Hooked By Love (11 page)

Amber

I hadn’t returned to work after my showdown with Josh, preferring to go home and lick my wounds and work through two issues before I faced the world again. One issue was my perceived betrayal from Josh, and the second was the fact that my team at work could think so lowly of me. I put down Josh’s behaviour as him being a wimp and his vulgar brother’s lap dog, but my team? I had no excuse for them.

The next morning as I stood in front of those very people, I was ready to bulldoze anyone or anything that stood in my way.

‘That’s it, everyone. Leave now if you think I’ve let you down. I need people willing to help me, not judge me,’ I said in a soft but assertive tone. ‘Anyone who won’t fight for this place or has a problem with me is free to go. Everyone else, prepare for war.’

‘What are you up to now?’ Harry asked.

‘I might not be sleeping with the enemy, Harry, but I am about to screw them six ways to Sunday,’ I said sarcastically. ‘I’m still in charge of this centre and I will do everything in my power to keep them from shutting us down. Jennifer, can I see you in my office, please?’

I hoped she wouldn’t give me a hard time in front of everyone, as it was crucial that I show leadership. Everyone knew she was my right-hand woman, so if she wasn’t behind me, how could they be? To my surprise and relief, she stood and trailed behind me without saying a word. She closed the door behind her as I slid onto my desk chair.

‘You wanna know what corner I do my business on? You want me to seduce that fat pig Craig O’Neil for you, since that’s what I do best?’ she said. ‘Since you’re obviously too good to have sex with people you want to manipulate.’

‘Okay, just stop. Please, Jen. I brought you in here to apologise. That was brash of me yesterday and I am really, really sorry I said that. I felt like you were making me out to be some slut and I just wanted to slaughter someone,’ I explained.

‘Me?’

Her eyes were bloodshot and wet and it tore me inside that I’d done that to her.

‘Yes, you. You know why? Because you are beautiful and sexy and you don’t even have to try to make people adore you. I picked you because you’re the only one in this office that
ever
gets a shag!’

Jen and I had a bond of friendship forged purely through our sexual sense of humour and I hoped that my statement would cheer her up. She was so naïve, but with her sharp intellect and snappy humour, I sometimes forgot that, compared to me, Jen was just a lost little girl. For all intents and purposes, she was my little sister.

She wanted to be mad at me, I could see that—I could understand that—but gradually, a naughty smile crept back across her lips. ‘You know, you’re right about that. None of you sorry sods ever get any.’

‘I know. Don’t rub it in though. I’m not that far gone yet.’ I shrugged innocently.

She flung her arms around me and planted a big kiss on my cheek.

‘If you want to fuck the O’Neils,’ she whispered in my ear, ‘I’m the best advisor you have.’

‘Oh and don’t I know it!’ I replied, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from my heart. The other weight, the false happiness I still craved, proved a lot more stubborn. My heart had let me down once more, my quest for contentedness having once again made me drop my defences. But the worst wasn’t so much that I’d allowed Josh to get through to me, but that I’d thought he was sincere. Now I felt like the butt of a joke between a gang of cruel schoolboys.

‘Right, we’re going to campaign against these animals,’ I started.

‘I say we go public in a big way,’ Jennifer added as she took notes.

‘Perhaps not just the media, but we can hit social media and business chambers as well. The people dealing with them, other property companies. Let’s find people who’ve been stiffed by them before, other victims of their mercenary pursuits,’ I suggested further. My mean streak was another trait that had always lain dormant under my compassion, waiting to be used for the right reasons, and it was beautiful.

Zack

I knew my uncles thought I was blind to what went on in the family business, but they couldn’t be more wrong. I knew exactly what they were up to—well, Uncle Craig anyway. Numbers were my thing. I’d always had a knack for understanding complex calculations, the same way hackers knew how to bypass security systems. After stumbling across the financial papers in my uncle’s office, I knew something fishy was going on in the company. I imagined myself as a spy working for MI5. I had to find out how deep down the rabbit hole the corruption went.

Which was why I was hiding behind a car across the street from Uncle Craig’s house, waiting for him to leave for work. He worked from home a lot and I didn’t doubt he kept files he wanted to keep private in his office. Gaining access to his house would be easy; I still had a key, the one I’d forgotten to give back after I stayed there a few nights, waiting for Uncle Josh to return from his travels when my mum died. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about what I might discover, but I needed to find evidence of his wrongdoings for my plan to succeed.

