Trusting a Stranger

by Kimberley Brown

  Ethan shook his head. ‘It’s startling,’ he agreed.

  ‘She obviously isn’t well in the second DVD.’

  ‘She isn’t,’ Ethan said. ‘You aren’t rude, it’s true. That change was what I wanted to show you.’

  ‘This has something to do with Alvaro Tomasi?’

  Ethan paused the image again. Now Pearl’s eyes were gazing towards them, wide and dark and mute in her wasted face.

  ‘Something to do with Alvaro Tomasi and with crack cocaine.’

  Hayley’s mouth dropped open into an expression of horror. Ethan could tell that she knew what he meant.

  ‘Pearl became an addict?’ she asked.

  ‘It wasn’t her fault. Tomasi is a very wealthy man. Perhaps if I tell you a bit more of her life story, you’ll understand more clearly,’ Ethan said.

  Hayley nodded.

  ‘Pearl was involved in a relationship with a successful lawyer. They were planning on getting married. But Tomasi wanted to show me what he was capable of.’

  ‘He made her get addicted?’ Hayley asked.

  She was still staring at the screen. Ethan moved to the side of the room. His hand was shaking as he poured himself a drink. From here it looked like Pearl was staring back at Hayley, too. He took a deep mouthful of the whisky.

  ‘How can someone do that?’ Hayley asked.

  He passed her a drink too. ‘Crack cocaine isn’t like other drugs,’ he said. ‘It’s instantly addictive. Pearl’s fiancé turned out to be addicted both to drugs and to a high-living lifestyle. Tomasi was able to find this out without too much trouble. And once he knew that, he was able to pay Pearl’s fiancé…’ His voice faded.

  Hayley was holding her glass near in her lap but she hadn’t taken a sip. Her face was turned towards Ethan, her mouth open in a horrified ‘O’.

  ‘Pay him to do what?’ she prompted.

  ‘Pay him to introduce Pearl to drugs,’ Ethan said, his eyes closed. It was a crushing story to tell, and never got any easier. ‘Once she tried the drug, it wasn’t long before her life was ruined.’

  ‘Is she still with this man?’

  Ethan shook his head. ‘The relationship fell apart too. It was bound to. Eventually Pearl discovered that her fiancé had sold her health to Tomasi. But she wasn’t able to discover how to get her health back.’

  ‘How awful.’

  ‘People aren’t always kind about it. After all, Pearl did have some complicity in taking the drugs…’

  ‘Some women will do anything for the man they love,’ Hayley said. ‘Especially if her fiancé presented it like it was no big deal. Like it was just something as harmless as a drink.’

  ‘That’s pretty much what Pearl said he said.’ Ethan sat beside Hayley on the sofa. He was impressed by Hayley’s rapid comprehension of the situation, and also by the compassion that she showed.

  ‘Is she all right now?’

  ‘I hope she is.’

  ‘You don’t know?’

  Ethan gazed down at his fingers. The truth was that this was something he felt guilty about, too. After all, just as Pearl was his only sibling, so he was hers. But she had made it very clear that she wanted to be left to her own resources. And she was an adult woman with the right to make her own choices about things like that.’

  ‘I paid for her to go to rehab. She left half way through saying she’d prefer to do the rest on her own.’

  ‘Do you think it helped?’

  ‘I don’t know. She’s been in rehab before.’

  ‘It didn’t work?’

  ‘She didn’t really want to be there. She escaped. I had to go pick her up from hospital a couple of weeks after she disappeared. She’d taken an overdose. That time, she went back into rehab. She might be making progress. I don’t know.’

  ‘How awful for her. For you too. And your parents can’t help?’

  ‘They died in a car accident when I was a teenager. It was Pearl who looked after me then. She’s three years older than me.’

  He turned away from her for a moment, frightened to let too much of his pain show. Hayley was all but a stranger. He wanted to warn her about Tomasi, but he did not necessarily want to make her see how badly affected he was by all of this.

  ‘I’ve never heard anything like it,’ Hayley said. ‘Do you think she’ll recover eventually?’

