TICK TOCK RUN (Romantic Mystery Suspense) (47 page)

He set me on my feet outside, where I finally opened my eyes and let blinding reality return.  He tore a strip off the lining from the jacket, and tied it around the knife wound on my arm.  “You’ll need stitches.”

Tears ran non-stop down my cheeks.  “Oh my God.  This is all so unreal.”  Backlit with a silver glow, I stared at Laura’s once beautiful home, awash in darkness and gloom.  The effect of infidelity was indisputably in sight.  It seemed fictitious, yet was painfully true.  How could this immaculate pad contain such ripples of menace?  Every memory associated with this house was now forever blackened in my mind by the avalanche of carnage, betrayal, blood spatter and red smeared floors.

I shrank into Lee’s open arms and listened, waiting for the rise of sirens to pierce the still and deadly night.  Waiting for the rescuers that were too late.

Lee kissed my forehead.  “It’s over.” 

Mark staggered out through the front door supporting both Emma and Claire around the waist. 

Disbelief screamed through me.  My heart thawed out a fraction at this welcoming site.  I stumbled, almost drunkenly, over to them. 

Mark pointed a fob at the driveway.  A car beeped.  He moved over to it.  After easing Emma and Claire inside, he raced back to the house. 

“Mark.  What about…” I shouted, but he had gone.  My words hung in the night air.

I dipped down, leaned inside the back of the car and hugged my friends, embracing their warmth.  Love and relief spread between us, and we all sobbed brokenly.

“How could he do that?”  Emma cried.  “They were so in love.  What on earth caused—”

“Painful childhood,” I said.  “Twisted mind.”

Lee came up beside me.  He stroked his hand down the length of my back, and then rested against the side of the car.

It felt like we’d squeezed through the eye of a needle.  Our orderly lives had been mangled and destroyed in less than a week by an accident in my past, and the lies, grief and inner demons of people around us.  Too much to get my head around.

I’d saved myself from whatever violent act of revenge Paul had planned for me after the wedding.  In a way I should have felt relieved.  But how could I?  If Paul hadn’t discovered I was onto him, tonight’s tragedy wouldn’t have happened.  The outcome we’d fought tooth and nail to avoid – Laura losing her inheritance money and Paul jilting her at the altar - was the one I’d now prefer.  A broken heart has a chance of being mended.  A dead body, however, does not.

Claire spotted a bottle of water in the foot well, drank some, then handed it to Emma who took a big gulp.  She then offered it to me.  I patted Emma’s leg, kissed Claire’s cheek then pulled away and stood outside the car, shaking from the inside out. 

I drank from the plastic bottle, but when a flicker of light in the hall caught my attention, I handed it over to Lee.  I stared through the front door.  Mark had crouched down on the floor beside Laura, and was using his arm to support her head. 

I watched with baited breath.  “Is she?” I couldn’t say the dreaded ‘dead’ word.

Mark gave me the thumbs up.  “She’s coming round, Chelsea.  She’s breathing.”

LAURA’S ALIVE.

A shot of pure relief flooded my system and my legs went wobbly.  Someone grabbed me under my arms.  Lee.  I wanted to run to Laura, squeeze her and kiss her all over, but my legs refused to hold me up.

Piercing sirens wailed, rising through the night air.  The engines of approaching cavalry hummed ever louder.  A couple of the neighbours rushed past me heading towards Laura, shouting, “Mother of God!  What the hell’s happened here?”  Bursts of blue light struck the dark skies like repetitive lightning bolts.

“How’s your leg?” I asked Lee.

“Hurts like hell, but I’ll live.”

Lee held me upright, tugged the jacket further over my shoulders.  The torn sleeves dangled over my arms while he rubbed my back.  Then he paused, and leaned into me.  His warm breath brushed over my ear as he said, “I’m more concerned about you.”

I shivered, liking his touch.  I’d fallen for the man I thought I would neither find nor deserve.  But, how could I wrap myself in his arms after this?  Let him catch me, hold me, and hope to ease each other’s pain?  Having a man in my life was what set this whole sordid mess in motion.  A mess that saw Laura’s parents, and then Lee’s brother, and some of my closest friends meet their death. 

I pivoted around and stared into Lee’s swollen eyes, wondering if I deserved him, wondering if when he looked at me he’d one day blame me for his brother’s death, just as Paul had blamed me for Laura’s affair. 

