The Promise Read online

  She wished to God that she’d stayed in the bedroom, as Lenny held open the front door and marched her back to her makeshift prison.

  Lenny, left to his own devices, was far more sadistic than Delray could even dream about, and Javine had just played right into his hands.

  Chapter Twenty

  ‘Drink some more of the wine,’ Trevor said, as he topped up her glass, smiling all the while, as if his earlier outburst against Marnie had never happened.

  ‘Of course,’ Josie said obediently. Placing her fork back down, she did as she was told for fear of upsetting the volatile Trevor once again.

  Picking up her glass she sipped at the wine, forcing herself to swallow the bitter, acidic liquid that burned her throat with every mouthful.

  ‘Nice?’

  Josie nodded.

  She couldn’t tell Trevor that the stuff tasted disgusting, not when he’d made such a big deal about how he brewed the drink himself. How it was his own special recipe. As if he was some kind of wine connoisseur.

  Josie had tasted enough wine in her life to be the real judge of that, and this stuff tasted like lukewarm piss. Still, the alcohol seemed to be taking the edge of her shock at Trevor’s earlier outburst.

  The sudden change had frightened her; he’d frightened the girls too.

  Josie had seen the way that Georgie and Marnie had looked at her before they’d gone off upstairs to bed. How they’d eyed her miserably. The confusion on their faces as to why Josie was letting Trevor talk to them the way he was. That she’d allowed him to physically strike out at Marnie.

  Josie couldn’t understand it herself, if she was honest.

  She couldn’t understand much these days. Her head was fuzzy. She couldn’t think straight. He’d done something else earlier too.

  What was it again? Oh, that was it. He’d taken her phone and hidden it from her. Or had that been Georgie and Marnie messing around and hiding it from her on purpose?

  She thought of the messages to Mandy. The girls would never have sent them. It had to be Trevor, but why? What would he achieve by cutting Josie off from Mandy?

  She should say something, do something; only, she couldn’t because she didn’t know what to say.

  ‘Are you all right, Josie?’ Trevor asked. His eyes boring into hers with intensity. ‘You look a bit pale?’

  Josie nodded. She could feel her heart hammering inside her chest. Palpitations, making her feel angsty, on edge. How the fuck had she let things get this far? Trevor had somehow wormed his way into their lives. He was acting as if they were a genuine item, as if he had some say in how Josie and the kids ran their lives. Controlling, manipulating; there was something else too, only Josie couldn’t put her finger on it. She couldn’t think straight. She hadn’t been able to in days.

  ‘I know you think I was being hard on Marnie earlier, Josie, but I was only doing it for her own good. For all of your own goods. There needs to be some discipline in the house. The children need to learn to do as they are told. Instilling a little fear into them would do them the world of good.’

  Josie didn’t respond. Quiet, she sat staring at him with that strange look on her face.

  Trevor couldn’t help but smile. His eyes twinkling with amusement.

  ‘Are you okay Josie?’ he said. ‘You look a bit off colour?’

  Josie tried to nod, but she couldn’t move her head. Opening her mouth to speak, her lips wouldn’t part. Her voice was stuck, deep down inside her throat.

  Trevor was talking, his words vague. She couldn’t hear them properly, couldn’t focus. It was as if he was speaking to her from afar, somewhere way off in the distance. The noise echoing around her.

  Laughter?

  Was Trevor laughing at her? Had she missed the joke?

  Her throat was so dry, raspy. She needed a drink.

  Trying to reach out for her glass again, she couldn’t even get anywhere near to it, let alone grip it. She was paralysed. Her limbs suddenly rendered useless; her arms weighed down to the table.

  Her mind – the only part of her that seemed to be working properly, suddenly went into panic mode. Was she having a stroke? Or a heart attack? This is what it felt like. Oh my God, she was going to die. She’d suddenly lost all control of her body. She needed to get up, but she couldn’t move. Her body was numb, stuck in the chair, redundant, as her legs betrayed her, buckling beneath her as she tried to move.

  She could feel Trevor next to her. The overpowering scent of his musky aftershave making her feel nauseous.

  He was holding her. Gripping her tightly in his arms. Wrenching her up onto her feet.

  Her eyelids drooped involuntarily.

