Premier Deception (17 page)

All at once she saw another bunch of
journalists outside Mitchell’s house. She stared straight ahead and
set her face to a blank expression and drove through the gates
ignoring their questions and cameras. There were several other cars
parked in the drive and she immediately recognised Luke’s. Oh my
God she thought we are going to be fired; I may never see Max
again. Charlotte pulled up behind Luke’s car in the drive and made
a swift exit towards the huge front door that rested behind a
portico. Mitchell’s house was very grand; some may even call it a
mansion. The huge wooden door opened as soon as she reached it and
she was slightly unnerved to see Gloria standing there resplendent
in a pink silk kimono covering a revealing bikini. Gloria’s eyes
flashed as she ushered Charlotte in. “Come with me,” she said in
her low voice and looked at Charlotte with curiosity. She looked as
if she may say something but then checked herself and motioned
Charlotte to follow her across the white marble floor of the
biggest entrance hall that she had ever seen.

There were floor length mirrors on the
wall and mirrored furniture everywhere. It was tastefully decorated
and Charlotte could see that it was very expensively done. They
went through another drawing room and out onto a patio where she
saw Mitchell, Maurice and Luke sitting at a table under a huge
umbrella by an Olympic sized swimming pool. Gloria left her and lay
down on a nearby sunbed as if bored by the events. Mitchell looked
angry and Maurice anxious. Luke’s face was dark and angry as it
used to be whenever she saw him and a sense of foreboding
prevailed. Charlotte swallowed, took a deep breath and approached
them. The Sunday papers were on the table and Mitchell motioned for
her to take a seat before he spoke. “This is a fine mess isn’t it?”
He looked at them with a frown. “How long has this been going on?”
he said angrily. Luke spoke before she could answer. “This isn’t
going on,” he said angrily. “We have been set up by somebody for
goodness knows what reason. Charlotte and I are strictly
professional and are most definitely not an item. What I want to
know is how they got that picture from the CCTV and who are the
insiders that they referred to?” Mitchell suddenly looked calmer
and Maurice looked worried. “Is this true Charlotte?” he said
turning to her. “Is this a set up as Luke has said?”

She turned to him. “Maurice what Luke
has said is true. He has been very kind helping me but that is all.
The picture that you see from the stadium was him comforting me
because I had just had a nasty encounter and was shaken, and as for
the pub we were there with Mark and Colin but they have been cut
out of the picture. The van was on our way home and Luke was being
a gentleman by giving me a blanket from the car because I felt
cold. I know how it looks but it is all innocent I can assure you
of that.” “It doesn’t matter what the truth is!” shouted Mitchell.
“You could be shagging all over the stadium as far as I’m concerned
but your role in promoting the club does not involve bad press. We
can’t take any more of that and the share price has fallen
considerably this morning.” Charlotte was shocked. To think that
such innocent events could cause so much trouble never occurred to
her. “I will resign if you want me to,” she said her voice shaking;
“I don’t want to cause any problems far from it.” Maurice looked at
her with a kind expression on his face and said, “nobody needs to
resign, I am sure a simple statement would be enough. We will get
Geoff onto it right away. Just make sure that you don’t put
yourselves in anymore compromising positions and I am sure we can
ride this one out. What do you say Mitchell?” Charlotte looked at
him and for a second thought she detected a look in his eyes that
he was almost enjoying the furore but then it went replaced by a
hard glint. “I think that you had better make a statement to the
press clearing this up and then get back to what you are both
employed to do. Now get out the lot of you.”

