Page 118 of The House Swap

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Martin moved so quickly, Poppy didn’t have time to react. He was upon her, his hand closing around her arm and dragging her backwards before she could reach the hallway, a cry still tearing from her throat.

‘No!’ he said, pulling her back against his chest, his voice low and controlled. ‘You don’t get to do that.’

‘Poppy? Was that you?’

‘Keira—’ She managed to get just the one word out before Martin clamped his hand over her mouth.

‘Stop!’ he ordered.

Panic clawed at her throat as she struggled against him, but he was too strong and she couldn’t break free from his grip.

‘We don’t need to make this messy,’ he said, his tone measured, almost reasonable. ‘It will be quicker if you behave.’

The words were for her, but his attention was on the hallway, worried that Keira might appear. A knot tightened low in her stomach, and she ordered herself to focus. She couldn’t let her friend walk into the room. She needed to stay back.

‘I’m going to remove my hand now. Then I want you to call her through,’ Martin said quietly. ‘It will be easier that way.’

Poppy swallowed, her throat dry. She wouldn’t do that.

‘Keira,’ she shouted, trying to keep her voice steady. ‘Stay in the bedroom.’

‘Don’t disobey me,’ Martin hissed angrily against her ear, roughly pulling on her arm.

There was a pause.

‘Why?’ Keira called back. She sounded confused.

Because the man who kidnapped you is in the house, Poppy wanted to scream.

Because everything is about to go very wrong and I don’t know how to get us out of this situation.

She knew she couldn’t say any of those things.

‘Just…’ She hesitated, searching for something to say that wouldn’t raise the alarm. She was acutely aware of how vulnerable she was right now. Martin’s breath warm against her neck. ‘I’ll be there in a minute. Just stay in the room.’

‘Why are you being weird?’ Keira asked, her tone now suspicious.

Instead of doing as instructed, her footsteps sounded on the tiles, growing louder as she approached the living area.

No! Poppy wanted to call out. To make her stop.

Dread tightened inside her. Because she knew, without question, that whatever happened next, there would be no talking her way out of anything.

‘Poppy? Where are you?’

Keira appeared in the doorway. Her hair was damp from the shower, her expression going from confusion to alarm as she took in the scene. ‘What⁠—’

The word barely left her lips as Martin released his grip on Poppy, giving her a hard shove that knocked her off balance. As she fell to her knees, she heard Keira scream and realised that he had switched targets. He had hold of Keira’s wrist, yanking her towards him before Poppy could even get to her feet.

‘Don’t!’ he snapped, the change in him immediate. His passive demeanour hardening into anger.

Keira screamed, trying to pull free, but he twisted her arm behind her back, forcing her to still.

‘Martin, what the hell are you doing?’ Poppy demanded, her voice shaking despite her effort to steady it. ‘Let her go. She’s done nothing to you.’

‘No,’ he agreed. ‘She hasn’t. But you have.’