THE minutes ticked by, every second excruciatingly long for Ric. He paced up and down the patio, willing Lara not to change her mind, not to give in to a burst of panic over her decision. He kept checking his watch. Time was critical. If someone had reported his visit to Gary Chappel…if he came home…a face-to-face confrontation before they could get away might scuttle everything.
Footsteps coming…
He moved to meet them, his whole body wound tight with tension.
Lara…wearing a brown shoulder-bag now and carrying a hat. ‘Ready,’ she declared, determination in her voice, and with a slight lilt of excitement.
‘Let’s go,’ he said, and there was not the slightest hesitation from her, much to Ric’s relief.
The housekeeper was in the foyer. She looked anxiously at the two of them. ‘Mrs. Chappel…?’
‘I’m just going out for a while,’ Lara answered, heading straight for the front door. ‘We won’t be long, Mrs. Keith.’
The housekeeper beat her to the door. ‘Mrs. Chappel…’ It was a plea for Lara to reconsider.
She knew what went on here, Ric thought, and didn’t like it. He laid a hand on the housekeeper’s shoulder, drawing her gaze to his. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll look after her.’
She shook her head slightly but stepped back, letting them go without further protest.
‘It’s a conspicuous car, Ric,’ Lara remarked fearfully as he loaded her into it.
‘We won’t be in it for long,’ he assured her.
It was good to get behind the driver’s wheel and fire the engine up. He had Lara in his custody now and nothing was going to stop him from flying her to Gundamurra. The temptation to leave in a burst of speed was strong, but the wiser course was to drive sedately, watching for the watchers.
He was no sooner out of the private driveway to Chappel’s mansion, than a grey sedan, parked at the kerb on the street, started up and pulled out, quickly catching up to the Ferrari, sitting just behind it. A male driver, wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap.
Ric had no intention of shaking him. That was better done when the follower least expected it. At the first red light, he used his car phone to contact his office at Circular Quay. It only took a few moments for Kathryn to come on line. He spoke to her as he drove on.
‘Kathryn, I’m heading back to the office. I have Lara Chappel with me and I need your help. Clear your desk for the next couple of hours, grab your bag and car keys and be waiting for me in the basement car park. We should be there in about ten minutes. Okay?’
‘I’ll be standing by, Ric.’
‘Tell your secretary you’re off to a business meeting with a magazine editor and won’t be back until after lunch.’
‘Will do.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Who’s Kathryn?’ Lara instantly asked, her hands curling in her lap, clearly apprehensive about anyone knowing what they were doing.
‘Kathryn Ledger. My executive assistant in the Sydney office. She has both my confidence and my trust.’
‘Is she the one who bought the photo?’
‘Yes.’
Lara took a deep breath. ‘I take it we’ll be switching cars.’
‘Necessary. Don’t jerk around in your seat to look. We’re being followed by a guy in a grey sedan.’
The hands curled into white-knuckled fists.
Ric wondered just how many escape attempts had been thwarted. And punished. Irrelevant, he told himself. That was the past. He had to secure Lara’s future.
At the next red light, he punched out the numbers for Bankstown Airport and made contact with the guy in charge of Johnny’s Cessna.
‘Ric Donato. I’ll be taking Johnny’s plane on a flight to Bourke. Can you get it on the tarmac with a flight plan lodged as soon as possible, please. I should be there in an hour or so.’
‘I’ll do my best, Mr. Donato. Want some refreshments on board?’
‘Yes. There’ll only be two of us.’
‘No problem.’
He heard Lara take another deep breath. ‘A private plane?’ she asked tentatively.
He nodded. ‘It belongs to a friend of mine. I have the authority to take it any time I want. Johnny’s in the U.S. He won’t be using it for a while.’
‘You can fly?’ An odd wonderment in her voice.
He threw her a confident smile. ‘Don’t worry. I have a pilot’s licence and I’ve logged thousands of hours in the air.’
‘Bourke…?’
‘First stop. We’ll get you some clothes before moving on.’
‘I don’t have much money with me. But I do have credit cards. If Gary doesn’t…’
‘No. No credit cards. You can be traced through using them. I’ll supply the money. Consider it a loan.’
She didn’t protest.
Ric was glad she had the presence of mind to take in the ramifications and not make any fuss over the plan he was still formulating. He was getting quite a buzz from it. Reminded him of his years in war zones when fast action and planning on the run were critical for survival. Lots of adrenalin rushes in those days. This was a different kind of battle but a battle nonetheless. Lara’s life was at stake.
No doubt in his mind on that score. The black eye, the gut-wrenching weeping, the expressions of utter despair…that was more than enough to put Ric in fighting mode. The evidence of the guy following them sealed the truth of what Lara had told him. The Vaucluse mansion had been a prison and Gary Chappel deserved to lose his wife.
Whether the bastard had wrought irreparable damage on Lara, only time would tell. Ric was intent on giving her that time. Strange, after all these years, he still felt a strong tie to her. His first love. His only love, if it could be called that. More a fantasy, he told himself and Gary Chappel had more or less fitted into that fantasy. Except the truth of their marriage was very, very different to what he had imagined and Ric felt a hard cold fury toward the man who had brought Lara this low.
He glanced at her clenched hands, saw that she’d taken off her rings. A brave act, given her fear. Also a huge measure of her trust that he could, indeed, deliver what he’d promised. Which surely meant she did feel some positive connection to him. Perhaps a hangover from the past, remembering an innocent relationship between them.
Whatever…she had come with him and Ric was not about to abuse that trust in any shape or form. First and foremost she needed to feel safe. Then a swift, clean end to her marriage had to be accomplished. Which reminded him of his lunch date.
