Flirting With Intent (17 page)

‘Ruby, you’re the classiest and most effective manipulator I’ve ever seen. How come I can’t even
practise
on you?’

‘I’m not joking, Damon. Don’t ever play me that way.’

‘I won’t.’

‘Promise me.’

‘Ruby, I won’t.’

And Ruby believed him.

Another week. No word from Damon, but then he’d warned her not to expect it. Ruby stayed busy and somewhere along the way
she realised she wasn’t fretting about Damon and the things he might be doing. Shades of grey and each to their own, and Damon would go about making the world a better place his way and Ruby would try and make the world a fairer place her way, and who was to judge which was the right way?

If Damon ever wanted a muse when it came to his work and the ethics involved he would get one. Label him a hero or brand him a thief. She could argue either way.

Ruby leased the corner office suite. Made a few changes. The walls would not be grey but ivory. The furnishings would be comfortable and not pretentious. Her new neighbours wondered what she was up to. She had flyers printed up listing the company’s services. Obtained flyers and posters from charities and services that she thought her future clients would find useful. Word got around. Her new landlord stopped by.

Yes, she was Harry Maguire’s daughter.

No, she had no idea where the money was, or her father for that matter.

Yes, she was opening up a law office specialising in migration, and yes, indeed, she would be most interested in having the local security service stop by her offices on their
nightly rounds. Day rounds too, if they existed. It would be money well spent.

And Damon stayed away.

Day three of week two of his absence and Ruby’s office walls were now ivory and she’d moved on to furnishings. Work desks and office chairs. A wooden table and benches and potted greenery for the courtyard. She started the hunt for a receptionist. At least three languages, she told the dressmaker three doors down. With written proficiency in two. Preferably someone who lived locally but wasn’t closely affiliated with any of the Triads.

The dressmaker knew of someone who might be interested in part-time work. Very smart boy. The son of one of her regular clients. Chinese Korean.

And then just like that, Damon was back. Standing in the doorway of her new office, a bunch of purple orchids in one hand and a gaily wrapped package in the other.

‘Two presents,’ he said. ‘I thought I might need them.’

‘So true,’ she said, and then Ruby was in his arms and Damon was twirling her round and kissing her with an intensity that belonged to him alone.

‘Miss me?’ he whispered when she finally broke free.

‘Like crazy.’

‘Feel like taking the afternoon off?’

‘Only if you can get two desktop computers, a scanner/printer/fax and a notebook here and set up by nine tomorrow morning.’

Damon handed her his tributes and pulled out his phone. Two minutes later it was organised.

‘Tell me you’re impressed,’ he said.

‘Show off.’ But she kissed him again and it was quite some time before she turned her attention to the opening of gifts. ‘I could get used to this.’

‘That’s the plan.’

‘Truffles from Belgium,’ she said in approval of the exquisitely boxed handmade selection. ‘Very nice.’

‘And this,’ he said, and dangled a heart shaped pendant on a silver ribbon from his fingertips. Silver filigree that swirled an intricate path around a heart of red Murano glass.

‘Damon, it’s gorgeous,’ she said with unfeigned enthusiasm and set about putting it on. ‘Venice?’

‘Still full of bridges and rising water.’ He
fingered the pendant at her neck. ‘Guess what I discovered when I walked through the door and you looked up and smiled at me as if Christmas had come early?’

‘That I like presents?’

‘That Lena was right about one thing and wrong about another.’

‘Lena’s right and wrong about a lot of things. Which things are we talking about?’

‘Love,’ he said quietly, his gaze intent on hers. ‘I love you, Ruby. And you don’t have to say it first and you don’t have to say it back if it’s not your way. I just wanted you to know how I feel about you these days.’

Ruby stared at him wordlessly, still clutching the pendant he’d given her, the heart currently residing around her neck. She opened her mouth to say those three little words back to him but those words, they simply wouldn’t come.

‘I’ve missed you so much,’ she said weakly. ‘I’m so glad you’re back.’ Her next words came out in a panicked rush. ‘I’m still working on the love thing.’

‘It’s okay, Ruby. Not everyone jumps off cliffs the way I do. Not everyone wants to.’

