Trusting a Stranger (21 page)

‘Call David too, will you?' Ethan asked Ryan now. Although they hadn't worked together since Ethan had fled to the family villa with Katy, David had been Ethan's partner for a long time. ‘Let him know what's going on. He might be able to help and he'll want to be involved.'

‘I'll get him on the helicopter order too,' Ryan promised. ‘There's no one that will work harder for you than David.'

‘I don't know who I would turn to without you guys,' Ethan said. The truth of this sentiment made him choke.

‘I'll do for you what you would do for me,' Ryan said, as he rang off.

When Ethan turned, Hayley was standing in the doorway. Once again, she was holding the bag she had put down to help him move Pearl into the sitting room.

‘I need to go,' she said.

Ethan closed his eyes.

‘Haven't we already talked about this?' he asked. ‘You can't leave now. Once you're out in the open you'll be an easy target.'

‘You could convince me to do anything,' Hayley said. ‘That's why I don't want to stand here talking about it. You and Katy are safe here. Perhaps I can distract Alvaro Tomasi if I leave.'

‘It won't work like that. Tomasi knows who he wants more. He agrees with that old maxim that revenge is a dish best served cold. He will wait to flush us out of here. And then you will be looking out for him the rest of your life.'

‘Won't that be true whether or not I stay here for the time being?' asked Hayley.

She looked beautiful, and vulnerable and scared, standing there, leaning into the door frame the way she was. Her blonde hair seemed to melt into the timber. The house itself seemed to sense that she belonged here.

Ethan realised in that moment how much he would miss her. That this had gone far beyond wanting to keep her safe because she was innocent. That he needed her here because in just these few emotion-packed days, she had become part of his life, part of his family.

‘It really is time for me to leave,' Hayley said into the silence of his heart breaking.

‘Will you stay if it will make things easier for me and Katy?'

It was Ethan's last and strongest card. He might have once been able to get her to stay by offering to pay for her father's care, but that had already been taken care of. He had paid for three months of her father's accommodation and she knew that. The place where the old man lived wouldn't accept any more money in advance. Short of locking Hayley in her room, there was nothing he could do to make her stay apart from offering himself, offering Katy.

‘That's just it,' Hayley said.

She put her bag down and stepped into the room, one hand outstretched.

Could she be expecting him to shake her hand? Surely not. They were lovers. That meant something.

Oh dear god, he was not in the sort of place where he could deal with this now, on top of everything else. He needed to concentrate on getting Katy out of here, not on worrying about whether the woman he loved was going to leave.

He had to convince her how much Katy's welfare depended upon her staying here with them. Because he believed that himself.

‘I'm worried about Katy's emotions as well,' Hayley was saying. ‘She's getting very fond of me, Ethan.'

‘You're fond of her too?'

‘Of course I am. She's a great kid. But she's been through enough, Ethan. And the longer I stay, the more she will be hurt when I have to leave.'

The time wasn't right to ask her if she could reconsider ever leaving.

‘I need you here,' he said, simply. ‘Pearl is going to need care. The house needs guarding. Katy needs attention. It is too much for one person to deal with on his own.'

Hayley thought about this, frowning.

‘But how long is this going to go on for?' she demanded.

‘A couple of days at most,' Ethan said. ‘Will you stay that long?'

‘What will change in a couple of days?' Hayley asked. ‘The way I see it, that is just a little more hurt that Katy might feel.'

He didn't believe that. He knew that Katy was becoming very close to Hayley, but there had to be some chance for him to convince Hayley to stay longer.

‘I'll look after Katy and Pearl,' he said. ‘You look after the security.'

It was not a natural division of labour. He knew far more about the security systems than she did. But he would be on hand to help and Hayley had proven that she was adaptable and completely trustworthy.

She was still frowning. ‘But in a couple of days time we will just have to go through this again,' she said. ‘It's going to take Pearl longer than that to start to get better.'

