by Margaret Way
“Keeley saw you,” he said, giving way to a shout.
“What, in bed?” she countered acidly. “You’re going to believe Keeley, an inveterate liar?”
Lyle sat down again as though his legs wouldn’t hold him up. “She thought it her duty to tell me. She saw the two of you speeding away from his apartment.”
“On surveillance, was she? Or just passing by?”
“God, Clio!” Lyle said in distress. “Are you in love with Josh Hart?”
Her feelings for Josh were way too private to share. “I’m not here to answer questions, Dad. But because it’s you and I love you, I’ll tell you I’m not sleeping with him. I promise. Even Josh thinks it’s a bad idea,” she added with irony. “You’d better wake up soon, Dad. Don’t you think Mum would want you to? You have to deal with life. I want the Crowleys out. I want new people in. I want to get cracking on creating a scholarship program for our clever students who want to study law or whatever.”
“Like Hart?” he asked bitterly. “He’s veered off, hasn’t he?”
“The fact he knows the law is a tremendous help to him,” Clio pointed out. “Is it so difficult for you to speak to Keeley about a divorce?”
Her father winced. “I don’t like the idea of divorce. No one has ever divorced in our family.”
“There’s always a first time and Leo isn’t around to tut-tut, not that he would in this case. Keeley doesn’t love you. You don’t love her. Stay with her and you’ll descend totally into depression. Start divorce proceedings. Begin afresh.”
Her father gave her a stony look. “Don’t start on me when we’re supposed to be talking about you. I won’t have you mixing with the likes of Josh Hart.”
“Leo let you down, didn’t he, Dad?” Clio said sadly. “You saw him as always turning to Josh instead of you. But Leo loved us.”
“Adored you. And your mother. I don’t know about me.” Lyle showed a lifetime of severely injured feelings.
“I love you.”
“I know that,” Lyle sighed.
“Then don’t make this a personal vendetta. Josh Hart is very clever and very brave. He’s come through terrible times in life. If he bashed up some minder, you can bet your life the guy deserved it. You simply can’t run around calling him a criminal. It has to stop. You’d be showing a bit of courage yourself, taking on the Crowleys. We can buy them out. Let them take their clients. We don’t need them. Everyone knows about Paddy, the old rogue. All I’m asking is you take a look at what Vince and Vince’s monkey, poor Jimmy, have been up to. That would only be the tip of the iceberg. It all happened since Leo left the firm. You were supposed to be in charge.”
Lyle flushed scarlet. “Clio, I’ve done the best I can.”
Clio shook her head. “No, you haven’t, Dad. You can do better and these files might give you a kick-start.”
It was dead easy to spot the guy who was following him. He very nearly laughed. Watching his back had become part of him. He’d been expecting something of the sort. This punk was tall, around thirty, very fit, wearing jeans and a black T-shirt, black shades even though dusk was falling. Dark glasses or not, Josh knew the guy’s eyes were glued to him. He wasn’t worried whether he could take care of him. In all probability, old Paddy had organised the whole thing.
One positive thing had emerged. Lyle Templeton, with Clio’s persuasion, had finally found the guts to buy his partner out of the family firm. Crowley had gone, begging for no follow-up, and taking his “boofhead son” with him, along with their list of clients. Vince was given no guarantee the matter wouldn’t go further. Victims were entitled to compensation.
The security company had gone to work at the Templeton mansion. The mansion had new electronic gates, cameras, motion detectors. Josh had really wanted a guard on the gate during the Crowley business but Clio had refused point blank. Leo had never bothered about security. Leo had lived through a time when it hadn’t been needed. Anyway, Leo had felt himself way above threat from his subjects.
Times had changed.
The guy was still trailing him. Did he seriously think his antics were going unnoticed? This was getting tiresome. He turned down Florist Alley, which stretched away to a backstreet. If the guy was going to make a move, he was going to do it here. Dark alleyways were notorious for attack. The flower stalls at this time in the evening were emptied of produce. Not a single person hung around.
