Free Trusting a Stranger by Kimberley Brown

this could make that one person seem.
    â€˜I’m not going to tell anyone what you’ve told me, I promise. I came to you tonight because I was worried about her. I was worried about you. My father brought me up on his own. When I hear you talk about her, it’s the first time I really appreciate why my father was always so good to me. How he must have felt. Maybe that’s why I find myself caring so much that she is safe.’
    â€˜I can understand that you care. I can even understand why you care.’
    â€˜You do?’ asked Hayley, who had been wondering about this herself. ‘I don’t even know Katy. But I…’
    â€˜Feelings aren’t always rational,’ Ethan explained. ‘You had no idea what Tomasi really wanted to know, but all the same, you must feel slightly responsible for coming here under false pretences. And I feel slightly responsible for you being shot, because it happened on my property.’
    â€˜I suppose you’re right,’ Hayley said.
    She leaned back on her elbows and looked at him from the side. He looked quite different from this perspective. His jaw was very square and his forehead and his shoulders very wide but there was a set about his arms and his strong hands that was almost gentle.
    â€˜It’s not like a man to be so perceptive.’
    He grinned suddenly. ‘Maybe I’m no ordinary man.’
    â€˜I’m beginning to get that idea.’
    Now that Katy was safe, it dawned on Hayley that she had nothing to do until morning. And she was alone in a big, empty house, with a very attractive man. What was that line she had heard once about Las Vegas? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. That was it. She was not ready for any sort of relationships right now, particularly not with a man who was not ready for any sort of relationship with her. But she wondered all the same if that Vegas comment was the sort of comment that could also be made about Siena. The city seemed to be made for drama. The Renaissance here hadn’t only been significant in the artistic skills of perspective and the capturing of light and dark that Hayley tried to incorporate in her photographs, but also of political power games. The city leaders had wielded immense power over lesser citizens, and blood feuds had lasted generations.
    Was she part of something like that now? Or was she in a holiday destination, as so many tourists seemed to think, free here to do just as she liked, and to forget about the consequences?
    She leaned towards him slightly, testing the water. Ethan turned, a little more. Hayley began to lean his head towards his shoulder. Then his phone rang.
    Damn.
    Hayley wasn’t sure if she said that, or Ethan said it, or if neither of them said it, or both. They both knew that in the current circumstances, the call could not be ignored. Ethan reached into the pocket of his jeans for his phone and flipped it open.
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜Ethan.’ There was a woman’s voice on the other end of the line. Beyond his name, Hayley couldn’t make out what the woman said but felt a sliver of jealousy go through her all the same.
    Who was this woman that knew Ethan — who Hayley sensed was a very secretive man — well enough to have his mobile phone number and to feel confident calling him on it in the middle of the night?
    â€˜Thanks, yes it is me. It is a secure line,’ Ethan said. Then he stood to leave the room, and closed the door behind him.
    At least the voice on the other end of the line had changed before he left, deep male tones replacing the woman who had made the call. All the same, Hayley felt her heart sink at the idea that Ethan didn’t trust her enough to take the call in here. She tossed her legs out and regarded her toes as though they were beings she could talk to.
    You’ve only known him for one day, she told them. Make that just a few hours. You came into this house pretending you were after one