Hold On Tight (Take My Hand) by Nicola Haken Read Free Book Online Page B

floats around life being indifferent to everyone
and everything? At least he’d never hurt me. And so what if I didn’t have many
friends? At least the few I do have
would walk (or wheel) over hot coals to protect me.
    Following the serious
stuff we chatted regular nonsense for a few minutes. She told me all about her
Christmas with her parents and that she’d gone and gotten the lip ring we
talked about while I was packing to come here. That seems like a lifetime ago
– so much has happened since then. Then she told me about a book we’ve
both been dying to read and apparently I will fall completely in love with
Woods Kerrington.
    Like everything else
lately, even that made me want to
cry. Books have always been my ‘go to’. If I’m happy I’ll celebrate with a new
book. If I’m sad I’ll comfort myself with a new book. If I’m stressed out I’ll
calm myself down with a new book. If I’m… well you get the idea. But at the
minute, picking up my Kindle just seems like an insignificant waste of time.
    “I’ve got to go, Rach.
This call is probably costing the earth,” I lied. Suddenly I didn’t care about
the money – it seemed so insignificant. The only reason I wanted to get
off the phone so desperately was so I could curl my body up into a tight ball
and ugly cry into my pillow.

 
 
    **********

 
    Two weeks passed before
Martin Michaels contacted Sarah again. It was intentional I’m certain –
dragging out the worry and uncertainty he knew damn well we were all feeling. He
didn’t come alone this time either. He brought his wife, Patricia – the
lieutenant in charge of Deborah’s case after she was shot. The same lieutenant
who convinced Sarah to lie and say Martin’s finger was behind the trigger. And
the same lieutenant who pretended to understand the pain that family had been
through while secretly sleeping with the man who destroyed Dexter’s whole life.
    She is a full on police
commissioner now – the best of the best. The second Martin so proudly
announced that little titbit of information was the second my heart slithered
into the pit of my stomach. We can’t take on someone of her standing –
her power and influence. We all know it, but Dexter is the only one who won’t
admit it.
    Just like Martin warned,
some men in a big white van came to erect a for sale sign outside the house.
Dexter had kicked it down before their van had even left the end of the street.
This little scenario has played out three times so far. The last being a week
ago and so I’m starting to think they’ve given up now. A man in cheap suit with
a fancy looking professional camera hanging around his neck came to take
interior photographs one day, but Dexter locked the door and threatened him. It
went something like, ‘knock one more time and I’ll rip off your balls and shove
them down your throat’. The suit turned sharply and disappeared down the path
faster than he arrived. He’s not been back since.
    That was two weeks ago now
– since Martin’s last ‘visit’. We’ve been here over a month and nothing
is moving in any kind of direction. Sarah has been looking into the what’s and
how’s of working in the UK – visas, working permits, that kind of thing.
She also went back to Deborah’s solicitor but being afraid to open any cans of
worms that could incriminate Dexter, she tried to find out where she stood in
regards to the house without revealing the fact Martin was in fact well and
truly alive.
    Needless to say she didn’t
get very far. She could only ask vague questions which in return got her even
vaguer answers. The whole situation seems surreal. All this talk of prison,
faking deaths and corrupt cops… It’s like a bloody movie or something. I never
know what to say or how to make people feel better so I’ve spent the last few
weeks being pretty quiet. I’m good at that though – I had years of
practice growing up.
    “I’m heading out to the
grocery store, honey. You need