Read Anything for Her for Free Online Page B

you want, you can’t get it from me. I don’t have anything left to give. Leave me and my house alone. Find another person to prey on.’
    She stands in the darkness, listening to the sound of her heart beating furiously.
    ‘Leave me be, and I won’t call the police. All I want is to be left alone.’
    Louise walks out of the barn, allowing a slice of the dusk light to enter before the door slams behind her, returning the barn to darkness.
    Louise fails to hear the reply from the shadows.
    ‘I’m afraid I can’t do that.’

Chapter Eleven
    Louise walks back towards the house along the lane, too unnerved to follow the track through the woodland. She had felt something in that barn. It was a living being – a person – the same person who had been in her house. She could feel the person’s presence on her skin. It made every hair on her arms erect.
    Or was it a delusion? Have I really begun to lose my mind?
    Halfway up the hill, her phone vibrates in her pocket.
    ‘Hi, Brooke,’ Louise says.
    ‘Hi, Mum. How are you?’
    ‘Fine,’ she lies. ‘I’m fine. How’re you?’
    ‘Scared.’
    Brooke’s voice is plagued with it, as though her fear is rattling her vocal chords.
    ‘Of what?’
    ‘A glove was left on the front step. A glove that belonged to—’ She stops abruptly, as if choking on the words. ‘One of them. From that night.’
    The night has truly fallen now. The lane is filled with darkness, except for a grey mist that lurks around the bottoms of the trees nearby like a calm sea approaching with the tide.
    ‘It can’t be,’ Louise replies. ‘It would have beenevidence. The police will have everything from that night.’
    Louise stops abruptly.
    ‘We shouldn’t talk about this over the phone.’
    ‘Mum, it was definitely from that night. It belonged to the woman—’
    ‘I said stop talking about it over the phone!’
    Silence falls at the other end of the line.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Louise says. ‘I didn’t mean to snap at you.’
    ‘It’s fine,’ Brooke replies, offended.
    ‘Don’t worry. It won’t be what you think it is. A kid probably dropped it on his paper round or something.’
    ‘Well, the kid must have had a wound to make the glove bloody.’
    Louise begins to worry, but refuses to show it in her voice.
    ‘Everything’s fine. It’s probably nothing. You’ve always had an overactive imagination.’
    ‘I know what blood looks like, Mum.’
    ‘I don’t want to talk about this over the phone.’
    ‘Well, come home then.’
    ‘I can’t.’
    ‘You can – you just don’t want to.’
    ‘Fine, I don’t want to. Do you blame me?’
    ‘You have two kids at home, Mum. Dom is so confused.’
    ‘Don’t you dare make me feel bad, Brooke. My life isfalling apart. I’m allowed to run off for a while if I want to.’
    ‘What would you like us to do in the meantime? Wait around for you to act like a real parent?’
    ‘Fuck you, Brooke.’
    Louise ends the call, seething. She immediately considers calling back to apologise, but she can’t bring herself to do it. She can’t be guilt-tripped back to London. She needs to stay away for a while, even if it means abandoning her children for a few days. Having devoted her life to them from the moment they were born, now she needs a few days for herself, to fall apart and then heal, before returning to her role as the family’s rock.
    As she approaches the house, the only light visible is the outside lamp by the front door. Louise pushes open the creaky gate and walks up the path, fumbling for the keys in her coat pocket. As she reaches the front door, she glances down.
    On the doormat lies a dead robin.

Chapter Twelve
    Louise freezes at the sight. A frisson of fear runs down her back. The winter air suddenly feels far colder, and the darkness surrounding the house seems to blanket hidden threats.
    She looks around the front garden for any sign of life, and then looks back at the robin. Placing her keys in her pocket, she picks