The Candidate (17 page)

Mac just stopped short of saying, please, and groaned instead as his hand reached the top of her leg and hit pay dirt. He took advantage of suddenly having the upper hand. ‘You can work down at Gibson’s,’ he said, leaning back to watch as he slowly, deliberately, sent her over the edge.

Ginny arched her back and closed her eyes as it slammed through her. There was no way in hell she’d work if she went down with him. She reached for his collar and pulled him down on her.

‘I wouldn’t be able to concentrate,’ she laughed.

‘I’ll leave you alone. Promise.’

‘I’m more concerned that I won’t leave you alone. Swinging your hammer around and all that.’ She let out a small moan as he got a tad more adamant and then, sick of fiddling with the buttons — too bloody slow — she pulled sharply at the shirt, grinning as the buttons popped. She ran her hands down the length of his body. ‘Sorry.’

‘No problem — you can buy me another.’ Mac closed his eyes as her hands headed below his belt. ‘Ginny.’ He swallowed. ‘Please come to Gibson’s with me.’

She’d only had two glasses of champagne at a bar close by before suggesting they come back and make out on her couch, but her head was spinning so much it could’ve been a bottle. She wanted to go to the bach so badly the only option was to say no. She couldn’t believe how fast this was happening. Had it only been a week? Having him a few hours’ drive away for the weekend wouldn’t be a bad thing.

‘No, Mac.’ She kept her eyes on him as she unbuttoned and unzipped him. ‘I’m not going. That’s the end of the matter.’ She slipped her hand inside. ‘When do you need to leave?’

His stomach clenched as she touched him. Out the window, the long summer dusk was ebbing away and the later he left it, the fewer cars would be on the road. ‘A while yet.’ He looked back down at her.

‘Great. Come here then.’

And he did.

Chapter 21

Late on Monday afternoon, Ginny rang Daniel. The call went straight to voicemail.

‘I really need to speak to your referees.’ She tried to keep her voice even. ‘Please can you call me? Soon.’ What was he bloody playing at? She knew he was keen; he wanted the job but she still hadn’t received the information she needed to do his reference checks.

She tried him once more before she shut up shop for the day. Once again, straight to voicemail. Already annoyed, she was starting to worry.

The next day Ginny was in her office early, determined to make a plan of attack following yesterday’s meeting with the university. It was an interesting assignment, and with some hard work and good luck, would add weight to her growing profile.

Returning to the office with her mid-morning coffee, Ginny sighed in relief to see an email had arrived from Daniel. She raised a cynical eyebrow at his apology for his delay with the referees. ‘Yeah, you should be,’ she muttered; Robert had called again that morning, asking how she was getting on.

Opening the attachment she groaned. He had to be bloody kidding!

Instead of names and contact details of two referees as she had requested, he had sent two written references. Both on the letterhead of his former employer, now defunct. They were brief and to the point stating his term of employment and position, but providing no further details. One was signed by what looked like one of the company directors, the other from the human resources manager.

Not good enough. This was proof of nothing. She needed to talk to people who’d worked with him, who could comment knowledgeably on his style, experience and ability. But first she had to talk to Daniel.

She dialled his number and shook her head as it went straight to voicemail again.

‘Daniel. We need to talk. I’ve just got your email and what you’ve sent through isn’t enough. I do verbal reference checks. If you’re still interested in this role, I need you to call me immediately.’ There, that should put a rocket under him.

An hour later Ginny heard the street door open and footsteps on the stairs. Thinking it was Mac arriving early for lunch, she went to grab her bag when Ange stuck her head into her office.

‘Ginny, it’s Daniel.’

‘What? Here?’

Ange nodded.

Jeepers, that was quick. The rocket had obviously worked. ‘Thanks. Room One?’

‘Yep.’

Ginny went in to meet him. ‘Daniel — hi. You must have been in the vicinity?’

He remained standing. Instead of smiling, as she’d come to expect, he looked serious, and a little pissed off.

‘What’s going on, Ginny? You asked for referees, and I gave them to you.’

‘As I explained, I do verbal reference checks. I don’t mean any offence but those letters aren’t legitimate proof of anything. My client expects a hell of a lot more than two or three lines confirming your dates of employment.’

He frowned and shoved his hands into his pockets. ‘They want me, Ginny. You know that, so do I. This is just a formality. Tick it off and let’s get on with it.’

‘No way. I don’t tick and flick, Daniel.’

