Race Girl Read Online Free

spine and her stomach twisted and dropped – something wasn’t right. ‘Thanks again for the lift,’ she said, forcing a smile. She took a quick breath then opened the door, stepping out into the heavy, humid night.
    The Range Rover purred expensively, its red taillights almost blinding as she shuffled past, her eyes on her front door. Tully whipped her hat off when she realised she was still in her uniform, crumpled it in her hands, then smoothed a hand down her ponytail.
    She couldn’t resist a glance back as she walked between her mother’s frangipani trees, up the stairs of her sagging front verandah.
    There was a man she recognised as Mr. Weston’s head strapper sitting in the passenger seat, and in the back . . . Tully’s body froze as she recognised the boy, smirking at her from the back seat of Pearce Weston’s Range Rover. His tangle of golden hair glinted under the interior lights of the car, his dark eyes glowed, danced, teasing her.
    Oh—CRAP!
    The boy from this morning was Brandon Weston.
    His grin was vaguely familiar, now she thought about it . . . Tully hadn’t seen Brandon since his mum had left the farm across the road from Avalon and taken him to live in the city when he was just five. Tully remembered her mother telling her how both ‘babies of the valley’ had been born just a year and a month apart: Tully on New Year’s Day, and Brandon on the first of November, two years earlier . . .
    Tully was jolted from her thoughts as she tripped on the top step, coming down hard on one knee. She pushed herself up with her hands, limping through the shooting pain across the verandah to the door. She wiped frantically to clear the beads of sweat from her forehead, her face burning from embarrassment, heart speeding.
    â€˜I can’t prove you did it,’ her father was saying as she crept in through the creaky screen door, ‘But I know you did.’
    Tully paused behind Mr. Weston, looking down at her father in his worn chair, the light of the TV casting shadows across his creased, withdrawn face. He wore his stained Avalon cap and grubby work clothes, which were hanging off him these days. A glass shook in his hands and Tully noted the two empty bottles on the overflowing coffee table beside him. ‘Lucky we caught the horses before they made it to the main road,’ her father said without averting his eyes from the racing channel on their tiny box-back TV. Gerald Athens brought the glass to his lips, downing the rest of his drink in a single gulp. He re-filled his glass to the brim before continuing, ‘It was a dog move, opening the gates like that in the middle of the night. I’ll have your hide for it, Weston.’
    Tully shifted on her feet, wringing her hat in her hands. Her heart pounded deafeningly, her palms freezing cold, hot sweat trickling down her ribs. Pain suddenly pulsed at her temples and she blinked rapidly to see the men in the dim light. Since her mother’s death, she often found her father sitting in complete darkness. It terrified Tully that one day she wouldn’t be able to wake him up. Then she’d really be alone.
    â€˜I didn’t need to see your face to know it was you, Weston,’ her father said darkly. Tully remembered that night, just over a week ago, when they were woken by the sound of hoof beats outside the house, the horrifying sound of a horse galloping off down the driveway. It’d taken Tully, her father, Bucko and Grace over an hour to catch all of the horses, and Diamond Someday had nearly been hit by a semi on the road. Thankfully, the truck driver, a mate of her father’s, had agreed not to call the cops or tell anyone else about the incident. If word had got around that Avalon’s horses had been running all over the road, they’d have lost their last remaining horses for sure – they’d be finished. They were lucky, but they knew it was deliberate – no