‘We really will all be getting out of here soon,' Ethan told her. ‘I've spoken to my boss and he's arranging a helicopter. We'll be able to get to it from the roof.'

Hayley considered that. ‘It will be safer for me to leave in a helicopter than to walk away now,' she mused.

‘Exactly,' Ethan agreed.

***

Pearl's condition was terrible and soon became even worse. Ethan was soon so busy attending to her and trying to keep Katy at once entertained and separate from the suffering of her aunt that he barely saw Hayley. It was as though she became a shadow, moving down the hall towards the computer system that centralised his CCTV cameras and moving to the various windows that gave her visual confirmation of what was going on outside.

She was a clever girl, he realised, and aware that any computerised system had the ability to be compromised. It was only the evidence of your own eyes that you could trust without fail.

After Ethan managed to ease Katy into sleep, he carried Pearl to one of the first floor bedrooms as far from the little girl as possible. Pearl's moans of pain and distress were just about too much for him to bear. He wished he had some sort of sedative to give her to get through the worst part of her withdrawal, but when he suggested it to her, Pearl shook her head as emphatically as she could manage.

‘I need to get out of this on my own,' she said. ‘That's the only way I will really believe that I can stay clean.'

A moment later she was back to her hysterical raving, demanding more of the drugs that were gradually killing her and calling Ethan every name under the sun for failing to provide them.

‘I can't survive this,' she wailed. ‘I'll kill myself if you don't help.'

The next time that she was quiet, he removed from the room anything that Pearl could possibly use to harm herself. The mirror that had been hung on the wall, all the furniture save the bed, even the curtains, all these things went.

He left her with the bare essentials: Water in a plastic cup and a fresh supply of the same from a plastic jug, Her bed and its thick warm blankets — no sheets. He had read once of a man who hanged himself with a sheet.

It was one more reason to be glad that he had bars put in the windows. At least Pearl could not hurl herself out.

Next, Ethan pulled a mattress from one of the other rooms and set it up at her doorway. From here, he would hear if Katy needed him a few doors away, and he would be woken if Pearl tried to leave her room.

It would be a light sleep but he needed it. In the morning, Ryan would have news about the helicopter he had arranged. And, comforted by that thought, eventually Ethan's eyes did drift shut.

***

Hayley woke every hour during the night to repeat her check of the grounds. It was a dark evening and she was well aware that the cover of darkness had been used for surprise ambushes forever. She could sleep for years once this was all over, she told herself.

When the sky finally started to lighten in the east, she was standing at one of the villa's uppermost windows, elbows resting on the sill, chin in her hands. How beautiful everything was out there. It was a similar view to the one that had enchanted her the first night she had stayed here, the one that seemed more like a year ago than a few days.

It was so static and peaceful with the sun slowly warming it. The same view must have greeted women gazing through the villa windows for centuries. In the distance, the Roman theatre ruins glowed in the morning sunlight. Could the plays that had once been performed there be any more dramatic than her own life?

It seemed impossible to believe that Tomasi was out there, waiting, amassing who knew how many people to come in here and take Katy. He was mad with his plan. If he made it in here, then Hayley knew that neither she nor Ethan could survive.

‘All is quiet?' Ethan asked, behind her.

Hayley turned. There he was, in jeans and a crumpled t-shirt. His hair was all messed up. He looked boyish and young and tired.

‘Quiet,' she agreed, turning back to the window.

She couldn't afford to think about him like this.

‘How is Pearl?' she asked.

‘I think she might be asleep. Did you hear her much during the night?'

‘A few times. She sounded very ill.'

‘She is.'

‘You have to admire her for this.'

‘I do.'

‘I wish I had a sister!'

Hayley surprised even herself with the suddenness of this outburst. Her face was wet. What was that? A tear? It couldn't be.

Angrily, she stabbed at her cheek with her finger and wiped the evidence away before Ethan could see it.

‘Family makes you vulnerable,' Ethan reminded her, softly.

