Snatched (32 page)

Grinning, Dave stepped towards her. ‘And why would you want to do something stupid like that?’ Nose to nose with her now, he carried on walking, forcing her to step back into the hall.

Tutting loudly, Carole walked around him and slammed the door shut. Then, turning to face him, she folded her arms again, saying, ‘I hope you don’t think you’re getting into my bed, ’cos you can piss right off after what you did today.’

‘Don’t be like that,’ Dave crooned, making a sudden grab for her. Holding onto her as she struggled to get away, he said, ‘You know you want me.’

‘No, I don’t,’ Carole hissed, putting her hands on his chest to hold him back when he tried to kiss her. ‘I hate you, and I wish I’d never met you.’

‘You know you don’t mean it,’ Dave said softly, easily forcing her hands back against her own chest as he brought his face down to hers and ran his tongue between her lips.

‘I do,’ she insisted, clenching her teeth together.

‘You love me,’ he drawled, completely ignoring her protests and grabbing a handful of arse now. ‘Always have, always will.’

‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ she spat, her pride still smarting from the way he’d dismissed her at the fund-raiser. ‘And you stink,’ she said now, trying to inject disgust into her voice even though she actually loved the smell of Scotch on his breath. ‘Anyway, what you doing here? The slag knock you back, did she?’

‘Ssshhh.’ Touching a finger to her lips, Dave walked her backwards towards the stairs. ‘Don’t wanna wake the lads up, do we?’

Resistance was futile, and Carole knew it. Sighing heavily, she flapped her hands, muttering, ‘You’ll be the fucking death of me one of these days.’ Pushing him away then, she started to climb the stairs – squealing with delight when he came up behind her and slipped his hands up inside her nightdress.

It was gone twelve, and Zak Carlton had just left the snooker hall. Strolling down Wilbraham Road, he was about to cross over to take a short cut through the park when he saw a girl up ahead. The lighting was bad at this point of the road so he couldn’t be sure, but he would have sworn it was Leanne. Quickening his pace, although he didn’t have a clue what he was going to say to her given how they’d left it last time, he was just a few feet away when she heard him and spun around.

‘Fucking hell, Zak!’ Kelly squawked, her eyes wide with fear. ‘You scared the crap out of me.’

Disappointed that it wasn’t Leanne, Zak said, ‘Sorry, I thought you were someone else.’ Falling into step beside her now, he said, ‘What you doing out at this time of night? Shouldn’t you be in bed by now?’

‘I’m not a kid,’ she informed him indignantly. ‘I’m fifteen.’

‘Wow, that old,’ he teased, laughing softly.

Intrigued that he was still walking with her, Kelly glanced up at him from the corner of her eye. She’d always fancied him, but she’d never have admitted that to him in a million years, because he’d just go and tell his mates and they’d all take the piss even more than they already did. Anyway, he wouldn’t look twice at her; not when he’d already had Leanne.

‘Why you staring at me?’ Zak asked suddenly, making her blush because she hadn’t realised that he could see her.

‘I’m not,’ she lied. ‘I was just thinking.’

‘About?’

‘You and Leanne. You used to go out with her, didn’t you?’

Shrugging, Zak said, ‘Yeah, so?’

‘Bet you still fancy her,’ Kelly said, a hint of envy in her voice. ‘Most of the lads do, don’t they?’

Peering round at her, Zak said, ‘Sounds to me like
you
’ve got a bit of a thing for her yourself.’

‘Piss off!’ Kelly protested. ‘I’ve had loads of boyfriends.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Zak said disbelievingly. Reaching up to take a dimped spliff from behind his ear, he lit it and took a deep drag before offering it to her, saying, ‘So, what’s with all the interest in me and Leanne?’

‘Nothing,’ Kelly muttered, sucking on the smoke. ‘She’s a mate, that’s all.’

‘No way would she hang out with a schoolie,’ he scoffed.

‘Honest,’ Kelly said earnestly. ‘You know Neela Jennings?’ Well, she’s my cousin, and we go round to Leanne’s every weekend. All the girls do. It’s great.’

‘All the girls, eh?’ Zak sneered, taking the spliff back. ‘Bet the old man gets off on that
big
time.’

‘What do you mean?’ Kelly asked, frowning confusedly.

