Free Cry of the Wolf by Dianna Hardy Page A

back to look up at him. “Please don’t be mad.”
    “Don’t be mad? Are you kidding me? You take off with no explanation, and after that dickhead tried to rape you as well, and you’re asking me not to be mad?”
    “I know. I do. I came back here to … I needed to see you to let you know I’m okay.”
    “Do you expect me to believe that?” His words held his anger, but he didn’t loosen his hold of her, as if she’d slip away again if he did. “I know this has something to do with Ryan and Lawrence – your neighbour said they cleaned your place out, and by the way – not keen on your neighbour. Fuck, Lydia, what’s going on?”
    “It’s complicated.”
    “You’ll have to do better than that. I even went to the theatre where you work. That was on the Saturday after you went missing. Your colleague said you were ill, but that you’d be back at work the following week. I waited; I went in again; I never saw you there.”
    Yeah, she’d been avoiding him…
    “So then I tried to see Lawrence.”
    Oooo, that’s so not a good idea…
    “But he’s never bloody around either. I feel like I’ve been ramming my head against a brick wall trying to find you.”
    “Oh, Brendan,” she pulled out of his arms, but not without struggle – he seemed completely unwilling to give her up, “you should’ve listened to what I said in my text.”
    “That you have family problems?”
    “It’s true. I … er … Lawrence and Ryan – they sort of are my family, I just didn’t know it at the time. It’s part of the reason I came to Guildford. I wanted to find out more about my past, and from the stuff my dad had told me I knew this was a good place to start.” She hoped it sounded more like truth to him than it did to her. “It’s why I was asking about them that day Taylor came into the café. I suspected they were part of what I was looking for, and it turned out I was right.”
    Brendan looked completely baffled. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
    “Because I haven’t ever told anyone. It felt so private. I’m sorry. And I’m especially sorry about taking off the way I did – that was inexcusable.” She silently cursed Lawrence for the hundredth time for sending in her fake resignation letter the way that he had.
    “Why did you take off like that? I was worried out of my mind.”
    “I know. I guess I just … I learnt a lot about myself in a really short space of time, and I just needed some breathing space to let it all sink in.”
    He stared at her in silence, his expression unreadable, then finally ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh. “I don’t buy it, Lydia.”
    Shit.
    “Something feels off. Are you in some kind of trouble?”
    “No! No trouble. Everything’s fine. It really is just a case of dealing with emotional stuff I wasn’t expecting.”
    He studied her. “The family issues.”
    She nodded, but could tell that he remained unconvinced.
    Another silence had her shuffling her feet.
    “Are you coming back to work?”
    She bit her lip and shook her head, regret in her heart. “I want to, I do, but … I can’t right now. Not until I sort these—”
    “Family issues out,” he finished for her, arms crossed and looking utterly pissed off.
    Lydia said nothing – what else could she say? “I can’t stay. I just wanted to say—” goodbye “—I’m sorry.” She turned to leave, and wasn’t surprised when he grabbed her arm and kept her from going.
    “That’s it? You’re running off again?”
    Indignation at his accusation got the better of her. “I wasn’t running.”
    “That’s what it looks like to me.”
    “Hey! You don’t know me, okay? You don’t know anything about me or my life, or what I’ve been through the past month.”
    “Because you never let me in! I’ve tried to get to know you, I’ve tried to help you, I’ve offered my hand of friendship in so many different ways, and all you do is lock yourself up and away from anything that brings you