Hannah had ditchedher normal smart, casual look for jeans and running shoes and had bundled her hair in a cap.The biggest pair of sunglasses she could find covered most of her face.This wouldn’t stop Stephen from recognizing her, but hopefully she could reach South Africa before he realized she was gone.
As she walked toward the plane, she looked surreptitiously around her, but there was no sign of the telltale prickling on the back of her neck that always warned her when Stephen was around, and she was praying she would be able to get on the plane without anybody finding out.
She’d been racking her brain trying to think of a place where she could hide when she found a brochure in her handbag about Jacobsbaai, a tiny village on the west coast of the Western Cape in South Africa.She had been there for a shoot about a year ago and had fallen in love with the quiet, pretty little village with its whitewashed houses, dirt roads, and cobalt blue sea.
Somewhere close to the sea, that was where she wanted to be.She had been away from a beach and the ocean for far too long.
A phone call later, she’d booked the holiday house she’d stayed in before.It was a big house, and although it was possible for her to rent only the loft part of the house, she wanted to be alone and had taken the whole place.She had to think, had to make a plan to make sure Stephen didn’t hurt those she loved.
Nobody could know she was back in South Africa, even though everything inside of her urged her to phone her mother.Darryn would find out and she wanted to make sure he stayed as far away from her as possible.Just the possibility that something could happen to him because of her had her breaking out in a cold sweat.
She rented a car at the airport to drive to Jacobsbaai so she wouldn’t have to use her own car.Stephen was bound to know her license plate…he seemed to know everything.She’d also taken all the cash from the safe in her flat in Paris.Credit cards could be traced and Stephen seemed to know exactly what she was doing every minute of every day.
Chapter Nine
When Darryn gotoff the plane in Cape Town late that evening, his two other brothers were waiting for him.
Damn it to hell and back.He had a hole inside him the size of the wide open spaces of the Great Karoo, his head wanted to explode trying to figure out where the hell Hannah could be, and now he had to face the inquisition!
He glared at them as he walked closer.“What are you doing here?”
“We have news,” David said.“But let’s get to Rosa’s; everyone else is there guarding the phone.”
“I’m not interested in any news, thank you.I’m going home.”He grunted, trying to walk around them.
David grabbed his arm.“Will you stop being an ass and come with us?”his normally mild brother barked out.
“You’re upset, we all are.Hannah is one of us and she’s in trouble,” Dale added.“Let’s go.”
Seething with resentment, frustration, and anger, Darryn followed them.He wanted to punch something, and his brothers looked like good targets at the moment.
“I’m sick with worry, don’t you get it?Why the hell did she leave without saying anything to me?When I heard she was in danger, I flew over a bloody continent to get to her, and what does she do?She bolts.Damnit, what am I supposed to think?”he spat out.
Dale slapped him on the back.“Maybe you should start your sentences with Hannah and not ‘I’—might help you lose those blinders you have on.”
Darryn ground his teeth as they neared David’s car.
“I have my own car here,” he mumbled.
“You go with David, I’ll drive your car,” Dale said.He held out his hand “Keys.”
“I can drive my own damn car!”Darryn said as he took out his keys.
“Get in and shut up.”David growled.“Save your breath for later—you have to explain to her sisters and mother why you couldn’t wait to leave Paris.”
“I—” Darryn began hotly.
Dale grabbed his keys.“There’s that ‘I’ again,” he said mildly.“Where is your car?”
“That’s right,” Darryn said, “because I’m the one—”
“Where did you park your car?”Dale asked again.
“I—”
“Tell Dale and get in the damn car.We’re wasting time,” David snarled and started the car.
Cussing, Darryn got in.Bloody hell, nobody seemed to be interested in how he was feeling.He wasn’t the one who walked away!
