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EVERYTHING WAS DARK.
Liv groaned, her whole body aching. The back of her head thudded and her cut arm throbbed. What had happened?
She’d been at her flat; she remembered that much. But after that ...
She sought her memory, trying to figure out the events after, but there was nothing. Had she suffered another blackout? Or had someone attacked her?
Michael.
With a groan, Liv clambered to her feet, ignoring her pounding head and throbbing arm. It was dark, so at first she didn’t know where she was. This wasn’t her place, though. Where was she? Had Michael brought her back to his home? As her eyes grew used to the dark, she took in her surroundings. She was in a small but comfortable looking living room. There was an L-shaped sofa with a throw and a number of cushions, a thick rug, and a glass coffee table. With a jolt, she realised she knew where she was, and it wasn’t Michael’s. From the sideboard, a picture inside a frame stared out at her. Ellen and Ryan. She was at Ellen’s flat.
Confusion filled her. How had she got here?
Panic surged through her, and she patted down the pockets of the leather jacket she’d stolen. The bulges of keys and her phone were beneath her palms. Snatching the phone out of her pocket, she tried to call Ellen again. Still no answer, and there was no sign of ringing from within the flat.
A heavy stone of dread had lodged in her gut.
There was only one explanation.
Michael.
Michael must have done something to her.
It would have been easy enough for him to find out where Ellen lived. If he’d told her to do something to herself, then she might have taken herself off somewhere to do it. Only he’d know where that was, as Ellen clearly wasn’t here. London was a big place.
A certainty and resolution solidified within her. She needed to get Michael somewhere she’d be able to make him talk. She needed to be able to question him. But there was one major flaw in her plan. If he talked, he’d be able to make her do things she didn’t want to do.
Something else wasn’t quite adding up. If Michael was responsible for getting her to Ellen’s, then where was he now? Why had he just brought her here and dumped her?
Curious, Liv went to the window and pulled back the blind. The agency car was parked outside on the street.
Fuck. She must have driven herself. Had she suffered another blackout? Her mind was spinning. She couldn’t think about it, the dizziness only getting worse the more she tried to concentrate and remember what had happened. She pulled her thoughts away, frightened she’d black out again. Did that mean Michael hadn’t been the one to bring her here—she’d come here by herself, looking for Ellen, perhaps?
There was only one thing left she could do.
She redialled the phone, this time calling Michael.
“Stop calling me, Olivia.”
The sound of his voice made her skin crawl. “Where’s Ellen?” she demanded.
“I have no idea.”
“Don’t lie to me!”
“I’m not.”
She could tell he was speaking through gritted teeth.
“I know your dirty little secret,” she bluffed. “You might think you’ve kept Ellen’s mouth shut, and that you’d dealt with me. Well, this is your wake-up call. I know all about you. Ellen told me everything. Meet me at this address in an hour, or I’ll make sure everyone else knows as well.”
She hung up and then quickly texted him the address. She needed to move to make sure she got there before he did, if he even showed.
Yes, he’d show. She knew him well enough to know that much, at least.
She left Ellen’s flat, pulling the door shut behind her, and ran to the car. She was breathing hard, her palms sweaty, her body aching. Adrenaline pumped through her veins. The car door was open, so she clearly hadn’t bothered to lock it when she’d arrived, but then she was amazed she’d even managed to drive, considering she couldn’t remember a single part of the journey. Sliding into the driver’s seat, she jammed the keys in the ignition and brought the car to life.
Liv put her foot down, thankful for the lack of traffic. It was a twenty-minute drive, and she needed to get there before Michael. Her mind was in a spin and she struggled to think straight. She needed to if she was going to beat him, however. She drove past a twenty-four hour supermarket and suddenly swerved. Though she needed to get to the property, an idea had started to form in her mind, and she was going to need supplies to see it through.
She was aware of how she looked. Her jeans were stained dark with blood, but the leather jacket covered the worst of the stains on her top. She didn’t have any money with her, but she had a paying app on her phone, so she was able to use that. The supermarket catered for everything, and she whipped around, finding the items she needed, including a cheap rucksack to shove it all into. The young man working the till moved frustratingly slowly, and it was all she could do to stop herself from yelling at him to hurry things up. She needed to remember the hospital may well have called the police by now if they thought she was a danger to herself or others, and anything that would make her more memorable would be a bad thing.
Finally, she was able to scan her phone to pay and grab the things she’d bought. She hurried back out to the car and climbed behind the wheel. She was banking on Michael having been at home when she called, so he would have much further to come than she did, giving her the extra time. This would get a lot harder if he reached the place before her.
Within fifteen minutes, she pulled up outside the property and hit the button on the fob to open the gates. A sigh of relief escaped her lungs as she noted Michael hadn’t arrived yet. She’d need to move the car, and his car, too, when he did, but for the moment, she just needed to get him inside the house.
Liv climbed out and pulled the bag of gear out with her.