He turned to Gloria and shouted, “show
them all out and then organise our breakfast all of this has
interrupted our peaceful Sunday.” Gloria’s face was impassive as
usual and she showed them to the door. Maurice had stayed to have
another word with Mitchell so Charlotte and Luke found themselves
on Mitchell’s doorstep in front of a pack of journalists. “Come
on,” Luke said, “lets get this over with, I’ll do the talking.”
With trepidation she followed him to the gate and Luke addressed
the eager reporters. “Charlotte and I would like to make the
situation very clear to anybody interested in our supposed romance.
We are definitely not having an affair or relationship other than a
strictly professional one. The pictures and supposed quotes in the
papers have been taken out of context and we both remain committed
to the club in doing our jobs. Now thank you ladies and gentlemen
we would now like to get on with our lives.” They turned back to
their cars and Luke said under his breath. “Now get into your car
and drive home. Talk to nobody and first thing tomorrow you and I
are going to work out how we deal with this and who it is who is
determined to discredit us.” Charlotte nodded and did as he said
not stopping until she was safely home with the door locked behind
her. She thought about what Luke had said and could only think of
one probable suspect, Ronnie. He hated Luke probably because he
realised there was chemistry between Luke and his wife and he
resented her as his pretend Boss and was put out because she hadn’t
fallen for his make believe charms, who else could it be but
him?

After a very anxious Sunday going over
it all with her parents and trying unsuccessfully to contact Max,
Charlotte was pleased when Monday morning arrived.

Once again bang on 7.30am the car pulled
into the drive. All that mattered to Charlotte was seeing Max; she
had thought of little else and was determined to tell him
everything. Shouting her goodbyes she flung open the door. However
it wasn’t Max who stood there but one of the other drivers. “Oh”,
she said taken aback. “Where’s Max why isn’t he here?”
Disappointment was etched all over her face and the driver replied,
“I am sorry Miss Dawson but I got a call late last night asking for
me to cover for him. Apparently he has a family emergency and
couldn’t make it this morning.” Charlotte said somewhat
desperately, “a family emergency, did he call you, what did he
say?” “No it was the transport manager, so I am afraid I don’t know
any more than what I have told you. I am to take you to the
training ground is that right?” She nodded and climbed wearily into
the car. Once again she looked at her phone but there was no text
from him despite sending about twenty herself yesterday. Her
shoulders slumped and she looked gloomily out of the window. He
must have read the papers and seen the news. He thinks that I have
lied to him she thought desperately. He probably won’t come back
and I won’t have a chance to explain.

They reached the training ground and
Charlotte saw Luke’s car already there. Shocked she noticed that
somebody had slashed his tyres. Who could have done such a thing?
It must have happened here otherwise how did he get here? Wearily
she collected her things and made her way inside. She went to the
little office and saw Luke, Colin and Mark huddled together. As she
came in they looked up with solemn expressions and Luke said.
“Morning Charlotte, you look as bad as I do. Come and get a coffee
and we will try to sort out some sort of training schedule and put
all the drama behind us.” Charlotte sank down into the chair and
gratefully accepted the coffee placed in front of her. “Luke, have
you seen what someone has done to your car?” she said looking at
him with concern. He nodded and said, “yes, Colin told me when he
came in. Apparently nobody saw anything and the CCTV cameras are
down so we can’t even check them. I’ve called out the mobile tyre
company so they will replace them but I would love to know who did
it?” he said looking menacing. They worked for a couple of hours
and then the team began to arrive for training. The four of them
made their way to the training ground to start. The team drifted
onto the pitch one by one. Most found it difficult to look at them,
some clapped Luke on the back and joked around about the situation.
Luke played along shrugging it all off which was the best way to
deal with it she thought. Ronnie was late so they made a start with
Marco as Captain.

“Where’s Ronnie?” asked Charlotte when
Luke had a break from the training.

“
I’m not sure, nobody’s heard from
him, I’ll call him in a minute and find out what’s going on.” “No
need,” said Charlotte as she spied him striding onto the pitch. “He
looks very angry though, we had better find out what’s going on.”
They made their way over to him but he pushed past them and the
team noticing the situation all stopped and looked at him. Luke
said roughly, “Ronnie what’s going on what time do you call this
and where’s your kit, what are you playing at?” “What am I playing
at!? You may well ask, it’s not me playing at anything.” Then he
turned angrily towards Charlotte and spat out the words, “It’s her
immigrant driver that’s the problem, he’s only gone off with my
wife!”

There was a stunned silence and
Charlotte couldn’t take it all in. It must be a mistake; Max has a
family emergency, why would he go off with Sylvia? She saw Luke’s
expression and her heart went out to him. He looked utterly
devastated and he had turned pale. “What do you mean did you speak
to them?” Charlotte stuttered.

