Damage by PJ Adams Read Free Book Online Page B

all over again?”
    She didn’t say anything for long seconds. She couldn’t find the words, couldn’t work out his game, couldn’t work out her own rush of responses... an odd mix of bitter anger and feeling flattered at the attention, and hating herself for feeling anything but that anger.
    “Even if it’s just for a minute, would you please give me the chance?”
    She went outside and there was a Jaguar pulled up in the lane, its interior lights on in the darkness and a uniformed driver at the wheel. Blunt was standing by an open passenger door on the far side, leaning on the car roof, watching Holly as she emerged from the cottage.
    She approached slowly, as if he were some deadly kind of snake.
    She crossed the lane, and went round the front of the car. The driver stared impassively ahead, as if she wasn’t there.
    She came to stand with the open door between her and Blunt, and he turned, resting his forearms on the top of the door.
    He’d had his chestnut hair trimmed, but there was still enough for the natural wave to show. He’d shaved, too, and the clean line of his jaw made his face look squarer. He watched her with those pale gray eyes, and she wondered if he was ever going to speak.
    “I’m sorry,” he said, finally.
    For kissing her, presumably. For kissing her and then turning away. For playing with her like a bored predator might toy with its prey – that snake analogy was apt, for many reasons. For...
    “You’re sorry,” she said softly, keeping her tone measured, fearful that she might just explode. “Would that be for kicking us out of our home?”
    Confusion flashed across his face. “What?” he said. “What are you talking about?”
    “The eviction letter you sent on Monday. Thirty days’ notice. Was that your revenge? Could you not accept that I might just not be interested?”
    “I... Slow down. What are you saying?”
    “Don’t play the innocent,” she continued, unable to stop now that she had started. “Don’t pretend you don’t know about it. That was your signature on the bottom of the letter. Well you can’t just do that, you know? We have rights.”
    She’d spent much of the day talking to lawyers, learning that, actually, Nicholas Blunt could just do that, with most of their tenants’ rights waived on account of failing to pay rent over several months. But she wasn’t about to tell him that, not now.
    “Slow down. Slow down. Listen, I really don’t know what you’re talking about. You should see my desk, all the paperwork. I just sign whatever they give me. It’s a long time since... since I cared enough to check.” He looked down now, away, and for a moment he looked like a different man, his default anger turned to something else.
    “You really think I’d do that?” he said, finally. “To you? To your dad?”
    With that, he took a step back, then turned and dropped into the car, and within seconds the Jaguar was lost to sight around a bend in the lane.
     

7
    There was a definite pattern emerging. She’d believe she’d seen the last of him, then he’d show up out of the blue, mess with her head and then... vanish.
    She didn’t even think about what she did next, her feet just took over and before she knew it she was heading across the green to The Bull.
    The place was crowded for a Tuesday evening, and it took a moment for Holly to adjust to the lights and the noise after the darkness outside. Then she remembered it was pub quiz night, which explained the little huddles of four or five gathered around tables with their answer sheets before them.
    “And that’s the final question on geography. I repeat: name the capital of Nepal.”
    From across the bar, Tommy Lefevre caught Holly’s eye, his eyebrows raised questioningly. He was with his brother Joe and a couple of other lads, and it was clear that none of them knew the answer.
    Then it was Robert’s turn to catch her eye, and then quickly nod towards the bar. Holly ducked behind the counter and