Read Online Trusting a Stranger by Kimberley Brown - Free Book Online

would she be placing herself in? She couldn’t even begin to guess what a man might be capable of if he was also guilty of inventing an entire tragic family life.
    There was a photo behind the desk. A large one. It showed Ethan with a beautiful dark haired woman — Erica, it must be — and a beautiful, dark haired young girl. If Ethan had invented Katy, she was not a new invention.
    Of course he hadn’t invented Katy. She had felt his love and anxiety in everything he had told her about the little girl. She was not a bad judge of character. She could not have been fooled by that.
    Katy was real. She was real and in danger and that made the news Hayley had to share all the more devastating.
    â€˜Ethan,’ she said again. ‘I have to tell you —’
    â€˜I’ll have this solved in a minute,’ Ethan said. Then he frowned and, finally, his fingers paused. ‘What is it?’ he asked, standing.
    â€˜It’s Katy,’ Hayley gasped.
    She ran towards him and threw herself into his arms, ready to be the emotional support that he was surely going to need.
    â€˜She’s gone!’

Chapter Five
    Ethan looked up at her. His expression was not the shock or the panic Hayley had expected. He was still typing away, glancing down at the computer screen again.
    â€˜Did you hear me?’ Hayley demanded, certain that he must not have. He always spoke as much with his hands as with words. It was his Italian heritage, she guessed. And now it felt like he wasn’t paying her attention, even if the reason for that was that he was typing.
    â€˜I said Katy’s not here!’ she repeated. ‘She’s gone!’
    â€˜I heard you.’ Ethan cocked his head to one side, watching her closely as he tapped more emphatically on the enter key and then stood.
    â€˜There’s something you need to know,’ he said, too slowly.
    â€˜There’s something you need to know! You’re not listening to me. It must be shock or —’
    â€˜I know Katy’s not here.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜I said I know Katy’s not here.’ He walked towards her and took her elbow in his hand. ‘Come and sit down over here.’
    Hayley stood still. She didn’t want to sit. She was tired and she was in a foreign country and she was staying with a man she barely knew and she had been shot at.
    â€˜That alarm?’ she asked. ‘Was that the sound of Katy leaving?’
    â€˜That alarm, thankfully, was false,’ Ethan said. ‘We get those from time to time. I have the sensitivity of the alarm system set to very high. For obvious reasons. Sometimes it’s an owl that sets it off at nighttime. Sometimes just the wind.’
    Hayley considered this. Finally, she allowed him to lead her towards a couch that rested against a side wall.
    He gave her a glass of water as well. ‘You look exhausted,’ he said.
    She sipped it. ‘I’ve had quite a day.’
    He sat beside her. He looked exhausted, too, as he gave a dry laugh. ‘Welcome to my life.’
    â€˜You often have your alarm going off in the middle of the night, and guests who are shot at?’
    â€˜I’m always waiting for Tomasi’s next trick. At the moment, I’m worried because he seems to have become so unpredictable. I’ve heard rumours that the family might be in even more trouble than I thought. Alvaro Tomasi is new to power.’
    â€˜I don’t understand. Why would that matter?’
    â€˜There are rivals in his family. He might feel he has to prove himself.’
    Hayley took a moment to consider the fact that she had been caught up in someone else’s power game. This did not sit well with her idea of herself at all.
    â€˜So where’s Katy?’ she asked at last.
    Ethan regarded her for a long minute.
    â€˜Is she okay?’ asked Hayley, feeling a tightening in that knot of anxiety in her chest.
    Ethan stood. ‘We need to