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‘Just take some deep breaths.’ Katie watched in astonishment as, with a smile of incredible charm and gentle manner, Nikos bent over Sadie.
The sound of Nikos’s voice seemed to calm Sadie, who nodded and looked up at him gratefully. Katie saw her do a double take and then an appreciative grin spread over her face.
‘Are you asthmatic?’ Nikos asked.
‘No, just fat and unfit.’ Sadie laughed shakily. ‘I ran all the way from the gate,’ she explained. ‘I think the fire brigade are coming. I heard them in the distance. Shall I go back and wait for them…?’
‘Take Katerina downstairs, and leave the house immediately.’
I suppose, Katie thought numbly, that people like Nikoscome into their own in situations like this—situations that require someone to take charge and make decisions. Not even his worst enemy—which might be me—can accuse Nikos of having a problem with decision-making, she conceded wryly.
‘I’m not going anywhere until Alexander—’
‘I will get Alexander and you will leave the building,’ Nikos announced in a lordly fashion. ‘How old is he?’ he asked, advancing towards the door from which smoke was now billowing.
‘You can’t go in there,’ Katie said positively, as convenient as it might be, she couldn’t let the rat die for her cat, who might still have a few of his lives left.
‘Concentrate.’
Katie was, on the amazing silver flecks in his eyes. She was stressed, exhausted, terrified, and frankly there couldn’t be a worse time to admit that you were sexually attracted to a person, and had there been any other conceivable explanation for the way her mind disintegrated and her body came to life around him Katie would have plumped for it.
‘How old is he?’ Nikos asked as though she hadn’t spoken.
The relevance of this escaped Katie, but she recognised she wasn’t totally immune to the indefinable something Nikos possessed that inspired compliance, no matter how silly the question or request.
‘Threeish, I think.’ That was what the vet had estimated when he’d given the ginger tom his injections. ‘I think we’ll sedate him next time,’ he’d said drily as he’d disinfected the scratches on his arm.
Nikos stopped in his tracks. ‘Three!’ he ejaculated, his lips twisting in a grimace of appalled disgust. His chest lifted. ‘You left a three-year-old child alone?’
Katie’s jaw dropped. He thought…he actually thought she…! Words failed her. God, she’d known he had a low opinion of her, but she hadn’t thought it was this low!
Sadie, who was supporting Katie, came to her aid. ‘Child?’ She looked at the tall Greek as though he’d gone mad. ‘Alexander is a cat.’
At her words Nikos, whose body was primed for action, each muscle clenched in anticipation of the task ahead, went quite still. Only his eyes moved; they slid from Katie to Sadie, who nodded, before returning to the original object of his scrutiny.
Katie observed the muscles in his throat move as he swallowed.
‘You risked your life for a cat?’ There was no discernible inflection in his voice.
‘Sorry, I realise it would have suited you much better if I had left a helpless baby alone.’
He gave an impatient frown. ‘What are you talking about, suited my purposes? I have no hidden agenda.’
‘You’re right—it’s not hidden, it’s blatantly obvious. It’s so much easier for you to carry on pretending you’re doing the dirty to save your friend from making a terrible marriage if I reveal myself to be an avaricious monster with no redeeming characteristics whatsoever. If, however, I turn out not to be a heartless bitch you’ll look less like the true friend and more like a spiteful, vindictive pig who can’t bear to see anyone else happy because he’s too emotionally retarded and shallow to form a decent relationship himself!’ she concluded breathlessly.
The blank incredulity of his expression gradually metamorphosed into one of smouldering fury. ‘Have you quite finished?’ he enquired with clipped hauteur.
‘Actually, no, I haven’t,’ Katie heard herself grit back belligerently, even though she’d run out of emotional steam.
As the expectant silence lengthened Nikos lifted a satirical eyebrow.
‘I didn’t risk my life. You said I did,’ she reminded him. ‘But I didn’t,’ she ended lamely. Though actually, now that she came to think about it, her actions looked a little different. This no doubt had something to do with the fact she was viewing it without the stimulation provided by gallons of adrenalin pumping through her veins.
‘I might have known you wouldn’t like animals,’ she heard herself grouch pettishly. Why can’t I keep my mouth shut while I’m still ahead? she wondered in exasperation. What was it about this man that made her say stupid things? When he was around she seemed to be possessed by a need to prove she was even more selfish and superficial than he thought her.
‘I like animals—in fact I frequently prefer them to people, especially the crazy, stupid, female type of person.’
Katie, who was normally capable of giving as good as she got, was deeply embarrassed to feel her eyes suddenly fill with tears at this fairly mild—by his standards—insult.
She wasn’t the only one to feel uncomfortable. It seemed that quite by accident she’d discovered another of Nikos’s weak spots…he looked even more dismayed by her tears than she was.
He cleared his throat. ‘I didn’t mean…’ As he spoke he seemed to notice for the first time the hand he had extended towards her. For a split second he stared at it as if it didn’t belong to him, an expression of shock on his dark, lean features. Then his expression became as unrevealing as ever as he lowered it to his side. His chest lifted as he took a deep breath.
