Trusting a Stranger (18 page)

Ethan thought about that. ‘I suppose not,' he said, at last.

‘Just until we work out what's going to happen next,' Hayley said.

His hand was warm and comforting. She wished that he would touch her some more.

‘You know I could never stay in Italy,' she said. ‘I have my father, my business back at home.'

‘And I can't get back to Australia until the Tomasis are no longer a threat,' Ethan reminded her as he began to rub her leg through the fabric of her jeans. ‘I'm stuck here in this country of crime and beauty.'

‘Even if we could be together, I don't really believe in marriage.' She strained up against his hand, and turned until her face was very close to his.

‘I certainly have no intention of exposing Katy to a woman who attracts danger they way you do,' Ethan said, as he reached behind her head and pulled her face closer. ‘Not any more than I have.'

‘I don't think you should,' Hayley agreed, as her lips tingled beneath the lightest of kisses. How many layers this man had. She hadn't known him for long but already she was wondering if he was the kind of man she could ever properly know.

For a moment she thought of asking, then she remembered the way he laughed at all her questions. The biggest question haunting both of them at the moment was what Tomasi would do next. But there were some things that were fun to try to work out on her own. Ethan MacDonald, she sensed, was one of those.

Then he pulled her close up against him and she forgot to think about anything at all.

Ethan rose early the next morning and walked back towards the centre of Naples, where he had seen some car hire places the day before.

‘Look after each other, okay?' he said to Hayley and Katy as he left them having breakfast together in the kitchen.

Katy regarded Hayley carefully over the top of her glass of milk.

‘Are you my Daddy's girlfriend?' she asked.

Hayley sputtered into her coffee. ‘I… Um…' Instinctively she felt that it would be wrong to say anything that wasn't quite true. ‘Things aren't as simple as that, honey. Perhaps it's something we can talk about later.'

‘That means you don't want to talk about it at all.'

For that sad moment, Katy seemed wise beyond her years. Perhaps that was what happened when you lost your mother too young. Hayley felt an outpouring of sympathy and understanding towards the little girl.

‘We can talk about it,' she said. ‘It's just a bit complicated and I don't really know the answer. I tell you what, do you know how to take photos?'

Katy shrugged. ‘I have a camera on my phone.'

Of course she did. But Hayley would not let her enthusiasm be diminished. She opened her bag and pulled out her camera.

Katy turned her head slightly to one side. ‘It looks like one of those olden day ones you see on TV,' she said.

‘It's a bit like those,' Hayley agreed. ‘This bit at the front is called the lens. It sticks out like that so I can zoom in on things that are a long way off.'

Katy put her cup down and came over for a closer look. As she approached, Hayley pointed the camera in her direction and took a quick snap.

Katy stopped and posed with one hand palming behind her head and her lips pouting towards the ceiling. It was obviously a pose she had seen in a fashion magazine. It was also adorable.

‘Let me see,' she demanded.

Hayley passed the camera to her. ‘Perhaps we should go into the next room,' she said.

The floors in there were carpet and she didn't want her expensive equipment being accidentally dropped on a hard tile floor.

‘I'm not going to drop it,' said Katy, as though she could read minds.

She had flipped through the two photos Hayley had taken of her and was now looking through the scenic ones that Hayley had taken through the train carriage window two days ago.

‘These are good,' she said. ‘Can I take a picture?'

‘Sure you can. It's easy to take good photographs in Italy. It's a beautiful place.'

‘Do you think I'm lucky to live here?'

It was hard to know what to say to that. Hayley was a born optimist and tended to think you might as well make the most of any place where you had to be. But it was hard to honestly say that Katy was lucky at the moment. She was living far from the country where she'd been born, her mother had died, and her father was trying to find a way to keep her safe from a kidnapper who would stop at nothing.

In the end Hayley dodged the question. ‘Do you like it here?'

‘It's okay. I like being near Daddy. I liked it better when we lived near Daddy back at home.'

