“What!” she grabbed for his phone just as it rang again.
He handed it to her willingly, then walked over to where his food sat.
“Hello?”
“Katie! Thank God!” Her father’s familiar voice sounded distant. Hearing him for the first time in over a year did something to her. She realized what kind of pain he must have gone through, what he must be going through now.
“Dad?” She walked to the window, trying to control her emotions. There was a buzzing in the back ground and she hoped the reception would be better by the window. “Dad, can you hear me?”
“Yes, honey. I’m so glad to hear that you’re okay. We’re on our way there. Our flight lands in less than two hours. Where are you?”
“We’re just outside of Ioannina; we missed the flight to Italy.” She didn’t think that worrying her father with all the small details would gain her or him anything. She noticed that Jason’s eye brows shot up at her small omission.
“What’s all this about me being kidnapped?”
“Probably just someone’s sick joke. Ric and I will land soon. Honey, get to Rome as quickly as you can, and please be careful.” She heard her dad say something, most likely to her brother, then he was back, “Ric says to stay there, we’re going to try to come to you.”
“No, Dad,” she said, knowing it wasn’t safe where they were, that the men were looking for them. Jason had told her it was only another few hours to Igoumenitsa, and from there they could grab the ferry to Italy. They had plans to head out first thing in the morning. “We’ll meet you in Rome in…”
She looked over at Jason, and he said, “Around three days, just to be safe.”
“We’ll meet you in Rome in three days. I’ll give you a call then.”
“Okay, just stay safe and try to stay in contact, okay?”
“Sure, Dad. Give Ric my love.” She closed the phone and started pacing the floor.
Now she was feeling guilty. She hadn’t even called her father once in the last year. She’d missed Christmas, his birthday, father’s day, her birthday. What kind of daughter had she been over the last year?
She had called and left a message for her brother Ric once, just after she’d arrived in Europe. It was on the day he’d married Roberta Stanton. Roberta had been the police officer assigned to help her brother find out who had murdered his assistant and stolen a bunch of artwork from his art galleries. She felt bad that she hadn’t attended their wedding, but she had known her mother would be there and she couldn’t handle seeing her.
She had apologized in the message for not being there for them, but explained how she’d needed more time to work things out. She loved her brother. Knowing he was the only one who would stand by her had made her want to distance herself from him even more. Finding out that he was her half-brother didn’t change the way she felt about him.
She’d cried that night after leaving the message for him. She knew that her brother had found happiness with Roberta and was very happy for them both. But then the sadness had consumed her, and she found herself sinking into the darkness of her mind again. So the next morning she’d moved on to a new destination on her trip. Exploring and meeting the locals was keeping her mind from her family troubles.