Burning Heart: Fighting Heart Erotic Bad Boy Romance Series Book 4 Read Online Free Page B

opposites.  The best option was that I would only see my mother when I could come home with good news that Regan was alive and well, thereby diffusing my mum’s self-pity bomb before it went off in my face.
     
    I didn’t know many of Regan’s friends, and that was how it had been for many years now, but there was still one guy I respected more than most. Terry. Terry had been Regan’s friend before he turned out to be a mini-drug dealer. Terry liked smoking pot and telling very bad jokes, but even so he wasn’t a bad guy. He’d always been a fun-loving kid, and he’d simply never grown up. I knew he now worked in a computer game exchange on the High Street. For Terry working around computer games was another way of postponing adulthood, but at least he wasn’t a drug dealer any more. Terry was a loyal friend to Regan and an equally loyal customer of his dope providing services, but he was one of the good ones. When we were younger, during my mum’s bad spell after my dad ran away, I had to be a kind of surrogate parent to Regan which meant I ended up learning the telephone number of Terry’s house off by heart. I still knew it. I just hoped Terry still lived with his mum. If he did, I would speak with Terry and get the low down.
     
    I called and his mother answered as if the best part of ten years hadn’t passed between us. Then I heard her holler up the stairs for Terry. I could picture it all. Somethings never changed.
     
    Terry grabbed the receiver, and didn’t waste a single word. From the moment he picked up, even before he spoke, I suddenly knew that Regan’s situation was real and serious.
    “You heard from him, Ash?”
    “Hi Terry. No. No, I haven’t. Tell me what happened.”
    “I can’t. I mean, all I know is that I was supposed to meet him down at Rundy’s. It’s a new music shop in town, but at the back they have a secret little smoker’s den. It’s pretty cool. But he never showed, Ash. I waited there an hour and he didn’t turn up. That’s just not like him at all.”
    “Isn’t it? I always thought Regan could be pretty unreliable myself?”
    “Maybe for you and your mum, but not for me. He always shows up when he says he’s going to. If not, he calls to let me know what’s up. But not this time.”
    My panic started rising. I needed to know every little detail of the big picture.
    “What do you think happened, Terry? Does he owe any money again?”
    “No. Not after last time, he kept his nose clean. He doesn’t ever want to come unstuck with those guys again.”
    “Well that’s good news, at least.” But it didn’t feel very good. Ruling out the most likely reasons for my brother’s absence meant I had to rule some seriously nasty options in.
    “Ashley, I’m worried about him. Disappearing like this is way out of character. This is some heavy shit, I’m telling you.”
    “Terry, Right now I’m beginning to agree with you.”
    “What you going to do, Ashley?”
    “I’m going to find him.”
    “How?”
    “Oh… I’ve got a few ideas.”
    “I’m working shifts this week, Ash, but fuck that. If you want some help finding him you let me know.  And you let me know straight away, right?”
    “Right. I’ll let you know.”
    Terry insisted we swap mobile numbers, which we did, but as soon as I’d gotten all I could from Terry I got off the phone and took a breath. One deep breath for staring into the abyss – Regan really was missing. And then another breath for making the call I had to make next. I didn’t want to do this. Not one little bit . I made my breath slow as I stared into the nothingness of the Essex marshes along the bus route into town. And then I dialled Brandon’s number. The phone started to ring.
    “Shit!” I said. I couldn’t do it. I hung up. It made it all too real.  So I procrastinated by calling Amanda’s phone. Her mobile rang and rang and rang until it finally cut off. I growled at my phone, and on a surge of emotion I started