Hayley span in her seat as the car veered out on the road. Hayley clutched at her camera case. Who could be shooting a rifle in a place like this? They were surrounded by other vehicles! And they had Katy in the car!
Ethan swore under his breath and turned suddenly.
‘Katy, you okay?’ he asked.
Hayley turned to check, too. Katy had her headphones in. She did not seem to have heard the shot, but she had felt the sudden veering of the car. In response, she had dropped her game console to the floor and was clinging onto the side of her booster seat. Her face was white, her mouth a wide, dry line.
There was another shot.
‘Wind your window down,’ Ethan instructed.
Hayley gazed at him until he felt her confusion. Right now, that window was the only thing between her and the outside world that suddenly seemed very dangerous.
‘A bullet will get through anyway,’ he said. ‘We don’t also want to have to deal with broken glass.’
There was another shot. With her window down, this time Hayley could hear that it was accompanied by the sound of yelling. Someone, somewhere, was being told off, very emphatically.
Ethan smiled grimly.
‘What do you think is going on?’ Hayley asked.
‘One of Tomasi’s men got a bit trigger happy,’ Ethan said. ‘We’re going to be okay, Katy. That will be an end to it.’
There was another gunshot as he spoke, but this one was dim and distant.
‘Tomasi won’t want the car in danger while we’ve got you, Katy,’ Ethan continued. ‘He’ll be furious at whoever started that.’
Then he looked at Hayley. ‘That will be the random shooter sorted.’
‘You mean…’ Hayley asked, barely able to believe that someone had been murdered some place that was close enough for them to hear it.
Ethan nodded grimly.
‘You know, there’s something I don’t understand,’ Hayley said. ‘Ivan was working with Tomasi, right?’
‘He must have been. There’s no other explanation.’
‘But he already had Katy. Why did he send us down to Naples?’
‘Because he wanted to keep Katy,’ Ethan said. ‘He knows I’d never let that happen.’ They were on a straight stretch of road. He turned to her for a moment. ‘I never would let it happen, Hayley. That’s just one more reason for Tomasi to want me dead.’
‘I still don’t understand what Ivan had to do with it.’
‘He was to be the assassin. Tomasi would be far away and have a watertight alibi.’
‘But why not keep Katy with him?’
‘We weren’t meant to find her at that house,’ Ethan said. ‘Though I’m certain that we were meant to find her somewhere. She was the bait in the trap.’
‘She could have seen you being killed. I can’t believe that her uncle would want her to witness something as terrible as that.’
‘That’s because you can’t understand the way his mind works. Of course you can’t. Alvaro Tomasi is a wicked and evil man. But maybe the rest of his family will be different.’
‘They were willing to use us as pawns.’
‘I know. It’s not promising. But there’s still a chance.’
‘What sort of chance?’
‘We’ll, we don’t know for sure that Primo Tomasi actually wants us dead.’
‘It sure feels like that’s what he wants.’
‘I’m not pretending he cares,’ Ethan agreed. ‘I’m just saying… I’m not sure he actually wants us dead. That might just be Alvaro. But I’m sure Primo wants Alvaro dead.’
‘That’s our chance, then. If we defeat Alvaro, Primo could think we’ve done him a favour.’
‘It’s a chance.’
‘There is no possible peace to make with Alvaro?’
‘He wants Katy. He wants to bring her up in the ways of the Tomasi family. I can never let that happen.’
Hayley nodded. ‘I know. He was happy for Katy to see you being killed!’
‘I believe so. Yes.’
‘But she would hate him for it.’
‘She would never even blame him for it, Hayley. She’s very young, and he wasn’t there. If she ever discovered the truth, by then she would have been thoroughly part of his family and would understand.’
Hayley looked over her shoulder at Katy, who was asleep in the back seat. She found herself shivering at the idea that someone would want to corrupt the little girl’s innocence.
‘I can hardly believe it,’ she said.
Ethan shook his head. ‘I can understand that,’ he said. ‘But you have to believe it, Hayley. It’s the only explanation that makes sense.’
The rest of the trip home proceeded in silence. Ethan drove them into his garage and carried Katy out of the car.