‘I want to,’ she said earnestly. ‘I do. I’m standing on the cliff edge and I’ve just
watched you leap off it and my heart is in my mouth for you, and my knees are shaking, and why the
hell
didn’t you wait for me, Damon, so we could have done this together? Because now I’ll have to jump off that cliff all by myself.’

‘No, you won’t,’ he said with a wry smile. ‘I’ll jump with you, Ruby. Any time you’re ready. First time’s always the hardest. Next time might not be too bad at all.’

‘Next time
wait for me,’
she commanded fiercely and then drew him to her and wrapped her arms around him and simply held him close and tried to clamp down on her fear of saying those words and meaning them and then not having them be enough. She squeezed him tightly and pressed her lips to his cheek and then the side of his mouth and then she kissed him full on the lips and felt him shudder in return. ‘What’s it like?’ she whispered because she really had to know.

‘Oh, you know,’ he said raggedly and rested his forehead gently against hers.

‘Freefall.’

Life with Ruby in Hong Kong held a fascination for Damon. Ruby got things done with a
speed and attention to detail that entranced him. She made his world move with a brightness and lightness he couldn’t explain but what it meant was that he could stand utterly still in the middle of it.

And be completely content.

And then Ruby’s solicitor phoned through one morning and asked her to drop by the office, and a tremor slid through Damon’s shiny magic world. A premonition, if you like, that Damon’s sins might be coming back to bite him.

Ruby’s feelings for her father were complicated.

Hell,
Damon’s
feelings for her father were complicated.

For thirty years Harry Maguire had played the game and kept his secrets in and his daughter out. Thirty years.

Damon didn’t know whether to hold him up as a role model or pity him for being so blind.

Damon drove them to the solicitor’s offices while Ruby fretted. As soon as they arrived the assistant took one look at them and sent them straight in.

Harry Maguire’s solicitor was gimlet-eyed and silver-haired. An old college friend
of her father’s, so Ruby had said, and there was something in the way the man eyed him and shook his hand as Ruby introduced them that made Damon wonder who exactly this man was and whether he’d known of Harry Maguire’s alternate life and whether he knew more than he should about Damon’s.

The pleasantries seemed to go on for ever and then the solicitor sat them both down and headed for the other side of the desk and pushed an A4 envelope across the desk towards Ruby.

‘This was delivered this morning but before you open it you need to prepare yourself for bad news.’

‘How bad?’ said Ruby.

‘There is a death certificate in there, Ruby,’ he said gently. ‘I’ve had it verified. I’m sorry. Your father’s dead.’

Ruby barely flinched. Half expecting it, thought Damon. Not sure what to think, feel or do.

‘How?’ she said threadily, and left the envelope untouched. ‘And when?’

‘It’s hard to say.’ The solicitor cleared his throat. ‘British Intelligence found his body two days ago. Their report is extremely brief. The coroner’s report lists both the time of
death and the cause of death as unknown. Harry’s body is currently in a London morgue. I can arrange to have it sent on. Anywhere you like.’

‘New York,’ said Ruby faintly. ‘There’s a family plot in New York and burial arrangements are in place there. I’ll have to phone home. I’m just assuming …’

Ruby put her hand up as if to straighten her headband but she didn’t have one on. Her hands went in her lap after that. ‘I’m hoping the family will allow him to be buried there. He was blood, even if he was a disgrace to them.’ Her chin came up. ‘If not I’ll make other arrangements. Start a new family plot.’

Loyal to the end. For Ruby there was no other way.

‘Your father’s assets and accounts have been unfrozen,’ said the solicitor, taking back the envelope and unloading it, seeing as Ruby hadn’t done so. He found the paperwork he wanted, passed it over to her and this time she took it. ‘I have your father’s will here, and now that we have a death certificate we can get started on—’

‘Did they recover the money?’ asked Ruby.

The solicitor frowned. ‘British Intelligence makes no mention of it. Anyway, there are no
surprises when it comes to your father’s will. You’re his sole beneficiary. I can start—’

‘So they didn’t clear him of the theft,’ said Damon.

‘No, but the release of his assets would suggest—’

‘Why don’t you ask the British to release Harry Maguire’s employee number?’ suggested Damon grimly. ‘That should clear a few things up.’

