“Oliver, come and take a seat and we can talk about whatever is bothering you.”
Oliver’s hard gaze moved from her hand, now by her side, and upward as he took her in. After their call last night she knew he wouldn’t be happy but hadn’t expected him to be this angry. The way his eyes strayed to her chest made her wish she hadn’t undone those extra buttons. She’d thought she was being clever taking Bree’s advice and reminding Chase that she was just a woman. Now she just felt cheap, but she wasn’t about to show any weakness. Right now she had to be pure strength and confidence. She had to get them back on an even keel.
Without a word, he crossed the room and sat in the chair Chase had been using. Beth wondered it was a deliberate move to snub the other man. It wasn’t the most comfortable chair in the room, and it certainly wasn’t the obvious one for him to have chosen. From behind Oliver, Chase rolled his eyes at Beth, the corners of his mouth curling in a slight grin. Whilst his body was still tense, ready to react, he had obviously drawn the same conclusions as she had, and, mouth twitching, she fought the urge to grin back at him.
“Why the devil are you going ahead with this launch? It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Okay, so he was angry about her going ahead with the launch. She wondered at his intensity though. After all, what she was doing was necessary to ensure the survival of the Company. Their company.
“It’s the right thing to do. Thousands of people’s livelihoods depend on the success of this launch.”
“And a few jobs matter more than your life, do they?” He leant forward, banging her desk with his fist to emphasize his point.
Beth flinched at the action but squared her shoulders anyway. She was doing this whatever he thought. After recent events she knew she could do anything she set her mind to. Well, as long as Chase was by her side.
“It’s the right thing to do. Anyway, I’d have thought you would want me to do whatever it takes to save this company.”
“You’re being ridiculous. The launch should be cancelled.” He lifted himself from the seat and loomed over her. “I’m responsible for this airline, and I will not allow you to put yourself or anyone else in danger.”
“Back down,” Chase ordered, stepping closer. His tone was calm and quiet, but there was no missing the authority in it.
Swiveling around, Oliver glared at him. “This has nothing to do with you. You’re just the hired help, and you are not delivering what is expected of you. If you were keeping her safe you’d put a stop to this madness.”
“Beth is a competent woman who can do whatever she wants. My job is to keep her safe doing it. Not keep her locked away,” Chase said.
Beth resisted the urge to smile at his words. If he’d spotted the irony of preaching that she was free to do what she liked, when he’d spent the last few days trying to talk her out of it, he was doing a great job of ignoring it. Yet despite the fact he’d tried to dissuade her, it didn’t change the fact that ultimately he’d tried to persuade, not dictate. And therein lay the difference between the two men.
“That’s Miss Worthington to you, and this is none of your business. You need to step outside.”
Beth could see Chase’s jaw working as he tried not to react to the insulting way Oliver had spoken to him.
Deciding to put a stop to things before Chase’s superhuman patience was pushed past breaking point, she interjected. There was nothing to be gained from letting the situation degenerate further.
“Chase won’t be going anywhere.”
Working hard not to step back at the look of fury on Oliver’s face as he spun around to face her, Beth forced herself to stand her ground.
“I’m sorry, Oliver,” she said softly, “but I am doing this.”
“This is his fault. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. You think I’m stupid? That I don’t know what’s going on between you two? We’re supposed to be getting married. I’m not about to let some, some … Neanderthal put you in danger.”
“I don’t appreciate what you’re insinuating, and we discussed this last night. You know as well as I do that we were never going to get married. That’s something our parents wanted. Not us.”
“You don’t know anything about what I want,” he replied, his voice taking on a wheedling tone as he tried to persuade her. “I know we said we wouldn’t, but we both know that was just rebelliousness. In the end we are right for each other. The events at the wedding made me realize that.”
She stared at him in surprise. He was trying, but he didn’t even seem to realize that not once had he said he loved her. It was as though he was treating her as a business deal. Her silence obviously made him think his words were working, for he took a step closer before she could find the words to respond.
“We’re friends, Oliver, and I value your friendship, but let’s be clear. We will never be anything more. I thought we were in agreement on that.”
“Beth, you know I care for you, and just think of what we could achieve together. How far we could take the airline. We could make sure no one attacks your family again.”
Trying to ignore Chase’s clenched fists twitching in her peripheral vision, she swallowed her shock. Until yesterday she’d thought that Oliver was in agreement that they didn’t want that type of relationship, using the horror of her sister’s wedding as a weapon, as if somehow she would be so moved she would abandon her plans, give up any chance of real love for some sort of business merger, just reinforced that he would never be the man for her.
“We can achieve those things without being together like that,” she said, a sick feeling in her stomach as she did. Somehow, he had to see the logic of what she was saying or she feared their friendship would be damaged beyond repair.
“Please, Oliver,” she said. “I’m not going to keep having this discussion. Can you just accept that we are just good friends?”
“Well, you’re not doing this launch,” he insisted, changing tack.