He hesitated, then gave her a smile. ‘Come on, Ginny. Loosen up. He’ll never know whether you spoke to them or not. You’ve interviewed me and so has Robert. Everyone knows I can do the damn job; you don’t need anyone else to tell you that. You’ll have a pretty decent fee off this, won’t you? Make this happen and you get your fee, I get my job, Robert gets his new employee. Everyone wins.’

‘That’s not how I operate. We do this my way or not at all.’

Hostility flashed across his face. He expected me to bend on that, Ginny thought.

The look was quickly gone and Daniel sat down with a sigh before looking up at her. ‘Sorry, Ginny, but the truth is I don’t have their contact details.’

She sat too, not wanting a confrontation. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Charles,’ — the director, Ginny remembered — ‘died about twelve months ago, just before I left London, so you definitely can’t speak to him. And — who is it … Vanessa? The one in HR? Well, she was around until the final day, tidying up the tail end of the company, but I don’t have a clue where she is now.’

‘Okay then. What about the other director?’

‘He’s in Spain somewhere. Retired out there.’

‘Other colleagues?’

‘I told you: there were only a few of us and even fewer in the last few months. I certainly didn’t stay in touch with anyone.’

Ginny narrowed her eyes. ‘Do you want this job, Daniel? Because I have a very strong number two who I know for a fact won’t play these sorts of games.’

He looked down at his hands, shaking his head slightly. Raising his eyes again, he smiled at her, flicking his forefinger against his thumb as he spoke. ‘I’m not playing games, Ginny. I told you: they want me. You’re the one making this difficult.’

‘This Vanessa,’ Ginny spoke carefully, trying to keep her frustration in check. ‘Have you tried to look for her?’

‘Why would I? I have a written reference from her. You seem to be the only one who thinks it isn’t good enough.’

She gritted her teeth. ‘Okay then. I’ll make a few calls, see if I can track her down. She may even be able to let me know where the other director is. In Spain.’ This was ridiculous. ‘In the meantime, please do a bit more thinking and find me someone else to talk to.’

He nodded but looked far from convinced. ‘I’ll do my best.’

Prick.

Smiling brightly, she stood and extended her hand. ‘Well, thanks for dropping by, Daniel. Let’s talk again before close of business tomorrow.’

He left quickly, shooting a look at Mac, who had arrived and was leaning on Ange’s desk.

Ginny blew out a breath as she walked out from the interview room. ‘Hi.’ She smiled at Mac as he pushed off the desk.

‘You okay? Smiley guy looked a bit narky.’

She gave a small laugh. ‘Your radar for dickheads has always been so much better developed than mine. He’s being a bit too cocky for his own good.’ She stepped closer. ‘Hi,’ she said again.

‘Hi.’ He leant down and kissed her lightly.

‘How was your weekend?’ Had his eyes always been that green?

‘Lonely.’ Mac took her hand.

‘Ahhh — now I see where your exceptionally good mood has come from.’ Ange gave Ginny a wry look. ‘All the same … would you two like to get a room? Or I’ll leave this one?’

Mac laughed and gave Ginny’s hand a tug. ‘Come on, I’ll buy you both something to eat.’

‘What are you up to later?’ he asked, as they walked slowly back to her office after lunch.

‘Taking a client out for a Christmas drink. Then I imagine I’ll be trying to find Daniel’s sodding referee.’

‘Want some company while you do that?’

She looked up at him. ‘I don’t know what time I’ll be done. I really need to get hold of this woman.’

‘I know. I’ve got stuff I can do, too. If that’s okay?’

She should say no, Ginny thought. Sitting on the couch, side by side to work, was a bit too bloody cosy. ‘That would be lovely,’ she smiled.

Vanessa Evans was proving hard to track down.

LinkedIn had returned a couple of possibilities: one in London, the other in Nottingham, but neither profile listed Raddle & Smyth as a previous employer. That didn’t necessarily mean that either of them wasn’t the right Vanessa Evans, but it sure as hell didn’t guarantee that Ginny was any closer. She’d shot off messages to both, and now could only wait. She had one more idea. Glancing at Daniel’s ‘reference’, she noted the letters following Vanessa’s name. It was worth a shot, long though it was.

She looked up at Mac at the other end of the couch, frowning in concentration as he worked through a dense and no doubt boring legal tome. He’d turned up half an hour or so after she got back from her client drinks; long enough for her to shower and pull on her trackies. He was similarly dressed in old jeans and a faded University of Auckland hoodie. This ‘shagging your mate’ deal had many attractive features. To be hanging out in tracksuit pants less than two weeks after jumping into bed was outrageous. With most men she‘d still be at the carefully outfitted, glossy stage.

