Something Wicked

Something Wicked
Sherry Ashworth

Sixteen-year-old Anna is an unremarkable schoolgirl. She does her homework, and keeps out of trouble. At home she emotionally supports her depressive mother and occasionally goes out with friends, but she allows no one to get close. Then Craig Ritchie storms into her life, and nothing is the same again.Nothing much happens in Anna’s life. She gets on with her school work, helps her mum and keeps her fellow students at arm’s length. That is until Craig Ritchie arrives, a new boy at school. For reasons she’s not really sure about, Anna tries to befriend him, but finds him reticent.Then one night Anna is mugged. She tackles her assailant and is horrified to see it is Craig. In the dark, he hadn't recognised her. They begin talking, and from here their strange friendship develops.Craig, or Ritchie, as he prefers, has been involved in petty crime. He has a gang of friends from his old school who he still knocks around with and, gradually, Anna gets pulled into his world. But Ritchie isn't really the bad boy he first appears. Between them, he and Anna decide to use crime to try and redistribute wealth, rather than just steal for themselves. Anna thinks of them as latterday Robin Hoods. Their first few jobs work like a dream and Anna is excited and stimulated by her new life on the edge. She also realises that she and Ritchie are falling in love.But then things start to go sour. Anna wants to stop the scams but Ritchie insists on just one final job, to get his own back on the father who abandoned him and his mother before he was even born. But there's something he's not telling her. They set up the job to steal from Ritchie’s dad’s house, but when his father discovers them, it transpires that Ritchie is really there for a completely different reason – to kill him. And to Anna's horror, he pulls out a gun …

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_e91d1e5f-7e39-5b1c-99dc-8236fa7502b0)

HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks 2004

Copyright © Sherry Ashworth 2004

Sherry Ashworth asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and 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 ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007123353

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008208127

Version: 2016-10-20

Thanks to Andy, Dave, Dominic, Jenny, Michael and

all at Relaunch. And Robyn and Rachel, of course.

For Chris and Libby.

CONTENTS

Cover (#u9147508e-f8dd-5fd0-83f8-d44c64f1c84e)

Title Page (#u8d746164-b585-5a9a-bf52-c768d2b1fe4d)

Copyright (#ulink_6b69b3ae-3357-551e-ad16-71a4b183db75)

Dedication (#uaff5774d-9dcc-5cc9-8f10-979ccb5519c1)

Chapter One (#ulink_0faae3f7-91b4-5a64-9865-036f36f6114f)

Chapter Two (#ulink_503ebf8a-8e64-5755-8542-aeb80e8fc2ba)

Chapter Three (#ulink_7b61931e-65c1-5f98-bda1-652c9d72129a)

Chapter Four (#ulink_da61c14b-a897-51e4-a34d-3ca7f9ca476d)

Chapter Five (#ulink_e4de1980-399a-58ba-bcb7-a0c2417da6d1)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Other Books By (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

(#ulink_f69fb770-1d2e-5969-bba1-752dba93c8fe)

Everything keeps going round and round in my head, so it’ll be a relief to tell you everything, just as it happened. Not because I want to claim I’m innocent – the opposite, in fact. I think I’m as much to blame as anyone – maybe even more than anyone.

But I trust you. You can decide.

So here’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.