Read Online The One and Only by Sophie McKenzie - Free Book Online

dropping on the ground. I glanced round as we reached the wall. A trail of paintbrushes and pencils led from Eve back to the fire escape. What the hell was she doing?
    Eve removed something small and silvery from the case.
    ‘They can see the hire car from the reception,’Alejandro whispered. ‘We have to run.’
    I looked across to the car park. All the cars were parked neatly apart from a large blue Mercedes which had been left at an angle in front of the hotel’s main entrance.
    It was obviously the car Jonno had just arrived in.
    Alejandro’s hired white Ford Mondeo was only three parking spaces away from it. I gulped, turning back to Eve.
    ‘Ready?’
    She nodded.
    ‘Now.’
    We raced across the car park. As we passed the Mercedes I felt Eve wrench her arm away from me again. I turned round. She was bending down, jabbing the silvery thing from her bag at the car tyre.
    ‘What the . . . ?’
    I bent down, trying to pull her away. Then I realised what she was doing.
    The silvery object was some sort of art knife. She’d used one like it all the time when she was working on her GCSE coursework last year. She was jabbing it against the tyre, but her hands were shaking so much it kept glancing off the rubber.
    ‘It won’t go in,’ she said, desperately.
    I put my hand on hers. ‘Give it to me.’
    She released the knife into my hand. I drew back and stabbed it with all my strength into the tyre.
    I could hear Alejandro opening the door of our hire car a few metres away.
    ‘Go and get in the car,’ I whispered.
    ‘EVE!’
    Jonno’s yell echoed towards us from inside the hotel.
    Eve turned and vanished.
    I stabbed at the tyre again, making the hole bigger.
    Yes.
    Air hissed out.
    I sprang to my feet and ran to the hired car. Alejandro was revving the engine. Reversing out of the parking space.
    ‘EVE!’
    Jonno sounded so close. I couldn’t help but look round. He was there, right by the entrance to the hotel. His broad frame looked bigger than I remembered as he rushed towards me, his face twisted with fury.
    I yanked open the back door of the moving car and hurled myself into the back seat. I slammed the door shut as Alejandro screeched away down the gravel drive.
    Eve was curled up in a ball on the seat beside me, her hands over her ears.
    I turned round just in time to see Jonno thumping the bonnet of the blue Mercedes.
    ‘Is he coming?’Alejandro asked nervously as we pulled onto the road.
    ‘No,’ I gasped. ‘But I bet he makes the hotel let him use their car or . . .’
    ‘. . . or calls the police,’Alejandro said, grimly. ‘ Hijo de puta .’ He slammed his hands onto the steering wheel and pressed his foot down on the accelerator. The car zoomed even faster down the narrow country road. I checked the dashboard. We were driving at seventy miles an hour and the speedometer was rising.
    Jesus. ‘We have to dump the car,’ I said. ‘Alejandro. Where can we leave it that won’t get you into trouble?’
    I glanced anxiously out of the rear window again. There was still no sign of Jonno.
    ‘There’s another car-hire place in Taunton,’ Alejandro said as we swung onto the virtually empty motorway. ‘I used it before, with my dad. We can leave this car. Get a new one. Get to George’s house as fast as we can.’
    He slowed down slightly from the ninety miles an hour we’d been travelling at. His shoulders relaxed.
    I glanced at Eve. She was still curled up in a little ball. I reached across and put my arm round her, scooping her up against my side. She was shaking uncontrollably, her hands over her face.
    ‘Hey,’ I said. ‘Hey. Great idea with the knife. It worked too.’
    ‘I’m so sorry,’ she sobbed. ‘I’m so sorry you two are in the middle of this.’
    ‘Shhh.’ I hugged her harder. ‘It’s not your fault.’
    ‘No.’Alejandro twisted round, grinning. ‘No your fault your father is a total MANIAC.’
    Even Eve managed a weak laugh at that. I rubbed her arm and squeezed