Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 117740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117740 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 589(@200wpm)___ 471(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
He reached to grab her, but I snatched her out of his reach and hit the other arm.
“Ow, ow, she hurts!”
“Good! Feel my pain, you boarding school educated but emotionally stunted swine!”
“Jesus Christ, what is that thing made—ow!—of?”
“My hatred!” I shouted, giving him one last hit for good measure before turning around. I darted across my plot and hopped onto the side of my vegetable bed, then leapt over the fence into George’s plot.
“Watch me sprouts!” he shouted from the other side of it. “Rose!”
“Sorry, George, sorry!” I called back, heading for his gate. It was already unlatched, so I zoomed through it, clutching Bertha tightly. “I owe you!”
“Rose! Fuck me, woman!” Oliver hollered, followed by the sound of my gate.
“No! Never again!”
Whoops.
Guess that cat was out of the bag.
“She’s running awaaaaaaay!” Isadora yelled at the top of her voice. “Catch her!”
“What?” I almost tripped over a stone, but quickly recovered, still sprinting down the path.
What did she mean, catch me?
Who was she trying to tell that I was running?
“Rose!”
“No!” I shouted back at Oliver. “Leave me alone!”
I needed something to throw at him. Hit him, make him trip… Anything so I could get away. I had Ramona’s keys in my pocket, so I could make an escape if only I could reach her in time.
Ah.
I had Bertha.
“Go, Bertha! I choose you!”
I choose you?
Fuck me, it was a dildo, not a Pokémon.
What was I doing?
My aim was shit, and Bertha sailed right past him and landed in a birdbath with a splash, giving a magpie the fright of its life.
Good. He was a strawberry-thieving little bastard.
“What is it with you and that dildo?” Oliver shouted, a little out of breath.
“Shaun!” I yelled at him as soon as he appeared. “Help me!”
He looked at me, then behind me at Oliver. “Ah.”
“Help!”
He grabbed me, and instead of running, he wrapped his arms around me, pinning me against his body. “Sorry. This is for your own good.”
34
* * *
ROSE
Wotten Bastard
“What are you—let me go!” I wriggled in his hold, but he swiftly clasped my wrists together behind my back, completely immobilising me. “What are you doing? My own good? Can’t you see I’m escaping?”
“You’re not allowed.”
“Shaun, you traitor!”
He nodded. “Yes, yes, you can punish me later.”
“Oh, I will. Slowly. Painfully. Aggressively. You will never know peace again,” I hissed.
“Mhmm, I can’t wait.”
“You little—” I stepped on his foot with all my might, but while he winced, he didn’t let me go.
Stupid police officer.
Stupid police training.
Stupid Shaun.
“My dad is gonna beat you up,” I muttered. “I knew I should have let him come with me today.”
Shaun laughed and leant back, looking down at me. “Sorry, Ro. But it’s a punch I’ll gladly take. My work here is done.”
“What do you—ahh!” I fell backwards as he released me, and I was quickly wrapped in another pair of arms.
A pair I knew too well.
I stiffened. “Let me go.”
“You’re a flight risk,” Oliver said quietly, almost a hint of laughter in his voice. “So, sorry, but no can do.”
What was so funny about this?
Oh, now I wasn’t just mad.
I was mad mad.
“Let. Me. Go.”
“I didn’t sell the allotments.”
“Don’t you try and—wait, what did you just say?”
He tightened his hold on me, pressing his face into my hair. “I didn’t sell the allotments,” he repeated, his voice still quiet.
“But you—you and Luke were talking about the contract yesterday. I heard you. You signed it, and I—”
“Should have done your usual and stormed into my office to give me a piece of your mind.” A small laugh escaped him. “Then I could have told you. I never expected you to come into the main house.”
“Why didn’t you sell them? What did you sign? Wait. I’m confused.” I tried to wriggle in his arms to turn around, but he was holding onto me like I’d disappear if he didn’t.
A fair assumption.
I had just leapfrogged a fence and thrown a dildo in his direction to get away from him, after all.
“These.” Isa poked her head around us, holding out theenvelope he’d shown me earlier. She tucked it into my hand before stepping back with a, “Don’t mind me, you carry on,” and scooting away somewhere.
“What is this?” I said quietly.
“Open it and find out.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t move my arms, idiot.”
“Oh.” He loosened his hold on me, slipping his arms under mine and wrapping them around my waist. He rested his head on my shoulder and turned his face into mine. “Go on, open it.”
His breath flared across my cheek with his words, and with shaky hands, I opened the envelope and pulled out its contents. I scanned the little black words and froze.
I’m pretty sure my brain short-circuited.
“What is this?” I whispered, my voice cracking.
“The Hanbury Allotment Committee has been granted full stewardship of the land and an adjoining two acres for expansion,” Oliver said softly. “Turn the page.”