‘Were you discussing me and the situation I find myself in?’
‘Yes.’
Of course he was. I wasn’t surprised. Despite his earlier ‘not a problem’, I knew I was exactly that. ‘I completely understand your wish to rectify things.’
‘Do you?’ he said with a slight rise of his eyebrows. ‘I doubt it.’
‘It’s obvious. The sooner the furore dies down, the sooner I can go home and leave you in peace.’
Something undefinable flitted across his face. ‘Peace would be good,’ he muttered darkly. ‘In fact, peace would be excellent.’
‘Can you really make it all go away with a phone call?’ I asked, ignoring the odd tightening of my chest at the confirmation that hereallydidn’t want me here and wondering instead if he could possibly be that powerful.
‘A couple of phone calls,’ he corrected. ‘And yes. I can.’
Right. Obviously he was that powerful. Which was strange when I could still remember him as the gawky guarded teenager who’d first come to stay. But he now had billions and money talked.
‘I can’t help wondering how the press got hold of the news in the first place,’ I said, stepping into the room and catching up some papers that had blown off the desk and were fluttering to the floor. ‘And who put two and two together and came up with the conclusion that former wild-child socialite Amelia Huntington-Smith and plain old office manager Millie Smith were one and the same.’
‘You sound as though you suspect me.’
What? I straightened abruptly and stared at him. ‘That’s absurd. You’d have zero to gain, and, despite the fact that we are very much not friends, I really can’t see you engaging in anything quite so underhand.’
‘It’s a relief to know you trust me,’ he said dryly.
‘I do with my money. And that’s all that matters. But nevertheless,someoneleaked it.’
‘And I havesomeonelooking into it.’
‘Who?’
‘An investigator I use to dig into the backgrounds of all potential clients before I take them on.’
‘Did you dig into me?’
‘No need.’
I bristled at the bold certainty of his tone. ‘You don’t knoweverythingabout me, Nick,’ I said. In fact, he hardly knew anything. He just thought he did.
‘I know you’re not a money launderer.’
True, but conceding a point to him had never appealed and it didn’t now, so instead I dialled back to the fact he’d put an investigator on the case. ‘What will you do if you get a name?’
‘WhenI get a name,’ he said, ‘I will ensure they never work again.’
‘Wow,’ I said, impressed despite myself. He’d do that for me? For my family? Surely he didn’t owe us that much? Then again, he was my brother’s best friend and true friends helped each other out. Or so I’d heard. ‘Thank you. I think.’
‘You’re welcome.’
‘What did Seb say when you spoke to him?’ I asked, trying not to feel hurt that my brother hadn’t rung me back before asking Nick to rescue me yet again.
A trace of bafflement flickered across his face. ‘I haven’t spoken to him for weeks.’
Oh. ‘Then you’re not acting on his behalf?’
‘No.’
Right. On reflection, though, I didn’t know why that came as a surprise. Nick had always had bags of initiative. He didn’t sit around waiting for life to happen to him. How else would he have made so much money before hitting thirty? ‘I imagine your innate sense of justice would override any iffy personal feelings you might bear a person.’