Damn. She should have thought to bring a weapon of some kind. It wasn’t as though she could have bought something in the supermarket, though. What she’d purchased was already bad enough without adding a knife or something similar to the haul. Raising people’s suspicions, especially when the police might already be on the lookout for her because of her escape from the hospital, was the last thing she wanted to do.
Standing in the driveway, she looked around, hoping to spot something, though she had no idea what. Her gaze alighted on a flowerbed and the canes sticking out of the dirt that had been support for some long dead flowers in the garden. It wasn’t much, but she was running out of time. With the bag clutched in her other hand, she ran over and pulled one of the canes out of the ground. Experimentally, she swept the cane through the air.
It wasn’t exactly a knife or a gun, but it could certainly do some damage. She didn’t want Michael dead; she just wanted to get Ellen’s location out of him.
She had the keys to the property on the car keys, so she fumbled what she was holding for a moment and managed to get the front door open. The property was exactly as she remembered it—a wide open entrance hall with the chequered flooring. And there, beneath the stairs, was the door that led down to the cellar.
The cellar had given her the creeps last time she was here, but now she was going to have to force herself to spend time down there, and with the person she feared most in the world. Had being spooked by the place come from some subconscious understanding of what the future held for her? There was no need to be frightened of things that went bump in the dark when real life held far greater terrors.
She opened the cellar door and flicked on the switch for the light, her fingers finding it easily this time. Stepping through the door, Liv paused at the top of the stairs. She was looking at this place from a different perspective this time, checking for weak spots he might be able to use against her. She spotted something she hadn’t the first time—a bolt on the back of the door. She narrowed her eyes. What would the owners have used that for? Why would they have wanted to keep people out of here? What had they been doing? Her gaze went back to the hook embedded in the low ceiling. She’d assumed it had been used to hang game or some other kind of meat, perhaps something that would have gone well with the expensive wine they’d most likely have kept down here—but now she wondered if it had been used for something else entirely.
Not wanting to waste any more time, Liv hurried down the stairs and paused beneath the hook. She dropped the bag from her shoulder and stooped down, tugging open the top and pulling out what she needed. Rope and a length of material she’d use as a gag. She unravelled the rope and stood on tiptoes to loop one end over the hook and tied it tight. Was she doing the right thing, or should she wait and tie his hands first, assuming it even got this far? She didn’t know. It wasn’t as though she’d ever done this before.
Suddenly panicked that he might have already arrived and would catch her down here preparing, she left both the bag and the cane where they were and turned and ran back up the stairs. She’d left the front door open, and when she peered through, the driveway was still in darkness. He hadn’t yet arrived.
Steeling her nerves, she went on the hunt for the next thing she needed.
The property wasn’t furnished, but there were still a few items left inside. She remembered seeing something she could use beside the huge marble fireplace. Leaving the cellar for the moment, she hurried into the living room. Beside the wood burner was an iron fireside tool set. She hurried over and picked up the poker. The metal was cool in her palm, the weight of the item surprisingly heavy. The cane wouldn’t be any use initially, when she first needed to take him down, but this would do.
Outside, headlights swept down the road in front of the house, followed by the sound of an engine. The engine cut out, but the headlights continued to illuminate the street.
Liv’s pulse jack-knifed, every muscle in her body taut with anticipation. It was him. She was sure. She needed to act quickly. If she gave him the chance to speak, he would be able to control her actions and influence how she acted next, and then she’d never find out where Ellen was.
She tightened her fingers around the handle of the poker and went to the open front door. Positioning herself so the poker was on the other side of the doorframe, hiding it from view, Liv waited.
The headlights went dark, and a moment later the slam of a car door shutting made her jump. Her heart raced and she felt dizzy with tension, but there was no going back. She needed to keep her nerve.
Michael’s tall figure appeared in the open driveway, his feet crunching on gravel. She had the light on behind her, so he probably only saw her silhouette, but she knew he’d recognise her as immediately as she recognised him.
He stopped just inside the open gate. “Olivia. What the fuck is this all about?”
“You need to come with me. I’ve got something to show you.”
“I don’t need to do anything you say,” he spat.
She couldn’t let him talk for long. He might tell her to do something to hurt herself again. “Yes, you do. At least, you do if you don’t want everyone to know your dirty little secret.”
With that, she turned, keeping the poker close to her body so he wouldn’t see it, and walked deeper into the house.
“What the hell, Olivia?” he called after her.
But she didn’t respond. She imagined his frustration, hesitating as he decided what to do. Should he go back to his car and risk her spilling whatever Ellen had found out about him, or should he go after her and try to minimise the damage?
The crunch of footsteps signalled him walking towards the house, and Liv caught her breath and ducked back in against the wall. He wouldn’t be able to see her now, and she was able to move back towards the front door, staying hidden from sight.
The footsteps grew closer, and then went quiet as his feet left the gravel and hit the paving slabs which led up to the front door.
With trembling arms, Liv took the poker in both hands and lifted it above her head.
“Olivia?” He stepped through the front door.
And Liv brought the poker down, the metal cracking against his skull.