Fractured by Teri Terry Read Free Book Online Page A

it.
    ‘You reek of smoke.’
    ‘Do I? What time is it?’
    ‘Nearly five.’
    ‘I’ve got to get home soon, or I’ll get caught. Mum gets up early.’
    ‘Not smelling like that.’
    He drives fast. Tori whimpers, then is quiet again. We get to a dark house with a drive down the side to the back. On a hill, no neighbours nearby.
    He carries her over his shoulder into the house. I follow. It is small, modern, neat. Not your usual Free UK hidey-hole.
    ‘Your place?’ I say, surprised.
    He glares. ‘No time to take her anywhere else.’
    He puts Tori on the couch. Pulls heavy curtains across the windows before turning on a lamp.
    That is when I really see the state of her. Thin colourful clothes in tatters, as if she’d set out to a party, not gone hiking in this cold. Covered in scratches, bruises. One ankle so swollen it is a miracle she could walk at all.
    She stirs; her eyes flutter part open, then all the way when they take in Nico. She sits up, panic on her face.
    I grab her hand.
    ‘Tori, it’s okay. This is…’ And I pause, not sure what name he wants to use. ‘My friend. He’s going to look after you.’
    Nico comes over, smiles. ‘Hello. Tori, is it? I’m John Hatten. I need to ask you a few questions.’
    ‘Can’t this wait?’ I say, voice low.
    ‘I’m afraid not. I’m sorry, Tori. But you can see what a risk I take for you. I need to know your story well enough to know what to do with you.’
    My blood runs cold. One wrong word, and what he does with her could be permanent.
    ‘Well, Tori?’ he prompts, voice gentle.
    She studies her hands, turning them side to side like they are unfamiliar, disconnected to her. ‘I killed him,’ she says in a low voice. ‘With a knife.’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘A Lorder. I killed him, and I ran away.’
    She closes her eyes.
    ‘You’re safe here. Rest, Tori,’ he says. Tori’s head lolls to one side: out again.
    Nico raises an eyebrow at me. She couldn’t have found anything more right to say if I’d coached her. He probably wonders if I did.
    ‘Go, take a fast shower. I’ll look after her. But you owe me, Rain. Big time. This is a huge risk, an unnecessary complication that could interfere with our plans. Now, go.’
    I run for the shower, grab the towel and nondescript dark T-shirt and bicycle shorts he chucks at me. Our plans? Does he mean Free UK plans, ones that somehow involve me? I wash and dry my hair as fast as possible, part of me noting things about Nico. I’ve never been in his personal space before. He likes nice shower gel, soap: it smells like him, and I can’t stop myself from breathing it in deep. He has a hairdryer? His hair always looks good, but still. I stifle a smile, suddenly terrified that while I’ve been admiring his designer bathroom, Nico’s version of looking after Tori might mean ending her life painlessly instead of otherwise.
    But when I emerge, he’s wrapped her in a blanket. It rises and falls slightly with her breath. She is in a deep sleep.
    ‘Come on,’ he says. ‘I’ll run you back.’
    ‘What if she wakes while we’re gone?’
    ‘She won’t.’
    We are on our way up the road before I dare ask. ‘How do you know she won’t wake up?’
    ‘I gave her a shot. She won’t.’
    ‘A shot?’
    ‘Don’t look so alarmed. It was just sedative and painkiller, both of which will help her.’ He curses under his breath. ‘If this goes horribly wrong, it is on your neck, Rain.’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ I say. My breath catches inside: both distressed to be the cause of Nico’s unhappiness, and scared of it, all at once.
    ‘By the way, I thought you said she was Slated.’
    ‘She is.’
    ‘Well, she hasn’t got a Levo.’
    I gasp with shock, and think back. I held her hand, helped her walk. I didn’t even notice. I had other things to worry about. And I’ve got so used to being able to ignore my own levels, I didn’t think about hers. But with what she has been through tonight, and before tonight by the