Free Pass The Parcel by Rhian Cahill Page B

somewhere
looking out for her, because when she hit the end of the street she
saw the rush of cars on a major road only a block away. Picking up
her pace, Kitty looked straight ahead and pretended she wasn’t out
of place, pretended she was taking a normal Sunday-morning walk.
Not that there appeared to be anyone around to see her.
    Hopefully, it stayed that way until she
managed to flag down a taxi.
    Her luck held when she reached the busy road.
Fifty metres away to the left was a set of traffic lights, and
right in front was a taxi with its rooftop light illuminated.
    Thank God.
    Raising her arm, she stood on the curb and
flagged the cab. The headlights flashed and the indicator light
blinked out. For a split second, she thought the driver was fobbing
her off, but when the traffic lights changed, the taxi headed in
her direction and pulled to the curb beside her. With a sigh, Kitty
opened the back door and climbed in.
    The driver didn’t blink or look down on her
or even look at her. “Where to?”
    Her shoulders relaxed and the churning in her
stomach slowed. “Silver Street, Marrickville, please.”
    Kitty was relieved when he didn’t strike up a
conversation as the cab pulled out into traffic. She was more
relieved when she realised she was only about thirty minutes from
home. Hopefully early morning traffic wasn’t heavy and she’d be
home, in the safety of her room, before Ethan or Finn noticed she
was gone.
     
    Ethan rolled over and landed on a hard, warm
body.
    “What the fuck?” Finn shoved him off.
    “Shit.” He bolted upright, his head
swivelling on his shoulders, his eyes scanning the room. Ethan saw
the emptiness immediately. “Fuck!”
    Kelly had run.
    “What?” Finn sat up, his gaze following
Ethan’s. “Ah, shit.”
    They scrambled out of bed and ran from the
room. Ethan headed one way while Finn went the other. When they met
up in the kitchen, it was obvious Kelly was no longer in the
house.
    “Fuck.” Finn dragged a hand down his
face.
    “It’ll be okay.” Ethan wouldn’t let himself
think anything else. “We’ll get dressed and go find her.”
    Finn looked at him but Ethan couldn’t hold
his gaze. If he did, he’d lose it, and that wasn’t an option. Not
if he wanted to get Kelly back
    He spun on his heel and headed towards his
room. “Five minutes to shower and dress or I leave without
you.”
    Ethan didn’t wait for Finn to answer. He
tried not to think about the fact that Kelly had left them. Or that
neither of them had woken when she’d crawled out from between them.
That had never happened before. Then again, they’d never let a
woman sleep in bed between them before. Their usual MO was to fuck
them until they’d had enough and then ship them out.
    Day or night.
    In fact, Ethan couldn’t remember sleeping
with a woman since he was a naïve teenager and didn’t know any
better.
    Kelly was different on so many levels and she
didn’t have a clue.
    Because they hadn’t told her.
    That changed today.
    Today—once he got his hands on her—she’d know
everything in his heart and mind. Every little detail of the future
he could see for them.
    Ethan grabbed his phone and dialled Kelly’s
number. No answer. He left a message to call him back and then
rushed through a quick shower, virtually ran under the spray and
out again, threw on a T-shirt and jeans—sans underwear—and shoved
his feet into flip-flops.
    Finn met him at the garage door. “Your car or
mine?”
    Ethan scoffed. “Mine.”
    “Fine.”
    They climbed in and Ethan had his Audi
reversing out of the driveway in under a minute. He poked at the
nav system until he pulled up the programed address book and
Kelly’s home address.
    “Since when is Kitty’s address in your
sat-nav?” Finn asked.
    “Since she’s our employee and I’ve picked her
up and dropped her off a few times.” He glanced at his friend
before returning his eyes to the road. “You know that, so what’s
really going on?”
    Finn