The Friendship Pact by Alison James

Author:Alison James [James, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781786819543
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2019-07-02T23:00:00+00:00

If she’s to go to the police station, she’ll have to leave the door on the latch, Lucy thinks, pulling on her jacket and applying some lipstick to counteract her deathly pallor.

But then, one hand on the front door, she hesitates. What exactly will she tell the police. That she’s a prisoner in her own home? Appearing in person at the police station will give the lie to this: she will clearly have left the house under her own steam. No longer locked in. Free to come and go. How could the police take her claim seriously, or do anything but dismiss the incident as a marital spat: a domestic? Taking temporary refuge at the Standishes is a much better idea, and in the morning she will visit her father and plead with him to give her the money for her legal bill.

Lucy looks down in distaste at the phone Denny has left for her, then – because, with no other option, she can’t contemplate leaving it behind – thrusts it to the bottom of her bag. She runs up to the bedroom and grabs clean underwear and a few other essentials, then leaves the house, slamming the front door behind her with an overwhelming sense of relief.

Car headlights temporarily blind her and she stands on the spot, motionless as a hunted animal. The crunch of gravel under tyres sends a shiver of despair through her.

Marcus cuts the engine and jumps out of his car. ‘How the hell did you get out?’

‘You can’t do this!’ Lucy shouts in his face, her saliva landing on his cheek. Her bag clutched to her chest, she swerves round him. Marcus tries to rugby-tackle her, but the element of surprise and her fight-or-flight reflex work in her favour and she dodges him, slipping out onto the pavement and starting to half walk, half run away.

‘Lucinda, please.’ He flaps his arms by his aide in a gesture of helplessness. ‘I’m sorry. Can we please just talk?’

Now several metres away from him, she turns round and shakes her head firmly. ‘Oh no. I’m not going to fall for your tricks again, Marcus. There’s no way I’m going to get locked in again. Never.’

‘Okay, look…’ He selects a key from the bunch on his keyring and unlocks the metal window grilles at the front of the house. Then he tosses the whole bunch in her direction. They land at her feet, gleaming under the street lamp. ‘Have the keys. You can keep hold of them while we talk. And once we’ve talked, if you still want to leave, then go. I won’t try and stop you.’

Lucy narrows her eyes, trying to read his facial expression, but he’s too far away and it’s too dark. She simply doesn’t know if she can trust him any longer. She should just keep going. But she aches with emotional exhaustion and the excess adrenaline is making her legs wobbly. She bends down and picks up the keys. The keyring is shaped

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