  Then she felt the whoosh of air that swept against her cheeks. The rush of coolness as her hair swished back behind her.

  She was moving? Trevor was guiding her through the doorway.

  She was sick? He was helping her to the doctor? She’d be all right soon. Trevor would take her to a hospital. They’d fix this. Fix her.

  Her eyes shot open for a few seconds, long enough that the stark bulb in the hallway startled her as they passed the front door. They weren’t going outside?

  Glimpsing down, she could see her feet as they clumsily padded along the threadbare carpet in the hallway.

  Her feet touching the floor; only, she couldn’t feel the ground beneath her.

  She couldn’t feel anything now, in fact. It was as if she was floating.

  Drifting in and out of her body, suddenly weightless.

  They reached another doorway.

  Inside, Josie could smell the familiar sweet scent of her perfume all around her.

  They were inside her bedroom.

  Trevor was helping her into bed?

  Suddenly, she wasn’t sure that Trevor was helping her at all.

  Fighting to keep her eyes open, refusing to give in to darkness, she tried to keep focused. Her eyes fixed on the stream of light on the wall. Gone in an instant as she heard Trevor close the door.

  She could feel herself falling now. Backwards.

  Sinking down onto her bed. The warmth of the duvet enveloping her body.

  Trevor was close by; she could smell his sickly sour breath.

  Turning her head, to avoid the stench, she fought to stay awake, to stay conscious.

  She tried to speak, to cry out to the girls, but she couldn’t.

  Was he leaving her here to die? Alone in her bed?

  She felt her eyes roll then, lost all of her vision as she finally gave in to the black void that awaited her.

  Josie Parker gave herself up to oblivion.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Opening her eyes, Josie winced as the bright stream of daylight poured in through the gap in the curtains.

  It was morning already?

  Pulling the covers back up over her head to block out the light, she groaned. She was in her own bed. That was something, she supposed. Though she had no recollection of how she got here. Her head was pounding. She could barely lift it. She felt awful, disorientated. As if she was hungover from a three-day bender; only, Josie knew this morning that wasn’t the case. She tried to think straight, tried to focus her memory on the previous evening, but she couldn’t even do that. It was as if her brain was a puzzle and she was missing a huge vital piece of it. Something was up. She could feel it in her gut.

  She tried to remember if she’d taken any of her meds. Some Xanax, or Valium. She took them every now and again to take the edge off. They helped with the comedowns and the cravings. They helped with her shit life in general, she thought. She hadn’t taken any yesterday though? Or had she?

  She must have. That must have been why she’d blacked out.

  Trevor.

  Forcing her brain to try and capture the last memory she had, Josie could visualise Trevor sitting at her kitchen table again. How he’d forced her to drink back her wine. She could still taste the bitter tang from the slimy coating on her tongue.

  Licking her lips, feelin
g dehydrated, she reached over to the glass of water that had been placed by the side of her bed. Trevor must have left that for her too, before he’d gone back to his flat this morning.

  Josie winced, trying so hard to remember the missing chunk of her life that her brain wouldn’t allow her access to.

  Swallowing down the mouthful of water gratefully, Josie still couldn’t shake the feeling from her mind that something was up.

  Something deep inside her, gnawing away, as if it needed to come up to the surface.

  She felt edgy, anxious. But then maybe that was just the effects of the medication leaving her body?

  Swallowing the bile in the back of her throat, Josie turned her head in search of the alarm clock beside her.

  Shit.

  It was almost midday. She’d slept half the day already.

  She thought of the girls. Both waiting obediently in their bedrooms until she gave them permission to come out. They knew the rules. Josie didn’t want them wandering around the house when she had clients here, and Trevor was no exception.

  Leaving them this long would mean one thing. Marnie would have wet her bed again. Or the patch of carpet over in the corner of the room by the door. The child barely made it through the night, let alone half the day too.

  Lately, Marnie had been getting worse. It was like she was doing it to her on purpose. The more Josie berated her, the more Marnie did it.

  The girl’s bedroom reeked of stale piss. Everything was saturated in the stuff. The carpets, the mattresses, the bedding. All of it ruined.

  Josie didn’t have the stomach for cleaning up piss again today. She’d have to get Georgie to clear it up for her. Though knowing Georgie, the girl would only kick up a big fuss and start another argument.

