WILL TIME WAIT: Boxed set of 3 bestselling 'ticking clock' thrillers (61 page)

CHRISTA

A
horn beeped outside the local shops.  I scanned the poorly-lit street,
spotted Brian’s car outside the closed Post Office and headed over while
hanging up my mobile.  For some reason, Sarah was not answering my calls.

Brian grinned at us through the window, then leaned over to
open the passenger door.  “Hop in,” he said, then slotted his mobile in
its holder on the dash.

My heart rapped a double beat as I opened the door wider to
climb in his Freelander.  That old sting of guilt from our teen years never
went away.  “Brrr...”  Once I shut the door to keep the heat in, a
fresh masculine scent wafted around me.  Nicola climbed in the back. 

I handed the laptop to Brian.  “Mission accomplished.”

He placed it on the back seat, and then swept concerned eyes
up and down me.  “The roads sure are bad, aren’t they?  You look
terrific.  I thought you’d cancelled your meal out?” 

“I did.  Th-thanks, but...”  I glanced down at
myself.  I didn’t look great at all.  He was just being polite. 
My long dark-brown hair tinted blonde on the ends was tangled and wind-swept,
and the last time I’d glanced in a mirror, my mascara was smudged.

Brian’s gaze locked on mine while he slid the back of his hand
down my cheek, in a companionable way.  “So, I finally got in touch with
Claire.  God, you’re frozen.  Stay in here and get warm.  In
fact...”

I angled my head, drawn into his lingering gaze.  “In
fact what?”

Eventually, he looked away and put the car in gear. 
“You’ll warm up in a minute.” 

“I’d say it’s pretty damn
h-hot
in here already,”
Nicola mused, her voice tinged with a chuckle.

After driving off up the street, he fiddled with the heater,
but it was evident he’d heard Nicola’s comment, for he gave us both a sideways
glance.  “It’s no problem.  Oh, nice make-up job, Nicola,” he joked,
being equally sharp but playful with her.

I sighed at their exchange, fed my hand around the back of
my seat and poked her leg.

“Ouch,” she yelped.

“As I was saying, Claire called,” Brian said.  He
glanced at me with bright blue eyes that reminded me of Sarah’s.  “Her
car’s stuck on Jackson street.  Wheels spinning, churning up sludge but
not getting anywhere.  You were right.”

“I was?”

“Yes.  Before heading over to your place, she planned
to stop at the shops, but skidded into a ditch.  She tried to get her car
free so she wouldn’t have to tell me."

"She’s probably cold and stressed," I said. 
"Don't worry about dropping us home.  Go help her." 
Typical Brian.  Forever the nice guy.  His girlfriend was stuck in
the snow and he still wanted to ensure we got home safely.

Brian glanced my way, then surprised me by saying, "I
wasn't planning on dropping you home... yet.  I hoped you'd give me a hand
towing her out.  I think if you two would just spend a little time
together, you’d start getting along.”  Brian stopped at the red
lights. 

Nicola leaned forward between the front seats.  She set
her hand on Brian’s shoulder and interrupted my mumbling excuse that Claire
would not appreciate my unexpected appearance.  “Christa would
love
to assist you.”

I turned in my seat, ready to give her the ‘what the hell
did you say that for?’ eye, when the back door clicked open.

“But not me,” Nicola said, legs already dangling out of the
car.  “You two go.  I’m not venturing anywhere else with green muck
on my face.  My street cred will be in tatters.”

I twisted around, wanting to grab her by the sleeve to stop
her.  “N-no.  No, Nicola.”

She reached back into the car and clasped my shoulder. 
“Someone needs to play security guard at your house, right?” 

I crushed my bottom lip between my teeth, torn two
ways.  Sarah was, and always would be, my number one priority.  The
sooner we rescued Claire, the sooner Brian would return to Sarah.  But in
the meantime, I did not want my house to be a sitting duck to the underbelly of
society, nor did I particularly want to see Claire.  “But I don’t want you
to be on your own in the house.  It’s not safe.”

“I’m a big girl.  I’ll make it obvious the house is
occupied; stick music on, open all the curtains and prance around in the nude
like you do.”

“You do what?” Brian turned to me, his voice sky high, eyes
glittering.

“Don’t listen to her.”

“And an anonymous admirer mailed her more goodies this
morning.  She’ll not be single forever.”

