Dangerous Promises Read Free

what’s done so just grow up and deal with it.’
    ‘Yeah, right,’ he said, pulling out a chair and sitting down at the table. ‘Twenty fuckin’ grand you cost me. Do you know what I could have done with that?’
    Petra raised her eyes to the ceiling – she’d heard it all before – and let her breath hiss out through her teeth. ‘Frittered it away on beer and fags, probably. Jesus, you should be thanking me, not having a go.’
    ‘And how do you figure that out?’
    ‘Because if it wasn’t for me, you’d be six foot under by now. Do you really think Nathan Stone was going to pay up? Well, I’ve got news for you – he wasn’t. What he was going to do is come round here and blow your bloody head off your neck!’
    ‘Says you,’ he grunted.
    ‘Says anyone with half a brain.’ Petra didn’t have any regrets about releasing Sadie Wise. The girl, as she’d promised, hadn’t gone to the law, not about the kidnap and not about the accident either. At about eight o’clock on the morning after she’d let her go, Petra – who hadn’t been to bed yet – had received a phone call from Stone. His instructions had been curt and to the point.
    ‘There’s going to be a car arriving in ten minutes, a grey BMW. Give Sadie’s coat and bag to the driver.’
    Petra didn’t have a problem with that. She knew where they were. While she’d been cleaning out the cellar, she’d found them stuffed into a crate in the bigger room. ‘And then what?’ she’d asked. ‘What happens next? I don’t want more trouble. I didn’t even know about… She shot Wayne, don’t forget. She could have killed him. Why don’t we —’
    But Stone had hung up before she’d had the chance to finish. The BMW had duly arrived and Petra had hurried out to hand the things over. She’d thought about asking the driver to pass on a message to Stone, but had second thoughts when she saw the evil look in his eyes.
    The rest of the morning had been equally tense for her, trying to act normal when the kids got up while all the time stressing over what Stone might do next and wondering whether the law would come knocking on the door.
    Petra took her hands out of the bowl and dried them on a tea towel. She gave her son an impatient, irritated glance. ‘And don’t ask me to say I’m sorry ’cause I’m not. I’ve got better things to do for the next ten years than stare at the four walls of a prison cell.’
    ‘Yeah, yeah,’ he said dismissively.
    ‘And don’t “yeah, yeah” me. That girl could have bleedin’ well died in that cellar. Then what? You’d have had a bloody corpse to deal with. Don’t you ever think about anyone but yourself? We’d have all gone down for it, the whole damn lot of us!’
    Wayne curled his lip, the loss of the money still rankling with him. ‘She wasn’t going to croak, for Christ’s sake. A few more days and he’d have paid up. That’s twenty grand you flushed down the toilet.’
    ‘I saved your bloody skin is what I did. Try showing some gratitude for a change.’
    ‘Thanks for nothing,’ he said sarcastically.
    Petra made a tutting noise and got on with making the lunch. While she peeled the spuds a small triumphant smile tugged at the corners of her lips. It was good to know that she was still in charge, still in control. She’d played a smart game and got away with it. Not one of them, not Wayne, Kelly or Sharon, had managed to suss out what had really happened that night.
    Petra’s thoughts slid back to the morning after. She recalled Sharon going out – it must have been almost midday by then – before stomping back into the house, waving her arms about. ‘It’s gone! It’s bloody gone! Some thieving toerag has nicked my car!’
    ‘Are you sure?’ Wayne had asked.
    ‘Of course I’m bloody sure.’
    ‘Maybe you didn’t park it where you thought you did.’
    Sharon had put her hands on her hips, her eyes flashing. ‘I know where I parked it. I’m not a bleedin’ idiot.