Pitch Black: A Romantic Thriller (Blackwood Security Book 1) (11 page)

I’d started regaining some of my fitness, and I jogged along for hours, covering something in the region of a marathon by the time I finished. It rained in the afternoon, and I spent the rest of the day curled up in my duvet with hot chocolate and a book on the local area I’d borrowed from George. By the time the moon rose, all I wanted to do was sleep. I needed the rest, as I had a fun-filled Monday morning to look forward to.

Chapter 11

ON MONDAY MORNING, I got up an hour early to do my chores and get Samara ready to travel to the vet. Luke had promised to arrange transport for eleven, which I assumed meant a driver for Portia’s outrageously expensive horsebox. It spent its time parked up behind the barn, and according to Susie, she’d only used it twice in the last year.

At five past eleven, there was no sign of a driver, and I began to worry. I didn’t have Luke’s number, and he hadn’t been in touch with anybody else at the yard. At ten past eleven, just when I was contemplating who to call for help, his Porsche swung into the car park. He jumped out and jogged over.

“Ready to go?”

“Of course. There’s no driver, though.”

“I’m driving,” Luke said.

Not what I was expecting. “You’ve got an HGV licence?”

“Surprised?”

“Yes. You don’t strike me as a lorry driver type of guy.”

“I got the licence years ago. Some friends and I used to go motor racing, and I learned to drive the truck to carry the cars around.”

“What kind of racing?” I’d always loved cars, ever since I learned to steal them as a teenager. When I could afford to buy them legitimately, I’d started up a collection. Driving was yet another thing I’d missed while I’d been away.

“We started off with Caterhams, then ran a Porsche in the British GT championship. A friend and I shared that drive.”

“How long were the races?”

“It varied. Anything from one to three hours. I loved that car. There’s nothing like driving round Brands Hatch, flat out at the head of the pack.”

I don’t know—driving a stolen Camaro with six cop cars chasing you could be pretty exhilarating. “Did you win?”

“Yes, I wasn’t too bad.”

“You said you used to race. Why did you stop?”

“When my father died, I had to run his company and start living in the real world.”

Luke’s voice went hard as he said that, and I recognised the blank look that came over his face. It was similar to the one I used when I wanted to hide my own feelings.

“I’m sorry,” I said, and I meant it. “It must have been hard to give up something you loved.”

Luke didn’t answer. He just walked off to the horsebox. Rather than standing there like an idiot, I went off to fetch Samara from her stable. After a brief pause at the foot of the ramp, she loaded into the back of the lorry and we set off. The vet was a short drive away, and Luke knew how to get there. Neither of us spoke on the journey, but the silence was strangely comfortable. 

“Still hopping lame, isn’t she?” the vet said, when I trotted her up.

“Looks it. A night’s rest doesn’t seem to have improved things.” I scratched her neck as she hung her head. Poor girl.

“We’ll need to sedate her to do scans, X-rays and nerve blocks. Can you leave her with us for a couple of hours?” the vet asked.

“No problem,” Luke said.

The veterinary nurse took the horse, and Luke shrugged. “Looks like we’ve got some time to kill.”

In my old world, the phrase meant something totally different, but I’d left that girl behind in Virginia.

I expected him to take me back to the stables, but after a quick check of his phone he looked up and asked, “Lunch?”

“Sure.” If Luke was offering food then I got another respite from beans on toast.

He strode off, but down the driveway rather than towards the horsebox.

“Where are we going?” I hoped it wasn’t far. The wind was bitter.

“There’s a pub along the road. It’s small, but the food’s good.”

“Anything I don’t have to cook is fine by me.”

Another plus was we weren’t going to The Coach and Horses, which seemed to be one of the main sources of village rumours. If I walked in there with Luke, the Women’s Institute would be celebrating our engagement by evening. We arrived a few minutes later, and the pub was indeed tiny. You couldn’t fit more than two dozen people in it comfortably. The old wooden bar looked like a relic from the Middle Ages, and a small room beyond held a few tables. Luke led me to a little alcove at the rear next to a roaring log fire.

“You look cold, so I thought this table would be best,” he said.

I smiled gratefully and tucked myself into the seat. The leather may have been worn and cracked, but it was still comfortable. I snagged the menu and looked through the dishes. No macaroni and cheese. Oh well, I couldn’t expect the day to be perfect.

“What are you having?” Luke asked.

“I’ll go with risotto.” I resisted the urge to add “and chips.”

Before we could order, Luke’s phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket, grimacing when he saw who was calling.

“Work,” he mouthed, covering the mouthpiece. “Could you order at the bar? I’ll have cottage pie and mineral water. I’ve got a tab.”

He was talking into his phone as I followed him back out to the main room, and he continued outside while I told a frighteningly cheerful barmaid what we wanted. She was pouring my orange juice when I felt someone behind me. Thinking it would be Luke, I turned round with a smile, but my face soon fell when I recognised Mr. Wandering-Hands from the previous Thursday night. Was he following me around?

“Oh, it’s you.”

“Hello, sweetheart. Where did you disappear off to last week?” he asked.

“I felt sick.”

“You should have stayed. I’d have made it all better.”

“I doubt that, since it was you who made me feel sick in the first place. And get your fucking hand off my arm.” I’d had enough of playing polite and a little of my old self came to the fore.

The barmaid smothered a snort of laughter, but instead of letting go of my arm, the guy’s fingers tightened.

“You need to learn some manners…” he started.

I felt another presence behind me, and this time it was Luke. He wrapped his arm around my waist possessively. “Your hand’s still on her arm, Henry. It’s not Ash that needs to learn manners.”