‘Take Katerina outside and wait for the fire brigade,’ he instructed tersely as he turned to Sadie, who silently handed him a torch from her pocket. ‘Thank you.’
‘I don’t need taking anywhere…’ Katie’s voice rose to a querulous squeak as her comments fell on deaf ears. ‘And you can’t go back in there.’
‘Look on the bright side—if I don’t come out you’ll be able to marry Tom.’
Katie gave a cry of alarm as he turned and stepped back into her smoke-filled flat. If it hadn’t been for Sadie’s restraining grip on her arm she would have followed him.
‘Don’t worry, he’s not daft,’ Sadie soothed. ‘He was only trying to wind you up.’ Curiously she searched her friend’s face. ‘He won’t take any silly risks.’
This confidence from someone who had only just met the man seemed wildly misplaced to Katie. ‘I am not worried, well, no more than I would be about anyone else. Absolutely not at all,’ she said half to herself. ‘I just can’t believe he had the cheek to accuse me of risking my life. What’s he trying to prove?’
‘Do you mind if we discuss this outside?’ Sadie wondered nervously.
‘What? Yes, of course.’ With one last look at the door of her flat, which Nikos had closed behind himself, Katie followed her friend down the stairs.
‘What did he mean when he said—?’
‘I thought you said you heard the fire brigade…’ Katie interrupted, craning her head to look up the road for any sign of flashing lights.
‘I thought I did,’ Sadie replied apologetically.
‘When that guy—?’
‘Nikos,’ Katie supplied distractedly.
‘When Nikos said. Good grief…Nikos…?’ You could almost hear the sound of Sadie’s chin hitting her chest as the name clicked. ‘You mean he’s the one you…’
‘I married, yes. I don’t know how you can think about that when your house is on fire and it’s all my fault. You should be screaming abuse at me.’
‘I will if it will make you feel better, but first tell me about that incredible man.’
‘There’s nothing to tell.’ Nikos was the one subject Katie wanted to avoid. Although the way things were going it didn’t seem likely she would have much choice. Her choices were narrowing in other areas too. Her hopes of concealing the marriage from Tom now seemed hopelessly optimistic. She found that she was no longer thinking in terms of if, but when her sordid secret would be revealed.
‘He turned up tonight—apparently he and Tom went to university together.’
‘I don’t believe it!’ Sadie gasped, clearly startled by Katie’s taut explanation. ‘What were the odds on that? That must have been a bit awkward for you.’
‘Ever so slightly,’ Katie agreed drily.
‘Has he spilled the dirt to Tom?’
‘Not yet, but it’s only a matter of time.’ For the hundredth time in the past two minutes she glanced tensely over her shoulder towards the house. ‘Shouldn’t he be out by now?’
‘It’s only been a couple of minutes, Katie,’ Sadie soothed. ‘You know, I don’t know how much you paid for him, but if it had been common knowledge he was available on the open market I’m betting the price would have been higher,’ she joked with a lascivious grin.
‘I did not buy him!’ Katie denied hotly. ‘Well, not like that, it was a business arrangement, nothing more.’
Sadie shrugged pacifically. ‘If you say so. Are you sure you two haven’t met since the wedding?’
‘I don’t think I’d have forgotten.’ No, an encounter with Nikos Lakis was something that stayed in a person’s memory for ever like…like…eating bad shellfish, she thought sourly.
‘Fair enough. It’s just that you two don’t talk or act like people who have as good as just met…’
Katie never had to respond to this thought-provoking observation because at that exact moment they both heard the unmistakable and very welcome shriek of a siren.
Hands folded against her chest, Katie began to jump up and down. ‘They’re here!’ she yelled, silent tears slipping silently down her face.
Both women watched with relief as the engine drew up outside the house, disgorging several capable-looking uniformed figures. The noise of their arrival had attracted the attention of several neighbours in the tree-lined avenue, who came outdoors to investigate the activity in the normally sedate neighbourhood.
‘Have I ever told you about my fireman fantasy?’ Sadie caught the tail-end of Katie’s incredulous expression and looked sheepish. ‘Well, you have Nikos—you can hardly begrudge me a fireman.’
‘He’s not my Nikos,’ Katie retorted.
‘If you say so, but be a sport, Katie, I’m trying to distract myself and that one—’ she pointed ‘—is absolutely gorgeous…’
Katie was no longer listening; she was busy running towards the fireman who had inspired Sadie’s lustful fantasy.
She caught his arm and tried to speak; considering the urgency of the occasion, this seemed a bad time to lose her voice. The fire-fighter, who was probably used to dealing with people gibbering with fear, exuded a calm aura that helped Katie finally get her words out.
‘Th-there’s a man still in there,’ she told him beckoning towards the window on the top floor.
‘Has he been in there long?’
