by Daniel Hurst
‘Where are you?’
‘I’m at my favourite little holiday home.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘The cottage, Adam. I’m at your sister’s cottage.’
‘What the hell are you doing there? You’re supposed to be resting.’
I make sure to keep up my impression of a worried husband just in case the police are listening in on this call. I wonder if Laura realises what I am doing.
‘Drop the bullshit,’ she quickly tells me.
I guess I have my answer.
‘I need you to come to the cottage right away,’ Laura tells me.
My first instinct is that this is a trap.
‘Why would I do that?’
‘Because it’s the only way you will ever see Gemma again.’
Laura’s words hit me like a bullet.
What the hell is she talking about?
‘Laura, what have you done?’
‘I haven’t done anything yet, but I will do if you don’t get here soon. Your lover is not as much fun to be around as mine was.’
I squeeze the phone in my hand as I keep it pressed to my ear. The bitch.
Would Laura really hurt Gemma? Why not? I killed the person she had an affair with, so I suppose she thinks it’s only right that she does the same.
But I can’t allow that. I love Gemma. I need her.
‘How do I know you’re telling me the truth?’ I ask.
‘I’ll send you a photo,’ she replies, and I hear a beep on my phone that tells me I have just received a media message.
‘If you’re not here in half an hour then that photo will be the last thing you ever see of her.’
Laura hangs up as I quickly scramble to look at the image on my phone.
I open it and see Gemma’s face.
She isn’t smiling.
Laura is telling the truth.
She has her.
60
LAURA
I peer out of the window at the green hills and the grey sky.
It’s funny. I spent so much time here before wishing I was somewhere else, but now, I feel happy to be here. I’m happy because I know Adam is on his way to this cottage and all of this will be over just as soon as he arrives.
Having made the phone call to my husband from the main road, I have since returned to the cottage where I am eagerly awaiting having some company. Checking the time on my phone, I return my gaze to the dirt track, expecting to see Adam’s car turn onto it at any moment now. Sure enough, two minutes later, I spot it.
Here he is; my husband, rushing to save the life of his other woman.
What a guy.
I step away from the window and take a seat on the sofa, doing my best to keep my heart rate down as I wait for Adam to storm in here and demand to know what I am doing. He can be as angry and chaotic as he wants to be, but I have to remain calm, at least for a few more minutes anyway.
I hear the car engine cut off outside and two seconds later the front door to the cottage opens and Adam steps in.
‘Where is she?’ he demands to know when he spots me sitting in front of him.
‘You’re too late,’ I say, smirking because I can’t help it.
‘What are you talking about? What have you done to her, you crazy bitch?’
He steps towards me, but I spring up from the sofa and move behind the breakfast bar in the kitchen, keeping a safe distance between us.
I move much faster now I’m not carrying a child.
‘I’ve done the same thing as you did to Bradley,’ I tell him, shrugging my shoulders. ‘I’ve got my revenge by killing my partner’s lover.’
‘Oh my god, why?’ Adam asks, and as much as I am enjoying seeing his pain right now, I am a little hurt that he is displaying far more emotion for Gemma than I have ever seen him show for me.
‘Why did you kill Bradley?’ I ask, keeping as still as I can even though my heart feels like it is going to explode out of my chest and out onto this breakfast bar between us.
‘Why do you think? Because of what he did with you! The betrayal. You broke my heart! How could I let you get away with that?’
‘You didn’t have to kill him. And you didn’t have to try and kill me either.’
‘I was angry!’
‘I know you were. And I don’t blame you. I know what it’s like to have that same anger. It’s impossible not to act on it.’
Adam’s eyes go wide with fear when he realises what I’m alluding to.
‘Where is Gemma?’
‘Why do you care so much? She deserved this too. I know it was her idea to try and kill me just as much as it was yours. I know she helped you. I know she is the reason Bradley is dead and Samuel is in that incubator.’
My voice cracks as I say that last part. I’m acting right now, but that bit was too close to reality. No matter what I am hoping to happen here, it doesn’t change the fact that my baby is still fighting for his life in hospital.
‘You’re right. We did it together,’ Adam replies. ‘Do you know why? Because we were in love. She was willing to kill for me because she knew how much pain I was in after what you and Bradley did. How amazing is that, Laura? That’s real love!’
I let Adam’s words hang in the air, not just for dramatic effect, but because I am a little shocked at how much he actually believes that what he and Gemma had was true love. In reality, they are nothing more than a pair of psychopaths, and they deserve everything that is coming to them now.
Adam notices my eyes moving to fix on something behind him, and he turns around to see Detective Cleevely standing in the doorway. He is quickly joined by the two police officers who were hiding in the utility room off the kitchen.
They were here to protect me, but they were also present to hear everything.
The look on Adam’s face lets me know he has just realised that.
