The Rock'n'Roll Romance Box Set (Pam Howes Rock'n'Roll Romance Series) Read Online Free Page A

over weeks ago.’
    Mark frowned and rubbed his chin. ‘I was trying
to put things right. How was I to
know she’d shagged Mellor?’ He turned to Jane. ‘I might be able to forgive you
for that in time. Have your ring back. Come and talk to me.’
    ‘No!’ Jane shook her head. ‘It’s finished. Just
leave me alone.’
    Mark clenched his fists. ‘Well if I can’t have,
you, I’ll make sure nobody else can!’
    ‘Right, that’s enough.’ Roy pushed Mark towards the door. ‘Get
out. I’ll be with you in a minute.’
    Mark left, after giving Jane a final cold
stare.
    She shook her head. ‘I honestly thought he was
going to rape me. He had such a weird look in his eyes.’
    Roy poured the girls a brandy from the
drinks tray. ‘Get that down you and try to sleep. We’ll take a train home first
thing tomorrow. I don’t fancy travelling back in the car with him. Not after
that bloody threat. I wouldn’t trust him not to wrap it round a tree and kill
us all.’
    ***
    Left alone with Sammy, Jane stretched out on
the bed.
    ‘I’m really sorry, I spoiled your night,’ she
said again.
    ‘It’s okay. We had a good time before we went
down to dinner. It’ll keep us going for a while.’
    ‘You are lucky, Sam, being with the boy you love.   I so wish I was with Ed. If only we could turn the clock back.’
    ‘Ed feels the same,’ Sammy said. ‘ Roy will tell him what’s happened this
weekend. I’m sure he’ll want to get in touch. He asks us every week if you’re
still with Mark and he always looks sad when we say you are.’
    ‘Does he?’ Jane’s face lit up, followed by a
frown. ‘What about Angie?’
    ‘Ed’s ready to walk. He only stays with her for
Jonny.’
    ‘So you think there’s a chance he might leave
her?’
    ‘I think there’s every chance, Jane. Especially
when he knows you’re free.’
    ***

CHAPTER
THREE
    PICKFORD, CHESHIRE :
    ‘For Christ’s sake, not again!’
Eddie leapt backwards as the tin of paint hit the factory floor with a
resounding thud. The lid flew off, spun like a two bob bit and ended paint-side
down by his feet.
    He slammed a fist on the packing
bench, face and overalls spattered in sticky red gloss. 'That does it, Jack,’
he bellowed to his workmate above the noise of the six
o’clock hooters. ‘I’ve had enough of this bloody place to last me a
lifetime.’
    As Eddie’s co-workers downed cans
and gathered round the viscous pool on the workshop floor, he continued, ‘If
that arsehole of a foreman thinks I’m staying behind to clean up this mess
he can think again.’
    ‘That “arsehole of a foreman”
says clean it up now, Mellor, or collect your cards! And you lot can keep your
beaks out,’ he added as two men moved forward to help. ‘Or you can all collect your cards.’
    Eddie spun round as the group
quickly dispersed. So much for support, he thought as George Hill towered over
him. Bunch of fucking arse lickers. Didn’t they realise they were worth more than
this?
    'Clean it up yourself,’ Eddie
said, squaring up to the foreman. ‘If the bloody handles were fixed on properly
in the first place it wouldn’t have happened.’
    George bristled and leant in
close. Eddie could smell his sour breath and took a step backwards. ‘Either
clean it up, or sod off and don’t come back!’ George said.
    'Fuck you and fuck your job!’
Eddie yelled. ‘When I leave here tonight, I won’t be coming back.’
    George snorted and stormed off.
    ‘You shouldn’t argue with Hill
like that,’ Jack said. ‘You do yourself no favours.’ He threw a turpentine
soaked rag in Eddie’s direction. ‘Get yourself cleaned up in the bogs then we
can go.’
    ***
    Jenkins paint factory was housed
in the ground floor of a redundant cotton mill and the gents' toilet block stank
of decades of stale piss. Eddie stared at his face in the cracked mirror. The
dim light and peeling yellow paint did nothing to enhance his pale complexion.
He looked weary and older than his