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She didn’t think they had heard her at first, but one policeman jogged over, having handcuffed his prisoner to a railing. Leah rambled, trying to explain the situation while holding Rick’s hand in hers. She pointed under the vehicle to the gun.
“He’s my bodyguard. You have to help him,” she pleaded.
“We’ve radioed in for an ambulance, miss,” said the policeman. “Keep him calm.”
Leah tried her best. She spoke soothing words to Rick, stroked his hair, talked about mountains, the crisp cool air and how his lungs would fill up with fresh oxygen. The wheezing remained audible, but his panting grew slower. She couldn’t tell if it was a good or bad sign. Rick’s eyes had been staring at her face as she spoke, unmoving and watery. Then they began to flicker, gradually closing as he fought to stay conscious.
“Please, Rick, don’t go,” said Leah, tearful, panicking at his deteriorating condition. “Stay with me. I love you. You know I do. I have since the first time I saw your shiny black shoes. I will go wherever you go. I don’t care about my money, my job, Liverpool. Just stay with me!” she pleaded, tears cascading down her cheeks.
His body felt heavy in her arms, his motionless legs and arms appeared floppy. His lip was slightly cut and his cheek bruised. He had fought hard and his knuckles had turned red from punching. He had been more than her driver that day, he had been her guardian and protector. The secret role her father had given to him—her bodyguard.
Her long hair flopped over his face and she cried hot desperate tears.
“Leah,” rasped a faint, barely perceivable voice. Flicking her hair away, she looked at his face. Hazel eyes stared back at her, wide open and alive.
“I love you, my beauty,” he said hoarsely. It took all his energy to speak to her and then his eyelids drooped and the hazel was gone.
Epilogue
Leah stared out of the small window of the aeroplane. She could see the lights flashing at the end of the wing, a beacon in the dim morning light. She was leaving behind one life and flying into another. A new start—everything left behind and all she had on the flight was a suitcase of clothes. The ones she had designed and made had been forfeited.
The estate solicitors would sell her house and its contents too, along with her MG. She had resigned from her job, seeing no purpose in keeping it or pretending she would be back. The hardest part had been saying good-bye to her friends, especially Jane.
“Visit me,” Leah had pleaded. “I’ll pay for the ticket.”
“You won’t be able to stop me. Get settled and give me the word and I’ll be over in a shot.” The friends hugged, holding each other tight, mixing tears with laughter.
Leah gripped the armrests, heart thumping hard in her chest. It was a familiar sensation, ever since her attempted kidnap, as she came to terms with the changes in her life. The police had questioned the three Italians. The men had said nothing, not a peep according to the inspector. The police concluded she had been the victim, a wealthy heiress and an easy target for her abductors. They praised her driver, her bodyguard and his actions, a valiant man to take on three thugs.
Leah had said nothing to dissuade them from their conclusion. She had kept quiet about Rick and his connections to the Sicilian underworld and why the men were just as much after him as they were her. She did it to protect Rick, his honour and dignity. There was nothing she wouldn’t do to hide Rick’s past from the authorities.
Her clenched hand drew his attention and he wrapped his over the top, slotting his fingers between hers.
“Good view?” he asked, peering over her shoulder.
“Not yet, cloudy,” she said. “Soon we’ll see the Atlantic Ocean. We’re over Ireland at the moment.”
“No regrets?” he asked. A question he had posed to her many times since that fateful Friday.
“No,” she said firmly. “And don’t ask again!”
He smiled and leaning towards her, kissed her cheek. “Just checking, beauty.”
“It was a joint decision, Rick,” she said, turning away from the window to face him. “A new life in Canada.”
“I’m just… crazy about you, Leah, and that you would give up everything for me,” he said, smiling.
“I sold my shares in the company and now we have the money to do whatever we wish. I will design dresses, perhaps start up my own little business and you can drive your taxi—Vancouver is perfect. We’ll buy that little cabin in the mountains to retreat to on weekends and you can breathe in fresh air and say good-bye to your asthma.”
“I know.” He squeezed her hand tight. “I love hearing your plans. All being well, if I can get this asthma under control, they might let me join the police.”
“Our plans.” Leah chewed her lip. “They won’t come after us, will they?”
“Leah, I kept quiet about my past. I could have blabbed to the police about why those gangsters came after us, but I did
n’t. They have been locked up for assault and will be sent packing back to Sicily eventually. With fortune on our side, nobody will bother with me. I’m just a lowly henchman.”
“Not any longer,” she reminded him. “You have new responsibilities.”