Henry sneered at me and gave my arm one last hard squeeze before letting go. “I didn’t realise she was with you, Cain. She didn’t mention that the other night.”

“What other night?”

“When we had dinner.”

With that parting comment, Henry made a swift exit.

Luke turned to me, his arm leaving my waist.

“You had dinner with him?” he asked. Something that looked like hurt crossed his face, but it was only fleeting and then it was gone.

“That bloody twat. I met him at dinner, yes. I was eating with Susie and Hayley when he and two of his mates decided to join us uninvited. After I got sick of him pawing at me, I climbed out of the window in the ladies’ loo and fu…went home.”

That at least got a smile out of Luke. “I’m afraid now he’s seen you with me, he may well try even harder.”

“I take it you two don’t like each other much?”

“Not since we were kids. It started off as a feud between our fathers. His dad’s a property developer, and my father refused to sell him a piece of land. I own it now, and I still won’t part with it. The bad blood fed down to me and Henry.”

“I can see that.”

“It’s become a game. Henry always wants what I have, and he’ll try his best to get it.”

“So is that what I am now? The latest pawn in your game?”

“No!” Luke looked stricken. “Don’t ever think that. You’re anything but a game.”

That was nice to know. Although, I wasn’t convinced Henry shared Luke’s sentiments.

“Shall we sit down?” I asked. I didn’t want to dwell on the arsehole any more.

Luke followed me back to the table, and the food arrived soon after. It wasn’t much to look at but Luke was right—it tasted good. As we ate, he apologised for abandoning me to Henry.

“If I’d known he was here, I’d never have gone out. Work’s crazy at the moment. I rarely take time off, and I had to reschedule things this morning to drive the horse box.”

“You were working this morning? That’s why you were late?”

He nodded. “Sorry about that. A meeting ran over.”

“It’s okay. I was just worried nobody was coming, and I didn’t know how to get hold of you.”

Luke nabbed my phone off the table and tapped away at the keys until his phone rang once and then stopped.

“Now I’ve got your number and you’ve got mine. Next time I’m late I’ll call.”

Next time? What next time? Probably just a figure of speech. 

“Great, now when one of the girls at the yard wants your number, I can give it to them.” I burst into laughter at his horrified look.

“Oh lighten up. I was joking.”

“Last year I had to change my number when a group of girls from Upper Foxford got hold of it. I was getting a hundred calls a day.”

“Wow, that’s dedication.”

He grimaced. “It was something. Can I ask a strange question?”

“You can ask. I won’t promise to answer.”

But I was curious what this question would be.

“I don’t understand women. What goes on in their heads is a mystery most of the time. So I was wondering, why don’t you act like a lovesick schoolgirl around me when almost every other woman does?”

“You’ve heard the old saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover?’ Well, I judge people by more than looks and money. People have to earn my respect. I’ve known rich people with the personality of a dog turd and poor people who are gold. As I’ve only met you three times, the jury’s still out.”

He nodded slowly. “I like that approach. I wish most women weren’t so shallow and judgmental. At first the attention was flattering, but now it just gets on my nerves. The only place I can escape from it is at work, and that’s only because I’m the boss. Even then, I’m sure they all talk behind my back.”

“What do you do work-wise anyway?”

“I run a cyber security company called HC Systems. We build bespoke security programs for large corporations and government agencies. We also test for loopholes in existing systems and fix them.”

“This was the company you took over from your father?”

“Yeah. I didn’t have a choice. He died suddenly, and I had to support my mother and Tia. My mother and the world of work aren’t really compatible.”

Bit like mine, except she was most often found in crack dens, and I bet Luke’s mother hung out at the country club.

“You’ve done well with it by the looks of things.”

“My father was good at writing software, but he wasn’t much of a businessman. He’d take out loans and use them to make bad investments. When I took over, the company was nearly broke. I wrote new programs, revamped the marketing and diversified to bring in more money.”

“Good going.”

He gave me a small smile. “It is now. I had a lot of sleepless nights in the beginning, though. I’m in the process of expanding overseas at the moment. We’ve been getting more American customers, and it’s got to the stage we need an office over there. The time difference is killing me right now—too many late night phone calls.”

He stifled a yawn, as if for effect, then apologised.

“Whereabouts are you planning to open the office?” I asked.

“I need to decide between California and Virginia. They’re the two leading states in the tech industry. Currently I’m leaning towards Virginia as the education system there is geared towards technology, so there’s plenty of workforce availability.”

Virginia. My home. I could certainly vouch for the state being a good place to start a company because I’d done it myself. Not only was the state government supportive of new business, the proximity to Washington, DC and New York meant a lot of key players were within easy travelling distance. But I couldn’t have an intelligent conversation with Luke about corporate affairs because as an ex-nobody, I wouldn’t be expected to know about those sorts of things.

Instead I had to settle for saying, “I used to live in Virginia. It’s got a good track record for employment and, from what I read in the papers, there’re a lot of government support packages available for new companies.”

If only I was being me instead of Ashlyn, I could have offered him more help. I had numerous investments in property and companies in Virginia, and some of them were tech-based.

“I’m still at the planning stage at the moment. I’ll need to take a trip out there in the next few months for some meetings.”

I idly wondered where I’d be in the next few months. Would I feel well enough to go home? I sincerely hoped I’d be somewhere other than Hazelwood Farm. I was still pondering when Luke changed the subject. Unfortunately back to me. Bugger.

“So, what brought you to Lower Foxford specifically?”

“It wasn’t a conscious decision. It was the last stop on the bus route that I randomly ended up on when the train I flipped a coin for broke down.”

Luke laughed at that. “Strange how some arbitrary decision can lead to a new course for your life, isn’t it?”