Chapters (88)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dear Reader …
- Also by Robert Muchamore
- PART ONE
- Walter J Freeman Adolescent Mental Health Unit – East Grinstead, UK
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- PART TWO
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- PART THREE
- Walter J. Freeman Adolescent Mental Health Unit – East Grinstead, UK
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- PART FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- EPILOGUE
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- Have you read KILLER T?
- 1 SLASHED RUBBER
- 2 NOT HARRY POTTER
‘Zac?’ she repeated, wanting him to hear but not be so loud that her parents did too.
She was starting to wonder if her mind had played a trick when Sophie’s boyfriend stepped out from behind three wheelie bins, giving a limp wave.
‘You saw,’ he said weakly.
It was the most un-Zac thing Georgia had ever heard Zac say.
Georgia loved her big sister, but Sophie was a tough act to follow. Top exam grades, Cambridge University, bachelor of medicine – first with honours, of course. And Zac Li was her long-term companion and perfect action-figure of a boyfriend.
A Hong Kong-born hunk. By day, Zac was a life-saving, motorbike-riding paramedic, in black boots and dark green NHS uniform. By night, he wore chunky knits and skinny jeans and was handsome enough to have stepped out of a menswear catalogue.
‘Are you coming inside?’ Georgia asked.
Zac took broken steps on the driveway gravel. He wore his motorbike boots and dark green work trousers with an OBEY baseball cap and a red Socialist Worker’s Party T-shirt with Smash Capitalism and a picture of Big Ben snapped in half.
‘Have you been drinking?’ Georgia asked.
‘I came by earlier,’ Zac explained. ‘But the lights were on and I could see cars on the drive. Your whole family was inside, and I couldn’t face them …’
‘You would have been welcome,’ Georgia said warmly, then shrugged. ‘They were doing my head in, if I’m honest.’
‘I wandered to the pub down by the housing estate …’
‘The Old Bulldog,’ Georgia said, alarmed. ‘You’re taking your life in your hands. A year-thirteen from my school got stabbed in there.’
‘Thumped some fascist in a suit,’ Zac admitted drunkenly, stretching out his T-shirt. ‘Didn’t take kindly to this. Then I strolled the canal before coming back here.’
Georgia half smiled. ‘I thought you were a pacifist.’
‘He swung first,’ Zac said.
He stepped out from the bins into the light coming between the living-room curtains. Georgia saw the eyes of someone who’d been crying all day.
‘I don’t know what to say,’ Georgia shrugged. ‘Nothing’s gonna make this better, is it?’
‘You’re starting to look so much like your sister.’
‘A lot of people don’t notice because of the age gap,’ Georgia said. ‘But we are alike if you see pictures of us at the same age.’
Zac put his arms out and Georgia collapsed against his chest. She’d had a crush on her sister’s boyfriend the whole four years they’d been going out. Zac’s smell was staler than usual, but Georgia still loved it.
‘I tried everything to make your sister happy,’ Zac said. ‘Maxed my Mastercard and booked a holiday, but she refused to go. She was so depressed. Wasn’t eating, wore the same clothes for days on end …’