Sisters - Michelle Frances Page 0,79

ground. She stumbled and reached out to grab the passenger door handle to steady herself. As she did, she saw inside the car, in the footwell.

Ellie’s bag.

‘Hurry up!’ He was getting jittery, dangerous. Abby edged around the door, pretending to limp, holding on to the door frame.

‘I’ve hurt my ankle,’ she said tearfully.

‘I don’t fucking care. Start walking or I cut her throat.’

Ellie began to cry then, gasping out sobs as she struggled to breathe, the man’s hold on her tightening, the knife pressing against her windpipe. Abby stumbled again and cried out in pain as she fell against the sill of the car. The movement threw the man and in the millisecond of confusion, Abby twisted and flung her arms into the footwell and into Ellie’s bag. She felt the coldness of the gun in her hands and as she turned to face the man she pulled back the slide, disengaged the safety catch and fired.

The noise pierced her eardrums like nothing she’d felt before, disorientating her as it throbbed in her brain. She was aware of her attacker falling backwards, pulling Ellie on top of him. Then Ellie scrabbled away, shrieking and crying, and Abby watched, dumbfounded, as the man lay on the ground, his eyes staring up at the dark sky, the knife still in his hand. Dark liquid oozed swiftly from behind his back.

Abby stared, still in shock. Then she remembered her sister.

‘Are you OK?’

Ellie was curled up in a ball, her hands wrapped over her head as she rocked back and forth.

Abby got up, the gun still in her hand. She edged towards the man, her heart hammering. As she got closer, she knew that he could dart out a hand and grab her ankle. She quickly kicked at his hand. The knife scattered away into the damp earth. He didn’t move.

Abby went over to Ellie, grabbed her elbow. ‘Get up,’ she said urgently. ‘Get up!’

Ellie stood and Abby manhandled her back into the car. She slammed the door shut, then ran around to the driver’s side. Throwing the gun onto the back seat, she started the engine, rammed the car into reverse. Then she let her foot off the clutch and they hurtled backwards down the hill. The car rocked over potholes and roots as Abby desperately tried to keep control.

She looked up, fearing the man wasn’t dead, that he would be following, throwing himself onto the bonnet, but the headlights picked up nothing except the dark, empty track. She kept driving, bouncing down the path until she could see the main road in the rear windscreen. She reversed into the road, then turned the car and sped away.

‘Are you all right?’ she said, glancing over at Ellie.

Her sister managed a weak nod. ‘You shot him,’ she whispered.

‘What, you wanted me to leave him to kill us?’

‘No!’

They raced down the road in silence for a while before coming back to the first junction where they’d been forced to turn. Abby looked expectantly at Ellie.

‘What?’ asked Ellie.

‘Which way?’

Ellie stared at her.

‘I don’t think we should go to Hernani,’ said Abby. ‘We need to get as far away from here as possible.’

‘You’re acting like nothing’s happened.’

‘Plenty’s happened but we still have to get away.’ She looked at Ellie, indicated out of the windscreen. ‘So?’

‘Oh my God, you’re insane.’

‘Just pick a route, Ellie.’

‘Um . . . left. Fuck it, left!’ Ellie blurted in exasperation.

Abby put the car in gear and pulled away.

FIFTY-EIGHT

Ellie hunched in her seat, hugging her arms to keep out the cold. Except the cold seemed to be coming from inside her. She would shiver uncontrollably every now and then – it wasn’t the air temperature, it was the aftershock. How close had death been? It was a question that, if she faced it, she got a sense of fear so great it was as if she was on the edge of a black hole, falling, falling, soundless, meaningless, snuffed out into nothing. She’d gasp, realizing she’d been holding her breath, and try to fixate on something else.

Ellie swallowed and in doing so felt again the tenderness; her throat was bruised. She instinctively lowered her chin, closing up the vulnerable gap where her jugular vein was exposed for anyone to slice through. Stop it. It’s over. Except that man was lying near the trees, his blood soaking into the ground. And her sister was the one who’d put the bullet in him.

Ellie glanced across at Abby, seeing her focus on the road ahead. Who exactly