He strode ahead as if he didn’t have a care in the world. All the while he was waiting for his psycho friend to approach. As it was, he had sensed the very instant the guy turned into the alleyway in silent pursuit. Probably intended to drop him like a stone then get in a few telling kicks to the kidneys and the groin. Old Paddy wouldn’t be looking for another funeral. Just some heavy-handed tactics. It was a strategy that had worked for him in the past.
Josh awaited the precise moment to make his own move. He pivoted abruptly, throwing the guy off balance and getting a headlock on him with little effort. His would-be assailant, taken by surprise, was reduced to groaning and thrashing his hands about, shocked to find he was the one in powerful bother…
At about the same time that evening Clio encountered a problem of her own. She had stayed late to lessen her workload but the moment she stepped out of the office building and into the street, Jimmy Crowley raced towards her, looking as usual as harmless as a cocker spaniel.
“Clio, could you give me five minutes of your time?” There was a pleading note in his voice. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”
“Which doesn’t mean I trust you, Jimmy,” Clio informed him tartly. “Unfortunately for you, you’re a Crowley.”
“Ah, hell!” Jimmy groaned. “Don’t give me the sins of the fathers bit. My grandfather isn’t a man you cross. Did you ever try crossing your grandad?” he challenged. “Old bastards, both of them. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Clio shook her dark head. “Come off it, Jimmy. Leo did a lot of good. He wasn’t a white-collar criminal.” “But he was an old tyrant.” Jimmy looked her right in the eyes. “Even Paddy wasn’t game to be disrespectful. You weren’t allowed to do your own thing. Not with Leo.”
Clio made no attempt to deny it. These days she was deeply into self-analysis.
“We can have a cup of coffee,” Jimmy suggested, sensing she was weakening. “What about Gino’s?”
“No confrontations, Jimmy,” Clio warned. It was hard to be mad at Jimmy. Basically he was just a simple guy.
“No.” Jimmy’s voice sounded so soft and helpless he might have been a child. “Are you really going to help Mum get a divorce?”
Anger suddenly flooded Clio’s body. “Don’t sons defend their mothers? Where the hell were you, Jimmy, when your father was browbeating your mother?”
“Under the bed,” Jimmy said without hesitation. “Don’t think I’m not ashamed of myself. A guy like Josh Hart would have hammered Dad to the ground even if Dad was coming at him with a machete. I’m not brave like that, Clio. My dad and old Paddy make me sick to my stomach.”
“Okay, it was hard for you,” Clio acknowledged, knowing Jimmy hadn’t been spared Vince’s vicious tongue and temper. “Look, have you had anything to eat?” Jimmy, always gym trim, appeared to have lost six or seven kilos. The weight loss didn’t suit him.
“Find it hard to eat these days.” Jimmy gave her a wan grin.
“Let’s go home,” Clio came to a decision. “Meg will fix us something.”
Jimmy brightened. “If it comes to court, I’ll testify for Mum. After that, I’ll have to beat it out of town. Who tipped you off about the bankruptcy petitions? My stupid fault. Not Dad’s. I pulled a lot of wrong credit information.”
“I know, Jimmy. Why don’t you check out another career while you’re on the run? I’m sure you’ll get your mother to go with you. She loves you. She doesn’t blame you for anything.”
“She’s a saint, I swear,” Jimmy proclaimed.
Less than twenty minutes later, with matters settled entirel
y to his satisfaction and with no need whatsoever for violence, Josh returned to his car, calling up his messages. His eye lit on one that caused him to give a bitter smile. Only one person it could be: Keeley Templeton. This was a woman who got around.
Guess who’s up at the house with your girlfriend? Jimmy Crowley. If you doubt me go see. Jimmy always does what he’s told. What do you know about Clio’s relationship with Crowley anyway? She likes the guy.
For all Jimmy was a Crowley, he didn’t see him being a threat to Clio. Jimmy worshipped her. Still, what was he doing at the house? He thought he had made it clear Clio should be on her guard against the Crowleys. After the failed attack tonight, Kingpin Paddy Crowley’s day was fast coming to an end.
