Free Snatched by Unknown Page B

look at him.
    Exhaling wearily after a while, Terry let go of her and, shoving the stairwell door open, headed down to the ground floor. Going out into the cold night air, he sat down on a partially sheltered bench and rolled a cigarette. He hadn’t wanted to leave the ward, but there was no way he could go back in there just yet. He was too ashamed.
    Catching up with him a few seconds later, Leanne struck an aggressive hands-on-hips stance and glared down at him.
    ‘Not gone yet?’ Terry said coolly, knowing from experience that she was probably expecting him to apologise for shouting at her.
    ‘Is that what you want?’ she demanded, her breath pluming out around her head. Scowl deepening when he gave an unconcerned shrug, she said, ‘Right, you’ve had your chance, but you obviously care more about him than you do about me, so I’m off. And I’m not coming back.’
    Turning on her heel, Leanne stomped down the path towards the pavement. Pausing there, she looked each way along the road in search of a cab. Hissing, ‘ Shit! ’ when she saw that the road was deserted, she closed her eyes. Then, taking a deep breath, she turned and marched back to Terry with her nose in the air and her hand outstretched.
    ‘Keys.’
    Lighting his cigarette, Terry took a slow drag on it. ‘Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that?’
    ‘I said I want the keys,’ she repeated through clenched teeth. ‘You want me to go, so give me the keys. Unless you’d rather I walked home and got myself raped?’
    ‘Yeah, right,’ Terry snorted. ‘Who’s going to try it on with you when you’ve got a face like that on you?’
    ‘Just give me the keys.’
    ‘Can’t.’ He shrugged. ‘The car’s not running right.’
    ‘Funny how it was fine when you needed it,’ Leanne sniped. Rolling her eyes when he still didn’t move, she gritted her teeth and said, ‘All right, please .’
    Taking the keys out of his pocket, Terry held them out, saying, ‘See, you can act like a grown up when you want to.’
    Snatching them from him, Leanne told him to go and fuck himself and walked abruptly away. Hearing his boots scraping against the concrete behind her and thinking that he was coming after her, she started running and didn’t stop until she reached the car. Jumping in, she slammed the locks down and tore out of the parking lot.
    Speeding all the way home, she’d just reached the perimeter of the Fitton estate when she spotted a police car ahead. Slamming her foot on the brake, knowing that she could get arrested and the car seized if they pulled her up and found that she didn’t have a licence, she passed it at a more sedate speed, her stare glued to the rear-view mirror in case they decided to follow.

    ‘Typical,’ Ann snorted, watching the retreating tail lights of the other car in her own rear-view as she pulled up to the kerb outside Kelly Greene’s house. ‘You can hear them tearing about from miles off, but soon as they spot us they’re down to little-old-granny speed in no time.’
    Smiling her agreement, Jay gazed up at the house they were about to visit. Catching the blue glow of a TV when the curtains at the front bedroom window twitched, she said, ‘Looks like someone’s up.’
    ‘Damn,’ Ann muttered, grinning as she unbuckled her seat belt. ‘And I was so looking forward to disturbing them.’
    Maggie Greene was downstairs and at the front door before they made it up the path. Nipples jutting out from her saggy breasts like downturned coat pegs as the wind invaded the short silky dressing gown she was just about wearing, she folded her arms and demanded to know what they wanted.
    ‘Your lass,’ Ann told her firmly, letting her know from the off that she needn’t bother pulling any of her usual stunts. ‘She in, is she?’
    ‘Why, what’s she done now?’ Maggie asked, sounding bored.
    ‘We believe she was involved in a confrontation with another girl at school yesterday,’ Jay told her. ‘And we need to speak