Respect (Mandasue Heller) by Mandasue Heller Read Free Book Online Page A

with a young scowling boy in tow, and asked, ‘Is everything all right?’
    ‘Mind your own business!’ she muttered, walking on without so much as glancing at him.
    Anton watched as she dragged the boy through the flats’ main door and up the stairs. The boy complained loudly all the way up through the floors, and Anton couldn’t help but smile when he heard the girl warn him to hush his mouth or she would give him licks. She was a feisty one, all right – but not trash-talking feisty, like so many of the other girls on the estate. There was something kind of dignified about her and, while he’d only been half-joking when he’d told Shotz over a spliff last night that he was going to get off with her, now he meant it. One way or another, that girl was going to be his.

4
    Monday dawned bright but Chantelle was in no mood to appreciate the overdue sunshine. Her mum still hadn’t come home, and her phone was still off, so even if she’d seen the numerous messages that Chantelle had sent she obviously had no intention of replying to them.
    She could be lying dead in a ditch for all Chantelle knew, and if this was the first time that Mary had gone awol Chantelle might have been tempted to call the police. But her mum’s best mate Tracey was also nowhere to be found, so her instincts told her that they had most likely hooked up with some losers at that party her mum had said they were going to and had spent the weekend with them.
    Pissed off about that – and sick to her stomach at the thought of sitting her first exam without preparation, thanks to Leon playing up and stopping her from revising – Chantelle struggled to shake off her foul mood as she got ready for school. It had taken every ounce of self-control to keep from throttling Leon after finding him down by the canal on Saturday night, and she’d had to keep such a close eye on him after that to make sure he didn’t sneak out again that she hadn’t retained a single word from the tiny bit of studying she had managed to do. She just knew she was going to fail her exams, but there was nothing she could do about it now except try her best – and pray for a miracle.
    Still mad at Leon, and convinced that he was dawdling to spite her, she was yelling at him to hurry up as she opened the front door. But the words died in her throat when she found herself face to face with a man she’d never seen before.
    Ricky Benson’s eyebrows twitched in surprise as he looked the girl slowly up and down. He’d known that Mary had kids, but she was as white as they came so it hadn’t occurred to him that her children might be black – or as old as this. If he’d thought about it – which he hadn’t – he’d have pictured some snot-nosed pasty-faced little brats. But this girl was stunning.
    Already unnerved by the way the man was looking at her, a shiver of apprehension coursed down Chantelle’s spine when Leon came out and the man’s gaze flicked onto him. ‘Go on ahead,’ she said, giving her brother a shove in the direction of the stairwell. ‘I’ll catch up in a minute.’
    When he’d gone, she reached behind her and pulled the door firmly shut. The man was wearing a leather jacket, jeans and trainers. He didn’t look like a copper or a social worker, but she wasn’t taking any chances. For all she knew, someone could have sussed that their mum had left them on their own and grassed them up. It had happened before, and there were enough nosy people around here for it to happen again. The next-door neighbours, for example. They rarely spoke apart from to complain, but their net curtains were forever twitching so they had to have noticed that her mum hadn’t been around.
    ‘Mum still in bed, is she?’ Ricky spoke at last. When Chantelle didn’t answer, he smiled. ‘Tell you what, why don’t you open up and I’ll go in and see for myself, eh?’
    ‘I don’t think so.’ Chantelle jerked her head back when his breath breezed across her