Katy was asleep and he carried her into the house and up towards the bedroom that had been waiting for her. Hayley followed.
As Katy’s head was laid on her pillow she looked up at the two of them and smiled.
‘We’re home safely, Daddy?’ she asked.
Ethan brushed his lips against the little girl’s head. ‘We’re perfectly safe,’ he said. ‘This place is a vault. I promise.’
Closing the door behind him, he turned to Hayley. ‘She loves having a woman around. I’m going to go tidy up,’ he said. ‘Shall I walk you to your room or…’
She smiled at him. ‘I remember where it is.’
Just one floor up. Ethan nodded at her and walked away.
Hayley found the room untouched since she last left it. The towel she had used on that first night was still hanging crookedly over the rail, the bathrobe she had been wearing still messily draped over the side of the bed. She had been through so much over the past couple of days that these simple details seemed somehow surprising.
She stood at the window and looked out again at the Tuscan countryside through which she had walked on her way to Ethan’s. She loved the area here. It was the kind of place where anyone would love to make a home. Where she would love to live herself, if there were any way of earning a living here. Perhaps as a photographer she needed the sort of wealthy patron that Renaissance painters had found?
She had to stop fantasising. This was reality. Her time here was limited. Once again, she thought of her first arrival here. On that day, she had thought she was in for a simple game of pretence. She had wondered if she would be brave enough to see it through.
How hard it was to realise that was just four days ago! It could have been another lifetime. Since then, Hayley’s life had been threatened, she had been forced to run from mortal danger, she had been lied to and trapped by an evil man, and she had helped rescue a child from his clutches. And she had come to know and be intrigued by Ethan MacDonald; she had fallen in love.
She had what? She just meant she loved the way that he loved Katy. Didn’t she?
Didn’t she?
Hayley touched her fingers against her throat, shocked at the direction her own thoughts had turned. She was cynical Hayley Wolfe, the wedding photographer who had sworn that she would never have a wedding herself. Ethan MacDonald was a man who might never be able to come home, a man who had a daughter that deserved someone so much better than her, that deserved someone who would know how to be a mother.
And what else? How much worse could this be? Had she been careless with Ethan’s emotions as well as her own? Had she allowed him to fall in love with her, despite knowing that she could never be a part of his life?
Hayley thought back through all of their encounters, trying to work out if she had been sufficiently honest about her attitude towards relationships. She was sure she had. She was sure that every time their conversations had veered near the emotional, she had made her own beliefs very, very clear. She had never married and never would. She could never be a mother because she could not risk inflicting herself on anyone else. She could not bear to be hurt the way her own mother had hurt her.
She couldn’t be a mother now, she couldn’t be a mother tomorrow, she could never be a mother.
But what was Hayley to make of Katy? Now she was being honest with herself about her feelings for Ethan, what was she to make of her reaction to his daughter? She remembered everything about the little girl in exquisite detail. Mostly, she thought of the way that Katy’s hand had slid so easily into hers, the knowing way she had asked Hayley about being Daddy’s girlfriend, the way Katy had looked at her games console photos and remarked, so casually, that they looked like a family.
Of course Katy would think like that. There could be nothing in the world that she would want more than a family. Hayley knew this painful truth so well! It was exactly the way she had felt when she had been a motherless child.
In that awful moment, Hayley realised that in staying here she wasn’t only risking her own heart and Ethan’s, but Katy’s too. She had to leave. She had no choice. It didn’t matter that she was safe from Tomasi here, now that she knew that Ethan and his precious child were physically safe, for the time being, she had to get out of here.
Yes, she would be risking her own safety. But danger was something she had to face sooner or later anyway. It was the result of her own silly decision to go along with Tomasi’s plan for her photographs. In her heart of hearts, Hayley realised she had always known Tomasi was being dishonest with her, even when he’d been backtracking from his first dishonesty. It had been his offer of money that made the scheme so tempting.
Oh, she had learned a hard lesson. Her father might have needed money desperately, but he loved her and needed her more, and would hate to know she was in trouble. He would never have consented to this himself. Her safety would always be his primary concern, just as Katy’s safety meant everything to Ethan. Because that was what fathers were like.