  ‘The truth is, I don’t know if she will ever be all right again.’

  He turned towards her and took her hand in his. It was only a few hours since they had met but already the gesture seemed both natural and necessary.

  ‘You can’t let yourself get any more involved with Tomasi than you already have,’ he said. ‘He is a violent and dangerous man and he has the means at his disposal to ruin your life in ways you couldn’t even imagine. What he did to Pearl wasn’t even because he was angry with her. He has no real connection to her at all. He did it as a message to me. And of course…’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Also, of course, to make sure that if anything ever happens to me, that custody of Katy won’t go to Pearl.’

  Hayley was perfectly still beside him. Even her hand was as motionless beneath his touch, as if she were asleep. What was she thinking? It was impossible to tell.

  Then suddenly she leaned towards him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, drawing him close. A hug.

  Ethan felt himself shaking slightly. He had lived on his own for long enough to forget how comforting physical contact could be. Her arms were long and light around his shoulders, her hair sweet-smelling as she leaned her head close to him.

  ‘I’m so sorry I came here today and brought all this back to you,’ she said.

  Her face was turned away from him. She would not see what he did with his mouth. He could not remember the last time he had held a woman like this. He brushed a kiss across the top of her hair before speaking.

  ‘I’m not,’ he said.

  ‘Not sorry?’ She looked up at him. Up this close, she was even lovelier. And even more vulnerable.

  He pulled away. If there was one thing his relationship with Erica had taught him, it was that relationships were fraught with danger anyway. In a way it would have been easier if he had still been able to convince himself that Hayley was somehow complicit in a Tomasi game. He would have been free to make love to her now if she was already involved with Tomasi and with the danger he represented. But he was not the sort of selfish beast who would take a woman like this and endanger her further.

  ‘I’m not sorry,’ he said, pulling away. ‘I’m glad to have met you. Glad to have had the chance to show you this.’

  Hayley looked slightly surprised, and very confused. She was clearly trying to decide whether or not she should be offended by the distance he had suddenly put between them.

  ‘You’re glad,’ she repeated.

  Yes, there was distance, but she was still too close. The expression on her face suggested imminent danger. He pulled away. He stood. He had to make himself clear.

  ‘Glad to have had the chance to warn you to keep away from the Tomasis,’ he said. ‘As far away as you can.’

  The changing expressions on her face — and her surprise at his sudden withdrawal — were heartbreaking. Ethan was angry with himself. He should not allow himself to wonder what might have happened between them if they had met under different circumstances, because the truth was there were no different circumstances under which they could have met. Hayley was here because Ethan’s enemy had sent her, and if Ethan took advantage of that, he would just be placing her in the same type of danger he already faced.

  ‘Is that all?’ she asked. ‘Those are the only reasons that you’re glad I’m here?’

  He nodded, his eyes lowered.

  Hayley stood, wrapping her arms tightly around herself. ‘Thanks for showing me, thanks for letting me stay,’ she said. ‘I might go back to my room, if you don’t mind.’

  He followed her up the stairs out of courtesy, but she was in front of him and walki
ng very quickly. He could tell that she wanted to keep her face averted from his. She reached her door and closed it against him, all without turning.

  ‘Sleep well,’ he said to the solid timber.

  There was no sound from beyond except what might have been gentle sobs. Hayley was obviously feeling this intense attraction just as much as he was. The difference was that she didn’t yet understand enough about the situation to realise how impossible it was for anything to happen between them.

  Ethan waited beside the door for a moment, fighting the urge to go in and comfort her. He could not allow himself to do that. Then he squared his shoulders and went back downstairs to check once more on the villa’s security.

  Chapter Six

  What the hell was she doing? Hayley found herself wrestling with the pillow and with her emotions long after she should have gone to sleep. In her fatigued, confused state there was no chance of her finding sleep tonight. And fatigue and confusion were not the only emotions interfering with her sleep. As much as the reality of it alarmed and confused her further, she was slightly aroused too.

