Behind the Film Star's Smile by Kate Hardy

Author:Kate Hardy [Hardy, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781460328965
Google: a8tCAgAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00FTQ1IEC
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2014-04-01T04:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

ON FRIDAY JESS was taking Baloo for a walk in the park when she felt a tug on her shoulder; acting purely on instinct, she grabbed the top of her bag and looked round. A young lad in a hoodie was tugging on the strap of her bag.

He honestly thought she was just going to let him mug her, in broad daylight, in the middle of the park? ‘Get off!’ she yelled, expecting him to drop the strap of her bag and run off.

To her shock, he produced a knife. ‘Give me your bag,’ he demanded.

Her stomach turned to water. So he wasn’t just an opportunist thief who could be scared off by attention being drawn to him, then. And, from the slurred sound of his voice, he was taking some kind of drug that clearly made him feel invincible. He’d have no hesitation in sticking that knife straight into her.

Give him the bag.

That would be the sensible thing to do.

But the bag had her phone in it. With photos of Matt and Comet. Texts from Matt that she hadn’t been able to bear to delete.

She couldn’t lose them. Especially not today.

‘I said, give me the bag,’ he snarled again.

Baloo barked, then growled at him; he turned on the dog and kicked her hard in the ribs. Baloo yelped and hit the ground.

And then Jess’s police training kicked in. Everything went into slow motion, as if she were wading through treacle. The next thing she knew, the mugger was on the floor with his arm twisted between his shoulder blades, the knife was safely out of his reach, and her knee was pressed into the small of his back.

‘You’d better hope my dog’s all right,’ she snarled. ‘If you’ve hurt her...’

It would be oh, so easy to pull his arm that little bit tighter and snap the bone. To hurt him as he’d hurt her dog. To grab his hair and keep smacking his head into the ground. To hurt him in revenge for all the thugs like him who hurt people—thugs like the ones who’d beaten Comet and left Matt to bleed to death.

So, so easy.

And so, so wrong.

‘Someone call the police,’ she yelled. She glanced over at Baloo, who was sitting beside her, shaking.

‘It’s all right, sweetheart,’ she soothed. Please let Baloo be all right. Please don’t let the thug have broken her ribs or caused internal bleeding.

Again, she had to resist the urge to grind the mugger’s face into the dirt and snap a bone or two.

People crowded round her. She was aware of people offering to help, to take over from her, but she wasn’t letting the mugger go or risk the chance of him escaping. She wanted him cuffed and charged. And she wanted him stopped in this way of life, before he really hurt someone.

‘Is this his?’ one of the bystanders asked, bending towards the knife.

‘Yes. Don’t touch it,’ Jess warned. ‘It’s evidence and we don’t want his fingerprints compromised.’

‘What, you’re a pig?’

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