Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,166

other than sat on the sofa the whole time that he had been gone.

“Thank you.” she said and proceeded to search through her bag for the lip balm that she didn’t really need. After applying a thin layer, she returned it to the bag and checked that her phone was also in there.

She sat back on the sofa for a while, crossing and un-crossing her legs and then decided it was time to put phase two of her plan into action. Slipping the keys surreptitiously into her bag, she rose to go into the kitchen on the pretence of making a cup of tea. Predictably Sean followed her and so she filled the kettle and switched it on to boil before she suddenly grasped her head and her tummy. Mumbling ‘dizzy...’ she swayed and fell into Sean’s arms.

“Careful, Miss Grayson.” He admonished, “Perhaps you have done too much. Let me take you back to the sofa and I can finish making the drinks.”

“OK – thank you, Sean” she said, once again marvelling at how easy it was for her to lie these days - even pretending to be ill. She wasn’t proud of herself but her life was just such a crazy place right now that she needed every tool that she could use to navigate her way through it.

Sean helped her carefully back into the lounge and then settled her on the sofa before returning to the kitchen to make the drinks. The kettle was nearly boiling and the noise filled the quiet of the flat; something that she had been banking on. Carefully she got back up from the sofa and grabbed her bag before tiptoeing down the hallway towards the front door.

A quick glance in the kitchen told her that Sean was engrossed in making the tea and was also on the phone again, no doubt updating Vaughn on her little ‘dizzy’ spell. He had his back to the window which overlooked the courtyard so, seizing the opportunity, she crept to the front door and then opened it as quietly as she could before hastily making her way down the stairs and through the gate out onto the street and the refuge of her car.

Jumping in, Elise quickly started the engine and drove out of the parking space, heading in the direction of the main road. She had no particular destination so decided she may as well just follow the road until it joined with the coast road and she could make any further decisions then.

So engrossed was she in getting away that she didn’t stop to make the basic checks in her mirrors before driving off and as she left Vaughn’s flat behind, she failed to notice the familiar car pulling out onto the road behind her.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Elise had been driving down the coast road for less than ten minutes and in that time her phone had rung virtually constantly. A glance at the caller display told her that both Vaughn and Cole were trying to contact her and whilst she hated to worry them, she really needed this time to herself to regain some perspective. She was planning to stop in a short while anyway when she got to the little picnic area, so she would call them then to reassure them that she was OK.

Briefly she spared a thought for Sean who had no doubt had his head well and truly chewed off and only hoped that he wasn’t going to lose his job over it. It wasn’t really his fault.

As she continued to drive, Elise felt the hairs on the back of her neck prickle and she realised that it wasn’t the first time she had had the sensation since she had got in her car. She couldn’t put her finger on it but she felt for all the world like she was being followed, however the nearest car was a good distance away down the road – too far away for her to really see it and certainly too far away for it to be following her.

Shrugging at the paranoia that seemed that have taken hold ever since she had been on virtual house arrest, she approached the picnic area and indicated to pull in. There was a car already waiting to pull out so she slowed down to allow them to exit first before she began to make her turn, the entrance being relatively narrow and only really suitable for one car at a time. As she waited for the car