Hunger of the Wolf (14 page)

Chris
sank down onto a chair with his head in his hands.
“You have nothing more to worry about from me,” he whispered hoarsely. Amber expected him to go to bed to sleep off the effects
of the wine
, but instead he stayed up
,
and she was shocked when
she heard him leave the house. Looking out the window
she saw him
go to his car and
return with another bottle of wine. He continued drinking until the early hours of th
e morning,
mumbling to himself an
d occasionally laughing loudly
. She was unable to get a wink of sleep until it was silent downstairs and she was certain he had
drifted off.  It see
m
ed she had just closed her eyes when the sound of h
eavy footsteps on the stairs
jolted her awake
,
and then
Chris
began pounding on the door.

“Amber I need to talk to you right now.”
Before she could move he had flung open the door. “There you are
,
my darling.
Where have you been? I’ve been all alone down there. It’s so cold.” To her absolute horror h
e climbed
into her bed.

“
Chris
,
get out. This is unbelievable. I told you I would call the police and I meant it.”

His expression became ugly. “What do you mean you’ll call the police? Why are you doing this to me
,
Amber
,
when we’re in love
?” The next thing she knew she was pinned beneath him as he rested his full weight on her
. His sour breath made her gag as h
is hand groped at her breast
. Through her state of shock she realized she would have to outsmart hi
m if she was going to get away or he could actually rape her.

She let her body go limp to make him think she had given up on resisting him. It worked because she soon felt
him
relax. That’s when she brought her knee up between his thighs as hard as she could. He bellowed in pain
,
and she took the opportunity to push him off her and bolt for the door. With only the thought of escape in her mind she didn’t stop to grab her keys or
cell
phone as she
headed down the stairs and out the front door into the woods. She could still hear him yelling out her name as she ran up the path towards
Jesse
’s cabin.

Chapter 9

Amber barely noticed the sharp stones digging into her feet
as she made her way along the path in the darkness. She couldn’t believe what had just happened to her
,
and she knew it was going to rip Ka
t
apart when she found out
. S
he had no choice
but to tell her
. There was no way she could ever be in the same room as
Chris
again
,
and her friend d
eserved to know
what her husband was capable of. Although she was convinced he never would have behaved like that if he was sober
, alcohol was not an
excuse, especially when
he had continued drinking after the
first incident
.

There were no lights on in
Jesse
’s cabin
as she’d expected at this late hour
. As she knocked on the door
,
Amber remembere
d what he had said about his dog not liking
strangers
. S
he looked around nervously
b
ut
she
could not see any sign of Shadow
. It took
Jesse
ages
t
o open the door,
and he was
wary
as he rubbed his eyes
and peered out into the darkness
. He gasped
when he saw that
his late night visitor was
Amber dressed only in her pyjamas
with bare feet
.

“Amber, what are you doing here? Are you okay? Come in.”
She filled him in on everything that had happened
,
and when she finished his fists were clenched in anger.

“That guy needs to be taught a lesson. I have a good mind to go down there right now and have a word or two with him.”

She put her hand on his arm. “Just leave him be. He’s too drunk at the moment to see any kind of reason
,
and I don’t want you to get involved in this mess.”

“Are you going to report him to the police?”

“At
first I wasn’t going to because
I thought telling Kat would be punish
ment enough
,
but
when
he
got into my bed and pinned me down he crossed the line. I really thought he was going to rape me. I don’t care what someone is going through in their personal life, there’s just no excuse for
that. He’s dangerous and what’s
to say he won’t do the same thing to another woman if I let him get away with it this time? I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.”

“I have no cell reception right
, but I can drive you into town now if that’s what you want.”

“No, I’d rather wait till morning.”

As the gravity of the situation sa
nk in
Amber buried her head in her hands and cried. She was about to throw a grenade into the life of her best friend in the whole world
,
and nothing could ever be the same between
them again
.
“Poor Kat, this will destroy her.”

