But he got lucky. The hounds surrounded him, protecting him from the angry riders. Precious minutes passed, and the fox got away.
I laid a hand over my thumping heart. My bedroom disappeared as Rae escaped into the woods, and my senses filled with earth and adrenaline. I ran each step with him and horror filled every facet of me when the quad bikes roared into the fray.
The rest of the blog post passed in a blur. I reached the end and was off my bed before I could take another shaky breath. The ladder was a pole as I slid down to the second floor. Dom was coming out of Lucky’s bedroom. He looked alarmed to see me descending from my attic lair so abruptly, but I ignored him and ran downstairs.
I had a car in the garage, an old Golf I’d been tinkering with in my spare time. It barely had an engine, let alone an MOT, but freedom rushed me as I burned onto Tottenham’s busy streets.
For the first time in forever, there was somewhere Ineededto be.
Chapter Seven
Rae
“I don’t need your bed, Meg. I’m fine now.”
Megan clicked her teeth and slipped another pillow behind me. “Nonsense. Drey says you need to take it easy, and you can’t do that in a freezing cold tent.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her the rickety trailer she and Fletch lived in wasn’t much warmer—or dryer—so I let her carry on mothering me and went back to my work keeping the blog updated, something I’d let slip while we’d been busy preparing for last weekend’s big hunt. I’d uploaded my report on that already, but I had something else to say too. Something that went beyond our simple message ofdon’t kill foxes.
…On Saturday morning, a couple of us joined the fringes of the hunting party. It was a public event—no one could stop us. When the master of the hunt saw us, he exchanged glances with the police dotted around the crowds and quickly changed the tack of his rousing speech.
“This is a trail hunt,” he proclaimed. “Clive has been up since dawn laying it.”
He dragged forward one of his terrier men—a portly fella who couldn’t walk to the pub, let alone hike twenty miles across the countryside to set a trail vast enough to entertain this hunt.
The policemen bought it, but we didn’t, and we made our feelings clear. Peaceful monitoring has always been at the heart of sabbing. If a hunt abides by the law, we’re happy to observe and report, but to date, it’s been three years since a hunt in this county completed a genuine trail hunt.
Illegal hunting is alive and well in Bedfordshire, and the police—
“Rae?”
I jumped. “What?”
Fletch grinned. “Stay here, mate. We’ve got company.”
He disappeared before I could ascertain if it was the good or the bad kind of company.Dick.Moving hurt like a bitch and I had no desire to go tramping in the dark unless it involved fuckhot sex or a decent dinner.
Neither seemed likely, but something in the air drove me off Meg and Fletch’s bed and down the steps of their trailer. I limped across the yard towards the small cluster at the gate. Meg, Fletch, Sprig, even grumpy Drey was out of his tent. They were gathered around something—someone. I hadn’t seen Flynn in a few weeks. Perhaps he’d returned with the tools he’d promised to filch from the construction sites he laboured on. Or maybe it was Dana. I missed sharing my tent with her.
As I got closer, a voice I couldn’t quite place reached me, muted by the night. A complex mix of cockney and brogue—a heady combination I’d only heard on two occasions, both in recent memory.
My heart skipped a beat, but I still couldn’tsee.Frustration boiled over and I limped harder, tender cartilage rubbing sore bones. A pained gasp escaped me, and the bodies in front of me parted. Smokey eyes met mine and an odd peace settled over me.
The new face in the crowd was Cash.
***
I couldn’t hear what they were saying. After the introductions, Meg and Fletch had hustled Cash to the fire to talk about shit the rest of us weren’t privy to, but I hadn’t been able to make myself go back to the trailer.
Instead, I’d sunk onto a discarded oilcan and I was still there, watching and waiting, searching for any sign that Cash gave two fucks about me, all the while trying not to vomit as the pain of being upright ran riot through my body.Idiot. He’s here for the cause, not you.But was he? Maybe he’d come to complain about me banging on his door, invading his life. Worse, perhaps he really did think our first encounter had been by design.
More nausea licked my guts. The coincidence that had led us to this point was fucking wild, but it was real. The thought of Cash believing otherwise left me feeling like I’d snorted a bag of the worst whizz—a habit I’d left behind when I’d taken up sabbing.
Across the yard, Fletch glanced at me. His keen gaze seemed to mean something, but I wasn’t sure what. Cash had his back to me, his shoulders slumped as he leaned over the fire, poking it idly with a stick. God, I wanted to see his face. Needed it. Craved it. Anything to pour water on the uncertainty burning through me.
Finally, Meg got up and came over. Sprig wasn’t far away, and she beckoned him closer. “He isn’t joining us,” she said before either of us could ask. “But he’s offered support—money, contacts. Maybe some equipment if he can get his hands on it covertly. He’s also got a van we can use. Rae, do you think you can drive?”
“What?”
