Cry of the Wolf Read Online Free Page A

hadn’t prepared for it. The sour taste of bile stung the back of his throat and he leaned against the side of whatever building he was standing next to for purchase.
    Sarah with someone else.
    Sarah being touched by someone else.
    Don’t think about it!
    He gasped, took in a couple of deep breaths and tried to shake the torturous image out of his mind. It wasn’t like he hadn’t touched another woman, right? And this was what he’d come here for – to say goodbye.
    Too bad it felt like his heart was being skewered over the flames of a barbecue.
    “Hey, mister. You okay?” Some freckly kid, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, frowned up at him. He couldn’t have been more than ten. “Only, this is my mum’s shop you’re leaning on and she wants you to piss off if you’re drunk.”
    Charming.
    He looked up and found he was standing against a toy shop. Hmmm, this hadn’t been here a year ago. Time flies when you grow fangs and fur.
    He eyed the boy. “I’m not drunk. You got any unicorns in there?” he asked, nodding at all the displays in the window.
    He shrugged.
    Helpful.
    “One of those little ornament ones – sometimes they’re glass, or sometimes porcelain…”
    The boy raised him an eyebrow. “You mean like those fantasy figurines? Yeah, we have some of those. They’re all kinda girly, though.”
    Taylor took a twenty pound note out of his back pocket. “Here. This should cover it. I want you to go pick a unicorn – whichever you think looks the most girly,” he added, dryly, “then, I want you to go into that bridal shop over there. See it?” He pointed across the road.
    Freckly nodded.
    “Good. The really pretty woman in there, with the frizzy brown hair and really dark eyes – her name’s Sarah. She loves unicorns.” At least he hoped she still did. He doubted that the general likes and dislikes that came down to personality would have been obliterated by Lawrence’s handiwork. “I want you to give it to her.”
    “What?” he asked, scrunching up his face. “Why can’t you give it to her?”
    Why did it have to be the really obnoxious kid that found him? “That’s a long, scary story.” He pulled out another twenty from his back pocket and thrust the two notes in the boy’s face. “This will definitely cover it and you can keep the change. You gonna do it or not?”
    His eyes lit up at the cash and he yanked it from his hands. “Yeah… What do you want me to say to her?”
    Taylor worked past the lump that ached in his throat and forced the tremor out of his voice. “Tell her it’s a goodbye present from someone … from someone who wishes he could have stayed. Say, goodbye.”
    And with that, he pushed himself from the wall of the toy shop, glanced at his wife one last time – her laughter permeating his sensitive hearing – and then turned away for good.
     

Chapter Two
     
    “Earth to Sarah!” Bethany – or Beth as all her friends called her – waved the duster in front of her face. “Where did you go?”
    “Huh? Oh … I don’t know. I just suddenly felt like someone was watching me.” Sarah stared out the window and focused on a spot across the street. Why? She couldn’t say, but there was something about the dark alleyway by the side of the toy shop…
    “Someone is watching you.”
    “What?”
    “Look.” Beth pointed to the door of the toy shop and out walked that ginger kid whose mother always looked at her as if she stank of dog turd. He had so many freckles she could barely make out the colour of his skin, and she smiled to herself. Her little sister used to get freckles like that, especially in the summer.
    Beth gave her a nudge. “He was looking at you through the window a second ago, and … yep! He’s heading this way! Looks like you’ve got a little admirer. Prefer tall, dark and exotic myself.”
    Sarah slapped her on the arm. “Leave him alone. I think his name’s Billy.”
    “Yeah, his mum’s a dragon. Have you met her? She