Page 66

SIXTY-FIVE

Gina played the next four messages on her hands-free as she drove home in the darkness, along the country lanes. All Pete kept repeating was for her to come home immediately, but not saying why. A sickness began to radiate from her core as she pulled up.

Her house was in darkness. She wondered if Pete had found a way in again. As she opened the door, she heard her cat darting out of the cat flap, and she knew. ‘Pete,’ she called.

She carried on walking through her lounge and into the kitchen. That’s when she saw him through the glass in her kitchen window, sitting on an old plastic chair amongst her overgrown garden. She unlocked the door and he entered. He placed his laptop on the kitchen table next to his phone. ‘What’s happening?’

He exhaled sharply. ‘I stopped it. I’ve taken it down. Look.’ He opened his laptop. ‘Sorry, I took the liberty of logging on to your Wi-Fi. The site is down. It looks like Stephen has been working with someone to get it back up, all with the aim of destroying you somehow.’

‘Someone else, who?’

He shrugged. ‘It’s only a guess, but I don’t think Stephen would have the knowledge for all this.’

Gina frowned. ‘All the messengers?’

‘I’ve sent a virus to the email addresses of all the users who have an account. They’ll probably just think that’s what it was all about. It’s over, Gina.’

She pulled out her own phone and tried to log in to Men-R-Takin-It-Back, but it was gone. ‘My boss received a phone message.’

He nodded frantically. ‘I stopped them before any more could go out. It was Stephen.’

‘What’s happening with him now?’

‘Like the others, he has one hell of a virus. I don’t think his tech will be good for much.’

Her stomach felt like a stone was lying in it. ‘What if it happens again, with your site?’

‘Like I said, I want a quiet life in Devon. I will do what I can to help.’ He paused and rubbed his stubble. ‘I’ve upheld my end of the bargain, Gina. I need to know I’m safe to leave here and live my life without the threat of you tarnishing my reputation. The woman I live with, I love her. I want a chance to start again. When I go home, I’m going to ask her to marry me and I am going to be the best husband ever. I’m not the man you knew back then. Everyone deserves another chance.’

He’d done as asked. She hurried up the stairs to retrieve the memory stick that she had hidden under the floorboards, then returned downstairs and passed it to him.

‘How can I trust you? You might have copies.’

‘I don’t.’

He snatched it from her and closed his laptop, leaving them both in darkness. Opening the back door, he stepped out into the garden. He stood there, staring.

‘What is it, Pete? You have what you want. You can go now.’

Shaking his head, he roared. ‘I never wanted any of this.’ He let out a nervous laugh.

She paused and watched. His expression changed to relief, but she couldn’t ignore the smirk forming across his face. Her heart sunk. She’d been played by him in the vilest of ways. ‘This was all you, wasn’t it, Pete?’

‘You made me do it. You made me start all that up again, just to get that stick. Don’t you think it was convenient no one ever came to your house, or that only your boss, the one you’re shagging, got a message?’ He began to pace. ‘I’m sorry, I read all your messages. You should change your personal phone number and email and not use passwords that are so obvious a five-year-old could guess them. But, I am sorry for everything.’

She felt her tense fingers reach the chopping board, and on top of that board was a knife. No one knew Pete was at her house. She could plunge it into him and bury him in her garden. She was angry enough to do it.

She gripped the handle and then let go. Terry was a necessity, but Pete was just a disappointment – one she would have to live with. ‘I actually trusted you.’ She let out a nervous laugh. ‘There is no cutesy cottage or girlfriend. You lied again, didn’t you?’

He nodded. ‘Gina, we both survive because we’re really good liars. We’re more alike than you think. All we want is to survive.’

‘I am nothing like you.’

‘Keep telling yourself that. A liar knows a liar. I have to go. Enjoy your life.’ He headed towards the end of her garden where she was sure he was going to leave over the fence. ‘Oh, I do have something for you because I’m not the total bastard you think I am. Like you, self-preservation made me do it.’ He blew out a big breath and walked back to her. ‘I’m a pro at what I do, and at the end of the day, I want to do something good. I heard what you said about doing the right thing when it came to White Knight, and it felt just a little bit good to help. It warmed my ice-cold heart for just a second and it felt right. If you need assistance with any sickos on the dark web, or you need information, you have my number. I owe you, so use me. Here, I got this from Stephen ages ago. He must have had it from Terry. He wanted me to publish it everywhere, but I couldn’t.’ He thrust something into her hand and walked away.

As he scurried over the fence, she let Ebony in and slammed the door. She grabbed the knife and stabbed it through the photo of herself, piercing the chopping board underneath.

Terry was the horrible gift that kept on giving, but she was no longer that scared young, pregnant woman, bound and blindfolded in a shed.

She pulled the knife out of the photo and roared as she tore it up, not wanting to ever see that side of herself again.