He called Mitch’s chambers and left a message with his clerk, cancelling the luncheon and saying he’d contact him tonight. ‘That’s the barrister I spoke about,’ he explained to Lara. ‘Mitch will know how best to handle your divorce.’
‘A barrister…’ She glanced curiously at him. ‘You have some very handy friends, Ric.’
Many friends, but only a few he could absolutely count on in this situation. ‘Johnny and Mitch shared my time at Gundamurra,’ he said matter-of-factly. ‘And the man who owns the sheep station, Patrick Maguire, was like a father to us at a critical time in our lives. Each one of these men would do everything in their power to protect you, Lara.’
‘Because you ask them to?’
He shook his head. ‘Because they don’t like people being hurt and not one of them would be intimidated by anything your husband could do.’
She heaved a ragged sigh. ‘That might be a tall order.’
He threw her a devil-may-care grin. ‘They’re all tall men.’
It evoked a wry smile from her. ‘You, too.’ Then with a worried frown. ‘I don’t want Gary to cut you down. He’s used to getting his own way, Ric. There will be…repercussions…from helping me.’
Amazing that she could be concerned for him and his friends when her own survival was on the line. ‘There are times when a stand must be made, Lara,’ he said quietly. ‘And we are lesser people if we don’t do it.’
There were so many injustices in the world. For years he had shown them through his camera, but the shots he had taken hadn’t made any difference. They were simply a record of man’s inhumanity to man. Maybe that was part of what was driving him today—the need to make a difference, if only to Lara’s life.
He drove into the basement car park, using his office passcard to lift the barrier. ‘Gary’s guy can’t follow us in here by car. We have time to make the swap. We’ll both have to hunker down in Kathryn’s car so he won’t see us going out. You okay with that?’
‘Yes.’
Kathryn was waiting.
The escape ran smoothly. No hitches anywhere along the line. By midafternoon they were in Bourke. Ric set up an account in a local bank, made Lara a signatory to it, withdrew several thousand dollars, gave the money to her and sent her shopping by herself. He also gave her the keys to the car he’d hired at the airport, now parked in Oxford Street. She could load her shopping bags in it whenever she wanted to.
‘What will I need, Ric?’ she asked anxiously. ‘This is foreign territory for me. I want to fit in.’
Good positive attitude.
Ric was glad she had accepted the challenge of a year in the Outback, showing no traces of being a spoiled rich bitch who’d continually kick against the life. He wondered how she’d cope with the isolation, whether she’d welcome it or hate it. Only time would tell.
‘Shorts, jeans, shirts, good walking shoes, sandals,’ he rolled out. ‘You’ll need a warm jacket. A couple of sweaters. It can get cold at night out here. Think casual. Nothing too classy.’ He shrugged. ‘Look around you. See what the local people are wearing.’
Not that she’d be seeing any of them for the next couple of months. It was the end of February, still the wet season, and the road to Gundamurra would be washed out, impassable. The only way in and out was by plane. Even if Gary Chappel discovered where she was, he’d find it impossible to get to her. Patrick Maguire would see to that.
‘You’ll have to be quick, Lara,’ he warned. ‘We need to leave here by five o’clock if we’re to land at Gundamurra before sunset.’
‘I’ll be quick,’ she promised, then suddenly grinned. ‘No one’s going to care what I look like, are they?’
It was her first carefree expression. Ric felt his own heart lift with pleasure. ‘No one will give a damn. You’re not judged by clothes in the Outback. It’s the person you are that counts, Lara.’
‘The person…’ She sobered, grimaced. ‘I lost the girl you once knew, Ric.’
He nodded. Impossible to go back. They’d both grown beyond what they’d been as teenagers. ‘This is a chance to find out who you are now,’ he said, waving her on to do her shopping. ‘I’ll meet you at the car at five.’
He watched her quick jaunty walk up the street, knew she was revelling in the first taste of freedom. It was good, seeing her without the fear, seeing the difference. Reward enough for what he’d done.
The next step was to warn Patrick of their imminent arrival. He went to the post office to use the public telephone, wary of any record of the call being traced through his mobile. Luckily Patrick was in his home office not out in the paddocks.
‘It’s Ric,’ he announced. ‘I’m in Bourke. I’ll be flying in to Gundamurra before sunset.’
‘Great! I’ll meet you at the airstrip.’ Warm pleasure in his voice.
‘Patrick, I’m bringing someone with me and I’ve promised she can be your house guest for a year.’
‘A year?’ Startled by the length of time.
Ric quickly explained the circumstances. Patrick listened, making no comment until everything had been told.
‘This is your Lara, Ric?’ he asked. ‘The girl you stole the car for?’
His Lara. She’d never been his. Wasn’t now. Yet…‘I had to rescue her, Patrick. Will you keep her safe for me? She needs the time to put her marriage behind her.’
‘It may not work out the way you want, son,’ came the serious warning. ‘No good her walking out of one prison into another, if that’s how she feels about Gundamurra. But she’s welcome here for as long as she’s happy to stay.’
‘That’s all I ask.’ The choice was Lara’s. He couldn’t—didn’t want to—make her do anything against her will.
‘Fair enough.’
‘Thanks, Patrick.’
‘I look forward to meeting her.’
It may not work out the way you want… Ric pondered those words as he strolled down the street to the Gecko Café where he could buy a coffee while he waited for Lara.
What did he want from this?
He knew what he didn’t want—Lara being a battered wife.
But beyond setting her free from Gary Chappel…he wanted to see joy in her eyes…to recapture something of the girl that had once made every moment spent with her unbelievably special.
Magic.
Or was that a youthful dream, reaching for stars that were unreachable?
He shook his head, accepting Patrick’s dictum that it may not work out how he wanted.
But it didn’t kill the latent hope in his heart.