The Virgin's Debt to Pay
Luc moved away to the window.
Nessa turned away to hide the tears blurring her vision to hear her brother’s familiar voice. ‘Paddy, where are you? What’s going on?’
Her brother sounded happy. ‘Ness, it’s all been cleared up. Well, not the money, I’ll still owe Mr Barbier but he knows now it wasn’t my fault. He’s agreed to give me my job back and I’ll start paying him back out of my wages every month. I’m going to do a course in cyber security too so we can prevent this happening again. He told me you’re riding for him in a big race tomorrow—that’s fantastic news, Ness! Look, I’ve got to run. I’m catching a flight home tonight. I’ll call you when I get back and tell you everything. Love you, Ness.’
And the phone connection went dead. It was all over, just like that.
She looked at the phone for a long moment trying to gather herself and when she felt a bit more composed she turned around. Luc was standing in front of his window, arms folded. Nessa put the phone receiver back in the cradle.
She forced herself to meet his gaze. ‘Can you tell me what’s going on?’
He was still grim. ‘It was Gio Corretti who realised what was happening, because it happened to him with another horse. Someone had hacked into his computer system so they could impersonate Gio’s stud manager. They would then say something about a slight change in bank account details and the buyer would send the money to the hacker’s account. That’s what happened to Paddy. He’d suspected something, but by the time he’d figured out what had happened the money was gone and couldn’t be traced. Then he panicked.’
Luc continued, ‘Shortly after speaking to Gio Corretti, my security firm tracked Paddy down to the United States. He was staying with your twin brother.’
Nessa flushed with guilt.
Luc continued, ‘I got in touch with Paddy to let him know he could come back. I told him never to do such a foolhardy thing like running away from a problem again.’
Nessa could feel Luc’s barely leashed anger and almost felt sorry for her brother.
Luc unfolded his arms then and ran a hand through his hair. Nessa realised it was messier than usual and he looked tired. Stubble lined his jaw. She felt a spurt of pain when she wondered if he’d already taken a replacement into his bed. Someone whose novelty wouldn’t wear off so quickly. Someone who knew the rules. Someone who didn’t want the fairy tale.
He put his hands on his hips and looked at her. ‘Obviously you’re now free to go. I’d like you to run the race tomorrow on Sur La Mer but if you’d prefer not to, I will accept that. It’s only fair. You have no obligation to me any more.’
Nessa blinked. She hadn’t considered that. She felt a little panicky. ‘But what about Paddy’s debt? He said he still has to pay that back.’
‘I told him the debt would be forgiven but he’s insisting on paying it back for having been lax enough to be taken in by the hackers. Nothing I said would make him change his mind.’
Nessa’s heart squeezed. Luc had been prepared to let the debt go. One million euros.
She made a decision, even though a part of her wanted nothing more than to turn around and walk away right now and go somewhere private where she could lick her wounds and try to get on with her life. She had to be professional about this and the race tomorrow was a huge opportunity for her.
‘I’ll run the race tomorrow. But if I win, or place, and there’s any prize money I’d still like it to go towards the debt.’
‘You wouldn’t take it for yourself?’
Nessa shook her head. ‘No. I don’t want anything. I don’t need anything from you. Are we done here?’
Every bone in Nessa’s body ached with the need to be closer to this man. Have him touch her. It was agony.
Eventually Luc said, ‘Yes, we’re done.’
Nessa turned and walked to the door, but at the last second he called her name. For a heart-stopping moment she thought she’d heard some inflection in his voice and she couldn’t control the surge of hope.
But when she turned around he was expressionless. He said, ‘Wherever you go, or whatever you want to do in the future, you’ll have my endorsement. I would retain you as a jockey at my stables here or in Ireland but I don’t think you would welcome working for me.’
The thought of working alongside Luc Barbier every da
y for years to come, and seeing him lead his life as the lone wolf that he was, taking and discarding women as he went, was unthinkable. And it just drove home how unaffected by her he was.
She lifted her chin. ‘Frankly, after tomorrow, Luc, I hope I never see you again.’
* * *
The following day before the race, Nessa was sick with nerves. Literally. Her breakfast had just ended up in the toilet bowl of the ladies’ changing room at the racetrack. She cursed Luc Barbier as the source of all her ills and forced herself to just concentrate on getting through the race in one piece.
She’d booked herself on a flight back to Dublin later that night. Soon this would all be behind her.