Page 75 of The Trouble With Love

‘Then I had better hurry, hadn’t I?’ He was still helmeted, so the words were slightly muffled by his restricted cheeks, but his visor was open to show that he didn’t look even slightly worried. ‘And you had better stay out of my way.’

‘No.’ I went to push him away from the drugs but he was solid and wrapped in leather and my full-body charge just ricocheted off him and left me sliding through the mud. ‘I’m not letting you go.’

A sigh and the final pack slid into the pocket. ‘You have no choice.’ And he turned around and hit me hard on the side of the head with his fist, almost unthinkingly. As I sprawled down, vision clouding, I saw him start to zip up his jacket and head back towards the fallen bike and I had the sudden, horrific vision of these blokes getting away with it, of Kai’s face if he realised he’d failed to stop them. I grabbed and got hold of an ankle clad in neopropylene and, as my vision started to clear, I pulled.

Big Ginge slithered in the mud and went down, knees first, onto the ground. Packages fell from his jacket and he swore again, began groping around trying to replace them, while I held on to his leg and kept pulling in an attempt to stop him from moving. He started to kick, loosening my hold and catching me in the ribs with his foot. Breathless, I let go and he kicked me again, rolling himself until he could get purchase to stand. ‘Stupid fucking women,’ he stood over me now. I tried to get another hold on him but the mud sucked me down and my buzzing head and blurry vision meant I couldn’t see well enough to get a proper grip. I shook my head but it made things worse, the bushes and trees that lined the sides of the depression began to swing and nausea grabbed at my stomach. My heart had begun to pound, panic-fuelled, now that the adrenaline of the chase had worn off, and I was beginning to realise that I might have made a really stupid mistake. ‘Should have just shot you when we had the chance.’

And then he kicked me in the head. The world went black and all I could smell and taste was blood but I could still hear, and what I heard was a sudden scratchy dashing sound, a snap and my ginger captor screaming ‘No, get it off, get it away!’ and then a low, growling, grunting sound. After a pause so long that I wondered if I’d passed out, there was the sound of running feet and lots of voices in a cacophony of yelling, and snarling, but the kick wasn’t followed up with any more bodily violence, so I curled myself into a little ball of pain around my aching head and let myself drop into unconsciousness.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

‘Wow.’ Isobel gently touched the side of my face. ‘Does it hurt?’

‘Only when I breathe. Or eat.’ Two days had seen the bruising turn from red to black, one of my eyes was still swollen shut and my jaw looked as though a three year old had been let loose with a painting set on it, but I was getting better. ‘Or sit, stand, lie down and talk.’

‘Oh, Holly.’

‘And here’s the hero of the hour!’ Even Vivienne looked pleased as Megan entered, dragged by Rufus. ‘If Rufus hadn’t got loose and gone chasing after you, who knows what might have happened?’

I could have sworn that Rufus winked at me, but since I could only see out of one eye myself I might have been mistaken.

‘None of us knew where you’d gone, you just vanished off the face of the earth.’ Eve said. ‘Dav — Kai was quite beside himself. He wanted the police to leave those thugs and go looking for you. Although, quite probably, he might also have wanted them to arrest me for flouting the unspoken rule of motherhood, “You shall not cover your adult son in kisses, however much you may have feared he’d been killed.” I thought he’d die of embarrassment. Where is he, by the way? I thought he was coming with you?’

‘He’s down at the police station giving a statement.’ I took an almost-warm cup of tea with my slightly trembling hands. ‘I wish I was there with him.’

Eve gave a smile that was three parts relief to two parts romance. ‘You two are so in love, it’s wonderful.’

‘Actually I want to hear how he’s talking his way out of all this. He’s going to be generating more bullshit than a field of cows seeing the vet arrive.’ I let a slow, warm smile spread onto my face. ‘He’s really great in action, Eve.’

Megan gave a filthy snigger. ‘And you’ve seen him in action a lot, haven’t you, Holl?’

‘Shut up.’

The telephone rang and Vivienne answered it, while the rest of us emptied the cooling teapot and ate the supplied biscuits. Isobel touched my arm.

‘Holly, there’s something I need to tell you.’

‘Go on then.’

She looked quickly over her shoulder. Eve was grinning to herself, a grin that was entirely unwarranted by the choice of soggy options left in the unwelcoming biscuit tin. Megan was still snorting the kind of laugh which comes with over-furnished comfort and crap snacks, and Vivienne was busy exclaiming into the phone. ‘Not here. Somewhere private.’

I raised eyebrows. Isobel’s cheeks had a pink dab in the centre, like embarrassment, but her eyes were shining. Her hair gleamed more than usual and the spots had almost gone. ‘Why? What is it?’

A coy, sideways look and her mouth opened, but our conversation was severed by Vivienne shooting towards the television set in the corner of the room.

‘Shh!’

We all looked at one another. Being hushed like a room full of five-year-olds wasn’t really in our brief.

‘Why?’ Megan asked.

‘That was my daughter on the phone.’ Vivienne fumbled with a remote control, fiddling with buttons, trying to find a channel. ‘My husband . . . my ex-husband, is on TV.’ The screen flipped between yet another Top Gear repeat and a cookery programme.

‘He’s the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car?’ Megan looked confused.

‘No . . . damn thing . . . Channel Four. It’s always hard to find on this set.’ Vivienne pressed a few more buttons and the graphics of a new quiz show flicked up. ‘“Cash for Questions”. I’ve never seen it.’

We watched as the camera panned the audience. ‘Which one is him?’ Isobel leaned close to the screen.

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