Beth raised her hand to tug on her hair, once again caught short by the fact that it wasn’t there. Why wouldn’t he listen to her? She wasn’t about to go back into hiding, and she certainly wasn’t about to let everything her father had worked so hard for fall apart. She needed him to accept that this was happening. Heart heavy, she fell back on the one thing she knew would work.
“I appreciate you have a lot of responsibility for running things here, but you are not the owner. Right now, I represent the owner, and I have decided this launch will go ahead. I would be so much happier if you were on board with this and standing next to me when it happens, but be clear, it will be happening either way.”
Oliver face reddened as he took in her meaning. Without another word he spun on his heel and stormed out of the office, the door banging just as hard behind him as when he’d arrived.
“That went well,” Chase deadpanned.
“I behaved so badly.” Beth sighed, sinking into her chair.
“You behaved badly?” Chase asked.
“I just played the ‘my father’s more important than your father’ card.” She raised her hand to her hair again, dropping it when she remembered it wasn’t there.
Chase walked around her desk and knelt in front of her. With his hands resting on the arms of her chair, his expression was serious.
“Don’t blame yourself for someone else’s behavior. What could you have said differently that would have made him listen?”
“I don’t know. I just wish I’d been able to think of something.” She sighed. “We’ve known each other our whole lives. I don’t want to lose his friendship.”
“Friends respect each other’s decisions,” Chase said.
“You’re right. It’s just hard.” She felt a wave of sadness that the friendship between her and Oliver was changed forever.
“Come on, you promised to feed me,” Chase said, pulling her to her feet.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Looking around as they slid into the vinyl booth at the diner, Chase took i
n the red and white décor, and scuffed black and white floor tiles reminiscent of something from the diners he was used to seeing on American sitcoms. Oddly, despite all the traveling he’d done over the years he’d never been to the United States but had always fancied it. Old vinyl records were mounted around the room, and a jukebox played Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” in the background. A silent TV hanging above the bar was showing cartoons. He was mentally clocking the exits and their fellow diners when a man approached the table, bundling Beth into a hug before he could react.
“Beth, how lovely to see you! Are you okay? How’s your dad?”
Surprised at the spike of jealousy shooting through him at the embrace, Chase firmly shoved it down. He’d pushed her away. He had no right to feel anything about her hugging another man. Unfortunately, logic didn’t seem to come into it, and he felt himself scowl at the man when, after what felt like an eternity, he finally released her.
“Chase, I’d like you to meet Tom. We’ve been friends our whole lives. Tom, this is Chase. He’s been looking after me.”
Tom extended his hand to Chase. Shorter than he, the man was about level with Beth, his build solid, and when Chase reached out to shake it Tom’s grip was firm.
“Good luck with that,” Tom teased.
“Good luck?” Chase asked, confused.
“You’ll need it. She’s definitely got a mind of her own.”
“Hey, I’m right here!” Beth protested.
“Hey, it’s only right the poor guy knows what he’s getting himself into.”
“Humph. Go away and get our food before you tick me off completely,” she grumbled, but when Chase looked at her the sparkle in her eye gave away her amusement.
“The usual?” Tom asked.
“Always. Chase, do you want to see a menu?”
Tom looked at him expectantly.
“No, I’ll take what Beth’s having. Just more of it please,” he said to Tom, mentally kicking himself when he realized she could have ordered a salad or something equally rubbish. Pure idiocy had made him order without knowing. The familiarity between Beth and Tom had rubbed him up the wrong way and he’d wanted to show he knew her, too. He gave himself a mental head-slap. What the hell was wrong with him? Even if they weren’t from different worlds, his plans were likely to bring down her entire company. He had no business reacting to anything she did unless it was directly related to her safety.
“So how do you know Tom?” he asked, the question spilling out before he could stop it.
“My father used to bring Anne and me here every week. We’d come, sit in this very booth and have burgers, fries and enormous chocolate milkshakes.” She looked around with a smile. “It was the only time we were allowed fries. Our mother said they were too unhealthy. Over the years our families became good friends. If they hadn’t been doing the catering for it, Tom and his family would have been at the wedding.”
Chase saw the sadness take over her expression the moment she mentioned her sister’s wedding. Yet again he couldn’t help but be impressed by her strength of character. That ability to keep functioning despite everything she was facing was incredible.
“So your dad got away with bringing you here?” he said, determined to bring her thoughts back to happier ones.
“Goodness no. Trust me on something. If you want to do something secretive, don’t do it with small children. We blabbed the moment we got home.”
“But you still got to come?”
“We did.” She smiled at him, her memories of those happy times lighting her up from the inside with a radiance that made it hard for him to remember why he needed to keep his distance. Unable to look away, he just enjoyed watching her smile.
“Here we go.” The clink of plates on the table surface jolted Chase from his thoughts, and he looked down, relieved to see the platters of burgers and fries in front of them, salad and coleslaw filling the last of the surface.
“I’ll be right back with your drinks,” Tom said, grinning at Beth.
“Mmmm, thank you,” she said, reaching to pull the smaller of the two plates towards her.
