Running Scarred by Jackie Williams Read Free Book Online Page A

himself.
    It was only as she put her hands on the steering wheel that she noticed her diamond engagement ring still sitting proudly on her left hand. She looked at it for a long moment and then slipped it from her finger. She squeezed it in her fist. There was no way she wanted to wear it any longer, but she certainly wasn’t giving it back to Justin.
    He hadn’t bought it in the first place. 
    They had strolled along London’s Bond Street together, a month after finding out that she had inherited a fortune, and then drifted into a wine bar for lunch. Justin had proposed to her over a delicious duck pate and then had made excuses for the fact that he hadn’t bought a ring because he wanted her to choose something she liked. They had ended up returning along Bond Street and selecting a beautiful diamond cluster from Aspreys. She had been so excited that it taken another month for her to realize that Justin hadn’t used his card to pay for it and he had never mentioned paying her back.
    She could feel the stones pressing into her palm as she wondered what to do with it. She couldn’t just chuck it out of the window in some grand gesture of her newly found freedom. It had cost a small fortune. She would sell it and buy something for her project with the proceeds. She slipped it into her pocket and felt another weight fall from her shoulders. At this rate she soon wouldn’t need a car. She felt as though she could fly already.
    She pulled out of the hotel car park and drove slowly back down the road she had walked along the night before. She couldn’t help but turn her head and stare into the thickness of the forest along the side of the road. There was no way she would have found her way through by herself. She wondered about the tall lopsided man for a few moments and then nearly crashed the car into the hedge on her side of the road as she saw him, a lone, dark figure standing just a few trees back in the woods. She saw him quite clearly, his pale features distinct against the trees, one side of his face covered with the long mop of dark hair.
    She braked sharply and leapt out of the driving seat, leaving the door wide open and the engine running. She ran back a few paces and called out.
    “Hey! You there! I’ve got your coat!” She was in no doubt at all that it was her rescuer, the scars she’d noticed the night before had been even clearer in the daylight. She jumped over the ditch at the side of the road, took a couple of paces into the undergrowth and then stopped as darkness closed in around her. She peered into the woods, surprised at their almost overwhelming thickness. All sounds of the nearby town seem to have been cut off as she entered the woods. They felt cold and unwelcoming. It was odd because she hadn’t felt like this the night before with the man by her side. She shuddered as she peered into the gloom. The only sound was of the breeze drifting gently through the treetops.
    The man had disappeared as silently as he had done the night before. She stood there feeling slightly ridiculous. Why had he ignored her, avoided her even? There was no way he hadn’t seen her or heard her call. He had been staring right back at her as she had stopped the car, and if she had recognized him, then with his obviously superior eyesight, he would have easily recognized her.
    “Hey! Essex boy! I only wanted to return your coat!” She called out a little more softly as she stepped backwards out of the gloom again. She shivered a little in the silence and then hopped back over the ditch. She walked quickly back to the open door of the car.
    Perhaps he really hadn’t seen or heard her, or perhaps he wasn’t even the same guy. She must have mistaken shadows for scars because there was no reason at all why, if it had been her rescuer, he should ignore her. It was probably some other French chap out hunting. It was a common enough sport here in the countryside. She climbed back into the car and pulled the door closed