‘You're getting the chance to learn to speak Italian,' Hayley pointed out.

‘I could have done that at school. You know, this picture you took of me is really pretty.'

‘I had a pretty subject.'

‘You mean me.'

‘I do.'

Katy smiled and took the camera out to the balcony where she began to snap a variety of images while Hayley tidied up their breakfast things. Soon afterwards, Ethan arrived with a set of car keys and a shopping bag.

‘We should leave as quickly as we can,' he said. ‘I had to use a credit card to hire the car and it's only a matter of time before the Tomasis learn that we're on the road and what car we're driving.'

‘They'll get that information from your credit card?' Hayley asked.

Ethan nodded. ‘The Tomasis have people everywhere,' he said. ‘Here Katy, I bought you some stuff for the car.'

Katy squealed as she opened the bag and found a new coat and a handheld computer gaming machine with a selection of games.

‘Don't open them until you get to the car,' Ethan said. ‘I don't want things left behind. Fortunately, I think we're ready to leave?'

‘We are,' agreed Hayley, picking up her own bag.

In so many ways, Ethan reminded her of her own father. He hadn't had as much money as Ethan, of course, but he was one of the few men Hayley had known who would realise how important entertainment on a long car journey could be for a child.

There was already a booster seat in the car, so Katy climbed into the back seat and began ripping into her new games while Ethan was still starting the engine.

‘You ready for a long drive?' he asked Hayley.

Hayley nodded. She would have preferred to take the train back but now that they had found the chance to get some sleep, having their own transportation made a lot more sense. This way they could stick to back routes and take evasive action if they discovered they were being followed. And once they had pulled out of the city and onto the
Autostrade
, Ethan put his foot down on the accelerator and soon proved that they might be able to outrun any enemy as well.

Meanwhile, Katy had discovered that her new toy also came with a camera. She entertained herself taking photos out the window, and of the back of Hayley's head, and the side of her father's.

‘Do you like taking photos?' Ethan asked Katy.

‘I love it,' Katy said. ‘Hayley has a huuuuge camera.'

‘She does. It's very important to her. You must be careful never to touch it.'

‘But I already have.'

Ethan looked at Hayley. ‘You let Katy touch your camera?' he said. ‘You two must be getting thick as thieves. I've seen how protective you are of that thing.'

‘Look at these,' she said, passing the device forward.

Hayley scrolled through the photos.

‘They're good,' she said. ‘You know, you've got a good eye for colour and composition.'

‘What is composition?'

‘The way the different parts of the photo go — Oh!'

Hayley had just reached the end of Katy's photo collection, an image where the little girl had zoomed in on Hayley's hand on her father's thigh. Katy was obviously innocent of knowing what this could mean but all the same…

Hayley made a mental note to remember that children notice things.

‘What is it?' asked Ethan, looking concerned.

Hayley hit the delete button and tried not to think too much about how she would feel if someone deleted one of her photos. In all likelihood, Katy wouldn't even notice, she had taken so many of them.

Hayley passed the machine back to Katy, along with one of the chocolate bars Ethan had picked up at a petrol station. The little girl fell into contented silence.

‘We're being followed,' Ethan said a few minutes later.

Hayley looked into the side mirror. There were quite a few cars behind them, none of them looking any more conspicuous to her than any of the others.

‘How can you tell?' she asked.

Ethan slid his eyes back towards Katy. It was a reminder that they needed to be careful about what they said. Katy had been through enough already and didn't need to be frightened any further. Hayley smiled to show she understood.

‘Just the way that silver Merc is driving,' Ethan said.

Hayley looked again, and then checked over her shoulder. Ethan was right. There was a large silver car weaving its way in and out of the traffic behind them, as though its driver wanted to catch up.

‘Katy,' Hayley said, turning. ‘Does your new console come with headphones?'

Katy checked the packaging and pulled a pair out with an excited look.

