Free Testing The Limits by Harper Cole Page B

knife.
    I soon found out that people's necks are really tough, and that cutlery designed to eat with is not that sharp. He brought his forearm up to ward off my blow, which must have bruised him but which certainly did not puncture his throat in a shower of blood, which was my imagined aim.
    "Fuck." I leapt past him to get to the door but he grabbed me round the waist to haul me back. I began to holler and shout like I was raising the dead.
    And I heard an answering shout that make me sweat in relief: "Jas! I'm coming."
    "Andrew!"
    Amjad's arms loosened and I was finally able to break free. Instead of going to the heavy locked door, I shot into the living room to enact my earlier plan; I grabbed the vase. Even as Amjad was behind me, reaching for my arm, I had launched it at the window.
    Shit, shit, shit, so dining cutlery doesn't puncture a throat and fake plastic vases don't shatter a triple-glazed window.
    But the blow was enough to attract Andrew's attention. Amjad began to drag me away and it was lucky that he did, because then the whole front fucking window exploded as rocks landed on the carpet.
    "Andrew!"
    Amjad let go of me abruptly and I fell to my hands and knees in the doorway between the hall and the living room. Andrew landed in the broken glass and ran toward me.
    "No, get him, catch him, I'm fine," I said, scrabbling to one side. "Go!"
    Andrew was quick off the mark and he pushed past, heading for the back of the house. There was banging and shouting, and when I reached the kitchen, Andrew had Amjad pinned to the floor by the throat.
    "Was it you?" Andrew was shouting, somewhat illogically. Who else did he think had held me hostage in Amjad's own house?
    Amjad must have known something I didn't. "Yes, of course it was me. Men like you need to be taught a lesson."
    "Did my father put you up to this?"
    "Your father is an inspiration."
    "What's that supposed to mean?"
    Amjad turned his head slightly, looking away from Andrew. Andrew sat up and punched him, hard, in the face.
    It was as if Amjad didn't register the blow. His head rocked to the side but he didn't gasp or groan. Infuriated, Andrew punched him again, so hard that I heard something crack - either Amjad's face or Andrew's knuckles, I couldn't tell which.
    This time Amjad's eyes rolled back; his arms jerked and his fists clenched and grew limp again. Andrew got to his feet and we looked down at Amjad's body.
    "On my God. Did you kill him?"
    Andrew poked into Amjad's ribs with the toe of his shoe. "No, I don't think so. But he's not going to be very well, for a while. Come on. Let's go."
    "I want my coat and my purse. Hang on."
    I found a door to a small cloakroom and sure enough, my things were hanging up in there. There was nothing else. No sign of female inhabitation. Wife? He was a liar.
    "Hurry up. The police are arriving." Andrew came to my side. "We need to go out the back."
    "We weren't going to get out of the front anyway, unless you expected me to crawl through a broken window."
    I could see the strobing blue lights reflecting in the night air as we hurried through a back door; one with a more sensible locking arrangement. We stumbled along the path and came to a high wooden fence. Andrew shrugged at me in the dark, his body just a silhouette. "Sorry. I'm going to have to throw you over."
    "What?" He was strong but not that strong.
    He crouched and made a step with his hands. "Stand here and reach up."
    I wrapped my purse's handle around my shoulder and stepped into his hands, and he lifted me with a grunt. It was the most inelegant thing I've ever done; wildly scrabbling with my legs to swing to one side, so I could hitch my legs up and over the rough fence.
    Then I was jumping down into a back alleyway and he followed me. Quickly, and as silently as we could, we ran off into the night.

Chapter Thirteen - Andrew
     
     
    We ran to a tube station and rode to Jas's place. It was late night, now, and I worried about my car which was parked up