Chapter Four #3
A memory of the two of them in her office, the almost unbearable impossibility of keeping that space between them.
Even just thinking it made her feel light-headed with panic. ‘We can’t stay here.’
He turned, his forehead creasing, eyes narrowing as they settled on his jacket almost as if he was confused to see her wearing it. ‘Where are you planning on going, Princess?’
So they were back to that. She glanced out the window. The storm seemed higher or further away now, but it was still raining heavily.
She sighed. ‘What do we do now?’
‘Now we wait. It probably won’t last for more than an hour or so.
But I can’t fly in this.’ He gestured out of the window to where the rain was pounding the earth in a crescendo of fury.
‘The air’s too unstable right now. And I need to check the rotor blades and the fuselage before we take off. I can’t do that either.’
‘But you will be able to.’ It was supposed to be a statement, but it came out sounding more like a question, and he frowned.
‘If it stops raining and the light is still there, but I can’t do a proper check with a torch.’
‘Surely there must be another option. We could walk to a road. There must be roads up here—’
Roads. Cars. Escape. Safety. The words lit up inside her head like a row of dollar signs on a fruit machine. ‘Which way are they?’
He stared at her in disbelief. ‘Aside from the fact that visibility is practically zero and the ground will be running with water, whichever way they are, you’re not going to reach them in those shoes.’
Her gaze dropped to her feet. It was his fault she was wearing them. She had only worn heels this high so that she could meet him on an equal footing.
‘I have trainers in my bag.’ She felt a rush of relief.
‘Slopes like these turn into death traps when it rains like this. We’re safer here until first light.’
That was a matter of opinion, she thought, her mouth suddenly dry as once again she imagined herself and Antaeus in the dark cocoon of the helicopter.
‘Can’t we call for help?’ she said when she could finally speak again. ‘Don’t you have people who can come and get us?’
‘And how are they going to come and get us? Because unless they have some teleportation machine that can whisk us off the mountain, they’ll face the same problems we are having.’
His gaze edged towards the darkness outside the window again. Following it, she finally accepted that there was no denying the logic of his words.
‘There’s a satellite phone. I can call my people and give them our location. Let them know we’re safe.’
Safe. That word again.
She watched him make the call, and even though she could only guess at what he was saying, there was no need for her to speak Greek.
Every word crackled with precision and authority.
Was that how he would sound when he closed her business?
The thought felt heavy inside her head, or maybe her head was just heavy.
Her eyelids certainly were. She could feel them drooping. Maybe something of her exhaustion was showing on her face, because as Antaeus hung up, his frown softened.
‘Go and get some sleep. If you push back the armrests, you can lie across the seats in the main cabin. It’s that or the floor.’
Their eyes locked. She wanted to tell him the chances of her falling asleep were less than zero, but at least they would be in separate spaces. Instead she got to her feet and walked stiffly into the passenger cabin.
After a few seconds, he pushed the door across, not quite closing it, and she debated shutting it.
But in the end she did what he’d suggested.
Then she toed off her shoes and stared at the seats.
They were well padded, the leather smooth and cool, and it had been a very long day.
It didn’t matter if she didn’t sleep. She could just lie down and rest.
She woke in darkness, blinded by it almost, rearing upright, hands reaching for something solid. And then her eyes adjusted to the light coming through the half-open door to the cockpit. She put her feet onto the cabin floor and pressed her toes into the carpet to steady herself.
Leaning forward, she peered through the window, but the rain was still drilling down outside, and it was the kind of pitch black that only the most foolhardy or desperate would attempt to penetrate.
She was both, clearly.
How else could she rationalise the scramble of decisions she’d made since Antaeus Tsiartas had stood up at that extraordinary meeting of the board?
Antaeus? She felt her body stiffen. Then a fluttering panic scampered down her spine because there was a stillness to the cabin, an emptiness. Had he left her here? Was that his plan all along? To leave her here in the darkness, alone.
She inched forward, barefoot—
And then she saw him through the crack in the door to the cockpit.
He was leaning forward in the seat, silhouetted against the pale green of the dials, still staring into the darkness beyond the glass.
And there was something in his posture, a tension that looked almost painful.