Or maybe I had been slow on the uptake about Paul, blinded by emotion.  Would I have made the connection to Paul earlier if I hadn’t met Lee?  If I hadn’t been distracted by lust?  
Oh, God.  Not more ‘what if’s.’ 
I couldn’t cope with any more of those.

My chest feeling tight and heavy, I traced my finger down the length of his blood-streaked face, then shrugged him away.  I blinked up at the house hoping that it wouldn’t be there.  That none of this had occurred, and if I blinked hard or fast enough, tapped my red shoes together as I would have done as a child, I’d wake up under my favourite bedspread with little more than a hangover to explain away the nightmare.  Unfortunately, the house didn’t vanish.  The malevolent reality confronted me like a smack in my face.

Paul’s bitter scowl flashed into my mind.

This was a chain of events leading to a disaster that was set in motion when Paul was conceived.  I was a small link in that long, ill-fated chain.  Paul had had options.  Instead of breaking up with Laura and walking away, he chose to do the unthinkable. 

My car crash last year was an accident.  One that would always cut into me deeply, but it wasn’t a choice.

Paul’s evil actions had set me free of my guilt.

Vehicles screeched to a halt on the street behind me, and a succession of doors slammed shut.

I heard Laura coughing and rushed to the front door.

Circled by the neighbours, Mark cradled Laura on the hall floor.  “Let’s give her some room to breathe,” he said, waving them away. 

The neighbours stepped back, as did I.

Mark smoothed Laura’s hair, stroked the back of his fingers along her cheek, pulled her top down to cover her stomach and held her against him.

Lee came up behind me again.  He cupped the back of my head and dotted kisses on my hair.  He slid his arms around my waist from behind.

We swayed gently.  It felt natural to snuggle against him.  Safe and warm. 

I ignored my aching body and turned around in his arms to face him, searching for any sign that if the two of us were together, it would cause people problems and pain.  If the love between Laura and Paul could turn that sour, what hope was there for the rest of us? 

The bad stuff is over.  It has to be.
  I struggled to remember what it was like to
not
have guilt, a secret or a hidden agenda controlling my life.  And to
really
let someone be there for me. 

I gazed deep into Lee’s moonlit brown eyes and found only a pureness within them, which I trusted and didn’t want to let go of.  I smiled, awed by something good and powerful that seemed to sparkle in the air around us.  “I couldn’t believe it when you burst into the kitchen.  And then, Mark showing up like that.”

Lee tucked a lock of hair behind my ear.  “Been one hell of a night.”

“One giant whiplash of a week.”

He dipped his head and planted a soft kiss on my lips.

My heart jumped a few beats ahead.  The hormone rush was just what I needed.  Lee made me feel invincible, but I knew that none of us actually were.

He winked.  “Let’s save the debriefing for the bedroom.”  Lee nibbled his lip, looking worried about my reaction.

I smiled at his inappropriate attempt to distract me from the horrors of reality. 

Lee, although shocked, seemed less troubled for having solved his brother’s murder.

From the edge of my vision, I spotted Laura, still cradled protectively by Mark. 

“Go on,” Lee said, his voice soft against my ear.  “I know you’re itching to go over to her.”

I took one step towards the door, then stopped.  A loosening of the tightness in my chest told me she was going to be okay.  Albeit, eventually.  I shook my head, and surprised him by saying, “You’re wrong.  I think she’s doing just fine with Mark.”

Laura’s wedding had indeed brought the point of change to many lives.  A day earlier than expected, and not in the way I had hoped.  But, a colossal change nonetheless.

I lifted my head and focused back on Lee.  With an intensity that didn’t surprise me, I desperately needed to be closer to him.  Life has no dress rehearsal, no encore.  It’s a one-off gift, and shouldn’t be wasted.  I had to wrap myself in every part of it.  Leave no areas papered-over.  Not be afraid to open myself up, or accept support. 

I gripped the back of Lee’s neck, pulled his head low and lost myself in steamy oblivion.  Tingles spread from my centre out to my arms and legs.  This time, having a man by my side had saved lives.  I owed it to myself to move on and give this relationship a go.

My lips fell away from Lee’s as my legs buckled with emotion.

Lee caught me.

And I let him.

THE END

Thank you for reading.  Hope you enjoyed the book.

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Also by H.C.Elliston:

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