Modern Romance Collection: July Books 5 - 8. Natalie Anderson
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‘OK.’
She blinked. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean,’ he said, ‘that I will take you to join Chloe.’ He spread his hands wide as she continued to look at him with suspicion. ‘No catch.’ Without waiting to see if she followed him, he headed for the row of garages where his brother kept his cars. The doors were open and he approached the first one.
He pulled the dust cover off a sporty two-seater. ‘It’s Luis’s,’ he said without turning. He had heard the sound of her heels on the cobbles behind him. ‘He never locks it.’ Sebastian had no compunction about taking it. Luis had gifted him his life and his bride, not that she realised it yet, so he supposed the car was his too.
As she followed Sebastian the irresponsibility of this course of action was beginning to hit home. Running away achieved nothing.
He turned and arched a brow. ‘You coming?’
She rocked back a little on her spiky heels as they sank into the gravel. ‘I should really go back.’
He didn’t proffer an opinion, just stood there looking at her. She took a deep breath and made a choice of the middle ground. ‘All right, we’ll go and find Chloe and then come back.’
The engine purred into life while she was still manoeuvring herself into the low seat and she released a small squeal as it sped off as she closed the door.
Avoiding the chaos that it seemed safe to assume surrounded the main entrances to the palace, Sebastian drove through the unguarded stable entrance, past the neatly fenced paddocks, empty today while the staff were attending the celebrations.
Sabrina stayed silent until they reached the hairpin bends that surrounded this part of the island’s coast. ‘Luis said something in his letter.’
His blue eyes flickered briefly her way.
‘Is it true? The King isn’t his father?’
‘Does it matter now?’ He dismissed the question with a curt flick of his head. ‘And Luis was an idiot for telling you and...telling anyone,’ he condemned.
She was bemused by his attitude. She had seen with her own eyes how his father behaved towards him and she could imagine what effect the headlines about his mother’s affair and the rumours of his birth had had on the life of a boy at public school.
‘But people said things about you, wrote things. You could have told them the truth.’
‘I have a thick skin and I totally believe the old adage what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It doesn’t bother me what people say, or think. They will always find something to write. It would have been harder for Luis.’
She shook her head and wondered if he had told himself that so many times he actually believed it.
‘What’s happening?’ she asked, sliding down in her seat, feeling conspicuous in her white wedding dress as the car slowed to a crawl. Before Sebastian responded to the question they came to a complete standstill.
‘I’m not sure,’ Sebastian admitted, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel before he opened the window and leaned out. That was when he smelt the smoke...acrid and unmistakable.
‘Wait there.’
She craned her neck as Sebastian, with long-legged ease, exited the car and approached one of the several people who had already left their cars. Some were pointing, and then she saw the plumes of smoke rising from behind the hill ahead. Sabrina’s stomach muscles quivered as she clambered out and, skirt in hand, ran towards Sebastian, oblivious to the stares her outfit was attracting.
Sebastian stopped, suggesting to drivers they pull their cars as far to the side of the road as possible to give access to rescue vehicles, and turned to her. ‘I said to wait inside the car.’
She ignored the statement. ‘What’s happening? Do you think Chloe...?’
He laid both hands on her shoulders; the heavy contact was somehow comforting. ‘There is nothing to be gained from jumping to conclusions. I’m just going to go find out what’s happening. You wait here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’
Several other drivers were already jogging down the road but Sebastian hit the ground running, passing them all in moments.
It didn’t cross her mind to obey his instructions, but by the time she had rounded the bend ahead and the scene of devastation several hundred yards on was revealed there was no sign of him among the wreckage.
Was Chloe in that?
Battered by fear, her heart thudding, the sound of distant sirens in her ears, Sabrina ran on past a large tanker that was slewed across the road, totally blocking it both ways. She stopped and looked around. It was like some sort of war scene you saw on the TV. Some of the people from the concertina of cars either side of the tanker that were lining the road were standing in the road looking dazed and some were stretched out on the floor. Underfoot was the crunch of broken glass, everything grey in the pall of smoke that made her throat ache and eyes sting.
One distant car was already on fire, sending plumes of orange into the air, increasing the stench of smoke and fuel. If the fire reached the tanker... She pushed away the tendrils of panic and tried to think as, icy cold inside, she ran on past the groaning, blood-spattered victims.
The air left her lungs in one long hissing sigh of relief when she spotted Sebastian; even at fifty feet his tall, commanding figure was easy to spot. It was a couple of seconds later before she saw that he was carrying a figure. She had barely registered the green dress when there was a loud explosion, strong enough to knock one of the men standing close to Sebastian off his feet.
Sebastian swayed but managed to keep on his feet, not really registering the pain of the metal shard that sliced through his cheek. It wasn’t until he pushed himself forward that he saw the spark. Before he could brush it away it ignited Chloe’s dress.
He dropped her down on the ground and tore off his jacket, smothering the flames before they took hold. Another man joined him until the fire was extinguished.
Chloe opened her eyes and looked up. ‘Wow, you look awful...is that smell me? Mum is going to be furious about the dress.’
‘It’s OK. You’re OK,’ he said, hoping that it was the truth but in reality he didn’t have a clue.
‘Sebastian!’
The sound was almost drowned out by the whirr of helicopter blades above their heads.
Sebastian turned his head towards the cry and saw her running, stumbling, dodging the obstacles in her path. Sabrina was yelling something but he couldn’t make out the words above the helicopter and roar in his ears.
He got to his feet and swayed; he could make out Sabrina’s face now. See her mouth move, but the words and sounds of sobs and everything else were drowned out by the shrill whine of sirens as a fleet of ambulances and fire engines arrived on the scene en masse.
That was the last thing he heard before the ground came up quite quickly to meet him.
LATER THE SEQUENCE remained blurred in her mind. She remembered seeing Sebastian, then the blood that covered half his face, and she watched him fall, and then in her head it happened again and again until finally she got his name out.
‘Sebastian!’ Her cry sounded that way in her head but came out as a croak as she began to stumble past the debris that littered the area, her progress frustratingly slow across to where he lay—where he lay very still.
Heart drumming, dread like an icy hand around her heart, she knelt down to where he was lying face down, his head turned away from her. One arm was curved above his head, the other trapped under him.
He