‘C’mon dude, let’s go.’ Nick sounded irritable.
‘In a minute.’ James never moved his gaze from mine. ‘Sarah, as I assume you’ve now missed your bus, would you like to join us for a drink?’
And that was it. Despite Nick’s grumblings, I went to the pub with them, and James and I had been pretty much inseparable from then on. Within months we’d been discussing our future; within a year we’d bought the house and moved in together. And it was good. Really good.
The disadvantage, of course, was that Nick was James’s oldest and closest friend, so I’d not only had to put up with him at work, but at barbecues, Friday night drinks and dinner parties, along with his endless string of short-term girlfriends.
He knew how to push all my buttons, and never lost any opportunity to antagonise me. And now I had to travel with him, no longer with James as a buffer to stop us from killing each other.
A thick file thudded onto my desk. ‘Angela has put together this package of all the significant media about Ford from the last couple of years,’ Katrina said. ‘Get everything you need from here, then go home, pack and start studying up. Your flight leaves at six thirty tomorrow morning. Don’t forget to email me every day with your progress.’
‘No problem,’ I said, banishing the Nick problem from my head.
‘Look, Burrowes, I’ll be honest with you. I’m not too thrilled about this situation, to put it mildly. But this story is big and I can’t afford to let it go. And your encounter with Ford could be to your advantage, especially if he still thinks you don’t know who he is. If you can pull it off, there’ll be a hefty bonus in it for you. Plus, I’ll give you a place on my team of journos.’
I would have thrown my arms around her right then and there if Katrina were the kind of person one could hug without risking one’s life. A real journalist at last! And with a promotion like that, I might even be able to keep up with my mortgage repayments.
‘But I’ve got to tell you,’ she went on, ‘I’m putting my trust in you here—not to mention a whole lot of money. If you don’t get this story, you won’t have a job to come back to. So don’t fuck it up, OK?’
CHAPTER THREE
The cool whiteness of the airport did nothing to soothe my panic as I rushed over to the check-in counter. I was dangerously close to the ninety-minute international flight cut-off and my suitcase weighed a ton. I joined the endless line of travellers that snaked between the ribbon partitions, swearing under my breath.
Just as I was beginning to fully comprehend how badly Katrina was going to kill me for missing my flight, a woman behind one of the counters called out, ‘Is anybody travelling to Barcelona today? Barcelona?’
‘Yes! Yes!’ I shrieked, waving my hand in the air.
She smiled and beckoned to me, and I dragged my suitcase over to her.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ came a voice from my right.
Nick was standing at the next counter. I groaned internally. Five o’clock in the morning and he’d already managed to piss me off.
‘You’re not planning to lug that thing across Europe, are you?’ He eyed the suitcase with a sardonic smile.
I gave him a withering look and turned back to the counter, handing over my booking confirmation and passport.
‘What’ve you got in there, beauty girl, a year’s supply of make-up?’
The suitcase almost wrenched my arm out of its socket as I hoisted it onto the luggage belt. ‘I don’t wear make-up.’
‘You’d better not expect me to carry that for you.’
I ignored him as the woman behind the counter looped a luggage tag through the handle of my suitcase and handed me my boarding pass.
‘You’ll be stopping in Singapore, but your luggage is checked through to Barcelona,’ she said. ‘Your flight boards through gate two at five forty-five. Enjoy your flight, Ms Burrowes.’
‘Thank you.’ I slung my satchel over my shoulder and walked away without a backwards glance.
Nick’s steps echoed in the wide hall as he caught up to me. ‘Sleep in this morning, did we?’
I shot him a dirty look and kept walking.
‘I don’t mean to labour the point, but what were you thinking bringing that huge suitcase? We’re not going on an international shopping spree. We’ll need to move quickly from place to place.’
We reached the security checkpoint, which gave me the chance to continue ignoring him. I removed the laptop from my satchel and placed it in one of the white plastic trays along with my passport and boarding pass.
‘A suitcase that size is a liability.’ Nick dumped his bag on the conveyor belt and followed me through the metal detector. ‘I think you should leave it at the hotel in Barcelona and travel with the smaller bag.’
I glared at him. I don’t know what annoyed me more—the criticism or the fact that what he said made sense. ‘Clearly you didn’t get the memo. I don’t care what you think.’
To my irritation, my remark seemed to cause him no end of amusement.
‘You could just take my advice. You obviously have no idea what you’re doing.’
‘Advice from you? I’d rather gouge out my eyeballs with a toothpick.’ I stuffed the laptop back in my bag and stormed off.
Nick chuckled to himself as he joined me in the long line waiting to order coffee. I consulted my itinerary and worked out that I’d be spending a total of thirty-five hours in his company. And that was before we even got to Barcelona.
Jesus Christ. Why hadn’t I brought sleeping pills?
As soon as the drinks trolley rolled past, Nick ordered a scotch and soda.
‘It’s seven o’clock in the morning,’ I said.
He shrugged. ‘It’s free.’
I rolled my eyes and got out the
