Authors: Sarah Elizabeth Ashley
The documents arrive from the lawyer’s
office as planned and I glance over them, exactly as we discussed, great. I
telephone Nial and luckily he can accommodate us at three. I wonder if he knows
what I want to see him for?
Anna and I have a light lunch together, Jake refuses to join
us, apparently he’s not allowed, stupid rules - installing a man into someone’s
home and then telling them they can’t join us to eat, I mean we’re not
Victorian, are we? I make him a sandwich and take it through to the study, he
needs to eat, the bloke’s huge.
At two thirty I ask Jake to run me to Henry’s, Anna comes
along for the ride, partly because she is apparently bored and partly because
Jake feels unhappy about leaving her on her own to take me into town. We all
pile into his Range Rover Anna in the back I sit in the front beside Jake, I
have no doubt a company vehicle, black with darkened windows, a huge car and I
just know that Anna will have fun with this, being the “green” person that she
is. It’s not long before she shows her sarcastic side, bordering on a little
bitchy, but I have to hold back a little laugh as she asks, “Do you ride?”
quite seriously.
Jake coughs, chokes, it’s quite amusing watching him,
completely taken off guard. He composes himself, “Sorry Miss Drake?”
“Ride, do you ride?” She speaks the words clearly,
emphasising every consonant.
“I’m sorry Miss Drake, I don’t know what you mean?” He
blushes, clearly misinterpreting what Anna has asked, he’s a dirty mind too,
obviously!
“Horses Jake. You drive a country vehicle, do you ride – horses,
you know drag a horsebox around or maybe some sheep?” Anna smiles at me as she
explains the reasoning behind her question, I having difficulty stopping myself
from laughing as it’s apparent that my darling daughter is simply winding the
poor chap up!
“No, sorry. I hate horses, they bite and stamp!” He cringes,
outwardly I guess having had an encounter with a horse in the past.
“Oh, I thought as you had a four wheel drive you might drag
a horse box or something?” She presses.
“No!” He snaps, “It’s a company car, assigned to me to drive
you around in, that’s all.”
“Oh.” She mumbles.
“You don’t like it?” He asks.
“It’s just big!” I jump in to stop Anna annoying this poor
man any further, “You have to remember Jake that we come from the country, our
neighbours tended to use Land Rovers or Range Rovers for moving live stock or
just for getting through the country lanes. If I was spending this sort of cash
on a car I would not be buying a Range Rover, no I’d go for a nice luxury
marque instead – Mercedes or BMW. Having said that, with what I spent on the R8
I could have bought an Aston Martin. Anna why didn’t we look at Aston Martin
when we bought the Audi?” I look into the back of the box on wheels.
“We were in a hurry mum, we’d no car and the Audi garage was
the first we walked into, and it’s pretty!”
We pull up outside Henry’s and Jake says that he will wait
for me to finish the meeting. I feel for him being trapped in that box with my
annoying daughter. I know she’ll give him a hard time “Be good Anna.” I say as
I leave the car winking at her, I smile sweetly at Jake and shrug my shoulders.
Poor bloke, I wonder if this is a punishment, being landed with us two!
He’ll
need therapy after an hour trapped in a box on wheels with Anna having to
listen to her views regarding big cars, horseboxes, farmers and close
protection security people!
I enter Henry’s via the covered VIP entrance and raise my
hand to Josie who is wiping down tables in a seating area of the main club. She
acknowledges me with a smile. I check my portfolio case and make sure I have
the thick brown envelope that contains the proposed buyout agreement.
As I approach Nial’s office he opens the door, I guess he’s
seen me on the CCTV walking across the club.
“Alex.” He holds his hand out, takes mine and leans forward,
kissing me on the cheek. “Come on through.” He still stinks of booze.
I follow him through to his office. I hadn’t really paid
much attention to Nial before and as I take a seat in front of his desk I
notice the drawn, thin face and the somewhat scrawny body beneath the black
t-shirt and jeans, he looks tired and worn out. He’s certainly not like James
who has an amazing physique, not body builder big, but just right. Muscles in
the right places, firm stomach, nicely toned pecs.