‘Wow,' she said. ‘These come with everything! Is there a TV in here too?'

Hayley untangled them for her and passed them back for Katy to plug in. Then she turned back to the front of the car.

‘Can you hear me now?' she asked in a low voice.

Katy said nothing.

‘What do you think he wants?' Hayley asked Ethan, in the same low voice.

Ethan moved his rear vision mirror slightly. ‘Katy?' he said quietly.

The little girl was humming along to something as she played.

‘Tomasi will know where we're going,' he said. ‘He already knows how difficult it is to get in there. Once we're back in Siena we're safe unless Tomasi tries something really extreme. And he won't take the risk of that while Katy is with us.'

‘You think he'll try to stop us getting there?'

‘I think an ambush en route is really quite likely,' Ethan agreed.

Hayley looked out at the peaceful green hills they were passing. The day was warming into one of slow summer warmth, the sort of weather she associated with lazy days relaxing with friends. Despite what they had been through in the past few days, it was hard to associate a peaceful looking day like this with a word as intimidating as ‘ambush'.

She shivered suddenly.

‘What is it?' asked Ethan.

She wanted to put her hand on his leg, she wanted to feel the connection between them, she wanted the comfort of a physical reminder that he was real and solid and here and they were in this together.

Katy's humming was getting louder.

‘I'm frightened, that's all,' Hayley confessed.

Ethan changed gears. Over his shoulder, the car was getting closer. There was a turnoff up ahead.

‘Perhaps I shouldn't have told you, either,' Ethan remarked.

‘Why not?'

‘If it's just going to scare you.'

‘No one likes being scared, Ethan. But we're in this together. I'm not some child that you need to protect. If there's something going on or something that might be going on, I need to know about it.'

‘I know.'

‘Are you going to take that turn off?' asked Hayley.

She had noticed that they were travelling in the left lane as though they might, but Ethan was not indicating.

The big silver car was very close to them now. When Hayley looked in the side mirror, she could see that the front seat was occupied by two of Tomasi's goons.

Ethan slowed with the traffic that was turning off. The silver car joined their lane. Then Ethan pulled out, quickly, and back to the faster flowing traffic of the rest of the
autostrada
.

‘What are you doing?' asked Hayley, surprised.

‘Tomasi wants me going that way,' Ethan said. ‘He'll have a reason for that. It's just the sort of ambush I have to look out for.'

Hayley stared straight out the window. The knot of fear that had been growing and tightening in her stomach ever since she first arrived at Ethan's villa grew and tightened further.

‘That car's turned off without us,' Hayley observed, checking over her shoulder.

‘The driver knows we're onto him now,' Ethan said. ‘He'll have been called back.'

‘Will that be it then?'

Ethan barked a sad laugh. ‘It's never that simple with Tomasi,' he said. ‘There are probably backup cars there already. I just need to keep watching until I work out which ones they are.'

Hayley turned her attention to the mirror beside her and settled down to help, if she could.

An hour or so later, Ethan pulled over at a roadside stop and they walked in for food and drink. They hadn't spotted another car on their tail since the one that had tried to guide them onto one of the local roads, so were very careful to watch who followed them into the car park.

‘Anyone?' Hayley asked, carefully, because Katy had taken off her headphones and could hear everything.

Ethan shook his head. ‘Let's go get lunch,' he said to Katy. ‘What would you like? Pizza? Pasta?'

‘I'm sick of pizza and pasta,' Katy said.

She was already holding her father's hand, and now she slid her games machine into her jacket pocket, and held onto Hayley's hand too.

‘Do you feel like eating something healthier?' Hayley asked.

‘I don't know.' Katy thought about that for a moment. ‘Are hamburgers healthier?'

‘I suppose they can be. Not here, though.'

‘Daddy says pasta can be very, very healthy,' said Katy. ‘But women know more about healthy food. That's what the teachers said at school. What do you think, Hayley? Do you think pasta's healthy?'