He doesn’t say a word as one of the police officers slaps handcuffs on him, and the other one leads him to the door where Cleevely simply shakes his head at the suspect as he passes him by.
I can hear the sound of several vehicles driving up to the cottage, all of which were parked out of sight from the dirt track leading up to here, but their drivers had made sure the cottage was surrounded in case Adam tried to escape.
My plan worked. Both Adam and his accomplice are now in police custody. Based on my husband’s emotional statement to me a few moments ago that would have been picked up by several witnesses, as well as the numerous ‘bugs’ hidden around the cottage, the pair of them have some serious explaining to do.
While it was my job to get Adam up here so he could confess to the crimes, it was Detective Cleevely’s job to take care of Gemma. My lie about the security camera was the way for me to get Adam to visit her home and prove the part of my story about my husband being involved with her. I knew he would need to speak with her as soon as he learnt there was a possible problem with a camera in the cottage and he didn’t let me down. No sooner had he left Gemma’s flat then the detective moved in, arresting her on suspicion of Bradley’s murder and the attempted murder of me and Samuel.
She is currently being held in custody at the police station where her photo was taken which I used to send to Adam, making him think that she was in danger and enabling the second part of my plan to play out. I imagine Gemma might be feeling a little confident that there isn’t much evidence to hold her permanently, but I doubt she will be feeling quite so smug when she finds out what Adam has been saying in the presence of so many police officers. I had to make sure I guided the conversation in such a way whereby he would confess to what he and Gemma had done without feeding him information, but I guess I did a good job of it.
He wouldn’t be sitting in the back of a police car right now if not.
I return to the window and look out to see the police car containing my husband making its way down the dirt track towards the main road. But that’s not all I see. I spot a break in the grey clouds in the dista
nce, and a rare sliver of blue sky becomes visible.
It’s been a long time since the sun was shining, but I guess every storm has to end eventually.
EPILOGUE
Today is a good day. Samuel has finally left the hospital, and he is home safely in my arms where he belongs.
He is doing much better now than he was when he was born, able to breathe without medical assistance and growing bigger and stronger by the day. I understand there will be some longer-lasting effects from the carbon monoxide poisoning that he suffered on that terrible night in the cottage, but the main thing is that he is alive, he is healthy, and he is smiling at me with his beautiful blue eyes.
I’m sitting on the sofa in front of the television preparing to give Samuel another feed from his bottle, and while I’m feeling extremely fatigued due to my own lingering side-effects from the toxic fumes, I am still able to enjoy this moment. I’ve waited a long time to have my baby home, and I’m going to enjoy every single second of it now that he is here.
As I put the bottle to Samuel’s lips and watch him drink, I hear the recognisable music that tells me that a local news broadcast is beginning on the TV. It’s funny how I spent so much time in that cottage desperate to watch the news, but now the very idea of it sends shivers down my spine.
I know what the top story will be. It will be the same one that has dominated the headlines for the last few weeks. It will be all about Adam and Gemma and the latest reports surrounding the shocking events that took place at the pretty cottage in the picturesque surroundings of the Cumbrian countryside. But I know the full story, and I don’t need to be subjected to it again.
‘Could you turn that off?’ I say to the other person in the room besides me and my baby.
‘Sure,’ Kat replies, and she switches off the TV before taking a seat on the sofa beside me.
‘How’s he doing?’ she asks me in reference to Samuel.
‘He’s doing great,’ I reply because he is.
In fact, we all are.
Some people might think that it’s weird for me to be hanging out with the sister of the man who tried to kill me, and I would understand that. But me and Kat have actually grown closer recently, and it’s mainly because of everything that has happened. I know that she feels terrible about how she treated me after I got out of hospital, as well as the general guilt she carries about the fact that her sibling tried to kill me and used her own property to do it in. Her being around and offering her help is her way of assuaging some of that guilt, I guess. Likewise, I enjoy having her around too because it makes me feel better. She is the one who saved me and Samuel, after all. Without her, we wouldn’t be sitting here on the sofa right now enjoying this special mother and son moment.
It might have been plain bad luck that led to Adam and Gemma being crazy enough to try and kill me, and it was definitely plain good luck that led to Kat coming to the cottage and finding me when she did, but I guess that’s all life really is in the end.
Just a mixture of good and bad luck all rolled up into one crazy life.
I know I made mistakes in my past and it was the consequences of those mistakes that led to everything else that happened to me and my son. I should never have started that affair with Bradley. I should never have hurt Adam. It was wrong, and I am sorry for that. But Bradley didn’t deserve to pay for his mistake with his life, and neither me nor Samuel deserved to suffer so badly either. Adam could have just divorced me. He could have started a new life with Gemma. I would have been left all alone to think about what I had done while he was happy with a new partner, and that would have been punishment enough for me. But human beings don’t always do what they are supposed to do, I guess. Adam and Gemma chose a different path to get their revenge, and it was one that involved much worse things than divorce papers and soppy social media updates.
