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As the stars began to shimmer, she found herself remembering the meeting of earlier that day, recalling all the questions that had flooded her. ‘You don’t travel with a bodyguard.’
‘I always have security,’ he contradicted.
‘Not on New Year’s Eve. I didn’t see anyone else...’
‘My hotel is a fortress when I am there.’ He tilted his head towards her, his eyes scanning her face. In the evening light, his sharp features were all harsh angles and planes. ‘Additional guards would have been superfluous.’
‘Was it like this before the accident?’
‘It was no accident,’ he responded, whip-sharp.
‘Before you lost them,’ Hannah corrected.
‘Euphemisms? Perhaps if we call it what it is—murder—you will accept the security measures more readily.’
Hannah wasn’t sure she agreed.
‘And no. Before they were killed, I was stupid and lax with their safety. I was arrogant and thought myself, and everyone around me, invincible, despite my father’s connections.’
Hannah moved towards Leonidas, her heart sore for him.
‘Isn’t that better than living with fear?’
‘Living with fear might have kept them alive,’ he said, darkly.
‘You don’t know that.’
‘I know they should never have been out wandering the streets.’ He ground his teeth. ‘And that you and our daughter will never be exposed to that kind of risk...’
Hannah tried not to feel as if she were drowning again. She tried to breathe slowly, to feel the freedom of this island, to understand why he felt as he did.
And she did. She could imagine what pain he must be suffering, and the added layer of guilt. But the picture he was painting was grim. Hannah couldn’t imagine not being free to simply wake up and decide to go to the shops, or to visit a friend without having bodyguards do a preparatory security sweep.
‘So she’ll wear a panic button?’ The idea turned Hannah’s blood to ice, but then, so did the idea of anything happening to her.
His voice held a warning note. ‘At least you’ll both be safe.’
His feelings were completely understandable, but Hannah railed against them instinctively. She’d felt loss, she knew its pain well. Losing her parents, then losing her engagement to Angus, she understood what it was like to have everything shift on you.
And yet, being fearless in the face of that was a choice.
‘How come there are no pictures of them?’
Leonidas shifted to face Hannah, complex emotions marring his handsome face. ‘What?’ The word was sucked from him.
‘You were married, what, three years? How come there are no wedding photos? No baby pictures of Brax? If I didn’t know about them, I would never have guessed they even existed.’
Leonidas shut his eyes, but not before she saw his grief, his heartache.
‘It is not your concern.’
Hannah’s insides flexed with acid. Another reminder. His wife and child were off limits. They weren’t her concern. His life before her was not up for discussion.
More boundaries. Rules. Distance. It slammed against her and she ground her teeth, the limitations of this like nails under her feet.
‘I understand it hurts.’ She spoke quietly, lifting a hand to his chest. His heart was pounding. ‘But not talking about it doesn’t make sense.’
‘Please, stop.’ She felt his frustration like a whip at the base of her spine.