Limit reached.  “Nicola.  Shut up!” I snapped.

“Okay, okay, I’m going.” She left the car with wicked
satisfaction flashing across her face.  “But if you two finally decide
that you can’t be good... be careful.” 

“Jeez!” I said, but she slammed the door shut.  Oh,
God.
  Did she really say all that out loud? 
I shifted in my
seat feeling awkward about how Brian might respond to her comments. 
Nicola always read our friendship so wrong and I feared it would one day cause
an irreversible awkwardness.  He drove off without saying anything. 
His expression unreadable. 
Is that good or bad? 

“Claire’s not gonna be happy about my being there,” I warned
him. 

“Don’t worry.  I’ve already told her you’re coming to
help me.”

Rather presumptuous.
  “Let’s just get this over
with so we can all go home.” 

“Sorry your birthday celebrations didn’t pan out,” Brian
said, steering around the corner.

“Thanks.”

He winked at me, then took a right.  “And just for the
record, you’re wrong about Claire.  She does like you.”

I shook my head.
  Impossible.

He glanced my way.  “I'm serious.  She told me
so.”

Then she lied.
  “Really?  How nice.”

He winked again.  “What’s not to like?”

I settled into my seat and buckled up.  Why was Brian
so blind to Claire’s dark way of thinking?  Or maybe my intuition was off,
and she was indeed the sweet person he made her out to be.  If so, why
couldn’t I see her light through the dark?

He quirked an eyebrow.  “Secret admirer, huh?”

I bit my lip.

We approached the main road that led to town. 

“Oh! Don’t go this way.”  I waved my hand in a fluster.

“Why?”

“Because...”

Too late.  He swung onto it.  “They grit the main
roads first.  It’s our safest bet.”

I pointed ahead.  “Except there’s a crash in
town.  Didn’t you hear?”

Brian shook his head.  “They’ve diverted traffic
because of the snow, that’s all.  My friend Marcus works for the
highways.”

“You’re wrong.  A guy just told me about the crash.”

“Then he lied to you.”

CHRISTA

I
t
really wasn’t a choice at all.  We had to get to Sarah.  Brian’s
sister had just phoned and said her car still refused to start, and Sarah was
not answering our calls.

“Relax,” Brian said.  “She knows she’s not allowed out
at dark.”

“I can’t believe you’re being so lighthearted about this.”

“I’d ask my mum to nip round but, well... after the cancer
scare she’s a bit fragile.  Brought memories back.”

I understood.  “I’m so glad she got the all clear.”

“Thanks.  Anyway, Sarah will be listening to her iPod,”
Brian said as I dialed her again.  “That’s why she can’t hear the phone
ring.”

I did not for one minute believe that, but there wasn’t a
damn thing I could do about it right now. 

“This diversion has made traffic worse, not better. 
See.  I told you there wasn’t a crash.”

Having been wedged in barely-moving traffic for what seemed
like half an hour already, my patience was spent.  I shook a hand in the
air.  “She’s sneaked out to meet her friends.  I just know it. 
I’ll ground her for... until she’s eighteen.”  I loved Sarah so much and
hated not knowing her whereabouts.

Brian gave a light laugh.  "Eighteen?  That's
a bit harsh."  His eyes searched mine.  “Is there something else
worrying you?”

I shook my head.  "It wouldn't be the first time
she's sneaked out or stayed out later than agreed.  She’s been rebelling
since John and I split up.  I just want her to be safe, that’s
all." 

“Yes.  But all teens go through a rebellious stage,”
Brian countered.

While Brian was dependable, caring and honest, he also
occasionally played with danger.  At times he needed a nudge to realise
that Sarah might have a little of his family’s wildness in her blood too. 
I gave him a knowing look.  “Did you listen to your parents when you were
a teenager?  I didn’t.”

Brian's smirk fell away and his hand shot up to rub his
temple.  “Ground her 'til she's twenty-five and not a day earlier.”

I nodded my approval.  "And we'll tag her with a
GPS."

"Deal."  Brian turned his head to the long
line of stationary traffic ahead, and sighed.

We were prisoners to ice.  “What are we going to
do?  I don’t want to sit here all night while my daughter swans around in
the dark with... Oh, God.  She'll probably hang out with a bunch of
hormone-ridden boys.”

Brian clenched his jaw.

