Free The Ties That Bind by Erin Kelly

whisper.
    ‘ What ?’ Luke leaped back from the window and sat on the floor.
    ‘I’m sitting in my flat with the lights off while he stands outside on the balcony and screams your name. He thinks you’re in here.’
    Relief, tempered by concern for Viggo, was followed by confusion.
    ‘How does he even know where you live?’ Jem had never shown any interest in the home Luke had once shared with Viggo.
    ‘He must have followed me home from Charmers.’
    ‘He was at Charmers ?’
    ‘Yes, he wouldn’t leave me alone, asking where you’d got to.’
    ‘You didn’t tell him?
    ‘How could I when I don’t even know your address? And when I wouldn’t tell him, he got out a picture of you on his phone and he was walking around the club asking people if they’d seen you like you were a missing person. They threw him out in the end. He was putting people off their drinks.’
    Luke could picture the scene. How awful, for everyone.
    ‘What did he look like? I mean, how did he seem?’
    ‘He looked like shit. He seemed barking mad. He’s obsessed. I mean, you’re not that good in bed.’ Luke managed to laugh. ‘Seriously though, Luke, I wonder if it’s worth you ringing him, just to calm him down. He’s threatening all sorts. I had no idea it was this bad.’ Here Viggo’s voice tripped into a vulnerable tone that Luke had only heard a handful of times in their friendship. ‘I wouldn’t ask if he wasn’t really freaking me out.’
    ‘No, you’re right. It’s not fair on you. OK. Leave it with me.’
    He stared at his phone for a while before ringing Jem’s number. Jem answered it so quickly that he must have had his finger on the screen, but he didn’t speak, just let out a strangulated sob.
    ‘I’ve missed you so much,’ he said.
    Luke visualised his burning books to harden his heart.
    ‘I’m just calling to ask you to leave Viggo alone. He doesn’t know where I am, so it’s no use harassing him.’
    ‘Where are you?’
    ‘Jem, it’s over. OK? Just leave Viggo out of this. It’s got nothing to do with him. For me, please?’
    The sobbing suddenly stopped, leaving Jem’s voice crisp and menacing. ‘I’ll leave him alone if you promise me—’ At that moment a seagull landed on Luke’s windowsill and let out its unmistakable screech. ‘Is that a seagull? Where exactly are—’
    Luke cut the call quickly, as though afraid the bird would speak his address.
    It was another hour before he got up off the floor and then he all but crawled up the stairs to bed. Adrenaline of all the drugs took the longest to wear off, although when it did, the descent into exhaustion was as sheer as a cliff face.

Chapter 11
    He had risen deliciously late. Only a few days away from Jem and the old sleep patterns had come to claim him again. Before getting out of bed, he had reached for his phone and begun his new morning ritual: deleting the dozens of missed calls and texts from unidentified mobile numbers.
    The morning after Viggo’s and Jem’s late-night phone calls, Luke had persuaded the police to block Jem’s number from his phone. Jem, in retaliation, had evidently gone out and bought pay-as-you-go simcards by the armful. Each time a new number appeared, Luke saved it as DON’T ANSWER. Two or three new numbers tried to reach him every day; Luke couldn’t get them all blocked but ironically as Jem continued to pester he downgraded himself from threat to nuisance. The obvious thing was to change his phone number, but the odd freelance commission might still come through, and Luke could no longer afford to turn work down.
    Now Luke sat in the front room with his feet up on the table, rocking back on a hard wooden chair, reading Brighton Rock , filling his ashtray and thinking about where he might go for breakfast, when the door knocker sounded loudly.
    He froze. It couldn’t be Charlene as she was with her dad today. Who else knew he was here? Viggo had his address now, as did Charlene and his mum and