“I didn’t realize how hungry I was,” she said, taking a bit into the burger with a groan of satisfaction.
Chase forced himself to ignore the way he reacted to the sound and, pulling his own plate towards him, tucked in. He knew exactly how hungry he was. Years of practice meant he was good at ignoring his appetite, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed it. As the juices of the burger hit his taste-buds he bit back his own groan. Whether it was down to his own hunger or whether the food really was that amazing didn’t matter, it was fantastic. A couple of bites later and Tom returned with tall glasses of what appeared to be milkshake.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d want whipped cream on yours as well so I brought it separately,” Tom said, waving a can at Chase to punctuate his question.
“Umm, no thanks,” Chase muttered through his mouthful. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a milkshake. He wasn’t actually sure he really wanted one. A large beer would hit the spot, but he had better not after the one he’d had at Emma’s party. He couldn’t take the chance of not being on top form if anything happened. Only the fact that this place was tucked away in a side street where he could see everything in both directions meant that he was comfortable being here at all.
“I have to finish up with the other customers,” Tom said, gesturing to the group of teenagers sitting the other side of the restaurant from them. “I’ll come and chat once I’m done.”
Swallowing a mouthful of fries, Chase took a sip of the milkshake, thirst overtaking his reservations about the kids’ drink. As he sucked the thick liquid through the straw the taste of chocolate hit his tongue, the sweet flavor mingling with the salt from the fries in an amazing combination. He’d never have considered it, but the two flavors seemed to enhance each other.
Putting the glass down, he looked up at Beth, who was grinning at him.
“What?” he asked.
“Never had chocolate milkshake and fries before?” She laughed.
“What makes you say that?” he asked, genuinely curious.
“You were staring at that glass like it was filled with snakes. I figured you were regretting copying my order,” she laughed.
“Honestly,” he said, eating another bite of his burger, “I really was. But it’s good.”
At that moment, having waved off the last of the other customers, Tom joined them. Slipping into the booth, he nudged Beth along the seat to sit beside her.
The flavor in Chase’s mouth turned to dust as he watched Tom sling an arm casually around Beth’s shoulders and pull her to his side.
“So, how did you get stuck looking after Beth?” Tom asked Chase.
Not sure how to answer, Chase looked at Beth for guidance. She nodded at him, her smile relaxed, and Chase found himself admitting that he was the guy from the video footage on the news who had “kidnapped” Beth from the church.
“No way!” Tom said, leaning forward. “I’m really sorry about your dad taking his own life. That must have been terrible.”
The whole world stopped, and a cold chill of shock washed through Chase.
“What?” he finally managed to get out. “How would you know that?”
“It’s been all over the news this evening. Something about how your dad’s company was blamed for that crash a few years ago and after losing everything he killed himself. Hang on, I’ll put the TV on.”
He slid out of the booth, and Chase fought a shiver at the wash of ice traveling down his spine. He knew exactly what the report would say. His worst nightmare had come to life. How the hell had the press identified him? What was he going to say to Beth? She was about to share confidential company information with him and now this was out there.
Tom turned the jukebox off and changed the TV to the news channel. Almost instantly the screen was filled with a shot of his dad’s face. It was one of the photos taken during the prosecution over
the faulty parts. He looked haggard and worn, not like the robust, cheerful dad Chase worked hard to remember. This was quickly followed by a shot of the terrace house his mum now lived in.
“Damn it,” he swore.
Why did they have to drag her into this? Hadn’t she suffered enough without getting pulled back into the limelight because of him? If he hadn’t allowed the possibility of investigating what really happened five years ago to seduce him into saying “yes”, when Commander Cheshire offered him this mission, none of this would be happening.
Damn it, he’d pulled away from Beth, fought against the urge to just give in to whatever the thing between them because of this. His big secret. The truth of which was that for him to be right, to clear his dad’s name, he’d be bringing her beloved company down. Now not only was it out there, but it was being spun in the worst possible way. The press were having a field day over the irony of a man who’d lost his dad, whose family had lost their company and been bankrupted by that accident, being stuck protecting the future head of the same airline.
To make things worse, Beth might not have suspected his motives before, but she was whip smart and there was no mistaking the suggestive comments of the reporter. Stopping just short of anything that could be construed as slander, she wasn’t shying away from hinting at him having ulterior motives, something made worse by the fact she was right. The weight pressing on him felt as though the world had collapsed on top of him. Realizing that, whatever came next, he had lost Beth forever was close to being one of the worst moments in his life. The only thing that stopped him from falling into a bottomless pit of self-pity there and then was the fact that he still had to face the woman herself.
The sound of his phone ringing saved him from having to find the courage to look at Beth when his phone rang. As he pulled it from his jeans pocket, a quick glance told him it was Commander Cheshire, not a call he could put off, even if he had wanted to. Silently thanking the heavens for the excuse to delay seeing the hatred in her expression, he mumbled that it was the boss and slipped outside to take the call.
Broken Trust Page 15