Jesse
rubbed her shoulder consolingly. “He’s responsible for this, not y
ou. He made the choice to assault
you
,
and now he has to live with the consequences.
Don’t wear any of the guilt for his actions.
”

“Thanks.” She smiled weakly and took the tissue he held out to her,

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“You could make me a cup of tea.”

“Now that’
s something I can do.
Then I’ll make up a bed
so you can try and get some rest. I can come to the police station in the morning with you
too,
if you like.”

“We’ll see
”.

After fixing the tea
and
making
a
bed
on the couch,
Jesse
stayed up talking with her for a while. After he turned in she wasn’t able to sleep
at all
,
and she was
still
awake when the sun came up. All she could think about was what she was going to say to
Kat. S
he knew she had to try and get
hold of her
somehow
before she set off on her way
t
o the cabin
,
and this thought consumed her as she tossed and turned on the lumpy couch
.
 

At around five-
thirty Amber gave up trying to sleep and went into the bathroom to splash
cold water on her face.
There were no towels to be found,
so she went back into the hall and
opened the linen closet. After she’d pulled out a clean towel she noticed some
women’s
clothes pushed way over towards the back
of the closet
. There was a sparkly pink top, a pair of jeans and some hi
gh heeled sandals. T
hey must belong to
Jesse
’s girlfriend
she thought, and she felt a pang of jealousy that surprised her
.
The more she got to know him
,
the more a
ttractive she found him, but at the moment she had far more pre
ssing things to worry about
.

Jesse
got up shortly after Amber
a
nd
they had a coffee together before he walked with
her back to the
cabin. S
he was very relieved to see that
Chris
’s car was gone
when they emerged from the woods
.
For on
ce her cell phone had reception
,
but
despite several attempts she was
unable to get hold
of Kat
.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to co
me into town with you? I really
don’t mind,
”
said
Jesse
as she climbed the steps to the porch.

“
No thanks. I’ll be fine now
he’s gone. My biggest concern at the moment is getting hold
of Kat. I wish she would answer her
phone.”

“
Do you want me to stick around here with you for a while?”

“No, I’d like some time to myself actually before I talk to the police.”

“Okay. Y
ou know where I am if you need anything.”

“Thanks so much
,
Jesse
.
I don’t know what I would have done without you last night.
”

“Always happy to help a damsel in distress.” She smiled weakly and waved
as he disappeared down the path
.
Chris had cleaned up his mess from the night before
,
and he’d taken all the evidence with him, including the broken lamp.
For the n
ext hour Amber busied herself packing her bags
while
still
trying to get hold of Kat. When it became cl
ear
that she w
as not going to answer
her phone
or return
any of
the voice mail message
s
,
Amber
cou
ld only assu
me her friend had forgotten her phone,
or that she was already on the way
there with the music playing
loudly in the
car
.

She wou
ldn’t have put it past Kat
to leave at the crack of dawn because she was so excited about the trip.
In a way it was for the best
if she got
to break
the
news to her in person. At least o
ut here she
would have a bi
t
of time to think things through
before deciding
what to do
.

Realizing Kat
might turn up earlier than expected
,
Amber steeled herself for the trip to the police station.
It had to be done but she was dreading it
,
and she almost wished she’d let
Jesse
accompany her there.
Her mind was barely on the road as she drove into town and
pulled up
next to a missing poster of
Tehya
Gordon
in front of the station
.
She
gave it a quick
glance, but something
made her take a second look.

The photo was taken at the party the night
Tehya
disappeared
,
and she
was dressed
in a
pink top, a pair of skinny
jeans and
sandals.
Her outfit looked very similar to the clothes she had seen in
Jesse
’s closet just that morning.
Amber raised her hand to her throbbing temple and took some deep breaths. This was too much for her to deal with today.
Jesse
had been so kind,
and he had seemed really angry about what had happened to her.
He couldn’t possibly be involved in Tehya’s disappearance.
It didn’t make any sense at all
. She was probably
m
istak
en
,
but
despite her misgivings
she decided she had to tell t
he police what she had seen at
his house.