Page 59 of Betrayal

Nick’s interest was calculated to unnerve Hunter.Not Nick’s knowledge.Anyone could get hold of building plans if they had the contacts.Nick had contacts, but he was snidely implying Hunter was under surveillance.An old tactic.Nick had successfully used that threat with too many people to need to follow through with action.

“It’s convenient at the moment.”Hunter shrugged.“Why are you here?”

“I was concerned about your girlfriend.”Nick returned to a chair, smirk firmly in place.“Is she okay?She seemed unwell when you rushed off on Saturday night.”

“Not relevant.”Giving Nick any information about Anna would be a betrayal.

“But that’s why I came.”Nick drummed his fingers on the table, then knocked twice.“It’s natural for a father to be concerned about his son and his girlfriend, especially when we’re looking at a merger.”

“She’s a colleague interested in design.Wanted to see Marygai’s house.”A mistake to give Nick that much information, but Hunter saw the doubt he’d planted in the older man’s eyes.“Thanks again for the merger offer.”Gratitude was the last emotion he felt.“I prefer to run my own show.”

“A merger would be good for your company.”Nick added a lick of intimidation to his words.

“Is that a threat?”Hunter kept his voice pleasant, while cursing himself for taking Anna to Marygai’s party, for putting her within Nick’s orbit.

“I never make threats.”Nick left hanging the implication that he translated words to actions pretty damn fast.

“Thanks for dropping by.”Hunter held the door open.“I think we’re finished.”

Nick sauntered past him.He still wore the same cheap cologne he’d worn when Hunter was a kid.Hunter had long decided Nick liked to be associated with it—an olfactory assault before he opened his mouth.Menacing in the memories it conjured.At least for Hunter.

Watching him leave, Hunter left the door to the room open.It stank of Nick.

Donna beckoned him to reception, then pulled his favourite coffee from under her desk.“I got Georgie, the work experience kid, to go get it.”

“I’m not sure that’s on the list of duties we agreed with the charity.”He accepted the coffee, and its sharp, inky evil helped banish Nick’s odour.“Isn’t that a bit sexist?”

“Fiddlesticks,” Donna answered.“The junior on a work site is often sent to collect the lunch orders.Georgie spent the morning with Bernard on carpentry, and this afternoon she’s going out with Meredith on a paint job.Besides, she’s got a crush on the barista.Couldn’t wait to go get the coffee.”

“How do you know these things?”

“You pay me to know.Are you going back to the worksite?”

“No, I’ll work here.”But his mind kept circling back to the purpose of Nick’s visit.

“Natural for a father to be concerned about his son and his girlfriend.”

That was BS.Nick’s only interest in Hunter’s girlfriends was to entice them away from Hunter, then Nick dumped them.

Hell!If Hunter thought about it now, it had started in primary school, when Nick issued the invitations for playdate at home, then spent the visits offering the prettiest girls a piggyback ride, or making sure they won the best prizes.By the time Hunter was nine, he begged his mother to stop the parties, ashamed of being on guard all the time, but gut-sure his father was in some sort of bizarre competition with Hunter.

Hunter’s friends were supposed to say Nick was more fun than Hunter.Anyone who put up resistance, like Cas, was on the receiving end of barbed comments for the rest of the party.Those snide remarks could add up.Even something as simple as “You’re not as good as everyone else at that game,” repeated multiple times, left scars on young hearts.

Foolish to think Hunter could keep his interest in Anna hidden.

Foolish to think Nick wouldn’t be interested in any woman on Hunter’s arm.He should have taken evasive action at Marygai’s.Tried to protect her.Instead, she’d appeared warrior-like at his side to protect him.

Hunter wasn’t prepared to stop seeing her.She was tart and sweet.She’d been at a party with Nick fourteen years ago and had read him in an instant.Witness her insistence on an immediate exit on Saturday night.She was too formidable for Nick to charm or manipulate or bribe.

Hunter had been taking careful steps, circling the wagons around his business, so that he had trusted contractors, trusted suppliers, and long-term tenants.From day one he’d built his business to be Nick-proof.Nick would lose interest.He always did.

He’d circled the wagons around family too.The Hariris were safe, his aunt and uncle were safe.That left Anna, but he made himself believe she was safe.He sucked in air, because he had to believe she was safe or stop seeing her.

Anna had told him about Nick.Not everything, but he had no right to know everything.And she’d told him the most important details.She’d jumped naked out of a cake at a birthday party where Nick had been present.She’d be here soon.

Damn, he was positive he could still smell Nick.A shower before he met Anna, and they’d come home via the external entrance.

* * *

---