It wasn’t long before the large oak door opened and my uncle breezed towards his Bentley parked outside his house. He gave himself a once over in the window’s reflection and despite his bulk, he gracefully slipped into the car. Seconds later, he drove off, his lack of signalling causing the drivers behind him to hoot their horns in anger. My uncle ignored them, as usual. He cared about no one but himself.

I waited a few minutes to make sure he wasn’t coming back, then I crossed the road, my eyes scanning the vicinity. If he caught me entering his house, there’d be hell to pay—for me and Uncle Josh, who Uncle Craig would no doubt blame for my wayward ways. It took less than two minutes for me to get inside the property. Uncle Craig didn’t have any kids, so his house was immaculate, not a thing out of place.

As I crept along the polished wooden floor, I kept my ears open for any unfamiliar sounds. I knew my uncle hired call-girl services on a regular basis, so I had to be careful in case one of the women were still in the house.

His office was on the ground floor and I quickly made my way towards it. The room had an over powering smell of leather and polish. I walked over to his larger than life mahogany desk and felt around underneath it until I located the key I’d seen him place there. I was glad to see Uncle Craig was still a creature of habit.

I inserted the key into the filing cabinet that stood at the side of his desk. I pulled the drawer open and looked down at the neat, orderly files. I worked from the top downwards, pulling out random files and giving them a quick scan. To my horror, there was no smoking gun to be found.

I replaced the files and tried to close the drawer, but something stopped it. I reached behind and felt a folder. I pulled it out and opened it. It took me only a few seconds to realise what I was holding in my hands and my heart stepped up a beat.
Bingo!

I couldn’t believe my eyes. They were plans for the Young Minds’ site, only they were different to the ones I’d seen at Uncle Josh’s. Flipping through the file, I came across a list of financial transactions. One payment stood out:
Ouast Enterprises.
My uncle had scribbled ‘Jason Lee’ next to it.
Who the hell was that?

I didn’t have time to contemplate it, so I pushed myself to my feet and crossed over to the photocopier. It took me a few minutes to print everything I needed and put them in order.

I didn’t feel guilty for doing any of this. I wasn’t the one in the wrong. My uncle was. A noise from upstairs made me freeze—footsteps. I wasn’t alone after all. With the stealth of a thief, I quickly replaced all of the papers as neatly as I could back into the folder, shoved it at the back of the drawer and closed it. The footsteps stopped.
Move Zack! Move!

Putting the key back under the desk, I grabbed the evidence, stuffed it inside my jacket and dashed for the front door. I was outside within seconds, closing the door quietly behind me. I wouldn’t worry about who was in the house. I had an urgent delivery to make.

Amber

By late afternoon, I had Harry, Christina and Jennifer bustling through the Internet for me. Two of our counsellors had left because they were convinced the centre would fall, but not because of me or my apparently fickle reputation.

‘Oh my God! You’re not going to effing believe this,’ Jennifer said, walking into my office with eyes so wide I thought they might pop out.

‘What is it?’

‘An anonymous delivery,’ she said, handing me a thick A4-sized envelope. On the front, the words ‘This will help you sink the O’Neils’ was scribbled in large clumsy handwriting. ‘Shelly found it on her desk when she got back from a fag break.’

I took the package from Jennifer and tore it open like a cat getting into a pack of Dreamies treats. I frowned as I scanned the sheets of paper in the folder.

An hour later, Jennifer and I sat in silence with our mouths agape, looking at the damning evidence.

From the leaked information, we discovered Berkley-O’Neil had made a contribution to the local authority under section 106 of the Planning Act and in return, the authority waived the company’s responsibility to build affordable housing, as well as a community centre.

‘Look at this.’ Jen revelled as she leant on my desk. ‘Over the last ten years, Berkley-O’Neil haven’t once had to comply with local authority rules on the percentage of new builds that have to be built with affordable housing.’

‘Meaning?’ I asked.

‘Meaning, the local authority let them off every time. I know that under section 106 they’re given some leeway if they make a contribution, but come on! Every time!’

We scrutinised the papers closer and found that the O’Neils and their associates, Berkley Trust, had bribed planning committee members, in particular one Jason Lee, to approve their planning applications.

