Secret Santa by Mina Carter Read Free Book Online

slut ! She’d been out
all night with her fancy man. Grim determination filled him. The
tart and her pansy lover there thought they could laugh at him did
they? Flaunt their relationship under his nose? Well, he’d have to
teach them a lesson about that.
    *
    “Oh heya Jo, how you doing?”
    Em’s voice greeted Jo as she rushed past the
nurse’s station and into the locker room to hang her coat up. She
was so late she hadn’t been sure it was worth coming in. But she
still had a couple of hours and she preferred being amongst people
to sitting at home alone. Particularly with the scene she’d walked
into after Drew had dropped her off.
    Her house had been ransacked. The lock on the
back door broken off and the place looked like a tornado had hit. A
tornado that routed through cupboards and pulled drawers open to
strew the contents all over the floor. Everything was turned upside
down, the house a complete mess both upstairs and down.
    Jo bit her lip as she hung her coat up. The
police said there was no rhyme or reason behind the break in,
probably kids looking for expensive electrical items. It happened
this time of year. She snorted, they’d be out of luck. She didn't
own anything expensive, electrical or otherwise.
    But she knew it wasn't kids though. It wasn't
professional thieves either. Oh, she had no doubt that the police
tests would come back with any evidence, as though it had been done
by a professional gang. No, they would be too busy casing out
houses with large families or houses in better areas. Houses with
expensive gifts ready to be wrapped and go under the tree. Not
houses like hers in singledom-ville. Hell, even her car, low budget
when it had been new over a decade ago, was an advert for how much
money she didn't make.
    No, she knew who it was.
    James. Her lying, abusive ex. It had his all
hallmarks. She should have expected this from the moment she picked
up the phone yesterday and heard his voice.
    She sighed as she closed her locker, turning
the key and dropping the key into the deep pocket of her tunic. At
least those fantastic earrings had been safe here, at work. He
hadn't gotten those. She still didn't know who'd brought them for
her though. Really she should try and find out, but exhaustion and
apathy crept over her. It could wait, she’d done enough today.
    She'd managed to clean up, a small task given
the size of her place, and called a locksmith to replace the
damaged lock on the back door before she'd left. Paranoid, she'd
also had him replace the one on the front door. If it had been James, then she wouldn't be surprised if he’d found and taken
the spare key. And the last thing she needed was him having easy
access to her home, her sanctuary.
    “I'm ok, I think. Everything's locked up now,
police are gone,” she replied as she emerged from the staff locker
room, smoothing down her tunic.
    “Are you sure you should be here? You look...
uhm.” The other nurse ground to a halt, looking uncomfortable.
    “I look like crap, yeah I know,” She sighed,
running her hand through her hair. “I just needed to get out... you
know? Be around people rather than sitting on my own.”
    Em stood, compassion in her eyes as she
pulled Jo into a swift hug. “Totally... uhm…if you need somewhere
to stay tonight, so you're not on your own, you're welcome to come
and crash at mine.”
    Jo managed a weak smile as Em pulled away. “I
think I'll be ok, but thanks for the offer hun-”
    Her words were cut off as the fire alarm went
off, the shrill noise a sound none of the medical staff liked to
hear. Almost immediately the doors to the trauma room crashed open
and Drew stepped out into the main area, heading straight over to
the nurses’ station to pick the phone up.
    “Everything’s fine. No need to panic... if
you can just stay on the bed...” Already Em was moving, reassuring
the patients in the cubicles opposite the nurse's station. Further
down the hall Jo could hear the other staff doing the