I shivered harder, covering my ears, wishing I could drown out what he was saying. I drew up my knees and tired to make myself small, into a tiny ball, barely there.
“Rumours about how Grace Lockett likes to forage for toxic mushrooms in the hills, so she can cook her father a good supper. About how her mother went to pieces and took to her bed when she knew what her precious daughter had done.” Tom’s voice got louder and more penetrating, no matter how small I made myself...Even in the darkness, I could hear him smiling around his cruel words.
“Shut up,” I cried, my hands over my ears, shaking my head rapidly between my knees.
“That this very same daughter likes to fluff-up her mother’s pillow – ”
“Shut up! Shut up!” I kicked wildly, screaming, covering my face.
Tom’s laughter felt close and wicked, like it was inside my head. When he finally stopped, the silence was more deafening than the laughter. All the while, the rain came hard against the wind-shield.
“I’ve always accepted you for who you are, you know. It’s you who wouldn’t accept me. Thought you were too good for Tom Stoddard, you stuck-up bitch.” He pulled off the motorway onto a slip-road, before slowing on the hard-shoulder near a host of tall, dark trees.
I looked up from my hands, startled to find we’d completely stopped.
“Why aren’t we moving?” I asked, my eyes flitting around us. We were in a deep lay-by, far enough from the road that even if someone pulled over, they wouldn’t hear my screams. Not until it was too late.
“I’ve had enough of talking,” said Tom, opening his door and stepping into the rain.
When he appeared beside me and flung open my passenger door, I screamed, but the smack from the back of his hand quickly silenced me. He hauled me out of the car and dragged me, kicking and thrashing, into the cluster of trees. I found my voice again as he pulled me along, and screamed as hard as I could, but it only invited another back-handed smack.
“You were my friend,” I said, swallowing the coppery taste of blood. “Please don’t do this.”
“It’s too late for that,” said Tom, finally throwing me down at the base of a tree.
I could see no stars to comfort me behind the thick black rain clouds, or the moon beyond the barren twigs. I kicked and thrashed but he spread open my legs. He unbuckled his trousers and then pulled my knickers down, pinning me with one hand while he did so.
“Don’t do this, Tom,” I begged.
His mouth covered mine, silencing me. His kiss was sickening, brutal, and biting. When he pressed against my opening, I was alarmed, terrified, by my body’s reaction. Despite my terror, my defiance, I was close to the edge, about to tumble over. My body’s betrayal of me drew a sob from deep within my throat. This wasn’t supposed tohappen. I didn’t want this.
“You’ll enjoy this,” he said savagely, his hands holding my jaw, his smile brutal above me. “Crowthorne just broke you in for me.”
I curled my fingers, turning them into claws. At my first opportunity, I would go for his eyes.
But suddenly, he was torn from me, gone from between my legs.
I sat up, scrambling to my feet, to see Nick landing a punch against Tom’s jaw. The cracking sound echoed among the trees. Tom lurched at Nick and delivered punch after punch, but Nick took them as if they were weightless. I edged closer, almost blinded by the darkness. Only the faintest light from a glowing lamp post behind the trees allowed me to see anything.
Nick was larger than Tom, more imposing, and his age offered experience while Tom’s offered agility. They grappled, hitting the forest floor, before Nick got the advantage. He mounted Tom and delivered blow after blow directly to the face, each thump sounding wetter than the last.
I should have pawed at Nick, begging him to stop, despite what Tom had been about to do to me. I knew any decent, moral woman would instinctively want to stop one man from killing another, no matter what he’d done.
But I had no such instinct.
I watched, fascinated, as Tom’s limbs went ever more limp, giving up their fight. Nick paused, his chest heaving with every laboured breath.
“Did you think I would let you touch her, you filth?” Nick asked through bared teeth. He held Tom around histhroat. A hideous wheezing came from Tom’s bloodied mouth.
“She’s...murderer.” Tom managed to force out the words, followed by the gargle of blood in his throat. “Killed...them both...”
Nick glanced at me over his shoulder. He looked back at Tom and dealt him a final blow with his sore and bloodied fist. Tom shuddered beneath him, the gargling sound increasing, coming from within his chest, now. It rattled and churned like a drain backing up. It was a new sound for me. A fascinating sound.
“A turncoat to the last,” said Nick.
My body pulsed in all the places it shouldn’t. I crept nearer, closer, wanting to see Tom’s face. When I did, I gasped. It was red, sickeningly bloodied, and swollen beyond recognition. Nick retrieved something from his coat pocket and, hunching over him, began winding it around Tom’s neck.
“What are youdoing?” I hissed, looking nervously around us. The forest was desolate. We were alone, but still, I was afraid he would be caught.
