Topspin (32 page)

Croydon was foreign territory to Jack. Kevin hadn’t been stupid enough to confront him on his own patch. Even he must have realized he’d be isolated if he came to the Island. So all Jack needed to do was work out where they were holding Tania and her son. Presumably in the house where Jack’s contacts had traced them to. By why Croydon? Did Tania live there now? It didn’t seem likely. He’d check with his contacts to see what the goons were up to. But first he needed answers to a few different questions. Well, just one really.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, he called Cyril. “I’ve just heard from Kevin.”

“Where is the little wanker, then?”

“Croydon.”

“Shit!”

“They’ve got Tania.”

A long pause. “I thought that’s what you were going to say next.”

“Also,” said Jack in a minatory tone, “they say they’ve got my son, which obviously can’t be true because, to the best of my knowledge, I don’t have one. If I did, you’d have let me know, wouldn’t you, Cyril? You’ve obviously kept in touch with Tania, it not coming as any surprise to you that she’s in Croydon, and all that.”

“They’re dead, the cowardly fucking bastards, hiding behind a woman and child! I’ll kill them with my owning fucking bare hands.”

“Do I have a son, Cyril? I don’t recall the event, you see, and I hardly think it’s something I’d be likely to forget.”

A sighed echoed down the line. “Yes, Jack, you have a six year old son. Dimitri.”

Jack felt the air seep out of his body in an extravagant whoosh. “Bullshit! Tania might well have a child,” he said, images of her and Palmer testing out the quality of the rugs in his own house polluting his mind, “but I doubt that it’s mine.”

“He’s yours, Jack, make no mistake about it.”

“Don’t piss me about, Cyril.”

“Have you got your laptop fired up?”

“Sure.”

“Hang on a mo.”

Almost immediately an e-mail arrived from Cyril, with a photograph attached. Jack hesitated, his hand trembling as it hovered above the mouse, suddenly apprehensive. The tremble spread through the rest of his body as he steeled himself to hit the button and gazed at the picture which unfurled with frustrating slowness onto the screen. Tania, looking as lovely as he remembered in his frequent dreams of better days. A wide smile revealed perfect teeth, her light brown hair was lifting from her shoulders in the breeze, and her arms were around the shoulders of a child that was offering a toothy grin to the camera.

Jack was speechless. Unable to catch his breath or believe the truth that was before his very eyes. Cyril was right. There could be no doubt this was his son. He was the image of Jack at the same age. A cowlick of hair that wouldn’t stay flat, intense blue eyes full of mischief and curiosity, the same square jaw, the same shaped nose dusted with freckles. The same instinctive way of angling his head for the camera.

His son!
He had a son
. The child he’d always wanted.

And no one had bothered to mention the fact.

“Jack, are you there?”

“I trust you have a good explanation,” he said tightly.

“It was Tania’s call. She didn’t want you to know.”

“Where is she now?”

“She works for me in Croydon. I have a few interests in that part of the world. It’s the clubbing Mecca of South London, and she manages a restaurant attached to a club I own there. A proper, old-fashioned adult-persons club, not one of those dives for kids.”

“I see.”

Tania was passionate about food and he could easily imagine her making an excellent restaurant manager. Knowing the club was owned by Cyril, no one was likely to give her any grief, either. Jack was grateful to Cyril for looking out for her. It was something he should have done himself if he could’ve gotten over the shock of her betrayal. Instead he’d turned her away penniless, wallowing in self-righteous pity and shattered dreams. Since the separation he’d tried to put her out of his mind, not torturing himself by speculating about where she was or what she might be doing. But Cyril hadn’t been hampered by emotional attachment and had stepped into the breach.

“Why didn’t she want me to know about my son?” he asked in a more moderate tone.

“She said that you weren’t prepared to listen to her explanation about what happened, that you were blind to reason, and would never believe her when she said the baby was yours. I tried to convince her that you had a right to know, especially when the kid started to grow and looked so like you, but she wouldn’t have it.”

“Well, excuse me for taking exception to the fact that my wife fucked another man, and finding it hard to believe there could be any reason to exonerate her.”

“Everything’s so black and white with you, Jack, that’s your problem. You put Tania on a pedestal and couldn’t take it when you found out she had faults, just like the rest of us. I thought she was being unfair to you by not telling you about Dimitri, but I can see now that she was right all along.”

Everything’s so black and white with you, Jack.
Those were more or less the same words that Claire had thrown at him when he found out about her infidelity. Was he really so inflexible? Were his standards that rigid? He didn’t think that was fair. Look how hard he’d tried to cover up for Claire, even if he couldn’t stand the thought of what she’d done. Anyway, in the case of Tania, he wasn’t the one who’d crossed the line. Why was everyone so anxious to shift the blame onto him?

“What are you going to do now?”

“Drive to Croydon,” he said. “What else can I do? They’re going to ring me in the morning and supposedly exchange Tania and the boy for me.”

“It’s a set-up, Jack. It’ll be suicide if you keep that appointment, you know that?”

“Yeah, but what else can I do? But at least I’ve got a bit more time to think about it than they know. I might be able to surprise them.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, they obviously think I’m on the Island and won’t be able to get off until the ferries start running in the morning.”

“But you’re not?”

“No, I’m at Bisham Abbey, and I can easily be in Croydon in a couple of hours.”

“So can I, and I’m on my way. We need to sort this together. I’ll make a few calls on the way and see if I can find out where they might be holding them.”

Jack wasn’t stupid enough to decline the offer of help, especially not now that he knew what was involved. “Thanks, Cyril, and so will I. My people traced them to Croydon and know where they went to when they arrived, so my guess is that’s where they’ll have them.” Jack chuckled. “Kevin and Wilf always did lack imagination.”

