Tracks

  Copyright

  HarperNorth

  111 Piccadilly,

  Manchester, M1 2HY

  A division of

  HarperCollinsPublishers

  1 London Bridge Street

  London SE1 9GF

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  HarperCollinsPublishers

  1st Floor, Watermarque Building, Ringsend Road

  Dublin 4, Ireland

  First published by HarperNorth in 2021

  FIRST EDITION

  Copyright © Karen Woods 2021

  Cover layout design © Sarah M Whittaker 2021

  Cover photograph © shutterstock.com

  Karen Woods asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at

  www.harpercollins.co.uk/green

  Source ISBN: 9780008461690

  Ebook Edition © July 2021 ISBN: 9780008461706

  Version: 2021-05-25

  Note to Readers

  This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:

  Change of font size and line height

  Change of background and font colours

  Change of font

  Change justification

  Text to speech

  Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008461690

  Dedication

  For my brother, Darren Woods (Woody).

  You are never far from my thoughts our kid.

  Thank you for all the stories you told me.

  A legend always Daz xxxxxx

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Note to Readers

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Book Credits

  HarperNorth Newsletter

  About the Publisher

  Chapter One

  Donny Knight stood in front of the large silver-framed mirror in the bathroom and flexed his muscles. He loved that mirror. He’d picked it up in an antique shop a few months before; he’d always had an eye for a deal.

  He was ripped, handsome. Small droplets of clear water dripped down his smooth golden skin, like an ice cube melting on a hot summer’s day. His muscles looked like two swans dancing as he twisted his arms right and then left. What a poser, he thought. But he didn’t stop looking. The corners of his mouth started to rise as he smiled at his reflection. Those gym sessions had paid off – he was hench. All the hours of sweating, pumping iron, running, were worth it. Donny looked mint and he knew it. It hadn’t always been like that though. There was no way he would ever let himself become a couch potato again, no way in this world. He’d been down that road before and his lack of motivation on the inside had shown on the outside. He’d hated everything back then and when he pulled himself out of that life, he’d made a promise to himself that there was no going back.

  Now looking the part was half the trick. And it started with keeping a close eye on what he stuck in his gob. Clean eating, he called it. Although he knew his mum would have laughed at that: ‘It’s just fruit and veg, Donny,’ she’d have told him. ‘Eat your greens and don’t pretend it’s a new religion.’ But it was to Donny. Protein, protein and more protein. Those muscles didn’t come from nowhere.

  His eyes were sea blue. Come-to-bed eyes he liked to call them. And his hair? That was a masterpiece; every day he’d spend a good ten minutes styling it, making sure it was on point. What with the wax and the setting creams, he spent a bomb on his products. Looking good didn’t come cheap.

  He heard footsteps heading down the hallway towards him and paused for a second, then carried on admiring himself in the mirror. It’d only be the missus. Donny had started to slip his crisp white shirt over his broad shoulders when she opened the door.

  ‘Oh my God, how much longer are you going to spend in there, Donny? I’m going to be late. Every bleeding morning you hog the bathroom, you’re worse than any woman I know.’

  Susan stood with one hand placed firmly on her hip and shook her head as she watched him preening. She couldn’t see the point – unless he was trying to impress someone? She felt a sudden rush of jealousy. Was he seeing somebody else? Did he have his eye on another woman? After what happened two years back he’d promised her that he’d never go there again, vowed he would never be unfaithful. But the signs were there, right in front of her. If there was no one else surely he’d just have a quick wash like any normal bloke? One thing was for sure, Susan would cut his balls off and make a necklace out of them if he was up to something. Her brothers had wanted to put him in a body bag when they’d got wind of what he was up to before, but she had held them back, begged them to leave him alone. More fool her if he was at it again. She exhaled slowly, let the thought pass. No, he loved her, nobody else.

  She checked her watch and sighed. Whatever he was or wasn’t up to, one thing he wasn’t doing was listening to her. No effort to let her have the bathroom, still staring in the bloody mirror. She’d had enough. She banged her fist on the wooden cabinet.

  ‘Move your arse. Now. I need to get ready. The salon’s rammed today and I need to be on time. It’s always me who ends up running around like a headless chicken, and that’s your fault. Why do you need to doll yourself up every bleeding morning to go to work? You don’t see me taking this long do you and I’m in the bloody beauty industry.’

  Donny ignored her, fastening the buttons on his shirt and reaching for his aftershave. He wasn’t going to rush. Taking his time, he sprayed it on his face and then added a spritz to his chest for the hell of it. It smelt good – he smelt good – fresh and clean, like washing that had been dried outside on a summer’s
day.