  No, Josie would just have to sort it out herself.

  Just like she did with everything else in this house.

  She was in a bad mood. Sighing, already agitated before she’d even placed one foot out of her bed yet.

  Slinging the covers from her, Josie Parker finally dragged herself up out of bed. Unsteady on her feet, her head was banging. She felt like she’d been hit over the head with a sledge hammer, like she’d been drugged.

  She paused by the doorway.

  A revelation.

  That was it. It must be. That cheap, acidic home-made wine Trevor had been making her drink every night he’d been here.

  Trevor was drugging her. She was convinced of it.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Knocking at Mandy’s front door, Josie scanned the street convinced that she was being watched.

  She was being paranoid but, after last night, she had every right to be. Trevor had set her nerves on complete edge over the past few days with his sudden change of behaviour. It freaked her out, and the more that Josie thought about it, the more she was starting to believe that he’d really been drugging her. It was the only thing that made any sense. He’d harped on about the stuff as if he owned a fucking vineyard. He’d always poured two glasses out though, always made out that he was joining her but, thinking about it now, Josie had never seen Trevor actually drink any of the stuff himself.

  Josie had needed to escape, to go and see her friend Mandy.

  She’d know what to do.

  Only, now she was here, she had no idea if Mandy would even give her the time of day let alone help her, and her fears were confirmed a few seconds later when Mandy opened the door. The cantankerous look on her face said it all.

  ‘Oh, it’s you!’ Mandy said, clearly surprised to see Josie standing at her front door. ‘Well there’s something for small mercies; love’s young dream clearly isn’t doing you the world of good, you look bloody awful.’

  ‘Thanks a bunch!’ Josie said with a small smile. She’d missed Mandy’s knack of being brutal whilst speaking the truth.

  She’d left the house in a hurry, not even bothering to get dressed. Instead, she’d shoved a coat on over her pyjamas, and taken a rare opportunity to get out of the house, so that she would have a chance to speak to Mandy without Trevor getting wind of it. Mandy was right, she was a mess, but she didn’t look half as bad as she was physically feeling; that was for sure.

  ‘Can I come in?’ Josie asked, hoping that her friend was in more of a forgiving mood than she had been a few days previously on the phone.

  Scanning the path behind her, Josie just wanted to get in off the street, away from any prying eyes, away from the fear of Trevor finding out that she’d come here.

  To her relief, Mandy nodded.

  ‘Come on, then. You better come in. You’ll have the neighbours all twitching their curtains standing there in that get-up,’ Mandy said, stepping aside to let Josie inside the house, before leading her through to the kitchen. ‘You want a cuppa?’

  Josie nodded, grateful that Mandy was at least prepared to hear her out now she was here.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Mandy.’ Standing awkwardly in Mandy’s kitchen, Josie was close to tears. She knew that her apology sounded weak even to her own ears. She had so much to make up for she didn’t even know where to start with it all. The last few weeks were the worst of her life. She felt like she was on the brink of losing her mind.

  ‘Go on, then, tell me what you’re sorry for, Josie? Just so we’re clear… ’ Mandy said, not wanting to make it easy for her. ‘Let’s see, shall we? Sorry for going back on the gear and lying to my face after everything that I did for you the last time to help get you back on the straight and narrow? Sorry for making us both lose our earn with Delray? Shall I write you a bloody list, Josie?’

  ‘For all of it,’ Josie said, full of guilt, unable to hold back her tears. Mandy was the last person in the world she wanted to hurt. ‘I’m so, so sorry.’

  ‘If you’re still on the gear then I don’t want to know, Josie. So, for once in your life, don’t come around here and start treating me like a mug,’ Mandy said, tartly, scrutinising her friend’s pale, gaunt face. Steely dark shadows under her eyes.

  Josie still looked like she might be on drugs. That would explain the state of her. If she was, she could drink up her tea and leave. Mandy wanted no part of it.

  ‘I swear to you on Georgie and Marnie’s lives, I haven’t touched any gear for weeks now. I promise.’

  ‘Oh, on your kids’ lives.’ Mandy laughed. ‘Oh well, that means you must be telling the truth then, eh Jos? Ain’t like you haven’t said all this before. Swearing on your kids, Jos? Come on. You’re better than that. Look at you, you look like shit.’

