Defy the Stars by Sophie McKenzie Read Free Book Online Page B

hands. ‘Take what you need,’ he said.
    ‘What?’
    The cab stopped. Flynn leaned in at the window, giving the driver directions to the commune. The driver baulked at first, but Flynn was insistent. At last he turned to me and opened the
door.
    ‘Get in,’ he said.
    ‘Flynn, I
can’t
take your money.’ Flynn’s eye bored into me. ‘I don’t want it,’ he said. ‘I was going to tell you but then . . . the way
you acted before . . . I didn’t think you’d want to hear it, but I’m quirting work. I’m going back to college.’
    I stared at him, the night air cool on my skin.
    Flynn bent closer to me. ‘Everything you said was true, River,’ he said softly.
‘Everything.
Nobody knows me like you.’ He held open the door again. ‘Get
in.’
    Still clutching his wallet I clambered into the taxi. I turned to Flynn, but before I could speak he slammed the door shut and the taxi sped off.
    After all the noise of the party and the rush to leave it, I was alone.

7
    I sat in stunned silence for a few moments, Flynn’s wallet in my hand, trying to get my head around everything that had just happened.
    The taxi driver was playing dance music up front. He whistled in time with the beat as he zoomed through some traffic lights. I peered out of the window. Flynn was still standing, watching me
drive away.
    We turned a corner and Flynn disappeared. I fastened my seat belt and opened the wallet. Inside was an Oyster card, two credit cards and two ordinary bank cards, plus a few receipts and a
half-used folder of matches with the logo ‘Blue Parrot’ stamped on the front.
    I pulled back the soft leather divider. Whoa, there had to be nearly five hundred pounds in here. What was Flynn doing carrying around so much money?
    I counted out all the notes, then checked the two remaining small pockets. One contained a condom. The other a tiny photograph that had clearly been cut from a bigger picture. I peered at it,
trying to make out the face on the photo in the passing street lamps.
    It was a picture of me, though I didn’t remember it being taken. I was smiling in the photo, the light behind me, glowing around my hair.
    I sat back and let out a long, slow, shaky breath.
    The memory of our kiss in the garden filled my head. What had I been thinking?
    You weren’t thinking, I told myself. It was stupid. A mistake.
    Well, it was also over.
    Except that, at the back of my mind I knew that whatever else I did, I would have to find some way of returning this wallet to Flynn. Even if he didn’t want the money, he would surely need
the cards.
    Trying to put him out of my mind, I texted Grace, telling her that I’d had to leave the party because Gemma had been rushed to hospital. Then I tried to ring Dad. The call went to
voicemail.
    My thoughts drifted back to Flynn and the argument he’d been having with Cody. What was the name of their boss? Cody had said very clearly that he wouldn’t let Flynn ‘walk
away’.
    I frowned, trying to remember.
    That was it . . . Bentham.
    I googled the name, then scanned past the first few entries for a philosopher, a restaurant and a railway station. At the bottom of the page I came across a newspaper report from March last
year:
    Lance Bentham has been cleared of killing businessman Robert Reynolds, after an Old Bailey trial lasting almost four months ended today.
    Bentham, 39, was charged with murder after Reynolds, 43, was found dead at the side of a disused railway track in Acton, West London two years ago.
    Leaving the courthouse today, Lance Bentham issued the following statement. ‘Today’s verdict is a vindication of my innocence, not just of this terrible crime but also of the
     ridiculous accusation that I am part of a London-based underworld. I am deeply grateful for the support of my family during this difficult time and would ask to be left in peace so that my
     family and I are able to get on with our lives.’
    Bentham owns a chain of nightclubs and fitness