  What was it about this man that made her feel so confused? Hayley was no blushing virgin; she knew about men, she had experienced relationships before. But there was no one she had ever known who had stirred her the way Ethan did. Already, it was impossible to really believe that she had known him for less than a day.

  She closed her eyes and cast her mind back to the way Ethan had looked when she first saw him. A large man, stretched out and looking lazy in the sun. Only now did she realise how much of an act that appearance of relaxation must have been. At all times as she approached and circled his house, Ethan would have been acutely aware of her. His mind would have been busily assessing who she was and what precise level of threat she presented to his home and to Katy.

  She felt a shiver run through her as she thought of the way Alvaro Tomasi had been responsible for ruining Pearl MacDonald’s life. How terrified Ethan must be! The safety of his precious daughter was at stake. He had every right to be suspicious of intruders.

  For the first time, she considered what tremendous insight he had shown — and more than that, what generosity — in realising that she, Hayley, meant him no harm. That she had come here under pretences that may have been a little dishonest but that she was not the sort of person who would allow someone like Alvaro Tomasi to dictate her behaviour. That she meant Ethan and his family no harm and never would.

  No wonder she was so moved by him! Any normal man would have used her early connection to Tomasi as a reason to hate her, would have left her shot and bleeding by the road, would not have even realised she was there. Because the truth was that Ethan had only been able to save her from being shot because he cared enough about her safety to follow her to make sure she made it safely back to Siena.

  Hayley rolled over and gazed towards the window. She had left the shutters open and now her room was dark and had a view of a sky that was countryside-rich, with a swathe of stars and, beneath them, the hills with their punctuation marks of trees black against a burnished silver sky. She realised only now that she didn’t know in which part of the house Ethan had his own bedroom. Was he looking out towards the same darkened view that greeted her eyes? Or was he, even now, still at work in his study?

  As if in answer to her mute question, somewhere in the house a telephone began to ring. Hayley turned again, now looking towards the door. Where it had been all darkness, now there was a dim line of light visible beneath. She could hear footsteps. The ringing stopped.

  The light stayed on, however. It brightened. Hayley sat up. There were footsteps again, coming towards her this time. She began to fear that on this particular night, when she probably needed a lot of rest to help her recover from the gunshot wound to her arm, she was not going to get any sleep at all.

  Then the door was thrown open. Ethan stood there dressed in nothing but a pair of jeans. He must have thrown them on hastily; the top button was not done up. From there on up, his chest was a broad, sculpted marvel. If he didn’t often leave the villa then clearly he had exercise equipment around here somewhere. This was the body of a man that worked out.

  ‘Are you awake?’ he asked.

  ‘I am now,’ Hayley replied. ‘What is it? Has something happened to Katy?’

  He nodded. ‘Get your things. We won’t be staying here after all.’

  Hayley was confused. ‘You want me to leave?’ she asked. What could have happened so suddenly to make him change his mind?

  ‘I’m leaving too,’ Ethan said. ‘That was Katy’s headmistress on the phone just now. I need to go and get her.’

  He turned and strode away as Hayley climbed out of bed and reached for her clothes. By the time she was dressed — carefully, because her injured arm seemed sorer now than it had before — and returned to the sitting room, he was standing by the window, staring out at the darkened world.

  ‘Has anything happened to her?’ asked Hayley. ‘Is she safe?’

  He turned. His eyes were darkened with emotional pain.

  ‘She’s safe enough,’ he said. ‘There’s no one who can get to her there. That’s why I chose the school. Her headmistress says she’s been having bad dreams. Terrible nightmares. That she’s been waking screaming.’

  Hayley pictured the small girl she had seen on the DVD an hour ago. Beautiful little Katy. Her mother dead, her father driven to this extreme defensive position. How the little girl must feel to be at a boarding school. How abandoned any child might feel. How much this could be intensified in the case of Katy, who had suffered such recent loss.

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  Ethan clenched the back of a nearby chair with his long fingers. Hayley watched as his knuckles turned white.

