Read Dark Heart Surrender for Free Online

me,’ she said. ‘I like to freak people out a little. It amuses me.’
    ‘I’m not freaked out.’ I widened my eyes, just to reinforce the message that she was failing in her mission. ‘Does that disappoint you?’
    She shrugged. ‘I can see the panic in your eyes.’
    I swallowed, a familiar feeling coming back to me. Intimidation. I hadn’t felt that since I was face to face with Sarah Forrest, the school bully who had tormented me three years earlier. She had made it her personal mission to give me a nervous breakdown – and very nearly succeeded. I’d been taken out of school and Mum had taught me at home. I took a deep breath, determined not to go back there.
    ‘OK, Polly,’ I told her breezily. ‘I have things to do today. If there is nothing I can help you with then I’ll see you later.’ I checked my watch. ‘I’ll come and find you at about three p.m. I might have a date for your brother by then.’
    At once her face lit up. ‘Cool,’ she said. ‘But just one thing …’
    I shrugged good-naturedly. ‘OK. What’s that?’
    ‘She’d better be beautiful. And no one fat or stupid. My brother doesn’t go out with fat ugly chicks with nothing in their heads. He might be shy but he’s got very specific tastes.’ She looked me up and down. ‘You understand me?’
    I gaped at her, on the verge of saying I was not a dating service, and her brother could find his own perfect girlfriend; but something about her expression made any response freeze in my throat. Her eyes seemed to change shape in front of me, lifting either side to become more almond-shaped, narrower – and the pale-blue of her irises seemed almost opaque.
    ‘I …’ I began, trying to take control of the situation, but I got no further. It seemed futile to defy this girl.
    ‘So we’re clear,’ she said, enunciating each word as though I was hard of hearing. ‘You’ll find my brother the perfect match.’
    Match? An odd way to describe a girlfriend, at least coming from a teenager it was. It sounded so clinical, official.
    ‘I’ll do my best,’ I said at last, dragging my eyes away from hers. ‘But I’m busy today. It might not be possi—’
    ‘Great.’ Her lips twisted into a friendly smile. ‘I’ll be outside, where you have your bike, at four.’
    It was an order. This girl felt she could order me around.
    A surge of students entered through the door, pushing past where we stood, one of them knocking Polly’s bag off her shoulder roughly.
    ‘Watch it,’ she snarled, causing the offender – a boy I recognized from my History classes – to jerk away from her.
    ‘Fine, dude,’ he said, giving her the same interested look I’d noticed practically everyone else giving her. ‘It was an accident, OK?’
    Polly simply stared at him imperiously as he shuffled off to catch up with his friends, throwing a final look back at her and muttering something under his breath.
    ‘Idiot,’ said Polly, taking a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket. I refrained from telling her smoking wasn’t allowed inside. She already knew it. And she would have enjoyed letting me know she didn’t give a damn. Taking a cigarette out and putting it in her mouth. She started to turn back to the exit, giving me a last smirk before she did so.
    ‘Later, alligator,’ she said. ‘Have a great day.’
    As I watched her disappear outside, I puffed out my cheeks. I was tired and the last thing I wanted to do was match-make. I hadn’t slept at all the night before after Luca’s news. He’d tried to backtrack a little, claiming there must be an innocent explanation to what he’d found in the training ground; it had been dragged in there from somewhere else, or someone had lost it and it had been found by a wild dog or a cat or something and brought, like an offering, into the hut. But that didn’t seem right to me. The training ground was miles from anywhere. And why was the chain covered in blood? Luca had been freaked out, I could see