Page 29 of Captive Hearts
‘Yeah, he used to do this thing where he’d… He’d take me to the woods and drive off, and I’d have to make it back to civilisation by myself,’ Ashley said distractedly.
The olive Gina had just started eating rolled out of her gaping mouth. ‘Hewhat?’
‘He was just trying to teach me self-sufficiency,’ Ashley said dismissively.
Gina had just about managed to close her mouth, but she was still fairly bug-eyed. ‘That’s awful.’
‘It really wasn’t that bad,’ Ashley assured her, irritated.
‘What did your mum say about it?’ Gina asked.
‘Not a lot. She died when I was…’ Ashley stopped. ‘How the hell did we get on to this subject?’
‘You really don’t like talking about anything personal, do you?’ Gina asked.
Ashley breathed through her nose. ‘I don’t care either way. It’s just not that interesting.’
Gina frowned. ‘I think it’sveryinteresting that your dad ditched you in the forest, actually.’
Ashley rolled her eyes. ‘It’s really not that big a deal. The Dutch do it all the time, it’s a tradition.’
‘That’s the first thing I’m gonna google if I ever get out of here, to see if it’s true,’ Gina said.
‘Itis,’ Ashley insisted fiercely. ‘I mean, they do it a bit differently, leaving clues and dropping the kids off in groups, but my dad always said that was the soft way to do it, doesn’t teach the kids true self-reliance.’
‘You’re lucky you didn’t die!’ Gina exclaimed.
‘I only nearly died the one time,’ Ashley said defensively. ‘I wasn’t careful enough about picking which mushrooms to eat.’
Gina was astounded. ‘Holyshit. You got poisoned?’
‘Stop it, would you!’ Ashley said hotly.
Gina would not stop it. ‘This explains so much,’ she muttered to herself.
Ashley gave Gina a look that sent a slight chill down her spine. ‘What does that mean?’
Gina tried to backtrack. ‘I didn’t mean anything by it.’
‘Yes, you did. I’d like to know what?’ Ashley asked.
‘I just meant, you seem, like you said… self-sufficient.’
‘I think you meant something like that. But notquitethat. So what did you mean?’
Gina could see there was no way out. Ashley’s teeth had latched on to the jugular. ‘Fine. You’re quite closed off. And if your dad broke your trust early on…’
‘He didn’t breakanything. I’m glad he did it. I learnt to be tenacious, to keep going no matter what. Push on until you get-’
‘Into a hostage situation?’ Gina asked savagely. Ashley’s face dropped. Gina regretted her words immediately. ‘I… I didn’t really mean…’
‘This. This is exactly why I didn’t want to get to know you.’
Gina wasn’t sure how to come back from this. She was fairly sure she couldn’t. But then she had a thought. It seemed like a good idea at first. ‘Tell you what, I’m just gonna make this even, OK?’
‘Make it even?’ Ashley repeated, baffled.
‘Yep. Embarrassing personal story from the vault.’ She cleared her throat. ‘When I was fourteen, my stepmum caught me masturbating over a picture of Cheryl Cole.’
Ashley’s lips parted in surprise. ‘What?’
As awkward as the story was, Gina was in for a penny. ‘I think she was more embarrassed than I was. We never,everspoke of it. Right, we good?’
Ashley blinked. And then a disturbing purpose settled over her face. ‘Not quite. I’ve got some questions first.’
Gina braced herself. It was going to be an Ashley Quick interview.