They didn’t just want to see me suffer. They wanted to see me dead. But here I am, still alive and kicking, just like the little life I hold in my arms.
I watch Samuel’s legs wriggling about in the air as he takes his bottle, and I smile. He could be a runner with energy like this.
He could run for miles.
He could run wherever he wants to go.
As long as he doesn’t run like his mother did.
THE END
A Letter from the Author
Thank you for reading Run Away With Me. I hope you had as much fun delving into the lives of Laura, Adam and co as I had creating them. As with some of my earlier books, I wrote this during the lockdown period in England and it gave me a great form of escapism from the realities of the world. I hope it has done the same for you.
Without readers like you, I wouldn’t be living my dream as a full-time author, so thank you for picking up this book and thank you for any review you may choose to leave for it afterwards. Reviews really are the most powerful way of getting attention for my books as they help bring in new readers. If you have enjoyed this book I would be extremely grateful if you could spend a couple of minutes leaving an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads (it can be as short as you like).
Thank you.
Daniel
If you would like to get the latest news about my future books, receive free stories and learn more about the life of a writer, you can join my free e-mail list at www.danielhurstbooks.com
Also By Daniel Hurst
TIL DEATH DO US PART
What if your husband was your worst enemy?
Megan thinks that she has the perfect husband and the perfect life. Craig works all day so that she doesn't have to, leaving her free to relax in their beautiful and secluded country home. But when she starts to long for friends and purpose again, Megan applies for a job in London, much to her husband's disappointment. She thinks he is upset because she is unhappy. But she has no idea.
When Megan secretly attends an interview and meets a recruiter for a drink, Craig decides it is time to act. Locking her away in their home, Megan realises that her husband never had her best interests at heart. Worse, they didn't meet by accident. Craig has been planning it all from the start.
As Megan is kept shut away from the world with only somebody else's diary for company, she starts to uncover the lies, the secrets, and the fact that she isn't actually Craig's first wife after all...
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What if you invited danger into your home?
Amy is a loving wife and mother, to her husband Nick, and her two children, Michael and Bella. It’s that dedication to her family that causes her to seek help for her teenage son when it becomes apparent that he is going to fail his end of school exams.
Enlisting the help of a professional tutor, Amy is certain that she is doing the best thing for her son, and indeed, her family. But when she discovers that there is more to this tutor than meets the eye, it is already too late.
With the rest of her family enamoured by the tutor, Amy is the only one who can see that there is something not quite right about her. But as the tutor becomes more involved in Amy’s family, it’s not just the present that is threatened. Secrets from the past are exposed too, and by the time everything is out in the open, Amy isn’t just worried about her son and his exams anymore. She is worried for the survival of her entire family.
This will be one lesson they will never forget.
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Emily Bennett dreams of being a social media influencer, just like her idols Mason Manor & Ivy Lane. But shortly after Ivy’s untimely death she is contacted by a secretive businessman who offers her the chance at the fame and fortune she so desperately craves.
While Emily initially gets to experience the things she has always wanted, it soon becomes clear that her new employer had sinister motives for approaching her and it isn’t long before she discovers that the life of her dreams comes with the kind of conditions that are the stuff of nightmares.
Social media
isn’t life or death.
It’s more important than that.
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THE 20 MINUTE SERIES
20 Chapters. 20 Characters. 20 intertwining stories.
An original psychological thriller series showing how we are all more connected to each other than we think.
What readers are saying:
“If you like people watching then you will love these books!”
“The psychological insight was fascinating, the stories were absorbing and the characters were 3D. I absolutely loved it.”
“The books in this series are an incredibly easy read, you become invested in the lives of the characters so easily and I am eager to know more and more. Roll on the next book.”
THE 20 MINUTES SERIES (in order)
20 MINUTES ON THE TUBE
20 MINUTES LATER
20 MINUTES IN THE PARK
20 MINUTES ON HOLIDAY
20 MINUTES BY THE THAMES
20 MINUTES AT HALLOWEEN
20 MINUTES AROUND THE BONFIRE
20 MINUTES BEFORE CHRISTMAS
20 MINUTES OF VALENTINE’S DAY
About The Author
Daniel Hurst lives in the North West of England with his wife, Harriet, and considers himself extremely fortunate to be able to write stories every day for his readers.
You can visit him at his online home www.danielhurstbooks.com
You can connect with Daniel on Facebook at www.facebook.com/danielhurstbooks or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/danielhurstbooks
He is always happy to receive emails from readers at [email protected] and replies to every single one.
Thank you for reading.
Daniel