Perhaps he wanted to make her question her assumption that she was better off on her own. Hayley wasn't going to have that, because she didn't believe it. If there was one thing that this crazy business with Tomasi had convinced her of, it was that everyone was safer on their own, without commitments. Safer physically, it seemed, as well as emotionally.

‘Have you heard yet from Ryan?' asked Hayley. ‘About the helicopter?'

Ethan shook his head. ‘I'm going to go call him now,' he said. ‘I've made coffee. Katy and Pearl are both sleeping. Do you want to come have a cup with me?'

She was panting for caffeine, Hayley realised now. In her own way, perhaps she was as much of an addict as Pearl. At least her own withdrawal had meant just this vague and mild headache, not the violent illness that Pearl was experiencing.

She followed Ethan back downstairs and to his study, and poured coffee from the espresso machine he had down there while he dialled the numbers for his phone call.

He took a sip while waiting for an answer. Then another sip, and frowned.

Hayley wondered what could be wrong. Why wasn't Ethan's boss answering the call? Ryan had to know that this was Ethan, and what it was about. Anyone would understand the urgency.

‘I'll call David instead,' Ethan said, and dialled a new number.

There was a strange noise then. Footsteps, it could be, or the sound of furniture being moved in the floor above. Instinctively, Hayley looked upwards.

Pearl?

‘Can you ask him what's going on?' Ethan asked, passing Hayley the telephone as he sprinted out the door.

Hayley looked doubtfully down at the phone. Its screen said ‘David' so she knew who she was about to speak to. But she also knew that this David would expect Ethan and would have no idea at all who she was.

‘Hello?' said a deep male voice at the end of the line. ‘Ethan?'

‘Sorry, I'm not Ethan,' Hayley explained, running her fingers through her hair. Ethan trusted her, she reminded herself. If he asked her to do something, then she had learned he had a good reason for it. She could trust herself, too.

‘You're on his phone. What is this?' the man sounded instantly suspicious.

‘My name is Hayley Wolfe. I'm a friend of Ethan's.'

‘He's never mentioned you. What are you doing on his telephone?'

‘I'm at his place. He was here a moment ago. He's gone to check a noise,' Hayley explained quickly. ‘He asked me to ask you how the helicopter is coming along?'

‘What? This isn't a joke, is it? Is Ethan there? I insist you put him on.'

Hayley frowned. She had been certain that once she mentioned the helicopter, David would realise she was in Ethan's confidence and could be trusted.

‘Ryan was asking you to arrange the helicopter,' she said, for clarity. ‘Ethan will be back in a minute. I suppose I can understand that it's hard to know who to trust.'

David said something else but she didn't hear it. She had moved the receiver from her ears. The noise that had caused Ethan to run from the room was getting louder.

It sounded like blades cutting through the air. It was the helicopter, it had to be. And it was getting closer.

‘I can hear the helicopter now,' she said. ‘I have to go help with Pearl and Katy. Ethan will —'

‘Wait!' David yelled.

Hayley had been about to hit the disconnect button. Instead, she paused for a moment.

‘What is it?'

‘Ryan did not ask me to arrange a helicopter,' David said.

Hayley thought about that. Something around her heart seemed to tighten and sink. She remembered what Ethan had said about trusting his boss.

‘Perhaps Ryan was able to organise it himself,' she said eventually.

‘No!' David yelled. ‘Wait there a second. Listen to me. I spoke to Ryan this morning. I asked him how Ethan was and he said he hasn't heard from him in a while and things must be just as they were before. Ryan created a successful company but Ethan leads it better. Don't you see, whoever you are? If there's a helicopter coming it has nothing to do with —'

Hayley dropped the receiver with a yell and she dashed from the room, sprinting for the stairs.

Katy's bedroom was empty. Ethan must have realised the helicopter was coming and picked her up on his way towards the roof.

He was about to hand his sleeping daughter into the hands of his enemy.

‘Ethan!' Hayley screamed as she continued to run. ‘Ethan!'

But the helicopter blades were very close now. Very noisy. She knew that there was no possible way he could hear her.