‘Young man …’ The solicitor sat back slowly in his chair and steepled his fingers.
‘That
is a very unusual suggestion. One has to ask oneself what could be gained by such a request. May I suggest that the answer would be very little?’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ drawled Damon. ‘What’s a daughter’s belief in her father’s essential goodness worth? What’s the knowledge that a man spent thirty years protecting his daughter from the dangers his intelligence work engendered actually worth? What’s a man’s reputation worth, for that matter?’

‘Not a lot,’ said the solicitor softly, and rested his head back against his chair, his impenetrable grey gaze fixed on Damon. ‘In
the grander scheme. Perhaps it’s a matter of perspective.’

‘Yes,’ said Damon agreeably. ‘Perhaps it is.’

‘Stop,’ said Ruby shakily. ‘Both of you,
stop!’

Now the solicitor turned his gaze on Ruby and Damon could have sworn he saw a flicker of grief cross the older man’s face. The solicitor sighed, tapped his fingertips together several times, as if coming to a decision.

‘Your father was a great asset to us all, Ruby,’ said the solicitor, and Damon’s eyes narrowed at the other man’s choice of words. ‘But I fear the restoration of his reputation would prove far too costly for all concerned, including you, and also—if I may be so bold as to dispense a warning—your very intriguing young Mr West. You need to let this go.’

The wily grey fox stood up and went to the door. Opened it to signal the end of their audience with him.

‘I’m sorry, Ruby. I’ve already done everything I can,’ he said as she reached the door, her face blank and her eyes stark. ‘Your father knew the risks.’

The drive back to the apartment took for ever. Ruby stared out of the window. Damon drove and tried to keep his attention on the road. He shouldn’t have said anything. Or saved it for another day.
A never day,
a voice in his head whispered quietly.
You knew this information was going to remake Ruby’s world.

But the way Harry Maguire had been dealt with enraged him and recklessness and fury had taken care of the rest.

So he had cut a path through all the lies and delivered up to Ruby some small semblance of truth and a father she could be proud of. That was what he’d been trying to do. That was what the solicitor who wasn’t just a solicitor had been trying to do too.

Deliver up Ruby a father she could be proud of.

Surely they had done the right thing?

Ruby stood straight and silent in the lift on the way to their apartment. She could barely get the key in the lock and flinched when Damon went to do it for her.

‘I’ll
do
it,’ she snapped, so he let her, and strode in after her, already knowing he wasn’t going to like what was coming up next.

‘Would you like something to drink?’ he
said as she dumped her satchel on the kitchen counter. ‘Brandy? Scotch? Cup of tea?’

‘No,’ she said. He could hardly hear her. ‘How long have you known?’

‘Ruby—’

‘How long have you known?’
Oh, he could hear her now.

‘Known what?’ He didn’t intend insolence, God help him he did not. Just clarification as to what exactly they were talking about.

‘That my father was dead! ‘

Good. Easy stuff first. ‘I found out today. Same time as you,’ he said soothingly.

‘And how long have you known that he worked for the British Secret Service?’

Now the difficult part.

‘Since Sydney.’

‘Sydney,’ she echoed faintly. ‘All that time and you never said a word.’

‘I didn’t know what to say.’

‘How about
Ruby your father was a spy and he’s probably dead?’

‘Are you sure you wouldn’t like a drink?’ he said a touch desperately. ‘Pretty sure I’d like one.’

‘I trusted you!’
Her voice cracked on the word
trusted.
‘And you lied to me. You went after that information and you found it and
never said a goddamn word until it suited you to do so! Why now? Why couldn’t you have just let it be?’

‘Because hacking’s what I do,’ he raged back. ‘It’s part of who I am, for better or for worse, and because it annoyed me that they had no intention of restoring your father’s reputation to you. What good to you is a corpse and a lifetime of unanswered questions? At least now you know what he did and why he died. He wasn’t a thief. He didn’t abandon you. He did everything he could to
protect
you. Isn’t that worth something?’

‘Yes, but can’t you understand what I’ve
lost?’

‘Your father,’ he answered doggedly, feeling for all the world as if he were back at school. ‘Your view of him. But surely this view is better?’

‘A
lifetime
spent not knowing him at all, Damon.’