Unmasked (Revealed #1) by Alice Raine Read Free Book Online

answerphone. Where was everyone today? Surely they were all at home and snowed in like me? Or was the weather only bad up here in the hills? Huffing in frustration, I left a brief message wishing her a speedy recovery, and telling her to call me as soon as she could, and hung up. Damn it, I’d really wanted to pump her for information on my unintended host.
    Looking miserably at my phone I fiddled with it for a second or two before deciding that I still had the urge to talk to someone other than myself. Scrolling through my numbers for my other best friend Caitlin Byrne – or Cait as she preferred – I smiled at what she would make of the guy I was staying with. She was super shy, so would no doubt be even more of a wreck around him than I was.
    Cait, Sarah, and I had known each other since high school. We’d lost touch and gone our separate ways during college, but then bizarrely all ended up on the same teacher training course in Manchester. It wasn’t long before we were an inseparable trio again, and after making the effort to keep in contact we had stayed firm best friends ever since.
    Sarah’s teaching career was short lived when she got pregnant during the last year of the course. It was unplanned, and unwanted by the father, who promptly buggered off never to be heard from again, thus proving my theory that he had been a horrid human being all along. Refusing to let it get her down, Sarah had worked hard since then at several jobs, before recently setting up the housekeeping business, which was now going rather well.
    As for Cait and me, as well as the three years of teacher training together, we had managed to get our first teaching jobs at the same school in Buxton, but had both quickly realised that perhaps the profession wasn’t quite what we’d expected. Too much unnecessary paperwork for a start, not to mention the political crud that got in the way of actually enjoying the time in the classroom with the children. While I had stuck it out, Cait had barely managed to last the first year before quitting and heading off to travel around the world. Her departure had been spurred by the pressures of the job, but she had also been keen to escape from her then-boyfriend, Greg, a complete shitbag of a man who deserved to be behind bars for what he’d put Cait through during their time together.
    To be honest, when I thought about my few experiences with the opposite sex I had been rather lucky compared to my two best friends.
    What had started off as a three-month expedition of self-discovery and healing for Cait had expanded somewhat, and it had now been three years since she’d left the UK. As far as I could tell from our regular phone calls and occasional flying visits home, she had no intention of returning long-term either. While travelling, she had discovered that her talent for art could actually pay the bills, and so she’d starting working in various places she stayed. She’d built props for the Sydney Opera House, helped to redecorate a monkey sanctuary in Borneo, and was currently teaching outdoor art lessons to orphans in Vietnam.
    Pressing the call button I sat impatiently, picking at the hem of my jumper as I listened to the call attempting to go through. Since Cait had been in the Far East, our phone chats had been less frequently, as we were often let down by the unreliable connections. Today, however, after several clicks and a beep, I heard the ringing tone and smiled happily.
    The phone rang for quite some time, and I was just about to hang up when it connected and I heard Cait’s voice. ‘Allie! Hi! Hang on a second, OK?’ This was followed by several loud noises and a constant pattering sound which almost sounded like a river or stream rushing in the background. Was she swimming? Surely not with her phone? There was another bang, and then several squelching noises before Cait came back on the line. ‘Hi! Sorry about that.’
    She sounded breathless, which added to my overall confusion