  ‘You should be pleased I like to take care of myself, babe. This here’s the body of a Greek god who has risen from the dead, not some fat slob. It takes time and effort. I’ve had to work hard for it. You’d leave me if I started to pile on the timber. Imagine your kite if I was a big, fat mess,’ his eyebrows arched as he continued. ‘You’re always going on about him next door, that he should take more care of himself. You’d go mad if I looked like him.’

  Susan rolled her eyes. ‘Yes, I do know how long it bloody takes.’ Her voice louder now. ‘It takes all the time I should be in here getting ready myself. Every bloody morning. So, do one, pretty boy. And give someone else a chance to take care of themselves.’

  Donny chuckled and walked towards his wife, wiggling his hips. He grabbed her round the waist and pulled her close.

  As he touched her, the thought of his hands all over another woman came flooding back to Susan, made her stomach churn like a washing machine on a spin cycle.

  ‘We look good though, don’t we? You and me.’ He held one hand under her chin, turned her face towards the mirror. ‘Posh and Becks have nothing on us two. We’re the ones who should be on the front of Hello! magazine. I might give them a ring and see what they say.’

  He poked her in the ribs, made her laugh; the nagging seemed to be over. With a quick peck on the cheek he finally left the bathroom, smirking when he heard her shouting after him, then cringing when the usual refrain pounded his ears like a drill. He mouthed the familiar words in time with her.

  ‘I’ll pick the wet towels up then, should I? Sometimes, Donny, I swear you just married me so you had a twenty-four-hour cleaning service on tap.’

  He never bothered replying. He knew she was right.

  He headed into the front room, black leather brogues in his hand. He felt bad for a minute; Susan fetched and carried for him all day long. But then he shook his head. It was her own fault really, she was the one who let him get away with it.

  Susan held her ear to the door to make sure Donny had gone downstairs. She moved quickly, scrambled across the floor to find his dirty boxers. She felt like a police dog searching for drugs. She winced and held them up to the light, then paused and stood thinking for a few seconds before flinging the duds back onto the heap of stuff he’d left on the floor. There was no evidence of another woman on them. Not this time. Fool me once, thought Susan…

  Donny and Susan’s home was top notch, everything neatly in place. It was like a show house. A fifty-inch flatscreen TV dominated the front room; you could see the screen from wherever you sat. Donny loved his gadgets, his surround sound; small speakers here, larger ones over there. He sat down on the white leather corner sofa and started to tie his shoelaces. The couch was still pretty new. You could tell by the smell of the leather – the same smell you get when you’ve bought a new wallet or handbag, he thought. It smelt like money to him. There was no clutter in this room either. Every wall was painted ice-white and two sparkling silver picture frames hung on either side of the fireplace. In one of them was a woman wearing a red hat, sparkling diamonds on the tall, slender cocktail glass she was holding. The colour made the picture stand out; it drew your eyes right into it. Donny sat back for a moment, thinking of the flames when the fire was lit. If anyone had asked him what his favourite piece was in his home, he always said it was the fire. He was mesmerised by it. There was something pure about it. The flames looked like ribbons of gold silk dancing in the wind, every second that passed, changing in their shape. He would have sat here all day watching the flames if he could. But there were people out there depending on him.

  Donny straightened his navy-blue tie with the gold diamonds. Susan had bought it for his birthday and he always smiled when he put it on. She’d told him that every time he wore it, he should imagine it was her arms around him, smothering him with love. She was cute like that, Susan. A hopeless romantic, she loved showing she cared, doing little things to keep the marriage alive. Even now she wrote him love letters, left little gifts under the pillow, booked surprise weekends away. They had it all, what more could they ask for?

  This was the same question Susan asked herself every day. They had it all, so why had he felt the need to sleep with another woman? When she’d found out about the affair, two years back now, she’d done everything she could to keep him. Got herself a makeover, haircut, put in the hours at the gym, dug out the sexy underwear, offered him sex whenever he wanted it. He’d sworn blind it was a stupid mistake. Now she wondered if she should have played a different game. There was no way she was ever going to go down that road again, ever. Maybe she should have got her own back? She’d said she’d shag the brains out of the next man who gave her any attention when she first found out what Donny was up to, but it never happened. Her heart had been broken and all she really wanted was her husband back and for things to return to normal as quickly as they could. But it was never going to be that simple; the trust was gone, and now she watched him like a hawk every moment she could. But between her shifts at the salon and him working all hours – as well as hanging out with his mates, playing poker, there was still plenty of time for him to get up to no good. And he was always on his phone. Still, any chance she got, she checked his phone, checked his messages, checked his call log. She was all over everything he did; he was going to have to get up early if he ever thought he was having her over again.

