Audrey Cross slipped out of her heels and rubbed her feet after dropping her shopping bags by the door. She'd bought a new bag and a pair of shoes she'd been eyeing for weeks—pink heels with diamond straps. No, they weren't suitable for the weather, but she was going to wear them anyway.
She pulled on the new shoes to show Felix, not that he was interested in fashion, she simply wanted to show off her slender legs.
"Nice," he muttered, eyes flitting away from his screen for only a second. As Audrey took a seat at his side, tucking her legs beneath her, he closed the laptop and turned to face her. "Am I a murderer?"
"Well." Audrey thought about it for a moment, trying to summon a valid argument for his abhorrent behaviour. "It depends if you view the unborn foetus as alive or not. I think you did them a favour if I'm honest. None of them would have had a decent life, child included."
Felix nodde
"Pick a route that avoids the toll-roads," Mike asked. "I hate the toll-roads.""Right," Adam muttered as he fiddled with the satellite navigation on his phone.A blur of vehicles whizzed past as he struggled to get a 4G connection strong enough to modify the route. The roads were fairly busy for a Tuesday evening—almost rush hour levels of traffic."Driving around Birmingham is horrible enough as it is," Mike said with a heavy sigh. All he’d done since being lumbered with the job was moan about the ring-roads and round abouts, as if slagging them off was going to make them any less of a pain."I'll do my best," Adam said, biting the nail of his thumb with his healthy, non-painful teeth. His brother's nerves were becoming infectious.It wasn't just the terrible road system playing on his mind, but the ten thousand pounds worth of cocaine stored under the paint c
Audrey stared at the bags of white powder, mouth agape. It felt to her as though hours had passed, though it was probably more like seconds.She'd helped to carry the very same drugs from her Porsche to Riley’s car and later watched as Felix’s tall friend loaded them into the back of Mike's van. As ordered by Felix, she had taken photographs to share with the authorities and she'd been so discreet. There was zero chance either of those cretins had noticed her filming them.She had watched them drive away minutes later, van fully loaded with the incriminating evidence.So how was it now back inside her garage?It made no sense.Someone had taken the drugs from the back of the van and placed them back inside her home without the cameras or alarms going off. They would have to be invisible—a ghost.'That's silly,'she scolde
Alice searched through the kitchen cupboards after she opened the sugar pot and found it empty."Here." Mike pulled out the drawer beneath the knife and fork one. It was full of those little sugar packets they gave out in fast food places and coffee shops. "We haven't bought sugar since mum left."Alice frowned and chuckled to herself as she began to rip open the packages and refill the pot."I think they should be here soon," Jamie said, panic in his voice. "Why aren't they here yet?"Zoe was sat on the back of the sofa by the bay windows. Every time a car passed, she would turn and peek through the curtains."Oh, shit, who's that guy?" Zoe muttered to herself. When she turned back to face the others, her eyes were wide with fear. "There's some dude with a gun.""Huh?" Adam recoiled. He looked as though he was searching for something, but Alice knew he didn'
Adam picked up a piece of glass and winced as it got wedged in his flesh."Come here." Zoe tutted, grabbed his hand looked up at him with a thin smile. "You're always so clumsy with your big sausage fingers.""I don't have sausage fingers," Adam griped. He sat back and let Zoe clear away the glass and blood. She pulled a plaster from her bag—Zoe had everything you could ever want or need in her giant shoulder bag—and wrapped it over the cut.He looked at her. Her layers of contoured foundation, thickly caked lip gloss and butterfly-like fake eyelashes. She'd always been considered the hottest girl in school, and yes, she did have an amazing body, but he'd never thought she might be intelligent also."That was pretty quick thinking, logging onto your channel like that," Adam said."Well, that was why I hid," she said, an air defensively. "I didn't want them to see me f
After using her not-very-sharp memory to find her way to Riley's street, Alice found herself at a loss. She looked up and down at the pebble dashed houses and arid lawns, but they all looked the same.'Why didn't I take a mental note of the number?'she asked herself. It was either 776 or 667 or something similar.'It definitely had a 7 and a 6 or maybe a 9...''...well it definitely had numbers in it,'she mentally teased herself, rolling her eyes.After wandering about for ten minutes she walked past a woman who looked vaguely familiar. It took a few moments for the memory to click since the woman was neither shouting nor waving a rolling pin this time around."Oh, erm," Alice flagged the woman. "Do you know which number Riley lives at?""Yeah, it's 699," the woman told her. "Two doors down from Jimmy Carlson.""Rig
Alice stared into Riley's eyes, unsure what to do.Her body was telling her to rip off her clothes and throw herself at him, but was it what either of them truly wanted? Or were these merely the lust fuelled urges of two people who'd survived a trauma together?She felt his fingers pulled around the bottom of her T-shirt and lifted her arms to let him slip the clothes from her body. Once her shirt was a messy pile at her feet, he reached behind and pinged her bra. Her breasts shifted and bounced out of the cups as they fell forward. Instinctively she raised a hand to cover them as the bra dropped to the floor.Riley chuckled lightly as he pushed her grip away, replacing them with his larger hands. Her nipples became instantly hard as he pinched them between his thumbs and index fingers.She moaned gently as he squeezed and took a step forward, pressing her back up against the wall.&
When Alice awoke, the first thing she remembered was Riley's words:'This is a great way to get over my ex.'It felt like someone was kicking her in the stomach.Then she remembered Felix and the taser and she really felt sick. She rolled over and tried to move but couldn't. Chains rattled as she struggled, but it was too dark to see her surroundings.Using the sounds and her sense of touch, she eventually figured out her wrists were bound by a metal chain that was wrapped around a metal pole several times. She patted the soft and springy floor beneath her and guessed she'd been placed on a mattress or bedding of some description. it was giving off that sour water smell, as though it had been sitting in the damp for some time.She filled her lungs, preparing to shout, and noticed how cold and damp the air felt in her mouth.'Am I underground?'sh
When Alice woke up, her arms were numb from having to sleep in an unfamiliar position. She had no idea if it was morning or how much time had passed because of the darkness. It was so thick she could barely see her hand in front of her face.Shivering, she rubbed her arms before feeling about her surroundings in the hope he'd been kind enough to leave a blanket.He hadn't.'No big surprise there,'Alice thought.She was hungry, thirsty, and cold, but most of all, she was afraid. Afraid of slowly dying in this cold and dark tomb.Her heart jumped when she heard a clang in the distance. Could it be Felix returning? And would he feed her or kill her?After a moment she heard footsteps approaching but as she strained her ears, the sound dissipated.'Did I imagine it?'"Felix? Felix