‘But I don’t understand why it was so important for you to race over to the restaurant to tell me this.’
‘When you mentioned the name of the guy you were meeting, it rang a bell, but I didn’t think anything of it,’ Luc said carefully. ‘I have a finger in a lot of pies and so I meet people from a range of industries. And Dexter is a common enough surname. But then I saw the guy at the restaurant and the alarm bells started ringing.’
‘Alarm bells? I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘You’re not going to like what I have to say.’ Never one to waste time beating about the bush, Luc now paused and considered his words carefully. Staring across the table at him, her eyes wide and perplexed, Agatha looked very, very young, and strangely enough the revealing nature of her dress only accentuated that impression.
‘How old are you? ‘ he asked roughly, finding himself momentarily sidetracked.
‘Sorry?’
‘Forget that. It’s not important. There’s no easy way to say this, but Dexter might not be the guy you think he is.’
‘I really don’t know what you’re talking about. You mean Stewart Dexter isn’t Stewart Dexter? Who is he, then?’
‘He’s someone who used to work for one my companies. When I thought I recognised him, I went back to the office and did a little research.’
‘You ran a background check on my date?’ Agatha trembled. ‘How could you do that?’ Her huge blue eyes, staring up at him, were full of reproach.
‘I’d advise any woman to run a background check on a man they’d picked up in a bar before they went out with him on a date, Agatha. This isn’t a small village in Yorkshire.’
‘I’m not ashamed that I trust people, Luc. I know you don’t, and I can understand why. Your father trusted George Satz and in return he had all his money stolen from him.’
The story had run in the local newspaper for weeks, with each new revelation of embezzlement producing a fresh torrent of speculation. With Elliot Laughton no longer around to defend himself, details went uncontested. Members of staff were interviewed and their bafflement at the scale of the financial losses only added to the scandal. At the time, Agatha had felt deeply sorry for Luc, although that was something she would never have shared with him. He had returned from university with a protective barrier around him that repelled words of sympathy. The whole business would surely have accounted for the man he was later to become—a man who would never know how to give anyone else the benefit of the doubt.
Her meandering mind returned to the present and she cleared her throat. ‘Well, almost all his money. So I can see why you’re so suspicious of other people—but I’m not. It would never occur to me to do a background check on anyone! Anyway, we were meeting in a public place, and there was no way that I was going to go anywhere afterwards with him.’ Her angry eyes locked with his and she leaned forward, her hands balled into fists.
‘Like I told you,’ Luc’s voice was cool and even and controlled, ‘You’re not savvy about the kind of guy a girl can get mixed up with in London. Dexter was sacked from the company a year and a half ago. He was a minor cog in one of the IT companies I took over. He was caught trying to hack into confidential programs to do with software. He was kicked out the second the breach was discovered by one of my people.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
‘You don’t want to believe me. And I don’t want to be sitting here telling you this. But some good Samaritan’s got to fill you in on the man. Naturally, in the case of a dismissal of that nature, no references were forthcoming. He disappeared and, as far as I know, he isn’t working for any of the major players in the country. Did he mention the name of his employer?’
‘No.’ Agatha was beginning to feel giddy. ‘Are you sure about all this? I mean, it’s easy to confuse people…to think you recognise someone when you don’t know them really…’
‘I don’t make those kinds of mistakes.’
Agatha was immediately silenced.
‘Everyone makes mistakes,’ she muttered eventually.
Luc ignored that. ‘I could find out what outfit Dexter managed to inveigle his way into and get him fired, not least because he would have had to forge his references from my company.’
‘I’m not a child! If Stewart is really the person you think he is, then I can just ask him outright.’
‘And I’m sure he would come up with a very convincing story.’
‘And I would be so easy to convince, wouldn’t I? Because I’m green round the ears.’
‘How is it that you are so good at making me feel like a monster?’ he murmured softly. An unnatural urge to put his arms around her was squashed before it could take form. ‘I’m actually doing you a favour by telling you this.’
‘It doesn’t feel like a favour. Even if Stewart is who you say he is—and I’m still not certain that you haven’t got it wrong; people do get things wrong, even people like you—well, what does that have to do with me?’
‘I think Dexter sought you out.’
‘Sought me out? That sounds like a bit of a conspiracy theory.’ Agatha’s head was in a whirl.
‘Course, it all could be pure coincidence, but my gut feel is that he decided to set up in competition. Have you any idea of the value of gaming software? Which is why it’s one of the most highly confidential areas of all my companies. I have computer-game designers working to create games that could outrun some of the biggest sellers. After Dexter’s hacking attempts, I made sure that all entries were closed down. If he really wanted to get his hands on some of my developing ideas, he might have thought that he needed to go down a different route.’
Realisation was beginning to dawn for Agatha. Naturally, Luc could be off target with his assumptions, but would he really ever make a mistake like that? When it came to business, his acumen was legendary. Everyone in the company reverently believed that everything he touched turned to gold; only someone blessed with an ability to make sound decisions would ever have possessed that Midas touch.
‘Question: has Dexter been asking you all sorts of questions about the company?’
Agatha twisted in her chair so that she could look at him. ‘Of course he’s been interested in what I have to say.’
‘I’ll bet.’
If only there had been a part of her that could really and truly believe that she hadn’t been used, she would have run with it. Instead, all she could volunteer feebly, was, ‘Everyone deserves a second chance. Even people who come out of prison get second chances.’
She belatedly realised how often the subject of her work had cropped up in the conversation. She had been flattered at the interest and had downplayed her role in the company. In fact, she hadn’t mentioned the broom cupboard once.
‘I think Dexter is manipulating you to access information,’ Luc told her bluntly.
‘What sort of information? This is too much. My head’s beginning to spin.’
Feeling disadvantaged on the chair, Agatha stood up and weaved a wobbly path to the kitchen so that she could pour herself a glass of water. She returned to find Luc standing by the window and idly peering out. He turned when he heard her but remained where he was, six foot two of towering alpha male with the subtlety of a sledge hammer.
Suddenly she was really angry that Luc was the one who had taken it upon himself to point her in the right direction by humiliating her and then calling it doing her a