What Hayley needed now was to make sure that Katy was never hurt again. She needed to get out of here.
***
The new mobile phone buzzed in his pocket as he closed Katy’s door and began, wearily, to head downstairs. There was only one person he had given this new number to. Ethan’s mood lifted instantly.
‘Ryan?’ he said, pressing the green button.
‘Ethan, it’s Pearl,’ his sister said, instead. Her voice had the flat tone he recognised as the calmness she tended to sink into after she had been hysterical.
‘Ah,’ said Ethan.
It was wrong of him to wish that Pearl wasn’t calling now. He had promised he would always be available to her. He was her only family.
‘I pressed call-back,’ Pearl explained. ‘You said to let you know when I got to your place. Well, I’m here. Is there someone who can let me in?’
‘You made it already?’ asked Ethan sceptically. He and Hayley had made the journey very quickly because he sped most of the way with only a couple of very short stops.
‘I was half way here when I called you,’ Pearl explained.
‘How were you travelling?’
‘Is this going to be some kind of an inquisition? I need somewhere to sleep, Ethan, while I detox. Clinics aren’t any good for me. I want to be in the villa. I love that place. I remember being there when I was a child.’
‘How were you travelling?’ Ethan repeated.
If Pearl was evasive one more time, he would have to conclude she had some reason for not wanting to tell him the truth and disconnect. Could his sister have brought trouble with her, again? She had obviously been involved in the Tomasi and Vasilovich plot. Although she had helped Ethan in the end, she could have let him know far earlier what was going on. She had probably been too stoned to realise what Tomasi planned. At least Katy’s presence had changed that. He desperately hoped that Pearl wasn’t bringing more trouble now.
‘I don’t want to tell you,’ Pearl said.
She was his sister; they had been together through most of their childhood. Perhaps she almost could read his mind. Ethan decided to give her a moment or two to explain, after all, before disconnecting.
‘It’s embarrassing,’ she said at last.
‘Does it have anything to do with Alvaro Tomasi?’
‘Ethan! Of course not. I know better than to make the same mistake twice. And I said it was embarrassing. Not stupid. Not bloody evil.’
‘So how did you get here?’
‘I hitched a lift with a truck driver.’
She must have heard his rapid intake of breath.
‘No,’ she said. ‘He didn’t try to molest me. Not every man is an animal. Did you say “here”? Are you inside the villa? Let me in!’
Ethan walked towards the front door.
‘I’m coming outside. I’m going to pat you down,’ he said. ‘I swear, Pearl, if you’re bugged —’
‘Hurry up! I’m suffering out here. I need to lie down, I need water—’
He swung the door open. Pearl stood there before him. She was thinner than ever and seemed to have lost weight even in the past two days. Her hair was stuck to her head and apparently hadn’t been washed. He remembered that she had been wearing a scarf over it when they first saw her in Naples. Back then, she must have been coming down from a drug-induced high. She would have been suffering for a few days by now.
She fell into his arms. Through her thin dress, he could tell that there were no wires. No one shot at him, as he had feared, when he opened the door.
He pulled her through and locked it behind him again.
‘I’ve stopped with the drugs,’ Pearl said. ‘This time, I absolutely swear. When I realised that Katy was in danger because of what I had done, I knew I’d never forgive myself. It’s time for me to grow up.’
She fell into his arms again and slipped halfway to the floor. There were footsteps behind him as well and Ethan turned to see Hayley coming down the stairs. She was holding her bag, and looking very determined, until she saw the brother and sister in the foyer before her.
‘Let me help you!’ Hayley cried, running towards them and looping one of Pearl’s flaccid arms around her shoulder.
Ethan realised that, although small, Hayley was very strong. She seemed to take half his sister’s weight as, together, they guided the nearly-unconscious woman into his sitting room.
They laid her out on one of the sofas, and Ethan retrieved a wool throw from one of the cupboards, draping it softly over her.
‘She should be in bed,’ he said.
Hayley nodded. ‘But she does look comfortable there,’ she said. ‘Perhaps she can rest here for a few minutes. Gather some strength.’
