Run Away With Me : A fast-paced psychological thriller by Daniel Hurst (ebook reader ink txt) 📕

eyes off the road for the first time in a while and looking at me, although his speed remains unchanged. ‘We’re together. We’re having a baby. We can figure everything else out afterwards. All that matters is that we have each other.’

‘Adam, this isn’t some kind of fairy tale where you can just tell yourself everything is going to be alright. This is real life. There are consequences to things.’

‘Yes, there are,’ he says and I don’t like the way he just said that at all.

Is he threatening me?

‘Do you have any idea what it’s like to make one mistake that could cause you to lose everything you ever worked for?’ Adam asks me as he pushes his foot down on the accelerator again. ‘My family. My career. My whole life. Ruined because some idiot was out walking on a country lane after dark and stepped out in front of my car.’

But I’m too preoccupied to answer him because we’re going far too fast for the type of road we are on and my hand is gripping the door handle.

I wish there was some combination of words that I could say to stop him driving and get him to turn around, but I fear that there isn’t. He’s fully committed to this idea of being on the run now, and I’m to blame for encouraging it.

‘What are we going to do about the birth?’ I ask him as he takes another corner slightly quicker than the speed limit recommends. But he ignores my question as if the impending arrival of a baby is just going to be one more minor obstacle in our path towards guaranteed freedom.

‘I could have Samuel any day. Hell, I could have him tonight. Then what do we do?’

‘Don’t worry about that,’ he tells me, and I feel the frustration building up inside of me because he is treating everything as if it is no big deal when it clearly is.

‘Adam, stop this car now and talk to me!’

I suddenly lurch forward, and my seatbelt tightens against me as Adam hits the brakes and brings us to a stop, right in the centre of the road. We’re in the middle of nowhere, and there are no other cars around right now, but it’s still crazy to stop without pulling over to the roadside. But before I can say anything about it, Adam has turned to me and taken me by the hand.

‘I don’t want to go to prison, Laura! I’m terrified! Why can’t you understand that?’

He’s gripping me tightly, and it’s hurting me a little, but I can see how scared he is, and I know that he means it. He is petrified, and here I am just worrying about myself.

‘I understand that,’ I begin, but Adam just shakes his head at me and lets go of my hand. While it’s a relief to not be gripped so tightly anymore, I still miss his touch when it’s gone.

‘How could you understand?’ You weren’t the one driving. You didn’t hear the sound of the body hitting the car. It was awful, Laura. Truly awful.’

I feel bad now because I’ve realised that through all the crazy moments that this evening has presented, what I am going through must pale in comparison to the psychological torment that my husband is experiencing having seen somebody die right in front of him. Forget prison, babies and running for a moment. I’m surprised he hasn’t had some kind of a breakdown after witnessing what he did.

I know I would have.

A couple of minutes pass before one of us speaks again, but I choose my words carefully when they come.

‘How far are we from the cottage?’ I ask.

‘About ten minutes.’

I check the clock on the dashboard and see that it is eleven o’clock now. The later it gets, the more tired we are becoming, and the more likely we are to make bad decisions about our next move.

‘Let’s carry on,’ I say. ‘We need to rest, and then we can talk when we are thinking a little more clearly.’

Adam nods and puts the car back into motion again, driving much more sensibly this time, which is a relief. Samuel hasn’t kicked me in a while either which I’m also glad about because I feel as if I’ve taken enough of a pummelling today and I’m not just talking about from him. My whole life has been turned upside down in the last few hours, and I’m having to figure things out on the fly.

I fear that I won’t know what the best course of action is for some time yet. All I can do is make a decision and see where it leads. I’m trying to protect the man I love, and I’m trying to ensure that he is around when Samuel is born any day now. It’s important that Adam is at the birth because I don’t want to go through it alone.

In that moment, I know what I am going to do. I will go along with this until the time comes for me to have the baby. We will have to go to hospital for that whether the police are looking for Adam or not, but hopefully, we can be together for the birth before they take my husband away. Whatever happens, I expect it will become much clearer then.

Right now, I just want to get to a bed and try and get some sleep.

But do I think it’s possible to rest with all this going on in my head?

Not a chance. 

8

LAURA

I spot the outline of the cottage through the gloom as we trundle down the dirt track towards it. It looks beautiful during the day, but right now, it doesn’t look like anything special. Right now, it looks exactly like Adam told me it would be.

Empty. 

We are the only ones around for miles in any direction, and I know that because of our previous visits up here and how long it took to get to the nearest village. It