Socialite's Gamble(54)

‘And they’re in trouble?’

‘No, we’re in trouble.’ His words were clipped. Impenetrable. ‘KMG has had the AFL broadcasting rights for sixteen years. It’s the most lucrative TV deal in the country and now Martin Ellery has put in a hostile bid for it.’

‘Martin Ellery?’

‘I don’t want to discuss it, Cara.’

He stalked past her and the chill she’d felt moments before turned to ice. All of a sudden she felt like they were back at the casino and he was once again the man who had dragged her to his room and looked at her with such contempt.

Power and focused determination vibrated in the long lines of his lean body and she felt a little bit like a prisoner walking towards their own execution as she followed him into the main bedroom. ‘Is that why you dislike him so much?’

Aidan threw his clothes out of the cupboard and onto the bed. ‘I told you I don’t want to talk about it.’

Cara stood poised in the doorway, unsure about what to do. Unsure about how to reach him, or if she should even try. His attitude had relegated her to the slush pile along with all the other hopefuls in his life.

‘I have the Demarche launch in two days,’ she said, hating the tentative note in her voice but unable to change it. ‘I thought … I thought you were going to come with me.’

He looked up, but Cara sensed that he wasn’t really seeing her. ‘I can’t now. This is important.’

‘You can’t delegate?’ she asked lightly. ‘I mean, can’t Ben go to the meeting? He seems really capable.’

‘No,’ he said, too softly. ‘Ben cannot stand in for me. Nobody else can do it. I have to.’

‘Why?’ she asked. ‘Why does it always have to be you?’

‘Because if you’re not in control things go wrong.’ The look in his eyes was hard and flat. Unreachable. ‘This week, I’ve let things slip and … that’s never a good thing.’

‘Did that happen to you in the past?’

He looked like he was grinding nails, his frustration at her continued questioning palpable. Cara had to fight her instinct to bury her head and walk away. This seemed too important for her to do that.

‘It happened to my father.’ He paused. ‘You want to know why I hate Ellery?’ He ran an agitated hand through his hair. ‘Twelve months ago almost to the day my father took his own life and it was Ellery’s fault.’

‘Oh, Aidan, I’m so sorry.’

Aidan continued as if he hadn’t heard her. ‘He never regained consciousness after swallowing a bottle of pills, although the hospital was hopeful at the time. I sat with him for three days, watching him die.’

He wasn’t looking at her now and Cara held herself completely still, waiting for him to continue. When he didn’t she moved closer to him. ‘Why did he … Why …’ Cara didn’t know what to say in the face of such a tragedy. ‘Did he leave a note?’

‘He didn’t have to,’ Aidan said bitterly. ‘He killed himself because my mother wasn’t coming back.’

‘You mean because she died.’

He nodded curtly. ‘Even though she had left him years before, he let his feelings for her dominate his whole life.’

Cara’s brow pleated. ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.’

‘There’s nothing to say. Fourteen years ago she saw a better deal and she took it and my father fell apart. Then he killed himself. End of story.’

But it wasn’t the end of the story and something in Aidan’s voice alerted her to the sense that there was more going on here.

‘You said he died because of Martin Ellery. He was the man your mother left him for, wasn’t he?’

‘Give the girl a gold star,’ he said bitterly. ‘Yes, my mother left with him. He was my father’s business partner and friend before he embezzled money and nearly destroyed my father’s company.’

‘Oh, that’s horrible.’ Cara went to his side and laid her head against the rigid wall of muscles on his back. ‘I can see now why you haven’t been able to move on from this. Why you don’t want to let him win.’

‘Can you?’

‘Yes, and I’ll come with you.’

Aidan tensed and turned towards her. ‘You’ll what?’

‘I’ll come with you. I didn’t like Martin Ellery on sight and I want to support you.’

He rubbed a hand reflexively over his pectoral muscles. ‘What about the Demarche party?’

‘I think it’s more important to be with you at a time when you’re so emotional.’