  Well aware of how it must appear, Josie completely understood why Mandy didn’t trust her. She’d lied to her face. If they were really going to sort things out today, then Josie needed to be a hundred per cent honest.

  ‘I think Trevor is drugging me, Mand,’ Josie said through her sobs.

  ‘Why would he do that?’ Mandy narrowed her eyes in disbelief.

  Josie raised her eyes to meet hers.

  ‘I don’t even know where to begin with it all, Mandy. So much has been going on. I swear to you, on MY life. On my soul. I’m clean. I haven’t laid eyes on Billy since that night outside the pub.’ Wiping her tears, Josie looked her in the eye, determined that Mandy believe her. ‘I don’t even know why I went back on it. I just wanted a break, you know. From all the shit. All the fucking endless struggle. I thought I could handle it, just the odd hit every now and again, but somehow it just sucked me back in. I’m clean now though, I swear. I haven’t touched the shit again and I won’t. I swear to God.’

  Mandy nodded. Josie sounded convincing, and her story added up about not seeing Billy Stackhouse. Rumour had it that man wouldn’t be capable of serving himself a cup of coffee for some time, let alone serving up his poison to any of his punters. Delray and Lenny had done a right number on him by all accounts. A fractured skull, two broken legs, and a broken jaw – amongst other things. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy, Mandy figured at the time, hoping that the scummy bastard enjoyed eating hospital food,
because that was all that would be on his menu for a good while yet.

  ‘And Trevor? Why do you think he’s been drugging you? That’s just crazy. I thought you two were making a go of it?’ Mandy was unable to keep the bitterness from her voice.

  It still stung; in all her days, Mandy had never once thought that Josie would cast her aside for some bloke. She’d hurt Mandy so much, and as much as she wasn’t quite ready to forgive she could see that Josie was in a real mess. Sober, bawling her eyes out. Mandy might be a lot of things, but heartless wasn’t one of them. In all the years of their friendship, she could count on one hand how many times Josie had broken down. They’d been through so much, so much shit.

  This wasn’t Josie. Something was really up.

  ‘Here, have a tissue,’ she said, passing Josie a sheet of kitchen roll.

  ‘I’m not shacked up with him. It was a business arrangement,’ Josie said, trying to steady her breath. ‘Only, it’s all gone wrong, Mand. Trevor isn’t who I thought he was. He’s acting really odd. Skulking around the place all the time; always watching my every move… ’ Josie searched Mandy’s face to see if she believed her. ‘He was the one who stole my phone, Mand. He was the one that sent you all those messages telling you to stay away from me. He’s a control freak. I think he wants me all to himself. It’s like he’s trying to cut me off from the rest of the world. I can’t do anything without asking his permission. He doesn’t know I’m here now; he’d go mad. He ain’t right in the head, Mandy.’

  ‘He’s a bloke, Josie. None of them are “right in the head”,’ Mandy quipped, though she could see that Josie was visibly distressed. Handing her a cup of tea, Mandy watched as Josie put the cup to her mouth, her hand shaking.

  ‘Jesus, Jos. He can’t be that bad, can he? I mean, so he’s a bit controlling. A lot of men are. They can be set in their ways is all. Maybe you’re just not used to it. You’ve been on your own for so long, maybe it just takes some adjustment.’

  ‘It’s more than that though, Mandy,’ Josie said, shaking her head, frustrated that Mandy didn’t understand what she was trying to say. Shit, Josie couldn’t understand it herself, in all honesty. ‘The girls hate him. They won’t even go in the same room as him. In fact, these days they barely step out of their bedrooms anymore. Marnie’s night terrors have been getting worse; she’s wetting herself in the day now too, and Georgie is just so angry with me all the time. The other night Trevor smacked Marnie so hard that she fell off her chair, Mand, and do you know what I did? I did fuck all! My head’s been wrecked. I can’t even think straight.’ Josie gulped. ‘The only thing I can think of is that he’s drugging me, Mandy. I’m not completely sure, but it’s the only thing that makes sense. Last night, I was sitting at the kitchen table, and he made me drink something that he’d brewed, some manky home-made wine. The next thing I knew was half an hour ago when I woke up in my bed. I don’t even know how I got there.’