Read Online Wild by Naomi Clark - Free Book Online Page B

same wolf she’d seen in the park, and that night. Lean and ragged-looking. It was hard to be sure from the poor quality of the photo, but it could be. “Shit,” she breathed.
    Harris spent half his life on this site. Had she confused these poor quality pictures with real life somehow, under the influence of drugs? Had her nightmares all been triggered by this site? That made more sense than anything else, didn’t it? Much more sense. And Nick… Well, Nick might be a Bible-basher after all, and that would explain his weird behaviour. She supposed being a good Christian and taking drugs probably weren’t mutually exclusive hobbies.
    “Look familiar, Lizzie?” Harris asked, reaching back to pat her arm. “I told you, you should have taken us some pictures. We could have won Photo of the Month. They were giving away an Ipod.”
    “Oh, fuck off,” she snapped, backing away from the computer. Her head hurt, and she wanted a spliff now rather than a line. Needed to calm down and make sense of all this. “We got any weed?”
    “Yeah, just on the table. Roll us a joint, will you?” Harris asked. He stood, stretching. “I’m going down to the shop for some beers.” He winked at Vic as if this was some kind of code. “You two keep each other company, yeah?”
    Lizzie eyed him suspiciously as she perched on the edge of the settee to roll the joint. There was something in his tone she didn’t like. Vic grinned at her, face flushed, eyes wide. “We’ll be fine. Take your time,” he told Harris.
    Edgy, Lizzie watched Harris saunter out, slamming the door behind him. She lit the joint and sucked in a lungful of smoke, suddenly feeling vulnerable and small under Vic’s gaze. “What?” she asked him.
    Vic rubbed his hands together, the gesture striking her as nervous, which unsettled her even more. He wet his lips, pinched his nose. “So, Harris owes me a lot of money at the moment, yeah?”
    Oh, it was about money. Lizzie sank back in her seat, relaxing a little. It was always about money. “Yeah, so? We get our benefits next week, he’ll pay you back then.”
    Vic shook his head. “Nah, we’ve worked out another deal.” He gave her his stupid smile, sending warning bells ringing in her head. “Harris said you’d be up for it.” He came and sat next to her, too close.
    Lizzie shifted back to the edge of the settee. “Up for what?” She was going to kill Harris.
    Vic rested his hand on her knee, his fingers squeezing slightly. Her skin crawled as if bugs marched down her spine. “You know, a bit of bartering. I give you two a few lines here and there, you give me … something nice in return.”
    Anger fired through her. She wanted to slap him, slap that dumb smile right off his fat face. “Don’t dance around it, Vic, just fucking say it.” She wanted to hear it, wanted to know exactly what Harris had told him. It would keep her angry, and she wanted to be raging with fury when Harris walked back through the door. “What exactly are we talking about here?”
    “Sex,” Vic said bluntly. “You know, the odd blow job or whatever.” He slid his hand up her thigh, clumsy and heavy. “Harris said you’d be up for it,” he repeated.
    She threw his hand off, leaping to her feet, blazing with anger and mortification. “I wouldn’t touch you if my life depended on it, you fat wanker!”
    Vic rose too, towering over her, fists clenched. “Come on, Lizzie, don’t be like that,” he said, a touch of anger in his voice. “It could be a sweet deal. I can keep you in coke, meth, ket, whatever you want. For free. Doesn’t sound so bad, does it?”
    She couldn’t believe she was hearing this. She was going to kill them both. How dare Harris? Did he really think that little of her? “I’m quitting drugs and I’m leaving Harris,” she told Vic. “So you can fuck each other for meth for all I care.”
    Vic sneered, face turning ugly. “You’re not quitting, Lizzie. I know hundreds of girls like you,