So far, the evening wasn’t unlike one of their study sessions when they were at uni. He’d been perfectly polite, greeting her with only a smile and a chaste kiss. He’d got stuck straight into his work, leaving her to do the same. She was sitting lengthways, propped against a pile of cushions and soon after they’d settled in she’d wriggled her toes under his leg. He’d smiled, and tucked a hand around her feet, holding them against him. With the other, he beat a rapid tattoo with his pen against the contract he was working through. The sleeves of his hoodie were pushed up and she ran her eyes along that lovely length of forearm. Yum.

Noticing she had stopped working, he looked up and found her watching him.

‘Sorry — is this bugging you?’ He stopped with the pen.

‘No. Not at all. I’d forgotten you did that.’

‘Yeah — it used to drive Nick nuts.’ He faltered; he’d spoken without thinking.

‘How is he?’

He kept his eyes on hers. ‘Fine. He’s good.’

She nodded. ‘You must miss him. All of those guys — at Ohakune? I imagine you get pretty close.’

‘Yeah. We did.’ He looked at the blank television screen in front of him. ‘They’re like family. We, those guys you met, and me — ah, started off together.’ He looked back at her. ‘But I’m always going to be missing someone.’

Mac smiled as he saw her blush.

‘Was it hard? Starting out … getting in … whatever?’

Mac let out a brief laugh. ‘Hell, yes. It was bloody tough. But good, too, knowing I could do it. That I can.’

She could see it on his face and smiled. ‘I’m really proud of you, Mac. Going after that — doing it. It’s good.’ She paused, not knowing how to frame the words. ‘What happens then? Once you’re … in? Do you take off straight away? Deployed, or whatever?’

‘It depends. There’s lots of training. Lots and lots of training … and waiting. And then bang!’ He snapped his fingers and his green eyes took on a light she hadn’t seen before. ‘Lickety-split. You get the call, and you’re off.’

He really loves it, Ginny thought. Really and truly. ‘Just like that?’

‘Yep — pretty much.’

‘No warning?’

‘No. Not usually, not a lot.’

‘Is that difficult? Having to pack up and leave like that?’

‘No, not really. It’s how it works.’

‘Right.’ Ginny looked down at her legs, how they stretched towards him. ‘And how long do you go for?’

‘It’s different every time. Depends on what we’re doing.’

She hesitated again.

‘Hence your approach to the ladies, then? Good to keep it … what do you call it?’ She flicked him a grin. ‘“No strings” — when you don’t know when you’ll be back?’

Didn’t see that one coming, Mac thought. ‘Part of it.’

Ginny nodded, watching him. ‘But surely not everyone plays it like you do? Nick’s married, right?’

‘Yep. Philippa.’ An image crashed in, the last time he saw Philippa Scott. He blinked hard, trying to clear it.

Ginny saw the shutters slam down and decided to let it go. She had interviewed enough people to know when it was time to start a new line of questioning. She pointed to the contract.

‘How’s the legal stuff going? Not too boring after your day job?’

He gave a laugh and ran a hand through his hair, relieved she had let him off the hook. ‘It isn’t as bad as I remember, no.’

‘So, a viable retirement option then?’

‘Yeah. I think it will do.’

‘What’s the usual career path? After … blowing shit up?’

‘Different things. Most of them will stay on, I guess. Do something a little less full-on.’

‘You’re not interested in that?’

‘Nah — I thought about it but there are other things I want to do, and law will be a better fit. When the time comes.’ He looked back at her.

She got a big jolt when their eyes met. Felt that hum start up. ‘Mac?’

‘Yes, Ginny?’

‘When you leave again — no disappearing acts, okay?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well — at the end of summer, when you get the call …. Just … can you give me some warning this time?’

‘Of course, Ginny. Of course I will.’

‘Do you know when that might be?’

‘No.’

She kept looking at him, wanting to say or hear something, but not sure what. He pushed his hand slowly up inside the leg of her tracksuit pants, circling her calf, stroking a finger over the soft skin behind her knee. ‘Would you like me to leave you to it?’

The hum intensified. ‘No — you can stay. But I need to make a couple of calls before I wrap up.’

‘Calls? It’s gone eleven.’

‘Yep — mid-morning in the UK. I have one more idea.’

He smiled, loving her determination. ‘Tea?’

‘Yes,’ she said, surprised. ‘Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome.’ Mac leaned over and kissed her, long and hot and sweet, leaving her dazed and distracted as he went into the kitchen.