Twist of Fate (30 page)

“I don't know what to believe right now. That's why I came back to see you.”

“I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to help you. Gideon's gone back to Tucson. If you want to pursue this, you'll have to call him there.”

“I don't want to talk to him. The last time you fixed it up so that we had to talk to each other I got very confused.”

She tilted her head to one side and frowned. “Hugh, are you drunk?”

“It's a possibility, but I don't think so. Not yet. Maybe later.” He turned away from her and stalked across the room to the fanback chair. There he threw himself down without waiting for her invitation and rubbed his hand across his nape. “Do you know what kind of bull that bastard tried to make me believe?”

“Something about him having seen Cyrus Ballantine as the father he never had?” Carefully Hannah seated herself on the arm of the sofa. She wasn't quite sure what to do with Hugh Ballantine.

“A real sob story. I wondered if maybe you helped him make it up.”

“I see.”

Hugh looked at her. “Did you?”

“Nope. Came up with it all on his own, I'm afraid. But I don't think it's a story. I think it's the truth.”

“You believe him because you're sleeping with him.”

Hannah got to her feet. “I think you'd better leave, Hugh.”

He winced. “Sorry. It's just that I'm trying to work out what he's up to and I can't figure it. Something's missing and I think that something is you. You're the key.”

“You keep saying that.”

“Because it's the truth.”

“I am not the key,” Hannah repeated quietly. “This thing is between you and Gideon. You'll have to work it out together.”

“Why is he backing away from the Surbrook deal?” Hugh eyed her accusingly as if she could provide the information he needed.

“Maybe because he doesn't feel like going to war over a stupid little aerospace manufacturing firm.”

“Saving the ammunition for a bigger battle?”

“I don't know,” Hannah said honestly. “I can't read him any better right now than you can. There's always been a part of him I couldn't quite analyze.”

“He's lying, you know. About my father, I mean.”

“I don't think so, Hugh. It would take a great deal to make Gideon hate as thoroughly as he hated Cyrus Ballantine. It would take, I think, a real sense of betrayal.”

“Cage is capable of utter ruthlessness.”

Hannah sighed. “I know this doesn't make much sense, Hugh, but being casually and utterly ruthless is different from actively hating someone. Gideon was more than ruthless in his dealings with your father. He wanted revenge on Cyrus Ballantine.”

“Why won't he stand and fight over the Surbrook deal?”

“How should I know? His war was never with you. He doesn't hate you.”

“But I hate him,” Ballantine stated.

“Do you?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then in the end you might win.”

Ballantine's blue eyes grew harshly brilliant. “Do you believe that?”

“It's possible. Are you sure that's what you want, Hugh?”

“To win? Oh, yes. I'm sure it's what I want. Nothing else in the world is that important to me.”

“Then nothing I can say will stop you.” Hannah walked to the door and held it open. She knew she should keep her mouth shut, but she couldn't quite resist tacking on one last warning. The old guidance counselor in her wouldn't lie down and die. “Just take a minute to consider your future. Ask yourself if you want to end up like Gideon Cage. He's a lonely man, Hugh. All of his victories are hollow these days. He's where you'll be in ten years if you're successful in crushing him.”

Hugh got reluctantly and carefully to his feet. “He's not lonely. He's got you.”

“No,” she said. “He doesn't have me. I'm on my way out of town and I'm not going to Tucson. I'm clearing out of the war zone. Good luck, Hugh. I am not giving out any more free advice. No one listens to me, anyway.”

Ballantine moved slowly to the door. “You won't help me go after Cage?”

“No.”

“He told me you wouldn't,” Ballantine said. “He's very sure of you.”

That irritated her but Hannah concealed her annoyance behind a shrug. “Cage is sure of most things.”

“I don't suppose you want to come out with me and watch me finish getting myself drunk?”

“Not particularly.” But she softened the refusal with a gentle smile. “I've got some problems of my own to work out. I'm afraid you and Gideon will have to solve your own.”

“You really believe that bullshit about him thinking my father betrayed him?”

“Gideon is quite capable of manipulating people and events but he doesn't tell outright lies. Good night, Hugh.”

“Good night, Hannah.” Ballantine looked vaguely wistful. “I wish you felt like coming out and getting drunk with me.”

“Some other time, perhaps.” She closed the door softly in his face.

 

S
TEVE
D
ECKER
forgot himself so far as to actually throw the notes down on his boss's desk. His face was red from the effort he was making to control his frustration as he faced Gideon.

“You can't do business this way and you know it, Gideon. We've got to take Surbrook. We've got to stop Ballantine at every turn or one of these days he'll stop us. What do you mean you want me to pull the offer for Surbrook?”

“Just what I said.” Gideon examined the notes in front of him. “Surbrook isn't worth this much money.”

“That's got nothing to do with it. We've gone too far to back out now.”

“I don't want that firm, Steve.”

“Why not? Admittedly it's going to cost a little more than it should but ultimately we can make up for it. It's a sound company. And by taking it we stop Ballantine for a while.”

“I'm no longer interested in stopping Ballantine. I've got better things to do. Did you review the file on Accelerated Design?”

Decker yanked off his glasses and polished them disgustedly on his shirt. “I reviewed it. I don't know what the hell for. That deal's over and done.”

“We've got another deal with Accelerated Design,” Gideon said patiently. “We know every weak point in the firm, right?”