I knew all about randy boys.  I'd lived through the
stigma of being a teen mum myself.  It seemed all my friends were at it,
and so I took the plunge.  Slept with two boys and ended up with child at
the age of seventeen.  The shock and disappointment on my family’s faces
remained buried in my mind since that day.  I saw those expressions many
times over the years; struggling with childcare, losing jobs, and now my
failing marriage.  I did not wish my beautiful, future-boy-magnet daughter
to start sliding down the road to that same lost childhood trap and experience
the hardship and judgemental looks that I’d endured. 

Perhaps I was overly worried about Sarah, but still... I
wriggled in my seat.  To add to my frustration, I needed to pee.

He tapped the steering wheel.  “Okay.  Let's get
out of here and find Sarah.  Claire will have to wait.  I’ll phone her
in a minute and tell her what’s happening.”

“We could go back the way we came and drive around the
outskirts of town,” I suggested.

He shook his head.  “Last time it snowed, that was the
first road to get blocked.”

Some idiot behind us honked.  I failed to see the
point.

B
rian
studied the next turning, about five cars ahead on the right.  “That
street leads to Bear Hill.  If we can make it up there we can drive around
the back lanes, get to my place from the North side.”

I glanced ahead.  The thought of driving up Bear Hill
in such weather unnerved me.  “Don’t be ridiculous.  If it was safe
then all these cars would be doing the same.”

“But they don’t all have four wheel drive.  Let’s take
a look.”  Brian edged past the cars in front and nipped up the side
road.  Apart from a couple of abandoned vehicles and a man in a long coat
being led by his excited Jack Russell, the street was void of activity. 

Brian slowed on the flat stretch at the foot of Bear
hill.  “I’m going for it.  If any car’s gonna make that climb, it’s
this baby.”

I studied the angle of the slope.  The snow sparkled in
the sparse lighting.  “I’m not sure, Brian.”

“It’s only twenty metres in length."

"We'll not make it.  It's more like thirty and
it's steep."

"It looks longer than it is."

"Men are terrible with measurements," I
muttered.  I held my hand out, stretched my fingers apart and indicated
the distance between my thumb and tip of my little finger.  "They
seem to think that
this
is eight inches."

He tried to keep a straight face, then laughed and changed
the subject.  "If I drive up it diagonally, stay out of tyre tracks,
I'll get more traction.  Mmm...  What do you say?”

“But what if another car...”  I stopped and studied
him.  Brian might be a tad wild at times, but he was not a lunatic. 
"Okay."

The car edged forward then picked up speed.  The
headlights lit up the snow-thick slope.  I ground my teeth together as the
front wheels mounted the incline with a little bump.  Half way up the
slope, the tyres hit a patch of ice and sent us veering left toward a massive
concrete retaining wall. 

“Oh, crap,” I said.

The engine revved.  “The tyres are spinning.”  He
fought to keep control of our angle, until finally, we levelled out at the
top. 

“That wasn’t so bad,” I said, rolling my eyes, not really
meaning the words.

He turned left and drove down the gentler winding tree-lined
roads that would take us north towards Brian’s neighbourhood.

I turned to stare at Bear Hill.  “I can’t believe you
actually drove up that.  You are one crazy...”

“Guess it was a bit.”

Our gazes met and, a beat later, laughter burst out of us
both.

“Can you see now why I worry about Sarah?  If she's got
your family's crazy genes then..."

He nodded, still laughing.

"Do you think you’re a stuntman or something?” I asked,
grinning while exasperated.

His eyes brightened.  “What?  Like in... Die
Hard?  Or The Fast and Furious, or...”

I burst out into laughter again.  “I don’t know why I’m
laughing.  You could have killed us.”

Brian followed the road to the right.  “No more stunts,
I promise.” 

I turned away and looked out of my side window.  Brian
could be such a kid at times but, deep down, I had to admit I secretly enjoyed
that side of him.  I glanced at him and mumbled, “Dukes of Hazard if you
must know.”

He chuckled and gave my thigh a little tap.  “That’ll
do.”  Then, on rounding the next bend, a couple of hooded youths ran out
in front, carrying a massive TV and other goods.  Looters.

I threw a hand forward.  “Watch out!”

Brian stomped on the brake.  We slid down the road.

Jesus... holy... crap!
 I gripped the dashboard
and braced.

“Hold on!  Shit!”

The car skated sideways across the ice and we slammed into a
tree.