Katie swallowed and pulled distractedly at her long hair. The sooty smell that came from it made her nose wrinkle—no doubt the rest of her smelt just as terrible and as for how she looked… Aah, how shallow am I, thinking about my lipstick when all this is going on? ‘I don’t know…it seems like a long time.’ Her lips trembled and she scrubbed at her dirty face. ‘It’s my fault,’ she confessed. ‘I think I left my iron on…I knew I’d forgotten something, and now I’ve killed N…Nikos and Alexander.’
‘There’s more than one person?’ he queried sharply.
‘Alexander is a cat,’ Sadie explained for the second time. ‘Katie, he’ll be fine. He didn’t look like an easy man to kill to me.’ Sadie smiled at the fire-fighter. ‘I’m the owner, officer.’
‘Hello. Is there any means of access other than the stairs?’
‘There is a fire escape around the side of the house.’
Katie, not placated, shrugged off the comforting arm that slid around her shoulders. ‘I’m a selfish cow, I sent him back in there for a…’ Her lips began to tremble as she fearfully contemplated the consequences of her actions.
Before she could reveal to the fireman what Nikos had gone back in for there was an almighty deafening explosion as her bedroom window exploded. The fireman, his arms outstretched, shielded the two women as glass from above showered on the garden below.
‘It would be better, ladies, if you waited a little farther back until the ambulance arrives.’
Katie saw his mouth move, she heard the words, but she felt as though she were in a black hole; she felt numb.
Sadie nodded, getting a firmer grip on the box containing family photos and treasures that she had automatically snatched up before they’d left the house. She urged Katie backwards while the burly fire-fighter, shouting instructions to his crew, strode off purposefully.
Katie resisted and Sadie looked with concern as the slim figure who was standing gazing with horror-filled eyes at the wicked tongues of orange flames shooting out of the window pushed her away.
‘Come on, Katie, we should get out of their way,’ Sadie suggested gently. ‘Mrs James next door has put the kettle on.’
Katie, her arms wrapped tightly about herself, continued to rock back and forth. Under the layer of grime her skin was paper-white. ‘He’s dead, isn’t he? I mean, if he was in there he has to be, doesn’t he? Nobody could survive that.’
Sadie shrugged helplessly. ‘I really don’t know.’ The muffled keening sound that suddenly emerged from Katie’s bloodless lips before she choked it back made the hairs on the back of Sadie’s neck stand on end.
The next sequence of events occurred with such bewildering speed that Sadie didn’t have a chance to do anything but yell a warning to the fire-fighters as her friend, running as if all the fiends of hell were at her heels, suddenly began to pelt towards the door of the house.
Katie was never going to make it there, the two fire-fighters aiming to cut her off were closing fast, but before they had an opportunity to do so she tripped and fell. Though she landed on her knees it was the sharp pain that shot through her ankle as it turned awkwardly that made her cry out.
Just what I need—a sprained ankle, or, the way this day is going, it will probably be broken!
Impatiently brushing the tears of self-pity and impatience from her face, Katie squared her shoulders and, catching her soft lower lip between her teeth, concentrated her efforts on getting to her feet.
So far, so good, she thought as she tentatively took a cautious step; to her relief her ankle hurt but it took her weight. Wincing, she hobbled over to a convenient Japanese flowering cherry tree that was shedding its sweet-smelling blossoms onto the damp grass below and leaned against the trunk.
She gazed towards the house. The fire crew, seeing she was not seriously hurt and no longer capable of dashing headlong into a burning building, had turned their attention elsewhere.
Katie was pondering the compulsion that had been responsible for her stunt—as if I could do something the fire-fighters couldn’t—when she finally recognised what the fire crew had turned their attention to. A tall figure was emerging from the smoke.
‘Thank God!’
She watched through a teary haze of relief as a couple of paramedics headed purposefully towards Nikos. The incredible noise of a fire scene seemed to recede to a low background buzz and the hurrying figures appeared to slow; only her heart continued to beat fast, so fast she could feel the vibration of each inhalation in her throat. She lifted a hand to her spinning head; each breath she took was an effort.
If I faint now he’ll probably accuse me of faking it to steal his moment of triumph. Only she didn’t faint, the nervous tension found a more prosaic release.
‘I think I’m going to be sick,’ she gulped to nobody in particular, before she quietly did just that—not that anyone noticed; they were all crowding around Nikos.
Trust him to turn out to be a hero…it was a part he was born to play, she thought, a wry but relieved smile on her face as she leaned back against the tree trunk.
CHAPTER SIX
THE hero was clearly not comfortable with his moment of fame.
‘I am fine.’ The cough that followed this impatient pronouncement did not add weight to his claim. Ignoring a recommendation to breathe deeply, Nikos pushed aside the oxygen mask that someone was trying to slip over his head. ‘I don’t need that!’
‘You’ve inhaled a lot of smoke,’ the paramedic explained patiently.
Nikos smiled thinly and resisted the impulse to point out to this well-meaning individual that as the one who’d done the inhaling he didn’t need any reminders. After a few moments of fruitless arguing they reached a compromise, of sorts.
