Australia: Wicked Mistresses(70)

Despite herself, she smiled, looking for peepholes in the paper. What did he want? Feeling like a regular Nancy Drew, Jordan decided to have it out with him. Anything was better than wondering and at least there were people around.

Draining her cup, she stood and marched over to his table, flicking the newspaper smartly. “Is this it?” she demanded in a loud voice. “The rag you work for?”

The paper lowered and the man stared up at her, ridiculously still wearing his dark glasses. “Sorry?”

“I want to know who you work for,” Jordan repeated.

The man picked up the cup in his dinner-plate-size hands and sipped before lowering it again. “I’m just hanging, reading the paper,” he said.

Jordan frowned. Why wouldn’t he tell her? It would come out anyway. “Do you deny you have been following me all over town, watching my building, every move I make?”

The woman at the next table stared intently with that gleam of sly recognition Jordan was only too familiar with.

The big man leered at her, leaving her in no doubt that he was enjoying the altercation. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Miss Lake,” he said insolently.

Jordan sighed. She was getting nowhere, except making a spectacle of herself. At least the guy knew he was rumbled and when his story—whatever it was—hit the headlines, she’d have her father roast the editor.

She shook her head in disgust. “Just leave me alone,” she muttered and stalked out the door.

He must be a reporter, she reasoned as she got into the car. The only other possibility was an investigator and why would someone want to investigate her?

Nick’s thunderous face when he’d turned up at her apartment entered her mind. Jealousy, unwarranted as it turned out, but what if he hadn’t believed her about Jason?

Jordan laughed out loud at the thought he would go to any trouble to keep an eye on her. Ridiculous! They each had their own lives and there was no tie between them. Sparked by the delivery of the photos, her imagination had spiraled into paranoia, just another example of her attention-seeking personality.

Nothing further happened that week and by Friday, she’d forgotten it and arrived at the hotel at the new time of two p.m., very much looking forward to seeing him.

Usually Nick checked in and waited for her in the room. She headed for the elevators but happened to glance at Reception where two men stood with their backs to her. A thrill of excitement jetted through her when she recognized one as Nick. Jordan hesitated by a tall potted plant and decided to wait until he’d gone up, just in case she was recognized.

She thrummed with anticipation. Maybe he was right about their increased exposure to each other in court. She’d felt his eyes on her several times today, like a hot caress, making her tingle, building her excitement.

As she watched, Nick turned away from the reception clerk and spoke to the man beside him. A big man, with shaven head, a prizefighter’s body and dark glasses.

Jordan froze. It was him—coffee bar man! She was sure of it.

She barely noticed as Nick walked on toward the elevators. Her eyes remained glued to the man, who just stared after Nick until he disappeared behind the elevator doors.

She moved right behind the plant now, shaking her head to clear it. Stay calm…she needed to think this through. The sequence of events was only seconds and she went over each one in slow motion. Nick reaching for the keycard, talking to the smiling receptionist, turning away from the counter, pausing to talk to the big man beside him. And then walking to the lift.

The man now had his back to her and Jordan took the opportunity to escape. She drove home in a daze and let herself into her apartment. And then she began to tremble.

Could it be true? Was Nick behind a sinister campaign to unsettle her? Was he having her followed because he thought she was sleeping with Jason? She sat there for nearly an hour but peace of mind eluded her. When her phone rang, she answered it with a sense of ominous fatalism, remembering his face on Saturday night, the hard tone of his voice that she’d never heard before. “You want him, Jordan?”

But it was her mother to say Syrius had suffered a heart attack and was being rushed to hospital. Jordan ran, forgetting all about Nick Thorne. Just as she reversed out of her space, she noticed Robert, the building supervisor, waving out to her. Next thing, there was a huge bang and sickening crunch, so loud, she thought there had been an explosion.

Her heart racing in fear and shock, she checked the rearview mirror to see a gray car at the back of hers, its front passenger door crumpled. A gray car—it filtered through the funk in her mind and she looked wildly about for Robert. Her panic eased slightly when she saw him crossing the car park toward her. She pushed open her door, her veins flooded with adrenalin.