‘How on earth have they got away with this?’ I asked, delving deeper into my curiosity of this shady business.

‘Who’s going to question them?’ she asked and dropped another folder on my desk. ‘If the planning committees are in on it …’

‘But you’d think someone in the local community would have complained or something?’

‘Maybe they were paid off too,’ she replied.

‘Well this lady is not for turning! If I didn’t believe in God before, I sure as hell do now,’ I told her and kissed her hand while she gloated with a dramatic sway. ‘We’re going to name and shame those bastards. They’ll be sorry they ever bought this building and more so, that they tried to use Amber Cross as a pawn to get by the unfairness of it all.’

***

The following day, after starting work at 6:00 a.m., my three colleagues and I ordered breakfast with fresh coffee, made some tea for Chris and cancelled all our appointments for the morning. Our regular programs and counselling sessions would continue in the afternoon, once we had put the media death trap in action for tomorrow.

‘We’re going to wipe the floor with them,’ I told my band of merry partners when we finally compiled all the evidence in an orderly fashion.

‘You almost sound happy to torch your boyfriend.’ Christina winked.

‘This isn’t about revenge, Chris. This is about shining a light on a company that has managed to hide in the dark for way too long.’ I clasped my hands in front of me. ‘Okay, back to business. Channel 4 will be here at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, so wear your best coats.’

‘Jerry Bantry and Jessica Pullman will interview Amber and me and then the telly magazine people will collect the footage from us at noon,’ Jennifer reported.

I couldn’t help but think how devastating it would be for such a majestic company as Berkley-O’Neil to be exposed by those they’d sought to destroy? If we had our way, not only would we get to keep our building and our jobs, but we’d also topple Berkley-O’Neil like one of their cheaply constructed properties, crumbling them to the ground.

When we finally took a well-deserved lunch break before the afternoon influx of troubled youngsters came in and demanded our attention, I fell back in my chair, relieved to catch a breather. But it wasn’t all roses and butterflies when my mind started wandering. I was so blood drunk, so hell-bent on crushing Josh and his brother’s company that I’d neglected to keep track of my emotional hostility, born from his betrayal.

In truth, I felt a little bad about attacking Josh and the company he tried to keep on course out of respect for his father’s hard work. I wanted to believe him when he said he was truly helpless, but every time my heart softened to him, I remembered how he almost dragged me to bed with him, just as Craig had tried to do.

It seems to be a family strategy when you boys are faced with a foe you can’t buy off, hey?
I played with my pen on Josh’s photo from one of the folders. My eyes fell into his again and for a moment, I could hear him breathe again, feel his hand dropping to my blouse …

‘Are you still with us?’ Christina asked.

I jumped at the sight of her. ‘You startled me, Chris!’

‘Sorry.’

She slowly walked toward me with two cups of tea and set one in front of me, her demeanour seeming personal.

She looked back at the doorway before she started talking again. ‘I know you want to save the centre, Amber, but I want to make sure you really want to do this.’

‘The truth needs to be told,’ I replied nonchalantly as I sipped the tea. ‘No company is immune to it. Even Berkley-O’Neil.’

‘I know that,’ she said. ‘But how do you feel about bringing Josh down?’

‘Why would I care?’ I asked.

‘Because I know you care too much about everything.’

Christina had the sort of face that made people want to confide in her. Even the most closed-up teens surrendered to her persuasion.

‘Yeah I suppose I do feel a bit guilty for hitting him this hard. That I’ll admit. I … God help me, but … I don’t want him to hate me. But I have no choice. This is as harsh as I have to be to get out of this pickle. I have no choice but to … hurt Josh.’

‘It’s a pity. He seemed sincere when he was here. Just keep in mind that maybe he’s trapped between family commitments and doing the right thing,’ she suggested and sipped on her tea. ‘I don’t think he’ll hate you for fighting for what you believe in, even if that fight is with his family.’

‘That’s the part that worries me. What if he thinks I’m a sore loser, some feisty bitch who’s pissed off because she didn’t get her way?’

What if he never wants to see me again?

The more I thought on it, the more it surprised me that I actually cared what he thought of me. That was unusual. If the entire world hated me, I wouldn’t give a damn. But for some reason, the thought of Josh O’Neil hating me killed me inside.