Page 166 of The Black Trilogy

“You’ve got to give us something.”

Luke sighed. “Tia’s kidnapping put some pressure on my relationship with Ash, and after the situation with Tia got resolved, Ash didn’t want to stick around to help pick up the pieces.”

There, that sounded reasonable. Vague but plausible.

Mark leaned back in his seat, studying Luke through narrowed eyes. Now he knew how it felt to be interviewed under duress.

“See, that surprises me. I only met her a couple of times, but she seemed sweet. Thoughtful. The change she made in Tia was unreal, and it rubbed off on Arabella too. She’s giving our parents far less grief now.”

“Well, that’s the way it happened. When you broke off your engagement with Carla, how did you get over it?”

If Mark was so keen on talking, he could dissect his own problems instead.

“Looking back, I had a lucky escape. But Carla cheated whereas Ash didn’t.” He paused. “Did she?”

Luke hastily shook his head. “Sorry, mate. I didn’t realise Carla did that.”

No wonder Mark hadn’t wanted to speak about the split at the time.

“Don’t worry. Like I said, it was better to find out she was a cheating cow before we got married rather than after. And as for the piece of slime she was banging, we clubbed together at work, and so far, we’ve given him thirty-seven parking tickets and nicked him for speeding twice.”

“Good going. Ash wasn’t involved with anyone else, though. She couldn’t have been. She spent all her spare time with me and Tia.”

“Revenge isn’t everything. Yeah, it helps a bit, but I’d still rather Carla hadn’t cheated in the first place.” Mark paused to watch a goal replay as Chelsea scored again. “Why don’t you try a different approach? I could set you up with one of Mandy’s friends if you want.”

Mandy was Mark’s current girlfriend, sweet enough, but she never stopped talking about her job in PR—celebrity this, VIP that, freebies, freebies, freebies—and her habit of giggling after every sentence grated on Luke’s last nerve.

“Don’t think I’m ready for that.”

Rob eyed up three women in short dresses teetering across the bar. “You want to find yourself a hot chick. Have some fun—just casual. Hit any club on a Saturday night and there’s hundreds of girls, all gagging for it.”

“I don’t fancy incubating an STD.”

“That’ll only happen if you look in some dive. You should come out with me. I’ll take you to places where the top totty hangs out.”

“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll pass.”

Luke had never been one for a fleeting affair, although he had to admit, the idea of uncomplicated sex sounded more appealing after the burn Ash gave him.

Rob waggled his eyebrows. “Well, let me know if you change your mind.”

“I will, but I’d rather enjoy the single life for a while. Do either of you guys fancy going skiing? I haven’t been for ages, and I like the idea of some good snow.”

Ironically, it was Ash who’d encouraged him to get back on a snowboard for the first time in years.

“I could do a long weekend, but not right away,” Mark said. “We’ve got a big security exercise coming up at work in three days, and if it’s anything like the last one, we’ll all spend the next couple of weeks providing explanations to the brass for everything that went wrong. Then we’ll have to implement a whole ream of new procedures so things don’t get screwed up again. Rob? How about you?”

“Same. I’m in, but I can’t go for a few weeks. Not just because of the security exercise—it’s my sister’s sixteenth, and Mother will go nuts if I miss the fancy dinner she’s spent months organising.” He turned to Mark. “But you’re being too negative about this exercise. It’ll go fine. We’ve spent the last fortnight planning for every eventuality.”

Mark rolled his eyes. “You weren’t here for the last one. We thought we’d do well on that, and it all went belly up.”

“Yes, I know, but I’ve read the reports, and we’ve addressed the weaknesses they identified. Plus I heard Emerson Black has gone AWOL, so there’s no way it can be as difficult as last time.”

Excuses, excuses. Surely skiing was better than work?

“What’s this exercise about?” Luke asked. “And who’s Emerson Black?”

CHAPTER 11

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