Unmasked (Revealed #1) Read Free Page B

the eerily silent white landscape, it had been doing so for quite a while. I’d been standing chopping vegetables by floor to ceiling windows – how had I not seen it start?
    Annoyed at myself for not noticing the snow earlier, I practically ripped the door off my car as I opened it, threw my bag onto the passenger seat, and slid inside. Shoving the key into the ignition I turned it, praying that it would start. Wincing as it pathetically coughed and turned over several times I finally heard the rumble of the engine kicking to life and blew out a relieved breath. Thank God for that. I’m not sure I’d ever been more relieved about anything in my entire life.
    Ramming it into first gear before the engine could change its mind, I went to pull away when my front wheels immediately started to spin uselessly below me, the mixture of snow and gravel combining to become slippery and useless under my tyres. Lightening my touch on the accelerator, I muttered a small plea under my breath and tried again. And again.
    Attempting to coax my car forwards with soft, gentle encouragement I even stroked the steering wheel in my desperation to persuade it to move, but nothing was working, and after five more minutes and several additional failed attempts, the only progress I had made was a marginal skid to the right. Scowling at the dashboard, all thoughts of gentle coaxing went up in smoke as I instead began to hurl abuse at it. ‘Bloody bugger it!’ I yelled, banging my hand on the steering wheel several times.
    Pausing in my tantrum, I calmed my panted breaths and stared miserably ahead of me at the tarmacked parking spaces a few meters away. The snow was thinner there because of the tree cover above, and this sight did nothing to brighten my mood, because there was no doubt that if I’d parked there like I was supposed to, I would have managed to get a good enough start to make it down the driveway. Thinking of the gravel beneath me, it suddenly occurred to me that all my wheel spinning had probably done a bit of damage to Mr Mean and Moody’s treasured driveway. Oops. Hopefully he was sound asleep by now and I would be able to escape before he noticed my property destruction. Briefly chewing on a fingernail, I realised that I probably should have felt a bit guiltier at this realisation, but I was far too busy feeling sorry for myself about being stuck in the middle of nowhere to dwell on it.
    Jumping from the car, I slammed the door as hard as I could and vented some of my frustrations through yelling a further stream of fiery expletives at my useless hunk of junk. My mouth was worse than a sailor’s as I dredged up every single swear word I’d ever encountered and flung it at my poor unsuspecting Fiat. I was seriously tempted to kick the car, but thankfully, common sense told me that I would only end up damaging myself more than it, so instead I hurled another tirade of abuse and abruptly stopped as my shoulders slumped in defeat and my head hung low.
    Calming myself for a few seconds I watched as my breath steamed in the cold air. I sighed heavily and shook my head; I knew I should have had the tires changed at the last service, but the mechanic had told me they still had a bit of life in them yet. It seems he had been wrong.
    Not willing to let the weather beat me without a proper fight I spent a good ten minutes getting cold and soaking wet as I tried to build ramps in front of the tyres from larger, nearby pebbles, hoping that they might help me get some grip, but the snow was falling so quickly that they were covered and useless by the time I climbed into the car to try. Bugger.
    What should I do? Chewing nervously on the inside of my lower lip I glanced back at the house and grimaced so hard that my eyes scrunched up. No matter how stuck I was, there was no way I was asking him for help. The miserable git could wallow in his cosy warm bed and catch up on his sleep for all I cared. I’d be just fine out here.
    Turning