‘Will you look after her for a while?’ Ethan asked, standing. ‘I have to make a phone call.’
His boss still hadn’t returned the call he had made from his new mobile phone. But if Ethan called from his home phone, surely the caller ID that would show up at Ryan’s end would register with Ryan as something important? He recalled something David, his partner, once suggested. That Ryan was somewhat jealous of the way the company had not just continued along but actually prospered under Ethan’s leadership.
This time, Ryan answered the phone first ring. ‘Yes?’ he said.
‘Ethan MacDonald here. I’ve been waiting for your call.’
‘Waiting?’ repeated Ryan, obviously confused. ‘I have no message of a call from you.’
‘I made it from a new mobile phone,’ Ethan said, and waited while his boss explained, once again, the importance of keeping their mobile phones for business purposes.
‘It was an emergency,’ Ethan began.
‘You still haven’t worked out the business with Alvaro Tomasi?’ Ryan guessed.
Ethan sighed. He knew his boss wanted him back at work as soon as possible. The truth was that Ryan had been very generous in letting him have so much time off, even if unpaid — Ethan didn’t need the money, fortunately — and in holding his job open until he came back.
‘Things have taken a bit of a bad turn, actually,’ Ethan said, and briefly explained what had been going on over the past few days.
Ryan made a couple of shocked sounds on the other end of the line.
‘Is there anything I can do to help?’ he asked, when Ethan got to the end of his story.
‘That’s why I called,’ Ethan began. ‘Thing is, we’re more or less surrounded at the moment.’
‘State of siege,’ Ryan surmised.
‘Yes, I suppose it is a siege. I’ve checked my cameras and had a look at all the roads in and out. Tomasi has blocked everything.’
‘He’s an expert at this sort of thing.’ Ryan seemed thoughtful. ‘Any chance you can just wait it out? Tomasi will have other things he has to do eventually. An open attack seems unlikely.’
‘But it’s possible. And I can’t risk it. Katy is with me,’ Ethan said.
Ryan let out a long, low breath. He must understand now why the situation had become so critical.
‘I think I’m safe here for a little while,’ Ethan said. ‘But, now that Tomasi is sure about where she is, that safety isn’t going to last.’
‘In a couple of days you’ll need food,’ Ryan said.
‘Exactly. Also, my sister is here. Remember I told you Tomasi had her hooked on drugs? She’s trying to dry out. I have to help her. But she’s got an uphill battle ahead.’
‘You can’t book her into rehab?’
‘Not this time. Not until Tomasi is out of the way.’
‘What will you do instead?’
‘I’ll have to hire a private nurse.’
‘Have a stranger in the villa, you mean?’
‘That’s just it.’ Ethan banged his fist against the wall in frustration. ‘There’s no one I can trust. The Tomasis have spies everywhere. And I don’t know who’s on Alvaro’s side.
‘I think I can see where this is going. You want me to send a helicopter, get you out of there?’
‘Exactly!’
It was a big ask. The company they worked for had access to several types of aircraft, most often used for transferring important clients around various parts of the American east coast — not Italy. But Ethan knew that if anyone could arrange this, it was Ryan.
‘Give me twenty four hours, I’ll have everyone onto it,’ Ryan said.
Ethan breathed a sigh of relief. It was clear that Pearl would need attention during that time. But as long as Hayley was around, Ethan would have the help he needed with Katy. The two of them were getting on like a house on fire.
A house on fire.
He recalled the expression that Ryan had used a few moments ago. They were living in a state of siege. Ethan wished the image of a house on fire had never occurred to him.
The most important thing, he realised now, was making sure that none of Tomasi’s men got close enough to the house to be able to burn them out. More than ever, he was glad that Hayley was with him. He could look after her here, until Alvaro was gone. And if he really was losing the support of the rest of the Tomasis, then maybe it was just one crazed man and his paid henchmen they had to get rid of. Ethan had enough experience with criminals to know that, unlike family members, guards and hired hitmen that Alvaro had to pay would lose interest as soon as Alvaro was dead and the cheques stopped coming.
‘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.
***
Katy was a light, beautiful, safe weight in his arms.
