, just a little angry that his good deed was not being fully appreciated for the altruistic gesture it was. Considering he was supposed to be on the other side. Was on the other side. Except that when he’d said no dirty business he’d meant it. ‘I’m not the one who did the grabbing.’ He said it slowly and carefully, just to be certain that she understood. ‘Someone else had that dubious pleasure. I simply got you out of there, and precious little thanks I’ve had for my pains.’
‘Thanks he wants,’ she murmured sarcastically. ‘It’s a nice story, Mr…’ she glanced at the lapel badge clipped to his collar ‘…Mr Crosby, but really—’
‘It’s no story, lady,’ he said, flexing his stinging hand and holding it up for her to see. ‘I’ve got the wounds to prove it.’
For a moment she stared at his battered and bloody knuckles. Then frowned. ‘You’re hurt.’
‘That’s what happens when you hit someone with your fist, or hadn’t you noticed?’ He took her hand and looked at it. There was a little bruising on one of the knuckles, nothing worse, but even so when he rubbed the pad of his thumb across them she winced and pulled away. ‘You see? Maybe next time I should take a leaf out of your book and use my feet,’ he said sardonically. Then he realised that she was shaking. ‘Oh, look. It’s not that bad, really. It was worth a little pain.’
‘I hate violence,’ she said, with a long shudder. She could have fooled him, but as the trembling reached her voice he put his arm about her and held her close, absorbing the shudders into his own body.
‘To tell you the truth, Miss Blake, I’m not all that keen on it myself,’ he said, but with her cheek soft against his neck, her slender body fragile as a bird in his arms, he knew just how easy it would be to seriously damage anyone who would hurt her.
As if sensing some change in him, she looked up. ‘Who are you really?’ she asked. Then she groaned. ‘Oh, wait, I get it. You’re one of Gil’s tame bodyguards, right?’ And she pulled back a little. ‘I should have known when he left this evening without making a fuss that he’d covered all possibilities…’
Matt didn’t say anything. He’d read the files; he knew well enough that the Gil in question had to be her brother-in-law, or more accurately her stepbrother-in-law, Gil Paton. Invalided out of the army after he had taken a sniper’s bullet in the Balkans, he now led a consortium of ex-soldiers in a business covering all kinds of security and protection. It was reasonable enough that he would organise some protection for her, which perhaps was why Matt hadn’t thought twice about the minders. She had obviously been resisting the idea, though, which was interesting.
‘Okay, Mr Crosby…’ She squinted at the label attached to his jacket. ‘Matt? Is that really your name?’ She made one of those graceful little gestures. ‘No, don’t answer that, since you won’t tell me the truth anyway…’ She glanced up at him. ‘Okay, Mr Crosby, you’ve done your job. You can take me back to the hotel now.’
‘For the brandy and the interview?’
‘I don’t drink.’
‘Never?’
‘Not since I turned eighteen. Before that, of course, it was almost mandatory. A bit like losing your virginity before you go into the sixth form…’ Her voice trailed away, and for just a moment he thought she was going to blush, which was interesting. It was clearly a well-used ploy to shock maiden aunts—if such things still existed—but why would she think it would shock him? Why would she even bother to try? His silence seemed to unnerve her a little. ‘Actually, you might be right about that drink.’
‘I know I am.’ He leaned forward to start his car. ‘And it’s definitely time we got out of here,’ he added, as he glanced in the mirror. ‘Unless, of course, you’ve changed your mind about giving an interview?’ With a jerk of his head he indicated the approaching television crew, who were looking for anyone who might have seen something interesting or some local with a point of view to air.
She half turned, hesitated, then shook her head. ‘No…’
‘You’re sure? You could win the sympathy vote right now. A few tears on the pavement will melt hearts of stone. And the glimpse of underwear will ensure you have at least half the country’s undivided attention.’
She stiffened, grabbed the front of her dress and began to work on the buttons. ‘That’s not my style, Mr Crosby.’ She caught his questioning look. ‘They might have wrecked my press conference but I’ll think of some way to turn this to my advantage. I mean, it hardly puts Mr Parker on the side of the angels, does it? It’s odd, because I would have thought he was cleverer than that…’
‘Maybe he’s more desperate than you thought. And you’ve missed the point.’ And a button, but he thought it wiser not to mention that. ‘If whoever set this up had been successful, you wouldn’t have been around to organise anything.’
She stared at him and he could see the reality of what had happened was beginning to sink in. ‘Yes. I see.’ She glanced back again. ‘Maybe I should—’
‘No, you shouldn’t. As you said, it’s not your style.’ Besides which, her lipstick was smudged, her sleek cap of hair uncharacteristically mussed. For a moment she didn’t look anything like the controlled, determined young woman who had fearlessly taken on big business and had it on the run. She looked like a girl who, for a moment, was just a little bit lost, and Matt wanted to hold her, reassure her. He managed to stop himself, but it was a close-run thing. ‘And if you’re at all keen to hang onto your reputation for unruffled perfection in the face of adversity, Miss Blake, I think I should tell you that you could use a comb.’
She lifted her hand to her hair in a self-conscious gesture. ‘Oh, right. In that, case, Mr Crosby, I suggest we retire to the bar of the hotel with all speed.’
‘Just Crosby will do,’ he said as he let slip the handbrake, checked the mirror and moved away from the kerb. ‘Or Matt, if you promise to keep your feet to yourself. I don’t usually allow people who kick me to get that personal. What do your family call you?’ he asked, while she was making up her mind.
‘A nuisance?’ she offered. ‘And I hate to think what the construction industry call me.’
‘Much the same,’ he said, with a grin. ‘But the less printable versions.’ And, since he didn’t intend listing them, he put his foot down hard and his old Mercedes surged forward, leaving the approaching news hounds standing.
Once out of sight of the Assembly Rooms he slowed, and a few moments later pulled into the staff car park at the rear of the Delvering Arms.