‘Could you, for once in your life, stem the verbal diarrhoea and get to the point,’ Sam snapped, and Katie flinched. All signs of him finding her incessant chat cute were gone.
Katie clamped her mouth shut. Sam knew very well that the only reason she had met Daniel was because in desperation the netball team had approached London nightclubs for sponsorship. They were all well known, all reputable. Daniel owned one of them and he agreed to meet them. He said he’d sponsor them as long as they all came down to the club dressed in netball kit once a month. He was charming. He used to come and find Katie when they went down there, make sure they were okay, give them free drinks.
‘I can’t believe you’re speaking to me like this,’ Katie shot back at him, her own tone hardening. ‘Hewasnice … he …’ She trailed off, breaking eye contact with Sam and looking down at her hands, searching for the right explanation. How do you explain how lonely and vulnerable you feel after losing your family? How can you put into words how much a stable relationship with someone who wanted to look after you would mean to you after that?
‘Nice?’ Sam roared. ‘He’s a goddamnpsychopathfor Christ’s sake. He buys and sells drugs, people … how could you have let him get anywherenearyou?’
‘I –’
‘And after all that, after knowing what happens when you’re not bloody careful, after finding out that the world isn’t all butterflies and roses, what do you do? You scoot off on your pink scooter into the darkness. Psychopath drug-dealing white-slave-trading stalker? Who cares: you’re Katie and you’re living in the land of kittens and hugs; nothing can touch you. Death threats? So what? You’ll still forget to set the alarm that I’ve fucking paid for.’
‘But I’m not getting the threats any more,’ she said in a shaky voice, and he snapped his mouth shut, suddenly looking somewhat uncomfortable.
‘I’ve been swiping them before you see them,’ he told her after a long pause. ‘They still come every week, same time, same delivery guy. I was trying to protect you, trying to save you from worrying. What a joke. You obviously couldn’t give two shits about your safety.’
Katie’s mind was working furiously, trying to process everything Sam was saying.
‘The … the alarm system at the surgery? The cameras? Panic buttons? Goodie trailing me? You …youpaid for all that? I thought you said it was Rob’s idea to –’
‘Fat lot of good it does if you have a bloody death wish, you stu –’
‘Sam.’ Frankie’s sharp voice cut him off and he closed his mouth in shock. This quiet woman must have only said about three words to him before, and none of them much above a whisper. She was seated next to him in the seat Katie should have been in, but she was standing now, her hand on his chest and a determined look on her face. ‘You do not want to finish that sentence,’ she told him, her tone firm enough to make him drag his gaze away from his target to Frankie. Her brown eyes were steady on him, not a trace of fear. ‘You’re angry, but this is not the way to show it. You’ve lost control.’
Sam’s head jerked; he never lost control.
‘You’re hurting her.’ Frankie’s voice had dropped to a whisper but he could still hear the steel threaded through it.
When he looked back at Katie, he noticed that she was sitting tense in her chair, her small hands balled into fists in her lap and her eyes flashing fire but suspiciously wet.
Christ, he really was a barbarian.
He took a deep breath in through his nose and let it out slowly, before nodding at the woman next to him. A chair scraped on the other side of the table and Sam glanced over to see that Tom, Frankie’s husband, was standing, his posture stiff and his hands gripping the side of the table, obviously ready to intervene. Frankie must have also noticed Tom, and Sam watched as she frowned over at him, flicking her eyes down to his seat. Surprisingly Tom took a moment to look between Frankie and a much calmer Sam, and sank back down. Sam would never let a woman boss him around like that; he would …
‘Sam, I think you’d better leave,’ Sarah’s sharp voice said from the head of the table, and he felt Rob’s hand on his arm. His shoulders slumped and he ran a hand through his hair. What had got into him? He nodded at Sarah, then looked over at Katie again.
‘Katie … I … look, I just …’ He shook Rob’s hand off his arm and started to go around the table towards Katie, but she jumped out of her chair and stood the other side of it, holding her hand up to stop his approach.
‘Just go,’ she said in a hollow voice, blinking away the moisture in her eyes, her expression morphing from embarrassment and shock to anger. Sam flinched at her expression and backed away slowly. Rob walked him to the door, the silence thundering behind them.
‘Can you at least make sure she doesn’t ride that thing home in the dark?’ he asked Rob.
‘Of course I will,’ Rob said, putting his hand on Sam’s shoulder and giving it a squeeze. ‘Maybe not the best time to go all Emo on us, mate. And don’t take my word for it, but I think women prefer to hear that you can’t live without them rather than that they’re gullible and stupid.’
‘I didn’t call her stupid,’ Sam mumbled, scuffing his foot on the floor. Rob raised his eyebrows; they both knew that if Frankie hadn’t stepped in things could have been a lot worse.
‘You’ll get there eventually, you emotional cripple,’ Rob told him, punching Sam lightly on the shoulder. ‘Maybe having a fit of temper wasn’t the most stellar first foray into the world of normal human feelings, but I think it’s progress.’
‘Prick,’ Sam muttered, rolling his eyes and punching him back before he yanked open the front door. He glanced down the hallway, where he could hear that the low murmur of conversation had picked back up again. ‘Sorry for pissing off your missus.’
‘I can handle Sarah,’ Rob said, lying unashamedly, and Sam almost smiled.
‘Yeah, right,’ he replied as he pushed his way out of the door, but not before Rob flashed him a one-finger salute.
Chapter 23
Sleeping Beauty awakes
‘Argh!’ Katie shrieked into the darkness when she caught sight of the large figure sitting hunched over on her sofa. She flicked the light on and let out a relieved breath when Sam blinked across at her.