The massive wrought-iron gates had been fitted with a keypad plus remote-control entry for family. He wasn’t family—he was rootless wasn’t he, no background? he thought ironically, but for him his relationship with Clio had entered a staggering new dimension. It was almost dreamlike. To have held Clio in his arms. To have kissed her passionately when he had spent years obliged to keep a respectful distance. He couldn’t seem to grasp it. No matter his success in life, he had to conclude the past had damaged him. One didn’t need a degree in psychology to figure that out. Most people, and certainly the privileged, knew nothing about institutionalized life and how it created long-term problems. The abandoned were at high risk. He knew of deaths on the streets of the kids he had once known.
It surprised him when Clio activated the gates. He had expected Tom, who had acted as Leo’s major-domo. She didn’t mention Jimmy Crowley was with her. For that matter, was he? Or was Keeley having a little bit of fun, keeping Clio and him under constant scrutiny?
Jimmy’s car wasn’t parked in the drive. Too late to turn back. Clio, with her beautiful hair cascading down her back, was standing at the door by the time he made it up the short flight of steps. “Is anything the matter, Josh?” She looked her surprise, waving him in.
“So far, so good.” His eyes swept her. She had changed out of her office clothes into an ankle-length floaty dress with shoestring straps. Jimmy would have loved it. “I was passing so I thought I might check in. You’re not having any problems?”
She gave him a smile. “I feel very safe, Josh, thanks to you.”
“Where’s Meg?” He looked around as they walked down the entrance hall with its beautiful honey-coloured polished timber floor and a custom-made runner in muted blues, reds and golds, exquisite in detail. The informal dining room was to the left where Clio was heading.
“She prepared a light meal then went off to the bungalow to join Tom.”
“I thought they were staying in the house for a while,” he commented, thinking he too was getting over-protective. Clio had that effect on the men in her life.
“Josh, I’m living in Fort Knox. Cameras, motion detectors, back-up systems, panic buttons.”
“There’s you, and you have a great deal to protect,” he pointed out. “I know you don’t like using the word ‘mansion’ in connection with the house, but that’s what this place is. It’s a load off my mind to know you’re now living in a secure house, as you should be.”
“I stand corrected.” She gave a gracious bob of her glossy head. “And it makes me happy to know you care. Come through, Josh. Jimmy Crowley is here.”
Without thinking, he bit out, “What the hell for?”
“I invited him,” Clio said sweetly, with a lift of her chin.
“I see. He’s going to propose if it’s the last thing he ever does?”
She shook her head at his caustic humour. “Look, I feel affection for poor Jimmy, okay? He’s really a gentle person.”
“And I’m not?”
She spun around to face him. Her olive skin shimmered, her face, her slender arms, her beautiful bare shoulders. “God knows, you need gentling,” she said very softly.
Despite her words, the note in her voice made him feel like she had kissed him on the mouth. “What did he do with the Bentley?” he asked, trying to tamp down the mad rush of desire. “Run it into the garage under cover?”
“Actually, you could do me a huge favour and run Jimmy back into town when you leave. I brought him here in the Merc.”
“For a tête-à-tête?’
“Jimmy is harmless. That’s all I care about.”
“So what do we have here, overnight liberation?’
“What, for Jimmy or for me?” Her lustrous eyes were huge in her face, dark enough to be near black, yet brilliant.
“Your safety is all I care about. But it takes guts to cross a tyrant. I wonder if Jimmy’s got them?”
She glanced over her shoulder. “I haven’t actually seen that much of his body, Josh. We’re out on the terrace. Would you care for a drink? There’s still plenty of food.”
“Thank you, I’m fine. I had a couple of beers at the pub with one of Paddy Crowley’s splendid part-time workforce, the paid head-kickers. I’ll say hello to Jimmy. He might be interested to know his grandad mightn’t be the big man he once was.” “And you’re going to take over?” She felt a spurt of anxiety. Josh downing beers in the pub with one of Paddy Crowley’s bouncers? It was critical, Leo had always maintained, that Josh stay out of trouble.
He gave her a searing look. “You can’t stop yourself, can you?”
“I need to work on it,” she admitted wryly. “Please tell me how to go about it.”
His expression was back to imperious mode. “Figure it out for yourself.”
Clio turned away. “I will. I owe you.”
Josh was a puzzle she might never understand but no matter what amount of persuasion from him she was going to win him over.
Jimmy sat as if paralysed, then nearly desperately shot to his feet as Clio, with Josh looming tall at her shoulder, walked out onto the loggia.
