Private Player

“Maybe you and Craig should swap notes before Nathan takes Craig to lunch.”

Swap notes? Was Bernie trying to get me to give my story to Craig? “Sure,” I said, with no intention of telling Craig anything. “Happy to brief you.”

“Great,” said Craig. “We can work together.” He flashed me a smile that was all teamwork makes the dream work, but I wasn’t so naïve that I thought someone like Craig got to where he was without being ruthless. I needed to keep this Nathan profile out of Craig’s grubby hands.

More than that, I needed to find a hook and prove to Bernie I was capable of getting a great story on my own. I had a unique perspective on Nathan. I knew him like Craig never would. Maybe I could leverage that without compromising either of us.

Thirteen

Madison

Trying to find an interesting angle for the Nathan Cove profile felt like I was picking at a roll of sellotape, trying to find the end. As we pulled up outside the children’s hospital where Nathan was getting his picture taken for some fundraising thing, I continued to lob random questions at him in the hope that one of his answers would give me something to work with.

“You made a ton of money when Astro floated, right?” I asked.

“Some,” he replied. “A lot of it is tied up in shares.”

“But you could sell them.” I began to walk into the entrance but Nathan threw out an arm to stop me. I hadn’t seen the hospital porter pushing a bed toward the door.

Even through a suit jacket, Nathan’s arms were . . . substantial. I fought the instinct to reach out and touch him. The part of my brain that still parsed the world with Rallegra readers in mind was buzzing with questions. Did he have a specific workout regimen for his arms? Bis and tris together, or was he more of a back-and-bis man? Did muscles like that run in the family? Did he have a problem finding shirts that fit?

When the porter had passed, Nathan charged up the ramp as if he knew exactly where he was going. “Why would I sell my shares?” he asked as I caught up to him. “Astro’s performance is going from strength to strength.”

“You could cash them in and start something new. Retire.”

He shot me a look that told me he thought I was being ridiculous. “I’m thirty-three years old. I’m not going to retire.”

I had to run every third step to keep up with him as he strode along the corridor. “But what keeps you at Astro?”

Before he could answer, Nathan stopped abruptly as we approached a man in a blue shirt with rolled-up sleeves and a stethoscope around his neck.

“Nathan?” he asked as he reached us and glanced at me. “Did we have a lunch?”

Was it me or did this guy also have freakishly long eyelashes?

“No, just stopping by the children’s ward. They want a photo or something.”

“Right, you go have your picture taken.” The man grinned at Nathan as if he were ridiculous. “I’ll be busy saving lives while you pose.”

Nathan sighed and shoved his hands in his pocket. “Madison, this is my little brother, Beau. He’s a constant pain in my arse and seems to forget that he wouldn’t be able to save quite as many lives without me paying for equipment that he needs to do that.”

Nathan’s brother? The eyelashes made sense now.

“He never likes to get his hands dirty,” Beau said, clearly not ever having seen his brother in action in the boardroom. “He just likes to stand back and write cheques. Are you unlucky enough to work with this guy?”

I shook my head. “I’m a journalist writing a profile on your brother.”

Beau’s eyes widened. “Really? Funny, Nathan never mentioned that.” He playfully punched Nathan on the arm. “You just love the attention.”

“I think you’ve mistaken me for Jacob,” Nathan replied.

“Speaking of,” Beau said. “Mum was asking whether you’re going to Norfolk next weekend.”

Nathan shrugged. “Hopefully. I have a few things going on at the moment.”

“If you make it up, I think we’ll be a full house. It will be the first time we’ve all been together since Christmas.”

Nathan nodded. “That would be good. I’ll try. Even if it’s just for Saturday night.”

“Do you have more brothers and sisters?” I asked. Nathan and I hadn’t really discussed his family. In fact, thinking back on our conversations, he had an uncanny ability to not talk about his family.

“There are five of us brothers,” Beau replied.

Crap. I guessed that’s why the rest of us ended up with stumpy eyelashes. The gaggle of Cove kids took all the good genes. “You close?” I asked, thinking I’d love to chat with his brothers and get the familial perspective on Nathan. It might be just the story I was looking for—how such an overachiever interacted with his family. Did success like Nathan’s alienate him from his siblings? Did his values around the jobs he was protecting and the pensions he was growing come from his family? If I was looking to discover what made Nathan tick, there was no better place to start than with the people who’d known him since the very beginning.