Frank took her arm and led her away from the group, followed closely by Sam. His tone was now cajoling. ‘Listen, doc, we’re all good here. Thanks for seeing him. You can get back to your practice now, no problem.’
Right, she’d had enough at this point and she was not going to be a pushover when a child’s health was involved.
‘No, Frank, you listen to me,’ Katie said quietly. ‘I do not see good things here – and trust me, you want me to be seeing good things. The parents are focused on your deadlines rather than their son, and did not accompany him to his appointment – this isnotnormal behavior. None of you are listening to me. Medical advice is being ignored. Considering I’m the Child Protection Lead for the local area, you donotwant to be garnering my concern.’ She leaned into him, her voice still quiet but her tone now fierce. ‘I could bring such a shit-storm on your operation that you would find yourself shut down before you could even blink. Do not piss me off; you better make sure I start seeing good things.’
Frank stared at Katie, obviously weighing up his options, then nodded. ‘Message received, doc, message received.’ He turned, hurried over to the parents, and formed a huddle with them. After conferring with Frank, Mum looked up at Katie with tears in her eyes before quickly moving into the trailer. Dad walked over to her.
‘Seems we’ve been a little confused about what’s important. Honest, doc, he means the world to us. It’s just the pressure, you know?’ No, Katie did not know. She did not know many parents who wouldn’t put their child’s health first.
‘I understand that this is high-stress stuff, but he’s still just a sick little boy,’ she said firmly. ‘I’ll visit him tomorrow and a health visitor will pop by as well.’
‘Okay, thanks,’ he muttered, moving towards the trailer.
Katie really hated confrontation in any form and she was shaking slightly, her nose stinging. She needed to get out of there pronto. As she turned and took a step forward, she came up against a solid warm wall, and large hands closed over her upper arms to steady her.
*****
Step back, Sam told himself as he searched her small, defiant, utterly beautiful face. Her cheeks were flushed; her blue eyes appeared even brighter with the unshed tears.Get a grip and take your goddamn hands off her. He felt like he was drowning, being pulled under by a current so strong that it almost overwhelmed his reason.
Almost.
Christ, he’d known she was good. She cared about people; that was obvious. He just hadn’t realized how brave she was, or how magnificent she would be when she was riled. He had thought he would have to step in with Frank – no way was that kid going back to work today. But there was no need. No, this tiny scrap of a woman had proceeded to scare the shit out of one of Hollywood’s most hardened businessmen. He closed his eyes and shook his head. The break in eye contact was enough to force himself to let go of her arms and take a step back. Breathing in deeply through his nostrils and then letting out a long breath through his mouth, he opened his eyes to see her staring at him with that adorable confused look on her face again. He jerked his chin at her, not trusting himself to speak, and strode off into the maze of trailers.
Chapter 5
I’m not a total sad case you know
Rob stared down at the piece of taped-together paper on his desk in front of him and then up at Sam.
‘So?’ Sam prompted impatiently.
‘Look,’ Rob said, leaning back in his chair and studying Sam with a contemplative expression on his face, ‘I don’t know what to tell you, man. I’m in the dark about this as much as you are. All I know is that she had some trouble with a bloke at uni and he went a bit stalkerish after she left. It’s creepy but it never got that out of hand. I didn’t know she still had any communication from him; but if she’s not bothered, then I don’t see why –’
‘Not bothered?’ Sam interrupted furiously. ‘You should have seen her goddamn face: she was petrified. Didn’t even read the bloody thing, just ripped it up and chucked it, so caught up in her fear that she forgot I was even there.’ Sam slammed his hand down on top of the letter, the force of the blow echoing around the room. ‘What I want to know is what you intend to do about it?’
Rob leant back in his chair again, surveying an extremely agitated Sam. He thought about the robotic version of Sam that had replaced his friend six years ago, and realized that as far as real emotion was concerned this might be the first time in a long time Sam had displayed anything other than his customary cool. No, Rob corrected himself, that wasn’t completely true, was it: Sam wasn’t exactly in control at the end of dinner the other night either. Dumping a guaranteed shag to take Katie home (a woman he claimed to find intensely annoying), and practically dragging a bewildered Katie out of the house.
‘What are you smiling about now, you smug prick?’ Sam thundered at him, and Rob cleared his expression. ‘Do you think this shit is funny? Do you know how many of these stalkers end up hacking their targets to pieces when they don’t get what they want?’
‘Now, now, boys,’ Goodie said as she walked into the room unannounced. Her blonde hair fell in short layers around her face, her perfect features devoid of make-up but stunningly beautiful nonetheless. ‘What’s the matter? On your periods again?’ She was sporting the smallest of smiles. It was only down to the fact that Rob knew her so well that he could even detect it. Goodie found the loss of control in others amusing, as it was not something she herself ever suffered with. Her dog, Salem, had followed her into the room and now sat at her feet. He was large, just a bit bigger than an Alsatian, with long black and brown fur. For a mongrel from a war zone he was beautiful.
‘How’s the kid?’ Goodie asked, and Rob narrowed his eyes at her.
‘Don’t push it, Goodie.’
‘I’m just asking,’ Goodie said innocently. Goodie had met Benji a couple of times before at Rob’s office. She seemed to have this eerie ability to assess people at warp speed and she had realized that Benji was seriously above average intelligence almost instantly. Last time, Rob had become distracted and had found Goodie in the break room with Benji showing him how to disassemble and reassemble an illegal semi-automatic weapon. Sarah had not been happy. Goodie had just shrugged and claimed that it could come in useful one day; exactlyhow, Rob dreaded to think. ‘You know, in Russia in my day he would already have been scouted for recruitment.’
Rob sighed.
‘We’re not in Russia, Goodie, and it is not those days any more. Stay away from him.’
She shrugged. ‘You have job for me?’ she asked, her slight Russian lilt filtering through the words. When she had to, Goodie could speak in whatever way and whatever language she wanted, but with them she allowed her natural accented English to come out.
‘Yes,’ Sam answered, and Rob frowned at him. Sam snatched up the paper from the table and shoved it at Goodie, who carefully looked it over.
Rob felt dangerously close to smiling again, but ruthlessly squashed the impulse: Sam was already less than amused, another smile out of Rob could tip him over the edge completely and Rob didn’t fancy explaining a black eye to his wife.
‘Sam,’ he said, managing to just about keep the amusement from his voice. ‘Don’t you think that Goodie might be overkill with this one?’ Sam scowled and Rob spread his hands, shrugging his shoulders in mock confusion. ‘I thought Katie was “an annoying little freak” anyway, why the rabid concern all of a sudden?’
