Free Shiver Sweet by H Elliston

here.” 
    Glad to hear it.
    Nicola yanked free of his grip and backed up to the sink.  No doubt about it, there was something dark and dodgy about John being here tonight. 
    Nicola bunched his sleeve in her fist, leaned forward and forced eye contact.  “How did you know that Christa changed the office entry code?  You’d better tell me what’s going on or I swear to God I’ll...”
    “Jeez!  Do we have to discuss this now?”  He dug his teeth into his lip, then sighed.  “Okay.  If it’s the only way to shut you up...  This isn’t the first time I’ve been back inside this house since... the split.”
    She frowned.  “I need more than that.”
    He rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed.  The low rumble of a voice came from upstairs.  When it ended, John whispered, “I’ve been trying to persuade Christa to move out.”  He held her gaze.  “There.  Happy now?  Can we leave?”
    Small but unexplained events flashed through Nicola’s mind like a slide show, until her mouth fell open.  She leaned back and stared with a fresh, critical eye, stunned.  “More like frighten her into moving out, right?”
    His face crumpled.
    She shook her head in disgust.  “That disgusting smell, the strange noises... th-that was all you?”
    He lowered his eyes.  “I’m not proud of myself.  And look what shit it’s landed me in.”
    Huh?  Did he want her to feel some sort of sympathy for him?  “You do realise that you’ve committed illegal acts.  What about the break-in last night.  Was that you?”
    John nodded then humphed, apparently amused.  “I can’t be convicted for entering or even vandalising my own house.”
    Nicola hoped her stare would burn into him.  “Don’t get smart with me, pal!”
    “Look, Christa hurt me, and yes, I’ve been an ass.”  John’s snide but whispered tone oozed jealousy.  After peeking through the window and muttering, “there’s no one on the driveway,” he glanced back at her.  “She never loved me.  It’s always been about him .”
    His words moved through Nicola, chilling her.  Nicola knew he was referring to Brian and totally agreed.
    A melody began playing from somewhere down the hall.
    “What’s that?  A ring tone?”
    He slid past Nicola to the window above the sink and fingered the catch to open it.  “Think you can squeeze through here?”
    Nicola nodded.  “Asshole.”  John won’t squeeze through there, surely.
    John opened the window, and then turned and offered her his hand.  “I shouldn’t have done what I did, but right now, this asshole is your best shot of getting out of here alive.”
    Nicola wanted to punch his lights out, but compared to the men who were hunting them, John was a pussycat who’d probably peed behind Christa’s radiators.  Vile man!  She clasped his hand.  “If we make it out of here, I-I’ll kill you myself.”
    “Fine.”  John helped her lift her leg onto the sink.
    When Nicola was half way through the window, someone ran down the hall.
    “It’s in this cupboard,” a man yelled.  “But they’re not.”
    “Hell.”  John gasped.  “That tune must be a locator or something on the tablet.”  He shoved Nicola’s bottom to push her through the window.
    A moment later, the toilet door rattled.  “They’re in here,” a man shouted.  “Someone go outside, round the front in case they escape.”
    “Hurry,” John said, shoving her again.
    Nicola slithered through the window and landed hard on her hands on the icy concrete at the front of the house.  Despite pain shooting up from her wrists, she rolled over and scrambled to her feet.  For a split second, she considered leaving him, but then gratitude toward John washed through her and she stretched her arm through the window.  “Give me your hand.”
    John reached up, but then someone kicked the toilet door open, knocking John against the wall.  “There you are,” a tall man in a ski mask and leather jacket said, then