Josh Hart? Jimmy thought in shock. Hart had been Leo’s protégé but to his knowledge Hart had never been encouraged to call in on Clio. That old tyrant, Leo, would have actively discouraged it. Any man that courted Clio had to be a member of a family of power and influence. Most people had been baffled by Leo Templeton’s close involvement with Josh Hart.
It was easy for Josh to read Jimmy’s mind. He looked around, brushing away any thought of resentment. The loggia was the perfect setting for outdoor relaxing and entertaining. His eyes moved swiftly over the glass-topped circular dining table beautifully set for two. Candles, hibiscus flowers, a bottle of wine in a silver cooler. Quite romantic really. And Jimmy was seriously romantic about Clio. Professional lighting had been installed to bring the lush gardens and the pool area to life. Indigo blue and aqua mosaic tiles lined the swimming pool and the spa. A glorious display of bougainvillea wreathed many of the stone-arched columns that formed the colonnade. All in all as much as anyone could possibly want.
All at once Josh felt a ferocious sadness for the kid he had been. No home life at all. Nothing normal. The reverse. No loving parents to guide his way. Plenty who had wanted him restrained. He could buy all this, the Templeton mansion, but he was beginning to doubt if he could ever find his way out of the wasteland that was his past. He sometimes thought of it as a kind of stigma attached to him.
“Josh, how are you?” Jimmy, with heightened colour, thrust out his hand.
“Thank you for asking,” Josh said suavely, responding to the handshake. Jimmy had always avoided him like the plague.
“Sit down, Josh, won’t you?” Clio invited, a near plea-like note in her voice.
“Glad to.” He pulled up a chair from an adjacent setting, remaining standing while he held Clio’s chair. “So, Jimmy, what have you been up to since your shock departure from Templetons?” he asked conversationally.
“Josh!” Clio hurriedly intervened, while Jimmy looked too startled to answer.
“I had a word with one of your grandfather’s bouncers this evening,” Josh revealed conversationally.
“Really? Which one?” Jimmy asked fearfully.
> “A guy called Bruiser O’Malley. You know him?” There was no threat or anger in Josh’s voice but it managed to thoroughly chill Jimmy.
Jimmy did know O’Malley. “Why should the sins of my grandfather come down on my head?” he groaned.
“Tough, I know.” Josh sounded like he understood. “You need to get a life, Jimmy. I’d say without delay. I know you worship the ground Clio walks on, but that’s not going anywhere, is it?”
Clio broke in. “Excuse me, Josh, but has it escaped your attention I’m still here?”
He turned to her. “Forgive me, Clio. It was more like my trying to help Jimmy. We both know he has to sort himself out quickly. Don’t you, Jimmy?” He pinned Paddy Crowley’s grandson with his piercing gaze.
“And how do I do that?” Jimmy cried, like a man desperately in need of advice. “It’s a little late for me to morph into Iron Man, like you. Did you knock O’Malley’s block off?” he asked with a certain relish.
“Actually, O’Malley had the great good sense to send someone else. I have the whole pathetic plan down on paper. Signed, witnessed. O’Malley thinks he’s my new best friend.”
Jimmy took a deep breath. “Well, I wouldn’t care to make an enemy of you,” he said.
Clio ignored Jimmy. “What happened, Josh?” All sorts of anxieties were crowding in. “Are the police going to arrive on my doorstep?”
Josh stared at her. “What?’
“I’m worried about you,” she said. “Can’t you understand that? Paddy Crowley is a psycho. Isn’t he, Jimmy?”
“I’ve had a lifetime to find out,” said Jimmy. “Take my old man—”
“Was there a fight, Josh?” Clio didn’t want to hear about Jimmy’s old man.
“Not yet anyway,” Josh said with a decided edge to his voice. “I don’t have to account to you, Clio,” he said, with a sudden mood swing.
Hot colour rose to her cheeks. “Josh, I’m someone you can trust.”
“You don’t trust me,” Josh said pointedly. He rose to his splendid height, shoving his chair with a loud scrape into the table. “No trust. No friendship.” It sounded like an ultimatum, stripped down to the bone.