“Take a seat.” He says as he indicates towards the chairs in
front of his desk. “Can I get you a drink?”
“Water please. James should be joining us.” I glance at my
watch, he should be here by now.
Nial leaves his office giving me the opportunity to look
around the office. From where I sit I see piles of paperwork, baskets and trays
full of what look like delivery notes and invoices, there’s a couple of filing
cabinets with further stacks of paperwork on top, empty glasses scattered here
and there and a plate with a half eaten, stale looking sandwich on a low drawer
unit. The place really is a mess, and looks, to be frank, dirty.
He returns with a bottle of Highland Spring for me and what
looks like Scotch for himself, although it could be any pale amber coloured spirit
I suppose, whatever there’s clearly a problem here.
“So, what can I do for you today?” He places the green
bottle in front of me, no glass, oh well a good job I’m not prim and proper
then! He wanders around to his swivel chair with his glass of whatever spirit
it is. I glance at my watch again, James must be delayed.
“I was hoping that James would be joining us, but he must be
delayed.” I say as I open the bottle of water. I can do this on my own, after
all it’s not nasty or hostile, I’m just making a proposal, if he turns
aggressive then I’ll leave and we can do this via the lawyers.
“When I was here, the other day, I asked if you had a
balance sheet I could look at.” I remind him.
He nods in reply, “I didn’t have one at the time.”
“Well, then something happened Nial, and there’s no easy way
to say this.” I look at him and swear I see a thin film of perspiration across
his forehead. “I was approached by someone who advised me that there has been a
problem with pay, not being paid on time, that sort of thing.”
“There’s a reason…” He starts to interrupt me and I get the
impression he’s going to defend himself but I cut him off, “Let me finish Nial,
please!” I pause, taking a breath. “Well, that led me to check one or two
things out, after all I do own fifty percent of the business.”
“Yes.” He mutters, looking increasingly flustered and
sweatier by the second.
“Well, things aren’t good, are they Nial? Why didn’t you say
how bad things are? And more to the point
why
are they so bad? The club’s
making huge profits, massive, so why can’t we pay the suppliers, the staff.
Anyway, to cut a long story short I can salvage this, make things better
and
keep Henry’s operating, so I have a proposal.” I pull the large envelope
from my portfolio.
“What!” He snaps.
“I’m prepared to offer you your money back, the fifty per
cent you initially invested into Henry’s plus a further twenty five per cent on
top of that for your half of the business I’ll also clear all the debts with
the suppliers. I’m effectively offering you the option to sell your half to me.
In turn you walk away, twenty five per cent up on what you invested, plus your
initial stake. The alternatives are, as I’m sure you’re fully aware, pretty
dire for you. My accountant seems to think the place has got two weeks tops
before the creditors start issuing winding up orders. You’d get nothing,
absolutely nothing at all if that happens. For me, well I’d lose the monthly
profit share, that’s it. I know that Maggie put half in, but as far as I’m concerned
I never saw that or had it, so I’ve lost nothing.”
He looks at me, intently. His thin face hardening, it’s a
look I don’t like. I breathe deeply and put myself in my happy place, thank God
it seems to be working this time. I check my watch again, where the hell is
James.
Nial stands and paces around his desk. “I don’t know Alex,
this place is everything to me.”
“And soon it’ll be nothing!” I finish his sentence for him.
“I’ve worked hard, built it up from scratch. Maggie had no
involvement, just the cash. Everything else I’ve done myself.” His tone becomes
aggressive.
“There’s no denying that Nial but something’s happened and,
well you either accept my offer or walk away with nothing – if not today then
certainly in the next week or two!”
He walks behind my chair, I feel uncomfortable, very
uncomfortable. I lean forward to pick my handbag and portfolio up as I do I
feel his fingers run across the tops of my shoulders, I go to stand. “I’ll give
you some time…”
He cuts me off pushing me back down into the chair. “The
moment I first met you, when I ran you home that night I fancied you. You have
to know that Alex. I bet you’re an amazing fuck!” I feel both of his thin hands
on my shoulders, a horrible unwanted feeling. I recall James telling me of a
different girl every night, about being a Playboy, clearly he still is, or
still has desires to be one, although who’d want to have him, inside them, I
have no idea. He smells, he’s scrawny, and really not nice, although I suspect
he never used to be this way, I can’t imagine Maggie investing with a drop out,
which is what Nial looks like now!