“
No I haven’t the cowards; they
didn’t even leave me a note.” “So how do you know what has
happened?” said Luke suddenly. “If you haven’t seen or spoken to
them how do you know they are together?” “Because when I came home
late last night and she wasn’t there I noticed that some of her
things had gone, so I checked the CCTV and saw Max putting her bags
into a car. They hugged and then got into the car and drove away.”
Charlotte’s heart felt as if it had broken into a million pieces
and from the look of Luke he was feeling the same. Ronnie just
looked angry and Colin and Mark ushered the other players away back
to the dressing room. “But she wouldn’t leave Jackson,” said Luke
in a gruff voice. “Jackson is away ski ing with a friend, I have
checked with them and he is still safely there. She won’t get to
him before me I’ll make sure of that.”

None of it made sense thought Charlotte,
she knew they got on but there was never any indication that they
were any more than just casual acquaintances. There had to be more
to it. “Did anything happen beforehand?” said Luke worriedly. “Did
you have an argument or anything?” Ronnie turned on him angrily and
said, “If we did it’s none of your business, you’ve always had a
thing for her yourself, well tough turns out she’s shagging someone
else. I’ve come here to see your bloody driver and when he shows up
he’s gonna wish he hadn’t.” “He’s not coming,” said Charlotte
faintly. “He phoned in sick.” “Of course he has,” sneered Ronnie.
“They are probably shagging as we speak and having a laugh at the
lot of us.” He grabbed her roughly by the arm and sneered. “You
call me the minute he gets in touch,” and pushed her roughly away.
Luke went for him but Charlotte pulled him back. “Leave it Luke,
let him go, the further away from us the better. Come on let’s go
inside and try to make sense of it all.”

Gloomily they headed inside, both of
them deeply troubled by the events of the last ten minutes. They
sat down in the office and stared at each other for a long time.
Tears welled up in Charlotte’s eyes and she saw that Luke was
struggling to control his emotions. They couldn’t offer each other
much comfort as each one was feeling as bad as the other.

Charlotte felt empty inside. There was
no point in continuing with this charade without Max, she thought.
None of it means anything without him. She looked at Luke sitting
despondently across the table and didn’t know what she could say to
him either. Just then Charlotte’s phone buzzed and she looked down
at it. She jumped up in disbelief. Luke looked at her in alarm,
“It’s from Max!” she exclaimed. Eagerly she opened the text and
read it out. “Charlotte I am sorry for the secrecy but please can
both you and Luke make some excuse to leave the training ground. I
have sent a driver to pick you both up. All will be explained when
you get here. The driver doesn’t speak much English but he knows
where he is going. Make sure that you aren’t followed. Safe
Journey, Max.” They looked at each other in confusion. Suddenly
Luke jumped up. “There must be more to this than we thought, I knew
it, I have never trusted Ronnie. Sylvia must be with him, I’ll make
up some excuse to Colin, let’s go.”

Luke found Colin and said that they had
been called away, something about a sponsorship deal and to carry
on without them. Checking that nobody could see them they headed
outside and saw a large black Mercedes with tinted windows waiting
for them. The driver nodded and held open the door for them both.
Checking behind them they sped off in the direction of the dual
carriageway.

They both sat in silence cushioned by
the leather interior. There was nothing in the car to signify where
they were going and the driver was housed behind a sliding window
so they couldn’t speak to him easily. They looked at each other in
confusion and Charlotte tried to see if there was a destination on
the Sat Nav, but the driver obviously knew where he was going
because the Sat Nav was turned off. His mobile suddenly rang and
they could hear somebody speaking in a foreign language to which
the driver responded also in the same language. It must be Romanian
thought Charlotte, maybe this driver is connected to Max’s family.
They both sat back and soon the car was eating up the miles and
heading towards London. It was very mysterious and curiosity was
keeping the feelings of fear at bay, although Charlotte totally
trusted Max and knew that he wouldn’t put them in any danger.