And just as she did, Nick Thorne alighted hurriedly from his dented car. His gray Mercedes.

She froze, her mouth dropping open, keyed so tight, she thought she might scream.

“Are you all right?” In two steps, he was beside her, his face full of concern.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, curling her hands into fists by her side.

“Are you all right, Miss Lake?” Robert approached, his eyes wide.

She ignored him and stared at Nick’s face, catching the tension that rolled off him in waves.

“Why don’t you look where you’re going?” he demanded. “You could have been hurt…”

“You hemmed me in on purpose,” she fumed. “Why are you following me?”

“I came to see where you were. I waited for nearly an hour.”

“You had your stooge to keep you company. Get this—” she flicked her hand disdainfully toward his car, “—out of my way. I’m in a hurry.” Turning, she stalked back to her car and yanked the door open.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Nick skirted around the car and grabbed her arm.

Vaguely she heard Robert offer a protest but all she could see was Nick’s furious tight-lipped face.

“I’m not hanging around waiting for you, Jordan. That’s the second time you’ve stood me up. You’d better have a damned good reason.”

She tugged her arm from his grasp, desperate to get away and be with her father. “You’re following me, stalking me,” she said loudly for Robert’s benefit. “And I want it to stop.”

She slid into her car but he barred her door from closing. “What are you talking about?”

“Keep away from me, Nick!” Her demand was almost a yell. She glanced at the doorman. “I have a witness and he’ll back me up. You’re stalking me and I want you to leave me alone.”

She gave a mighty pull on the door but he held it firm. “Request granted, and gladly.” His eyes glittered like the ice in his voice. “You have much too high an opinion of yourself, Jordan Lake.”

With that, he slammed her door and swiftly made his way to his car, flinging a sour look at Robert, who backed off quickly. Then he gunned the engine and sped from the car park, leaving only the tinkle and crunch of glass.

The aftershocks hit Jordan in a series of hot waves. She laid her forehead on the steering wheel, trembling with emotion. Incredibly, her anger had vanished along with Nick, and although he hadn’t denied following her, the confusion in his face confused her. But she didn’t have time to worry about that now. She had to get to the hospital.

Robert tapped on her window. “Your taillight’s broken, Miss Lake. It’ll need seeing to.”

She grimaced. “Later. Robert, was that the car you saw outside the building this week, the one with the big man in dark glasses?”

Robert shook his head. “No, ma’am. It was a Mercedes, but silver, not gray.”





Six


At eight-thirty on Monday morning, Nick exited his office elevator to find his brother sitting on his assistant’s desk. His black mood darkened even more. “What do you want at this time of the morning?”

Noting Jasmine’s flushed and suddenly busy demeanor, it occurred to him that maybeAdam wasn’t here to see him at all. Scowling, he strode on into his office.

He’d spent the whole weekend stewing about the fight with Jordan—not that he had any idea what it was all about. One minute he was eagerly anticipating their lovemaking after a week’s abstinence. The next, spun into a rage when she didn’t turn up. Her accusations in the car park outside her building floored him and he could still hear the anger in her voice when she demanded he stay away from her.

Well, she’d got her wish. He flung his briefcase onto the desk, glad he was finished with it. Now, at least, he wouldn’t have to lie about being booked up every Friday afternoon.

He hadn’t even taken off his jacket when he heard Jasmine’s startled “Wait!” and looked up to see the subject of his thoughts stalking in through his door. She marched straight in and flung the newspaper in her hand onto his desk.

Nick froze, his jacket half on, eyes leaping eagerly to her face. Jasmine appeared behind Jordan. “Nick, I’m sorry.”

“Excuse us, please.”

Jordan stood tall, her cheeks pink, eyes blazing. “What the hell are you playing at?”

With effort, Nick tore his eyes off her face and glanced down at the “Stepping Out” page of the local daily, picturing Jordan leaving the hotel. A brief caption read “Jordan Lake takes a break from the court case between her father and Randall Thorne looking glam as always in her little black dress.” It was the same photo as the one that had been sent to her home. So it was a newshound after all.