“Sure.” Decker shoved his glasses back on his nose and glowered at Gideon. “That's how we pulled off the last deal.”

“So who better than us to help Jessett get his company back on its feet?”

Decker's mouth fell open. “What are you talking about? We're not in the management consulting business.”

“We are now.” Gideon folded his hands behind his head and rocked back in the chair. “I'm putting you in charge of our first major consulting project. It's a promotion, Steve. Make that clear to Angie for me, okay? I want you to go to Seattle and look over the operation. Jessett is more than willing to cooperate. He'll give you whatever you want in the way of information. Take the time you need and come up with a step-by-step scenario for doing what has to be done. If he's going to need more cash, we can handle that, too. This should be a piece of cake, Decker. Jessett's no idiot. Left to his own devices I think he could probably haul himself out of the muck just fine. But with our assistance he can do it faster, cleaner, and cheaper.”

“But, Gideon, this isn't our kind of work.”

“Think of it as an experiment. Who knows, maybe we'll have an aptitude for it.” Gideon leaned forward again, reaching for a file.

Decker stared at him in helpless frustration. He knew he was being dismissed. Slowly he turned toward the door.

“By the way, Steve,” Gideon said behind him.

Decker glanced back apprehensively. “Yes?”

“Take Angie with you when you make the scouting trip to Seattle.”

Decker blinked owlishly. “She'll appreciate that.”

“Good. I've been trying to convince her for five years that I'm really not such a bad guy.”

“Is that why we're getting involved with Accelerated Design again? Because you're trying to convince another woman you're not such a bad guy after all?” As soon as the words were out, Decker was shocked at his own temerity.

“Get going, Decker.”

“Yes, sir.” Decker escaped with a clear sense of having come much too close to a very dangerous edge. Not like him to do dumb things like that. Not like him at all. He was obviously more upset than he'd realized about his boss's strange change of mind. Then he thought about being able to tell Angie she could go with him to Seattle and his mood lifted. Angie was going to be excited. She loved to travel and they hadn't gotten to do much of it since he'd been working for Gideon Cage. If this new line of work Cage was initiating meant more travel, it was a cinch Angie would back the decision one hundred percent. She'd be very pleased with his promotion, too.

Gideon didn't look up until Decker was out of the door. Then, slowly, he closed the file he'd opened and eased back in his chair. On rare occasions Steve Decker could be disconcerting. Normally the man's intuition was confined to dissecting profit and loss columns, but once in a while he saw further.

Gideon studied the ancient sea chart across the room, the one that depicted monsters waiting for unwary ships that sailed too close to the edge of the world. That's what he was doing, Gideon decided. Sailing very close to an unseen edge as the priorities in his life began to rearrange themselves.

Chief among those priorities was Hannah Jessett. Once he had her in place perhaps everything else would settle down into some kind of rational order again. He picked up the phone and dialed her number. He'd been trying to reach her all day but there'd been no answer. It was nearly five o'clock.

Giving up in disgust, Gideon thumbed through the Accelerated Design file until he found Nick Jessett's number. He was in luck, the younger man was still in his office.

“How's it going, Gideon?”

“Fine on this end. I'm sending someone up there to get the ball rolling on the Accelerated Design analysis. His name's Steve Decker. I think you'll like him. He knows what he's doing.”

“Decker, huh. Is he the guy who pulled the data on us together the first time around?”

“Right.”

Nick chuckled wryly. “Well, he should know what he's doing then. When does he get here?”

“I'll send him up on Monday. His wife will be with him.” Gideon cleared his throat. “I was wondering if maybe you and Hannah could take them out to dinner? I think Angie would like Hannah.”

“Be fine with me except that Hannah's out of town again.” Nick hesitated and then added cautiously, “Didn't she tell you?”

Gideon tried to loosen his sudden deathgrip on the phone. “No, she didn't tell me.”

“Oh.”

“Where did she go, Nick?”

“Left yesterday morning for Santa Inez Island. I'm sorry, Gideon. I thought you knew. I guess it was a sudden decision on her part. She's been acting a little strange lately.”

“I just talked to her two days ago. She didn't mention leaving town.”

“I think she was upset,” Nick offered. “All I got was a phone call asking me to be sure and water her plants if she didn't get back within a few days.”

“A few days. Jesus. How long is she going to stay down there?”

“Beats me. You know her well enough by now to realize that she's got a mind of her own.”

“I'm beginning to think that whoever first decided to let women have minds of their own made a big mistake.”

“I'll go along with that.” Nick made a clear effort to change the subject. “These academic types sure have it soft in the summer. Here's Hannah flitting off to the Caribbean for a second vacation and when I mentioned it to Vicky Armitage yesterday in the club she tells me she and Drake are heading for Hawaii this week. A few weeks ago they went to Mexico. It's unfair. Maybe I chose the wrong field. I should have researched careers that provide extensive time off.”

“Well, don't plan on any time off in the near future. Decker will be keeping you busy,” Gideon said absently.

“I'll keep an eye out for him. Want me to make hotel reservations at this end for him and his wife?”

“Don't worry about it. My secretary will handle it. You say Hannah took off yesterday morning?”

“Yeah.”

“I'll get back to you, Nick.” Gideon hung up the phone. For an instant he didn't move. Then he was on his feet, grabbing his jacket and heading for the door.

“Going home early today, Mr. Cage?” Mary Ann asked brightly.

“It's five o'clock,” he growled.