Read Online Gut Feeling by Victoria Browne - Free Book Online Page A

pretty with long dark wavy hair, but she just didn’t have the same elegance as Ash. Later, they all agreed to go out to a few bars around the area to show Isabella the night life—the idea obviously was Peter’s and Dave took it for granted that his twin would be hoping to get to know Isabella with a few drinks in her.
    ‘Just remember she’s living with you, bruv. There’s no “one knob and gone” in this situation,’ Dave warned Peter as they stood outside the flat waiting for Isabella.
    Moments later she appeared in the doorway, looking great, long dark curly hair falling over her bare shoulders and trying to reach her Latino legs. She hurried down the large stone steps to join them. Isabella’s old home seemed a hundred miles away as she took in her new surroundings, warming to her flatmates.
    Peter and Isabella sat talking while Dave got the drinks at the bar. Soon Dave was placing them down on the table, the room all but empty apart from the three of them and the young bar girl dressed in black who was now pouring unfinished beverages away then stacking them into the glass washer. Dave looked round the overlit room, feeling a slight breeze from the open door before sitting down.
    ‘So… why, Wandsworth, Issi?’ said Dave. ‘I can call you Issi, right?’
    ‘Yeah I don’t mind—I like the name Issi. I moved to be closer to work and I fancied meeting a new circle of people.’ Isabella sipped on her straw then stirred her cocktail, giving a soft smile as she carried on. ‘I had a boyfriend that turned out to be a bit of a dick and thought it would be easier on him if he didn’t have to bump into me any more.’
    ‘That’s big of you.’ Peter’s eyes widened, knowing there must be something behind that reason. ‘Come on there’s more to it. What did you do—sleep with his best mate?’
    ‘No…’
    ‘His best mate’s sister?’
    ‘You wish. My ex is in prison at the moment and I don’t want him bumping into me when he is out!’ Isabella sat back with a smug look on her face. wondering what they would make of that.
    A stumped Peter broke the silence. ‘So in other words, you, don’t want to bump into him.’
    Issi laughed. ‘I suppose so—a bit.’
    ‘So what did he do?’ Dave asked, lowering his eyebrows.
    ‘OK. Get ready… my ex, Tony, was having bother with some guys, so he thought the best way to deal with it would be to scare them—’ She gave a snigger then carried on. ‘So anyway… he went around to their house with an airgun.’
    Peter and Dave looked at each other, and then back at Issi.
    ‘The guys were a lot bigger than Tony and just took the airgun out of his hand. He told me he just froze and let them take him. They shot him in the leg with his own gun then called the police and told them that Tony had held them all hostage, and when they tried to escape there was a struggle and he got shot!’
    Isabella picked up her drink, taking a sip, looking over the top of her glass at the reactions on their faces.
    Isabella never let on the deep regret she had about her past and her previous choice of lovers; instead she had built an invisible wall around herself and used humour to protect her feelings. She believed that if you laugh at yourself before others did, then people would like you and not mock you; she had similar views when it came to men—use them before they use you.
    Isabella had come from a loving family—not strict—and perhaps this was why she had got caught up in a bad crowd at school, not fearing the repercussions from her mum and stepdad. She wasn’t the quickest academically and got left behind in class, leaving her to fend for herself in the playground when the other children taunted her for being stupid. The only way she could express her frustration was to lash out, and quickly learnt that she only needed one flamboyant act to defend herself—namely by punching a girl and kicking her until she cried—after which others thought twice before calling