‘Daddy?’ the little girl said as her eyes slid open. ‘What’s that noise?’
He pressed a button in the wall, near the enclave where he had hidden one of his rifles, and pushed open the door to the roof. ‘It’s a helicopter,’ he said. ‘Isn’t that exciting?’
‘A real one?’ asked Katy. ‘I’m not allowed to play on the roof. It’s dangerous.’
Ethan smiled down at her, hoping the expression was comforting and reassuring.
‘You’ll be safe, I promise,’ he said. ‘Guess what?’
‘What?’ shouted Katy, turning in direction of the noise.
Her hair was blown back from her face and her little arms tightened their grip around his shoulders.
‘We’re going for a ride!’
The helicopter landed on the flattened section of roof that he had built for just this purpose. Ethan ran towards it as the side glass door slid open.
His plan was to strap Katy into her seat and then go down to call for Hayley and carry Pearl.
‘Ethan! Ethan!’ he heard, calling behind him.
He turned to look. It was Hayley.
Why was she calling him like that? She sounded worried and scared. She shouldn’t be — by now, she knew him well enough to realise that he wouldn’t abandon her here.
Her hand was raised. The ‘stop’ gesture? Ethan turned and took a couple more steps. There were two men in the helicopter, both in helmets and dark clothing.
‘Ethan!’ Hayley screamed.
Why was she doing that? He had to know he wouldn’t leave Pearl, either, that he had plans to return for them.
Her voice was so urgent. It had to mean something. Ethan paused, looking forward. The second man in the helicopter, the one in the seat behind the pilot, was standing, was raising something in his arms.
A rifle?
‘David didn’t send a helicopter!’ Hayley screamed, running closer as the man took aim.
‘Down!’ Ethan turned, yelling. In a flash he understood the situation. But he didn’t have time to worry about betrayal now. That sickening fact could wait until later. Right now they were all in the most terrible danger they had faced since this all began.
He knew Hayley had to be the target. Tomasi wouldn’t risk firing at him while he was carrying Katy.
Thank God Katy had been asleep when Ethan reached her! She might have run out here on her own otherwise, and Ethan without her would have been an easy target. Alvaro Tomasi wouldn’t blink at shooting a man while his daughter was watching. Not even if that daughter was Katy. He would think that his own bloody power over life and death was a lesson the little girl needed to know.
Hayley opened her eyes wide with terror and sank.
Ethan turned and ran. It was more than his own life at stake. It was Hayley’s, it was Katy’s. He had never run so quickly.
He was back behind the door while Hayley was still climbing to her feet and inching towards them. He dropped Katy to her feet.
‘Run downstairs,’ he said. ‘Go to that secret room I showed you behind the kitchen. And don’t let anyone in.’
‘Not even you?’
‘I have a key.’
If Tomasi shot him then Katy would lose her only protector. Hayley was out there, was stumbling to her feet. He had to stay up here, keep the strong door open for her, then slam it before anyone could get out of the helicopter.
‘Run!’ he yelled as, behind Hayley, he saw the shadowy man rise to his feet and take aim.
Hayley had just reached her feet when the shot rang out. There was a red bloom on her shoulder, already spreading rapidly as she sank to the roof.
Then the helicopter door opened wider and the helmeted man ran out. His rifle was still pointed in Hayley’s direction and, beyond her, to Ethan.
He had no choice. Hayley was on her own, collapsed onto the roof out there. She had risked herself to save him and Katy. Her self-sacrifice was staggering. She was nothing like the adventure-hunter he had once accused her of being. He had learned that she took risks because she needed to, because she cared so much for people. In the brief moment that it took for him to assess the situation, he watched one of her legs move slightly, he watched as the fingers of one of her hands scratched ineffectively at the ground, as though she were trying to get up.
She couldn’t, of course. It was desperately obvious that Hayley would never move again unless someone helped her. Unless someone helped her now.
Perhaps she was dying. Certainly, she could do nothing to save herself.
Perhaps he had always known that it would come to this. With a quick glance behind to make sure Katy had not stayed up here, was not watching, he reached for his own gun, took aim, and fired.