  ‘They wanted to send for a doctor,’ he said. ‘I can’t have anyone I don’t know going there. Who knows what games Tomasi might be playing?’

  ‘A doctor? For nightmares?’ What a terrible state the little girl must be in, if a boarding school headmistress, who would be used to the emotional dramas of young girls, thought she needed medical help!

  ‘I will never forgive Tomasi for putting my Katy through this,’ Ethan swore darkly.

  Into Hayley’s mind there flashed a memory of the voice that had growled at her over the telephone. For one crazy moment, she wished she could go back in time, and slam the receiver down. But then she looked across at Ethan and realised that, had she not come here, she would never have met him.

  ‘What are you going to do instead?’ she asked Ethan now.

  ‘I told the headmistress to keep her awake. I’m going to go to her now. If I can’t be sure that she’s going to be happy there, then I will have to take her away.’

  ‘Bring her here, you mean?’

  ‘I don’t know. That might be the very thing Tomasi wants to make me do. Have you got all your things?’

  ‘I do.’

  All her things just meant the handbag she had travelled with earlier, back when she had thought she would only be here a couple of hours at most and would only need her camera. Hayley picked it up and showed him.

  Ethan seemed surprised that this was all she had with her. Perhaps he too was feeling that they must have known each other a lot longer than they had. Perhaps he had forgotten that Hayley was no normal guest.

  ‘We’ll be on our way, then,’ he said. He turned as if, now that he remembered who she was and why she was here, he wanted to get her out as soon as possible.

  Hayley followed him towards the hall. Of course, he wasn’t trying to hurry her out of the house, she told herself sternly. He was anxious about Katy. That was all. And who could blame him for that?

  ‘Will you drop me in Siena on the way?’ she asked.

  Ethan shook his head. ‘I’ve paid for your time, remember?’ he said. ‘You’re coming with me. Tomasi is up to trouble tonight.’

  Hayley thought about that. ‘Wouldn’t it be easier if I wasn’t with you?’

&nbs
p; ‘I want everyone involved to stay right where I can see them.’ Ethan spoke decisively.

  They had once more reached the door to his office. Ethan pushed it open and she followed him in.

  ‘Wait here for a moment,’ he said as he stepped through a door at the end of the room. It was not exactly camouflaged, but Hayley had not noticed it before.

  She sat as instructed, thinking that she might as well; she was doing everything else he told her. What had gotten into her? It was not like Hayley to be so obedient. Normally, she liked to do her own thing and that was why being in business for herself so suited her.

  But there was something about Ethan that encouraged her to trust him and to do what he suggested. Something about the way he understood the situation, understood her. Not to mention that he had saved her life! She certainly owed him something for that.

  His computer screen was dark. So he must have been in bed when the phone rang.

  There it was. And for the second time that evening, the phone began to ring as though it were answering her.

  Who on earth would be ringing him at this time of night? Hayley looked towards the door through which Ethan had vanished. But he did not reappear.

  What should she do? The phone was still ringing. It could be something important. It could even concern Katy. In fact, it was very likely to concern Katy. There were very few other reasons imaginable for calling someone this late at night.

  As soon as she considered that, she reached for the phone herself. It was clear Ethan was not returning to this room. She might only be a guest here but if there were news of his daughter, he would certainly want to know.

  ‘Hello?’ she said into the receiver before remembering where she was. ‘I mean buongiorno.’

  ‘Who is this?’ The voice at the other end of the line was crisp and authoritative. It belonged to a woman who knew whom she was calling, and who had not expected to be answered like this.

  ‘This is Ethan McDonald’s phone,’ Hayley said smoothly.

  Immediately, she was determined to give away no more information than someone ringing this number would already know. She had only been mixed up in this business for a few hours, but already she was becoming suspicious. Who knew which people were connected to Tomasi and to people associated with him? Hayley had to be more aware of that danger than almost anyone — after all, she had been involved with the Tomasis herself. She would keep her identity here secret. She had no particular desire to let anyone know that Ethan had someone staying with him.