Young Squatters by Blair London Read Free Book Online

them.
    “Ma’am, will you calm down and stop shouting at me?  You’re drawing attention to yourself.  If a crime has been committed, I am sure I will get to the bottom of it.”  The policeman was trying his best to calm her, but it didn’t appear to be working.
    “When my husband finds out about this, he’ll sort this out.  You’ll be sorry, I can tell you that much.”
    The woman took her mobile out of her handbag and dialed what Harper thought must be her husband’s number again.
    “Are you getting any of my messages?  I need you home right now, Nick.  This is serious, come home now!” 

CHAPTER THREE
     
    As Nora ended the call, the word “frustration” didn’t even begin to describe what she felt toward Nick.  She frankly blamed the entire situation on him.  If he hadn’t sent Sarah home, she could have stopped the intruders.  If he would ever answer his phone when she called, she could make it to her Pilates class on time and everything would be fine.  If he wasn’t such a workaholic, if he would just listen to her, if he had the sense of a rock—she stopped herself, trying to calm herself.  Her toes and fingers had gone numb with adrenaline.  She’d had enough of this young man and his smug little grin.  He knew what he was doing was wrong.  He just had to.  The little woman he had in the house--in her house, for God’s sake!--knew something, too.  She could see it in both of their faces, but the officer offered her no help whatsoever, simply because she hadn’t changed her address on her driver’s license when they had moved here, a decade ago.
    And Nick; Nick couldn’t even come home to help her with these welfare ruffians.  They tried to come off as middle-class, hardworking citizens, but Nora had known those people all her life, having grown up in that environment, and she knew that they surely didn’t belong to that group.  The boy had a stain on his white polo shirt and his khakis were about an inch too short for his long legs.  The girl didn’t even play the part at all; she was trash, he was trash, and the trash needed to be taken out.  Is this really what the world had come to?  Where squatters could break into a home and call it their own, not having to work for anything, having everything—including a million dollar home—handed right to their grubby little hands?  She didn’t think so, not in her world, at least.
    And Nick would hear an earful once she was done throwing these intruders out of their house.
     
    ***
     
    “You complain about me spending so much time in the office, Nora,” she knew Nick would tell her if she tried to voice anything to him.  “But you seem to forget money doesn’t grow on trees.  You want us to go on family holidays and you like luxury things to fill this wonderful house.  But if you would prefer me to spend more time at home with you and the kids, I can do that.
    “I can find myself a nine-to-five desk job and be home for dinner every night with you and the kids.  But remember this: if I do take that job, then the lifestyle you have gotten so used to will have to come to an end, and cutbacks will have to be made.  So remember that the next time you give me a hard time for working so hard.”
    Nora hadn’t raised the issue of the hours Nick worked again, as she knew he was right in what he said.  Even though she hated her husband spending so much time in the office, she wouldn’t want to give up any of the lifestyle they had.
    But Nora had explained to her husband he should still be available to talk on the phone throughout the day, and this situation was a typical example of when she needed him and he wasn’t there for her, as usual.  I will tackle this situation on my own, Nora thought, and decided not to call her husband anymore.  She breathed in, and out, trying to calm her inner hysteria.  She was Nora Donnelly, and she would win.
     
    ***
     
    Bradford invited the policeman into the house to take a look