In The End Box Set | Books 1-3 Stevens, GJ (story books to read TXT) 📖

“Get in,” I said, nodding to the back, but she gawked on like I’d just killed someone.

Shouldering the van door open, ignoring Toni’s protests, I jumped to the tarmac and held my hands out as the woman stepped back.

“He’s not human,” I said. “We have to get out of here.”

“Are you fucking crazy?” Toni shouted from the passenger seat as she leant forward, her face going beetroot red as I slammed the door shut to deaden her sound.

I stepped forward, stooping to catch the stranger’s eye as she stood frozen on the spot.

“Do you recognise me?” I said. Watching, I saw her flinch from the ground to look me in the eye. She drew back and I took a step away. Her eyebrows raised and a slow nod rocked her head.

“Then come with us. We need to get away.”

She didn’t reply, but let me lead her to the back door. Let me help her up the back step to sit on the chair in the rear.

“What are you doing?” Toni snapped as I jumped back in the front, already manoeuvring the wheels to get us back on the narrow road. “You’re letting her out just up ahead,” she said when I didn’t reply other than to shake my head.

“Jessica,” she snapped. “Stop the van.”

“Where do you get off ordering me around?” I said, my voice surging out from my throat unbidden.

Silence filled the air. I felt sick, my heart pounding at the realisation of what I’d just said, my grip around the wheel tensing, foot hovering with indecision over the brake in anticipation of what Toni would do next. When she didn’t reply, stunned to silence perhaps, I spoke again in a voice I tried to keep calm.

“I’m not going to have sex with her, but if I wanted to then it has nothing to do with you.”

There. I’d said it, but I didn’t feel better. I’d said the words I’d wanted to all along, to a fashion. Still the nausea rose, threatening to overflow in the silence as I tried to push away the fears roving around in my head.

Toni was driven. Passionate for life. For her field. For science. For me.

She was empathic to a fault. She knew what was going on inside my head, unless the green mist descended. She was caring, brave, honest, but jealous. Toni wanted me all for herself and I was ready to give her what she craved, but only if she could shake off her cross.

It took me a long time to understand that she couldn’t or wouldn’t change.

Only on her own could she get past the mistrust. I’d never given her any reason to think I wasn’t hers. I’d never cheated. Never looked elsewhere while we were together, not that we’d ever been an item for very long. Despite my protests, a phone call, a text message, a look across the room from someone else would be enough for her to think I’d been with everyone else in the world when I wasn’t laying in her bed.

I’d leave and we wouldn’t speak, until the memories wore thin enough for one of us, usually me, to pick up the phone. We’d talk for hours, slow at first, building it all back from scratch without ever mentioning why I’d run from her bed.

Despite our time apart, she was always there, in the back of my head, in my thoughts every hour that passed. Over the years the arguments came after a shorter time of being in each other’s company and I was getting used to having to defend myself with shouted words. I knew I had to stay away from her, have a long break before one of us took it to the next stage.

Toni’s barely heard voice cut through my thoughts.

“You were always so weak.”

I shivered at the words and knew again in that moment that the decision I’d made months ago had been the right one.

A scream from the back of the van snapped me from my thoughts and we flinched around to see the woman in the back, her mouth wide in terror as she shook. In her hands gripped the empty pistol she must have found on the side, her aim alternating between our faces.

I turned around as I felt the uneven road, twisting the steering wheel to pull us from the grass verge. Looking up I saw the flash of blue lights ahead coming over a hill in the distance.

“Toni,” I shouted over the piercing noise.

“Shut up,” she called out to the sight of olive drab lorries as they followed the car high over the brow that stole my breath, knowing we had no chance if they chose to stop and check who we were.

36

Pulling over to the verge and with Toni climbing from her seat to the back, I watched the oncoming white of the police car loom into view. It headed a convoy for which I couldn’t make out the tail, with more vehicles rising over the crest as the long line continued towards us.

I didn’t flinch at the click from the empty gun. Instead, putting my hand to my ear, I moved my mouth as if I was on the phone, taking the time to let a smile out to the flowing traffic as the scream cut short with an abrupt thud against the floor of the van.

The police car didn't stop, didn't pause after the driver glanced in my direction. My gaze turned to the truck at its back and the next as it passed, glimpsing soldiers in full kit in the wing mirror, their faces fixed and serious.

The next truck blocked my view and I looked back through the windscreen, my fear turning to a warm sensation as I counted the