Page 88 of Midnight Racers

I shook my head, drying my eyes again. “Flynn. I knew it was only temporary. We said at the start it was only to scratch an itch.”

She tucked my curls behind my ear. “Until that scratch became something more?” she asked.

“I thought it had until the race yesterday. Dale told him I sold designs to my boyfriend and Craig followed him into the men’s changing rooms.” I leaned my head back against the sofa and stared at the ceiling. “He was quiet all the way home. Then today I saw him with a woman at the hospital, they were going into the maternity unit together.”

“Oh, Charlotte.” Mum hugged me again. “I always hoped that you would find the love you deserve. Men are bastards.”

She spoiled Pixie like a furry grandchild staying for a sleepover, even having a secret stash of catnip in her cupboard.

Around ten that night, Mum’s phone rang, and her gaze met mine when she answered it. “Hey, Jordan. How are you?” Her eyes never left mine. “No, I haven’t been speaking to her today. Do you want me to ring her or call over to her house?”

I could hear the hum of words from the other side.

“Is there something I should know, Jordan? Charlotte is my daughter, and you’re starting to scare me.”

Mum came to sit beside me, her hand finding mine.

“I wasn’t aware someone tried to hurt her. Charlotte tends to not want to worry me.” I rested my head on her shoulder. “I’ll let you know if she turns up. Please keep me in the loop.”

She hung up and turned to stare at me. “Maybe you should start at the beginning, because it sounds like you have more than just a broken heart going on right now.”

“We might need something to eat,” I replied. “It’s a long story.”

She moved around the kitchen, preparing dinner and listening to my story, stopping every so often to grip the edge of the counter and take a deep breath. I left out the part with the dead bodies, stating that Flynn had chased them off into the darkness of the night.

“Maybe I should speak to your father,” she said at the end of my tale of woe.

“And maybe we shouldn’t.” I gave her a grim smile. “Dale is involved in this and Dad has no ability to control him.”

She nodded thoughtfully as she stabbed another sugar snap pea with her fork. “I think we should go and stay in Grandma and Grampa’s house in the country for a while. No one will think to look for us there.”

“Will Dad and Dale not look there if we both go missing?” I asked.

“No, because I told them I sold it a few years ago,” she replied. “Dale needed money and pressured me into selling it, as he said it was his inheritance and he owed money to some dangerous men. I took out a mortgage against this house instead and changed my will accordingly.”

My mouth fell open. She had never said a word about it.

The next few days, we fell into a routine. Mum went to work so Jordan wouldn’t notice a change in her behaviour, and I used her spare laptop instead of my own. She even bought me a burner phone since my phone was still turned off at the bottom of my bag.

By the end of the week, I was still feeling under the weather, and made an appointment to see our family doctor.

“Date of last period,” she said, typing as I told her about my dizzy spells and upset stomach.

I swear if you went to the doctor with a sore ankle, they first thing they would want to know was the date of your last period and the result of you last smear test.

“No idea,” I replied. “I’ve never been regular my entire life.”

She scrolled up through my records, nodding when she confirmed that information. “You’re on birth control?”

“I got a hormone shot a few weeks ago,” I confirmed.

“Okay, sit up on the side of the bed and let me have a look at you.” Doctor Morrow checked my reflexes, and shone her light in my eyes. “Now lie down for me.”

She tugged my leggings down and felt all around my stomach.

“Okay, sit up.”

I pushed myself up and sat on the side of the table. She wandered over to the cupboards at the back of the room and rummaged through them. Ten minutes later, I sat in the chair beside her desk staring at the little white plastic strip that had just made my life implode.

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