Run Away With Me : A fast-paced psychological thriller by Daniel Hurst (free e novels TXT) 📗

He leads me through the crowd of people, and suddenly we are right in front of the guitarist who is smiling proudly at all the people who are out enjoying his talents tonight.

Bradley twirls me around, and I can’t stop laughing as we dance and drink and lose ourselves in the music, which seems to be getting louder and louder and louder.

I don’t know how it happened, but I ended up having two more drinks that night before I really had to go before I missed the last train home. I don’t know how it happened, but I found myself disappointed to have to leave Bradley at the station and go back to my real life. And I don’t know how it happened, but we found ourselves kissing on that platform just before we left each other to return to our respective partners who were waiting for us at home.

But that wasn’t the worst part.

The worst part was that we did it again after that night.

And again.

31

LAURA

I wish the rain would stop so I can go for a little walk around this cottage. I don’t want to go far, and I’m not interested in taking the risk of trying to get a phone signal again out along the main road, but I would like to stretch my legs. There’s so much land around here, and it would be nice to explore a little of it. I wouldn’t have to worry about anybody spotting me as long as I didn’t go too far, and I wouldn’t have to worry about not being back when Adam returns, whenever that may be.

He’s back in the village getting more supplies as well as checking the news and possibly even reading up on homebirths. He seemed a little surprised when I suggested the idea of trying to have Samuel here, but if Adam is a wanted man, then I’m not going to a hospital.

I’m not gaining a child but losing a husband on the same day.

Besides, home birthing isn’t such a big deal these days. Many people do it. I knew a woman in my office who had both her children at home. She said she delivered them in her bathroom and the whole experience was rather serene and nowhere near as stressful as her friends who had their babies in a hospital surrounded by beeping machines and overworked midwives.

I’m sure it’s not quite as simple as that, and I would prefer to deliver Samuel in a hospital, but if Adam is wanted by the police, then I can’t risk it. He could always drop me at the hospital and leave, but I’m sure the police would soon find out if a suspect’s wife had just checked in. Then they would question me, and even if they didn’t, I wouldn’t want to go through it if Adam wasn’t there. I want him beside me, holding my hand because we are in this together.

I glance at the window in the hope that the rain might have stopped, or at least eased off, but it’s still coming down fairly heavily, and I give up on the idea of a walk for another day. Instead, I’m going to have a fiddle around with the TV. I know Adam said it is broken and that he can’t get it working, but I’m so desperate to watch something that I’m going to have a go anyway. I’m going to turn all the switches on and off again, as well as jiggle all the cables around and anything else that might see me get lucky so I actually have something to do during the day.

I run my hand along the back of the TV set, but I can’t really see what I’m doing, so I carefully try and manoeuvre the screen away from the wall so I can look behind it. It’s not easy, particularly with my huge bump getting in the way, but I’m finally able to make enough of a gap behind the TV so that I can look behind it.

I see several cables going into the back of the set as well as two switches on a small display panel. I notice straight away that they are both on opposite settings.

One is up. One is down.

Surely they both have to be the same way if one is on and one is off?

I try to figure out which way is which until I just decide to make both switches face up and use the remote to turn on the set and see if there’s any progress.

I’m expecting to see the black and white static fill the screen as usual, but it’s a massive surprise when I see Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby sitting on the sofa in the This Morning Studio.

I’ve got the TV working!

I’m amazed by my prowess with technology although I know that I didn’t actually do anything technical. All I did was flip a switch. Anybody could have done that.

So why hadn’t Adam tried it?

I’m puzzled by how my husband could have failed to do what I have just done so easily, but I’m not too bothered about that now because the TV is working and that is all that matters. Now I’m not going to die of boredom, and I don’t just have to rely on the titbits of information Adam gives me from the newspapers when he returns from the village each day. Instead, I can just check the news for myself.

I leave behind Holly and Phil and scroll through the channels looking for a news broadcast. Ideally, I want the local news because they are the most likely ones to be reporting on the hit and run accident involving Adam, but it could be on the nationals too. I feel a wave of dread at the thought of Adam’s face being displayed for the entire country to see as the police hunt him in connection with the death