“Yeah, it wouldn’t have occurred to them that they were being watched. I’ll call the club and see if they know anything, and meet you at the Holiday Inn in Croydon in a couple of hours.”

Chapter Fifteen

E
D’S
C
AMPAIGN
T
O
P
ERSUADE
T
HE
M
EMBERS
started off promisingly, until bloody Jack Regent stuck his oar in, causing quite a few of them to have second thoughts. Having discovered that it didn’t pay to keep Aston in the dark, Ed rang him straight away and explained what had happened. He admitted that it would be an uphill task to persuade two-thirds of the shareholders to side with him now that Jack, a popular and respected member, was recommending that they hold firm. Aston curtly told him to up his offer to fifteen thousand pounds per share and get the job done.

“We should be able to swing things now,” he said to Stella as they got ready for dinner on Saturday night. “What I need is for you to use your charm on some of the men. People like Gordon. He’s always broke but still sticking with Jack’s camp, which makes no sense at all. Colin thought he could get to him through Sheila, but she’s gone all snotty on him for some reason. Anyway, chat up as many of the ditherers as you can and make them see it would be in their best interests financially to sell up.”

“What about their tennis interests?”

“What the fuck does that matter to us? This is business.”

Stella didn’t seem impressed. “Well, I think Jack’s right,” she said. “If people sell, then they’ll lose the focal point of their social lives. Most of them won’t get into other clubs, either, and that includes us.”

“Rubbish, we’re good enough to be accepted anywhere.”

“That’s a matter of opinion.”

“Whose side are you on?”

Stella took her sweet time responding. “I just don’t feel comfortable coercing people into doing something they might live to regret, that’s all. Porchfield is
the
country club on the Island. You’ve said so yourself often enough. There’s a lot of prestige attached to membership, and that matters to them more than an injection of cash, much as some of them might need it.” She shook her head. “No, I think they ought to be told the facts and left to make up their own minds without being pressured by us.”

“Look, you daft bitch, I don’t think you realize just how deep we’re into this thing.” Stella turned away from him and fiddled with her hair. “I’ve put everything we’ve got into this scheme. Every last fucking dime, and then some!” He flailed his arms, fighting the urge to knock a little loyalty into the ungrateful cow. “You can forget about the standing of your social life if this doesn’t go through. You’ll have more pressing matters on your mind, like how to keep a roof over our heads.”

“Perhaps you were a little rash to invest so much in this one project, then.” His wife appeared remarkably serene in the face of imminent bankruptcy. “How many times have you told me that it’s dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket?”

“That’s entirely different.” Ed was infuriated by her sudden desire to question everything he did and willingness to stand up for herself with no apparent fear of the consequences.

“I don’t see how.”

“I’m not asking you to see anything. Just do as I say. Now, come on, we’re meeting Millie and Mike in the bar to discuss our strategy. At least
they’re
right behind me and know the meaning of loyalty. Colin will be there too, and we’re gonna work that room like our lives depend upon the outcome.” He paused and fixed her with a menacing scowl. “And trust me, baby, they do! Get down there and charm the pants off them.”

When she showed no sign that she intended to comply, Ed felt panic welling up inside him. If he couldn’t even convince his own wife, who had so much to personally gain from the scheme, what hope did he have of swaying the rest of the club? He tried another tack.

“Stella love, just listen to me, this could be the making of us as a family. If we can pull it off, we’ll be financially secure for the rest of our lives. I’d be able to give you and Leah all the things you’ve ever wanted.”

He gently stroked the line of her cheek and then kissed her, long and deep, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and his groin against her pelvis, stirred by her passivity.

“Don’t!” She pushed him so hard that he almost toppled over.

Seeing the disgust in her eyes only aroused him more. He hadn’t intended to take this any further, but her getting fancy ideas about denying him his rights wasn’t something he was prepared to tolerate. She’d never said no to him before, not ever, and she hadn’t chosen a good time to start.

“Whadda you mean, don’t? You’re my
wife
.”

“That doesn’t give you the right to rape me.”

When he heard the contempt in her tone and clocked her disgusted expression, he was ready to kill her. “Rape? What’re you talking about? I’m not a bleeding rapist.”

Glancing at his watch, he realized there was just enough time. A quick marital fuck couldn’t be described as rape, not in his book. Pushing Stella against the wall, he released himself and dragged up her skirt. She didn’t fight him anymore and just stood there, staring over his shoulder with an expression of blank inaccessibility, taking no active part in the proceedings. She opened her legs when he told her to, obviously wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible. He would have liked to take longer, make her suffer for defying him, but he didn’t have the time. He pushed his hand down her top and pulled one of her breasts out of her bra, bending his head to suckle on the nipple, the feeling of invincibility that went hand in hand with sexual dominance coursing through his body. He could achieve anything he set his mind to, with or without his wife’s help. He knew that now and chastised himself for momentarily doubting it.

A few deep thrusts and he felt the rush he so craved starting to build. He could hear his breath coming in shorter and shorter bursts, felt the fire lancing through his veins as he fought to delay his piercingly intense climax. But he was too desperate to hold back for long. Grasping Stella’s buttocks tight, he thrust harder still and ejaculated deep inside her.

“Things have gone wrong between us recently, Stella,” he said, withdrawing and zipping his fly. “We’ve drifted apart and it’s partly my fault. I accept that. I’ve been preoccupied with this business at the club. But if we can pull it off, it’ll make everything right again, you’ll see, and everyone’ll look up to us. We’ll be people of consequence and enjoy everyone’s respect.”