‘Come off it,’ Zak snorted, looking her up and down. ‘Good-looking girl like you, and you can’t figure out why he likes having you around?’

Thrilled that he’d said she was good-looking, but still confused as to what he’d meant about Terry, Kelly said, ‘I still don’t get you.’

‘Do I have to spell it out?’ Zak said patiently. ‘The dude likes them
young
.’

Wrinkling her nose when it finally sank in, Kelly said, ‘Don’t be disgusting. He’s not like that.’

‘So, you’re telling me he’s never looked at you like that?’

‘Never,’ Kelly said truthfully. ‘He’s not even there most of the time. He’s either at work, or he pisses off to bed.’

‘On his own?’ Zak probed, handing the spliff back to her.

‘God, yeah,’ Kelly said, already feeling the stone creeping up on her as she took another deep pull on it. ‘Leanne wouldn’t do anything like that while we were there. Christ, she’s bad enough about us hearing her arguing, never mind shagging.’

‘Oh, so they argue, do they?’ Zak said, a hint of satisfaction in his voice.

‘Never stop,’ Kelly told him, getting into her stride now. ‘If it’s not him moaning about the noise, it’s her accusing him of going with someone behind her back. She thinks we can’t hear them because they go into the bedroom to argue, but the walls are dead thin.’ Giggling now, she handed the end of the spliff back to him, saying, ‘Should have heard her last time we went round, it was
well
funny. He went out for ages, and she went mad when he came back, demanding to know where he’d been, like he’d been shagging someone else, or something.’

‘And had he?’

‘No way,’ Kelly said adamantly. ‘He’d never cheat on her. Anyway, that was the night of the fire round at his ex’s house, and her mam rang to tell him about it, and they both went to the hospital, so they must have sorted it.’

‘What happened after that?’ Zak asked, a thoughtful look on his face.

‘Nothing.’ Kelly shrugged. ‘Leanne told us not to come round for a while, ’cos she wanted to spend more time alone with him. And we haven’t been back since.’

His mind really ticking over now, Zak said, ‘When you were at Goldie’s party that night, you said something about the five-O questioning you.’

‘They thought I’d done something to that stupid bitch
Nicky
,’ Kelly said, spitting the name out. ‘And I wanted to know if Leanne had said anything, ’cos the copper remembered seeing me at hers that night.’

Zak’s eyes were narrowed to slits now as the thoughts began to slot into place. When he’d had that argument with Leanne at the party, she’d kicked off at him for accusing Terry of starting the fire; telling him that Terry couldn’t have done it because he’d been with her all that night. But if Kelly was telling the truth, then he
hadn’t
been there the whole time, which meant that Leanne was lying. But why? Unless she had something to hide.

Snapping out of his thoughts when he realised that Kelly had stopped walking, Zak turned back and looked at her.

‘This is my house,’ Kelly said regretfully. This was the first time they’d actually spoken at length, but now he’d go on his way, and it would probably never happen again.

Pursing his lips, Zak said, ‘Got anything to drink in there?’

‘What, you mean like alcohol?’ Kelly asked, her heart pounding in her chest. Zak was gorgeous, and he could have his pick of any girl on the estate, so was he really asking to come in and have a drink with her?

Stepping closer to her now, close enough for her to smell the musky scent of his sweat working its way through the deodorant, Zak peered into her eyes, his voice low and husky as he said, ‘Anything wet will do. And you can tell me more about your girly nights round at Leanne’s.’

Too excited by the nearness of him and the prospect of what a drink might lead to to worry about his interest in Leanne, Kelly nodded and opened the gate.

Grinning slyly, Zak followed her up the path.

12

Nicky felt like screaming that,
yes,
she was thirsty . . . of
course
she was thirsty! What did he expect when he’d left her without a drink for God only knew how long? But she kept her mouth firmly shut.

‘No fooling a smart girl like you, eh?’ he chuckled amusedly. ‘All right, you caught me out. It wasn’t at your house, it was at the community centre. And that
is
true.’

‘Yep, it was a great party,’ he went on. ‘Everyone laughing and drinking. They even had a band,
and
a karaoke. Bet you would have liked that, wouldn’t you? I know all the other girls did. Especially Leanne.’