  Donny looked at his silver Rolex and rubbed the glass against his trousers. He’d paid a few quid for this watch and wanted to make sure it always looked the way it did the day he got it. He’d told Susan he’d bought it on the cheap; if she’d known what he really paid, she’d have hit the roof. Ask no questions, hear no lies was his motto. But Susan enjoyed the finer things in life too, and if that meant her sometimes looking the other way when he came into some cash, so be it. She knew he liked a flutter, even put a bit of it through the books at work from time to time. But there were some things she was better off not knowing.

  He stretched his arms above his head and yawned. He’d never been a good sleeper and last night he’d tossed and turned for hours. He shouted up to her. ‘Suse, want a lift or are you driving to work yourself?’ His wife appeared at the door clipping in her silver hooped earrings. ‘No, I’ll drive today. I need to go to the bank, and I’ve got a few clients booked in this morning. And then I’m going to meet Sadie. I’ve not seen her for a bit and she’s having a hard time again so I said I’d meet her even though we’re busy today. It’ll help, I reckon, if we can have a bit of a chat.’

  Donny picked up his car keys and shook his head. ‘Tell me when Sadie isn’t having a hard time. Maybe if she kept her legs shut then she wouldn’t have all the ball ache she gets. I’ve said it a hundred times – no man’s going to have any respect for a woman who’s as easy as she is. She’ll sleep with them before they’ve even bought her a drink. She’s had more pricks than a second-hand dartboard.’

  Susan snapped back at him, unhappy that he was dissing one of her girls when she never slagged off his mates. And there was plenty she could have said about the riff-raff he’d hung out with over the years. Womanisers, gamblers, pissheads – and the rest. He was bang out of order. She glared at him, nostrils flaring. ‘Piss off, Donny. If she was a bloke, you’d be patting her on the back and shaking her hand. Sadie is just looking for love, she’s mixed up. She reads the signs wrong, thinks every man she meets is the one she’ll end up marrying. It’s not her fault if they’re just pretending to be into her, is it? Have a bit of sympathy, she’s not been herself lately.’

  Donny sucked on his gums, trying not to laugh. He knew he should back off but couldn’t help himself, he had to carry on adding fuel to the fire. ‘Yeah right. Tell her to keep her knickers on and she might find a man who’ll stick around longer than the first date.’ Donny could see he’d overstepped the mark, she was about to lose it. He edged cautiously towards the door, half expecting a shoe to be chucked at his
head. He could sense another lecture coming; time to go. He walked over and pecked her on the cheek, but she pushed him away, still fuming.

  Donny changed the subject. ‘I’ll be home late tonight, I’ve got a few meetings after school and if you’re out with Sadie, then I may as well grab something to eat on the way home because you won’t be cooking, will you?’

  Susan looked at him, flicked her hair over her shoulders. She’d always had great hair, silky and bouncy like in a shampoo advert. The chestnut colour complemented her skin tone and made her eyes stand out. ‘Correct, mouth almighty. It’s self-service tonight. Get a ding meal, five minutes in the microwave and there you go. It’s not exactly rocket science. Easy-peasy.’ She thought about what he’d said about Sadie and changed her tune. ‘Or go get something to eat with one of your boys. I’m sure one of them will be up for eating out. It’s not like they have anything better to do, is it? Low lives they are, the fucking lot of them, no wonder none of them have ever managed to settle down. Nothing better to do all day than sit in the boozer or pissing money away in a card game.’ The claws were out, now she’d started it was hard to stop. These pricks probably knew all about his affair, were patting him on the back for it. Snakes they were, dirty lying scumbags, who didn’t have a moral between them.

  Donny could see where this was heading and decided to bow out before it went any further. He’d rattled her cage and no good was going to come of it. He was out of there. He avoided her gaze. ‘Don’t want to be late. Have a good day, babe, see you tonight.’ But the urge to wind her up hadn’t quite disappeared. ‘Oh and tell Sadie I was asking about her, send my love.’

  Susan shook her head as she watched him leave, ‘You’re such a smart arse,’ she shouted after him as the corners of her mouth started to rise. How could she be angry with him when he made her laugh the way he did? Bloody men. She walked over to the window and watched him drive away before picking up her mobile. ‘Sadie? It’s me. I reckon Donny’s at it again. You should see how he’s acting. Spends hours getting ready in the mornings, why’s he making all that effort if it’s just for work?’ She listened to the voice on the other end of the phone and bit her bottom lip before continuing. ‘Something just doesn’t sit right with me, it’s like a gut feeling. I swear to you that if he’s at it again, I’ll let our John and Dave beat the living daylights out of him. I won’t save him this time, not a fucking earthly. He’s hiding something, I know it.’