The Last Days of Summer by Vanessa Ronan

Author:Vanessa Ronan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241974964
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2016-01-18T05:00:00+00:00

They are almost to the truck when he grabs her wrist.Hard. Joanne’s walked up ahead of them, and Katie instinctively gasps to scream when she feels his hands upon her. But one of his hands is over her mouth, and even if she were to scream, she realizes, no one but her little sister is around to hear her. There’s no one out there for miles.

‘Don’t scream,’ he snarls, ‘or I will hurt again.’ His breath is hot on her ear, her neck. She can feel his words as he speaks them, his lips are so close to her ear.

Ahead of them, Joanne bends down to prod a crayfish hole with a stick. Jasper slowly removes his hand from Katie’s mouth. She still wants to scream, but she swallows the urge back down. His other hand still grips her wrist tightly. She can feel his short, jagged nails cutting into her. She tries to twist away, but his grip holds strong. ‘You’re hurting me,’ she whispers, still trying to twist away.

‘Good,’ he growls, his voice still low, his breath still hot upon her. ‘You ’n’ I need to talk.’

Her heartbeat quickens. ‘ ’Bout what?’

‘ ’Bout what the fuck happened to my face last night,’ he snarls. ‘What the fuck else do you think?’

His nails dig deeper into the soft flesh inside her wrist. Her heart pounds inside her chest. She wants to cry out. ‘I don’t know anythin’,’ she stammers.

‘Bullshit.’ His words spit at her. She can feel the heat of the sun warm upon her face.

She turns slightly to look at him. His eyes have gone dark with rage. ‘Uncle Jasper, I swear,’ she stammers, ‘I don’t know nothin’.’

‘You know who was there. I’d bet good money, too, you knew they was comin’.’ His eyes judge her, and she can see he finds her lacking. ‘It’s a shame,’ he hisses, ‘something so pretty as you can never be trusted.’

‘Are you gonna hurt us?’ Her throat feels tight and dry. She has to struggle to get her words out. She looks up ahead to where her sister still bends over the crayfish hole prodding it with a stick. At that moment Joanne glances at them and waves, then looks back down. She must not have seen, Katie thinks, how he’s holding my wrist. She wonders where her mama is. Thinks of Josh.

‘I would never hurt her,’ he says gruffly. ‘You keep actin’ like we ain’t family ’n’ I can’t make you that same promise. Now,’ he says, ‘you know who all was there last night, don’t you?’

She nods.

‘ ’N’ you knew they was comin’ for me, didn’ you?’ He twists her arm back behind her, his nails still cutting into her flesh.

‘Yes,’ she gasps, ‘I knew.’

‘Good,’ he says, ‘that’s progress.’ He twists her arm further behind her back and she gasps again, just a little, at the pain. ‘Now,’ he whispers, lips so close to her ear that she can feel his breath still, can feel his words upon her,

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