“I thought we could run this place together, make a go of
it, you know. You. And. Me?” He punctuates his words his voice hoarse, “I can
see us, working together Alex, being together. You know what I mean?” His
fingers dig into my shoulders, he’s in my space, well into it, the feeling
makes my skin crawl.
“I need to go Nial. Please think about it.” I try stand, and
turn to leave his office as his hand trails down my arm. “Please don’t touch me
Nial, please don’t!” I raise my voice. As I say the words I hear the door
handle turn and James stands there. He takes one look at Nial, his hand on my
arm and smack! The punch comes out of nowhere, straight under Nial’s chin
sending him stumbling backwards and onto his desk, papers pens used glasses and
my bottle of water fly in all directions, clattering and smashing to the floor.
Nial’s just sprawled backwards on his desk, his arms flung out to his sides his
legs barely holding him up.
“Out!” James looks at me shouting , “go to Jake, now!” He
points towards the door. I pick up my handbag and portfolio and vacate the
office glancing behind me as I leave the office.
I walk quickly across the club and listen to the sounds of
James shouting at Nial as I hurry towards the door. I have no idea what’s going
on in there, I can’t hear anything that sounds like fighting, just James’
incredibly loud and aggressive voice booming. The staff behind the bar,
cleaning the tables look up at me as I cross the main area, but look quickly
down again, avoiding any eye contact. Surely they must know what Nial is like,
that there’s a problem?
Outside I find Jake sat in his Range Rover chatting to Anna.
I open the door and slide into the passenger seat. “Can we go straight home?
Now!”
“Of course Mrs. Drake.” He acknowledges me as we pull away
from the kerb.
“Everything okay mum?” Anna asks from the back.
“Fine sweetheart, absolutely fine – I think.” I mutter.
Once we’re back to home Jake insists he opens the door and
enters first, he turns the key in the lock and deactivates the alarm Anna goes
straight to her room, I make tea for Jake and myself. “Please, come and join me
in the kitchen Jake, don’t sit in the study on your own.”
“I shouldn’t really Mrs. Drake.” He grumbles, stood in the
hall.
“Who’s the client?” I ask him.
“Well, you I suppose.”
“And do you always go against your client’s wishes?” I
remind him that, even though I don’t approve and didn’t request this he is
working for me.
“No, but it’s, well it’s protocol I suppose.”
“We’ll let’s just break the
protocol
shall we? Come
and have a cup of tea with me, in the kitchen. James’ll be here soon anyway,
then you can go for the day.”
He reluctantly follows me through to the kitchen and I tell him
to sit, wafting my hands towards the stools around the island.
“So, James has been very cagey about what Benito does, just
says
it’s security
. What do you do?” I ask, prying for information on
Benito’s security business.
“The organisation offers standard security, you know the
sort you see around business parks but also the more professional stuff, like
this – close protection. Ben’s got some high profile clients, pop stars and
film stars, people like that.”
“Oh.” Well he hasn’t told me anything that I didn’t suspect
already.
“So, presumably you’re all trained in that sort of thing.” I
press him again.
“You could say that Mrs. Drake. Those of us that work in
this field, we’re mostly ex-military.”
“Can I ask what sort of military?” I ask. We’re back to one
question and one answer.
“No, sorry ma’am you can ask but I can’t answer.”
“That tells me a lot Jake. I’m guessing that you, possibly
Benito and the
others
that do your sort of work are all ex Special
Forces of some description – SAS, SBS? Am I right?”
“I can’t talk about it Mrs. Drake. Sorry.” He picks his mug
of tea up and wanders around the kitchen. How does he cope, spending so much
time alone, having said that don’t these Special Forces types receive training
in being alone?
Jake stays and chats about everyday stuff, things that he
is
allowed to discuss whilst I wait for James to come home. We’re interrupted from
our natter when my phone rings, I check the screen, Gia. “Gia, hello.”