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

remain objective. I have to try and see things through the eyes of a sane person and not those of a heavily pregnant and hormonal wife who would do anything for the man she loves.

When I’m confident that I’m no longer in danger of being sick, I lift my head out of the sink and get my breath back. The acrid taste is still burning at the back of my throat, but the worst of it has passed. The worst of the nausea, at least. The worst of Adam’s situation is still right here staring me in the face.

‘Why don’t you sit down?’ Adam suggests, somehow managing to look more worried about my predicament than his own right now.

But I don’t want to sit down. I need to go outside.

I need fresh air.

I unlock the back door and step out onto the wooden decking we had installed in our back garden just in time for last summer. While we haven’t been able to get much use out of it since the weather turned a couple of weeks ago, we did enjoy many afternoons and evenings sitting out here entertaining family and friends with barbecues before it did. But now winter is setting in and the good times are over, in more ways than one.

‘I always imagined what our garden would be like when we had children to play in it,’ Adam says from his position behind me by the door. ‘A set of goalposts over by the back fence for Samuel to kick a ball into. Maybe a swing set for him and Alice.’

My eyes water at the mention of the second child we had hoped to have after I had gotten over the stress of the first one on my body. While there was obviously no guarantee that we would have a daughter if we had another baby, that hadn’t stopped us from speculating and coming up with a name for the possible child.

But now that is just a distant dream.

Or is it?

‘Say we did run,’ I speculate. ‘How would it work? Where would we go?’

I’m expecting a brief silence as Adam formulates a plan. But there isn’t one.

‘In the short term, I was thinking Kat’s cottage,’ he says. ‘We could get there by sticking to the back roads. That way we wouldn’t be seen on CCTV.’

I consider Adam’s idea. His sister purchased a cottage not too far from here. It’s a lovely stone property set by itself on a hilltop surrounded by picturesque countryside, and it’s only a thirty-minute drive from our house. Kat gave us a spare key to the property a couple of years ago so that we could use it whenever we liked. It was a friendly family gesture, but it was also because we could tell Kat wasn’t getting as much use out of the property with her own family as she wanted to, and she didn’t want it to go to waste. Adam and I have been to the cottage a couple of times this year, and it would certainly make a good place to hide. But it might be too good. It’s miles from anywhere, and there is no phone signal once you leave the main road. We would be well hidden up there, but we would also be completely cut-off from the world.

‘You think that’s a good idea?’ I ask him.

‘It wouldn’t be for the long term, of course. I’m thinking Scotland if we have to go further. But it’s somewhere close that we could lie low until we know if I’m in trouble or if I’ve got away with it.’

I can see that Adam has thought this through a lot more than he was originally letting on, which makes me wonder what else he has planned.

‘What do we do when we get there?’ I ask to test him out even more.

‘We can check the news on the TV every day. See if there are any reports on the hit and run. Find out if anybody is looking for me.’

‘What if there are none?’ I ask optimistically. ‘Is that possible?’

‘Maybe,’ Adam replies, though he doesn’t seem as positive about that outcome as I do. ‘If there’s nothing in the news after a few days then we could come back. We wouldn’t have to tell anybody where we’d gone. I’d just phone in sick from work for a few days.’

‘And if they are looking for you?’ I ask because we have to discuss the dreadful alternative too.

‘Then we can’t come back here ever again,’ Adam replies, and the words send a chill down my spine that has nothing to do with the cold weather out here.

My dream home. My dream family. My dream life.

Am I about to give it all up for my dream man?

I think I might be. 

5

LAURA

How do you pack to go on the run? Do you take as much as you can or just the essentials? Do you pull out all the suitcases or just throw a few things into a backpack and head for the door?

I’ve no idea, which explains why I am currently standing beside my bed staring at the sea of clothes hanging in my wardrobe and wondering what to do. Packing is hard for me at the best of times.

Going on holiday. Moving house.

Running from the police.

I usually make a list of what I need to take, but there’s hardly time for that right now. I just need to do something, but I’m overwhelmed. Fortunately, Adam doesn’t seem to be having the same problem.

He’s already scooped up all of our toiletries from the bathroom, and he is now throwing a few old t-shirts and some underwear into the rucksack he usually takes to the gym. By the looks of things, he’ll be ready to go in five minutes, whereas I haven’t packed so much as a spare pair of knickers yet.

Am I really cut out for this? 

‘Are you okay?’

Adam’s question snaps me out of my trance, and I turn to look at my husband who by