The Billionaire's Secrets (18 page)

They drove along the coast. On their left was a rock cut, and signs warned of falling rocks. On the right, a guard rail marked the edge of the shoulder and the beginning of a rocky descent to the ocean. They were about five miles out of town when the clouds finally let go and the rain came down in a sudden torrent. Bowen cursed and slowed the car down to a crawl. “It’s freezing on the road,” he said, straining to see through the downpour. “I just sudden
ly remembered why I hate this bloody
province - winter ten months of the year.”

Taken aback by his language, Chloe suggested they find a spot to pull over until the worst of the rain had passed
. She
looked behind her to check on
Sophia
and
was horrified to see that the girl had taken off her seatbelt and was leaning over the back of her seat. “
Sophia
!” Chloe said sharply. “Put your seatbelt back on!”

“I want to show you my picture of the puppy. It’s in my backpack.”

“You can show me when you get home. Please sit down and put on your seatbelt.”

Just then Bowen cursed again
,
and Chloe wheeled around to see a truck coming toward them, swerving from side to side as the driver s
truggled to keep it on the road.
Everything else happened in a blur. Bowen slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel hard to the left, and Chloe saw the truck, the rock cut, the ocean, the sky whirling around them as if their car was a spinning top.
Sophia
screamed in the back of the car, and Chloe turned in her seat. Straining against the momentum of the spinning car, she reached for
Sophia
, praying the child would not be thrown through the windshield, and waited for the crash...

* * *

“
Mon
d
ieu
,
Gaelan
!”
  Marcus said in exasperation from behind his desk. “You are going to wear out the carpet with that infernal pacing. Not only that, you haven’t heard a single word I’ve said to you
. Now sit down and tell me what i
s going on.”

Gaelan
didn’t answer but instead went to the window and looked out over the city of
Montreal
. Marcus’s office was on the
fortieth
floor
of the glass-and-
steel building that housed Byrne’s Enterprises. The floor-to-ceiling windows afforded an excellent view. The building marked the edge of the modern city
,
and below them the old city with its labyrinth of cobbled streets and stone buildings stretched between them and the harbour still peppered with the remains of the winter's ice.
Gaelan
liked this view, liked to think of the river flowing out of the city toward the ocean and his home on Widow’s Cliff. It was a grey day, but as yet there had been no rain.

“Come on,” Marcus urged. “Tell me what's going on. You’ve been here since Monday, shutting yourself up in your office, but as far as I can tell, you haven’t done a stitch of work.”

Gaelan
turned and looked at Marcus as if to say
just
who’
s the boss here
anyway
?

In his
bespoke
Savile
Row
suit, Marcus actually looked more the part of the boss.
Gaelan
on the other hand hated suits and instead wore a creamy wool shirt and jeans. He refused to wear a tie on any occasion
,
and his business acquaintances knew it was useless to print
black tie
on his invitations - he would dress as he pleased. It killed them too that
Gaelan
could carry off
a
shirt and jeans with the elegance of a tuxedo and turn the head of every woman in the room.

“You’ve also been avoiding me,” Marcus said. “You haven’t even told me how you made out with
Sophia
’s new tutor.”

“How I made out?”
Gaelan
hooked his thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans and leaned a shoulder against the glass. “Then I guess I was right in thinking you were more interested in finding me a girlfriend than
Sophia
a teacher.”

Marcus grinned. “Well, how did I make out then?”

Gaelan
turned his attention to the view. His eyes were full of dark emotion. “I don’t know whether to thank you or to fire you,” he said.

“Then you like her?” Marcus
asked
, sounding pleased with
himself
.

“Who wouldn’t?”
Gaelan
said. “She’s gorgeous, sexy, smart, and already she adores
Sophia
. But I can’t drag her into the mess I’ve made of my life.”

“Come on. Doesn’t love always find a way?”

“Maybe in songs and movies, Marcus.”

“Look, just level with her. Tell her the whole story. Colleen,
Sophia
, Bowen.”

“I'm not sure even I know the whole story, Marcus.”

“Is that why you're here? Accept it,
Gaelan
- get on with your life. You deserve it."

Gaelan
shrugged. Marcus made it sound so easy.

"So, where is that brother of yours now anyway?” Marcus asked.

“I don’t know. He’s not in Greece anymore. The number I had for him is out of service.”
Gaelan
had also tried calling a number in Italy, but there had been no answer. He wondered if he should tell Marcus that he might have a lead, but then decided against it. Marcus was right
-
he should just get on with his life. After all this time, his theories were starting to sound a little crazy.

He suppressed a sigh and returned to the problem of Bowen. “Bowen was probably chased out the country by some irate husband. But he’ll show up, he always does, whenever the money runs out. And I have this bad feeling he’s overdue for a visit.”

“I don’t know how you put up with the guy. Surely he could be wealthy in his own right by now.”

“He has been, several times over. I know it, I wrote the cheques. But money runs through his fingers like water. I guess being an international playboy is expensive.”

“Sounds l
ike a lot more fun than working
too.” Marcus got up from behind his desk and went to the drinks cabinet.
“Scotch?
It’s Friday afternoon.
I think we call it quits. If that’s okay with you, boss.”

“I think we can allow that,”
Gaelan
said with one of his rare laughs. He went and sat on the leather couch, putting his feet up on the coffee table. It was a relief to talk about it. Marcus brought back the drinks and took an armchair across from
Gaelan
. “I think Bowen still thinks he’s on the stage. But now he writes his own dramas with himself as the poor misunderstood hero at the centre.”

“He’s good at it too,” Marcus said. “I’ve always wondered if Colleen might have been his victim rather than anything else.”

“Well, you can stop wondering. She had just as big of a part to play as he did. Colleen was no victim.
Two of a kind
,
that pair
.
Now, every time I meet a woman, I wonder if Bowen is waiti
ng in the wings, setting me up,
like he did with Colleen.”

“Have you told Chloe about
Sophia
?” Marcus asked.

Gaelan
shook his head. “No. But she made it pretty plain to me on the first day that she thought I was a terrible father.”

Marcus laughed. “And so you are.”

Gaelan
laughed too but hollowly.
Thank God for scotch
, he thought just as his cell rang. He took it from his pocket and put it to his ear without checking the display. “
Gaelan
Byrne,” he said.

There was a rush of words at the other end. It was impossible for
Gaelan
to make them out, although he did recognise
Windy’s
voice.

“Slow down, Windy!
I can’t understand a word.”

“Oh
Gaelan
,
i
t's
Sophia
! There’s been an accident, a
car accident on Cliff Road
!
She was with Ch
loe. Oh,
Gaelan
, I’m so worried!
Chloe phoned me from the hospital.
Sophia
’s unconscious
,
and they don’t know how bad it is.”