Thorn In My Side by Sheila Quigley Read Free Book Online Page B

need.'
Evan groaned, the pain biting in.
    'Yes, there is,
mate. The blood’s pouring out of you, and God knows where that
blade’s been. Ohh, the druggie bastard!' Danny ground his teeth
together and clenched his fist, staring up the now deserted
road.
    'Danny, use…'
Evan shook his head slowly as Danny took off before he could stop
him. Pressing his arm into his body and bringing his foot up on the
bench, he used his leg to keep the T-shirt in place. With his good
hand he took his mobile phone out of his pocket and stared at it,
wondering whether to phone an ambulance himself. He decided not to.
The ambulance service wouldn’t take too kindly to being called out
twice for the same incident.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN
    She made it
across the old bridge, which had been built in 1611, and now was
one way only but not, thank God, on foot. Looking frequently behind
her, leaving bloody footprints, she slowed as she came to the end,
looked all around, then quickly crossed the road to get out of the
way of the street lights and sat down with her back against the
wall in a dark corner.
    Huddled in on
herself she wondered again how she’d managed to escape, and prayed
her luck hadn’t run out. It had been luck that had made her lunge
to the left, catching the smaller man unawares. In other
circumstances she would have laughed at the girly scream that had
come out of him when she’d bitten down hard.
    She had to rest
now. Her body could only take so much at a time, and she was
burning up energy quickly, far too quickly. At this rate she
wouldn’t even get out into the fields.
    Two cars came
speeding across the bridge, their headlights cutting huge swathes
of light in the dark. Pushing her body flat against the wall, she
prayed that they couldn’t see her.
    Because of the
angle of the jutting wall, the lights went up the outside of the
wall and over her head. She remembered to breathe a few minutes
later.
    What a
mess!
    What a fucking
mess!
    She stared down
at her bleeding feet and wanted to cry. She had never felt more
alone in her whole life.

CHAPTER
TWELVE
    The hospital
was relatively quiet, four or five sitting in the waiting area,
with another three outside smoking their heads off under the No
Smoking sign as the ambulance carrying Evan and Danny pulled up to
the doors.
    'I hate these
places,' Danny muttered, jumping down from the ambulance as the
paramedic helped Evan down and took them up to the reception.
Giving what details he had to the receptionist, he left them to
fill in the blanks as he hurried back to his waiting ambulance,
which had already received another call.
    As they sat
down, Danny looked at the red-lit moving sign on the wall. 'Bloody
hell, two hours waiting time… Shocking.'
    Evan sighed.
His arm was giving him pain and he felt totally exhausted, which he
put down to blood loss. He could still feel it oozing out and
running down his arm. 'Go home if you want,' he snapped, not
meaning it to come out sounding the way it did, but Danny took no
offence.
    'Don’t be
bloody stupid, man, would you leave me?'
    'Well, stop
whining then.'
    'Sorry.'
    'We won’t be
that long anyhow. It’s hardly bleeding at all now. Only a couple of
stitches, the medic said.'
    Danny grunted,
then pulled his feet off the seat in front as a middle-aged woman
and a younger one, obviously her daughter and sporting a
spectacular black eye, sat down.
    When they were
settled, the younger one said, 'Mam, what am I doing here?'
    'He hit you,'
her mother stated with anger in her voice.
    She took a
moment to digest this, then went on, 'Who’s got the kids?'
    'Your brother’s
got them.'
    This went on
for more than an hour, the same two questions over and over.
Everyone sitting there realised that the poor girl was suffering
concussion, and her mind was on a loop. Finally, after what seemed
the hundredth time, she got as far as. 'Mam…'
    'He hit you,
and your brother’s got the kids,' Danny, unable to stand any more,
said quickly.
    There