All Through the Night by Davis Bunn Read Free Book Online Page B

railings.
    The shutters hung like an astonished metal tongue over the railing. The French doors were gone. There was no sign of them ever having existed. Instead, the entire room sparkled in the moonlight, like a truckload of fairy dust had been flung at the walls and ceiling and floor.
    Thankfully, the bed was at the room’s far end. Otherwise the lone occupant might have sparkled as well. Instead, the guy floundered around in his sheets. Clearly knowing he was supposed to do something right then. But his brain was so scrambled he couldn’t be sure what . The guy made it to a seated position, sort of, just in time to watch Wayne come flying through what was supposed to have been an impregnable wall. Out of his nightmares and into his bedroom.
    Wayne covered the distance from window to bed in three pounces. He gripped the guy with one hand and slipped the knife from his belt. Put the blade right up against the guy’s cheek, directly beneath his left eye, letting him feel the cold threat. Then Wayne lifted the blade out far enough for the guy’s moon-shaped eyes to get a glimpse of true terror.
    “You’ve got one chance to save that eye,” Wayne said. “Where’s the upstairs security box?”
    The guy stammered, swallowed, made the words come out. “Front hall.”
    Wayne carried such a load of adrenaline he one-handed the guy up off the bed and through the dressing area and into the foyer. He sped across from the gigantic curving stairway to where the security unit flashed its danger light. On this side of the house Wayne could hear the whooping siren attached to the home’s street side.
    Wayne refit the knife to the guy’s face. “Shut it down.”
    The man did not hesitate. After all, why should he. The siren was mostly cosmetics. There was little chance a neighbor was going to risk life and limb for him.
    After the siren was silenced, Wayne forced the man hard against the wall. Waited.
    The longest minute in Wayne’s entire life passed. The only sound came from the emergency generator drumming softly in the garage. Nothing. No phone call. Which meant they had taken out the alarm in time and the emergency call had not been coded through to the security office.
    Wayne flipped the guy onto the floor. Kneed him in the back. Pulled back his arms and taped his wrists together. Taped over his eyes and mouth. Pulled him to his feet. “Let’s go.”
    The guy tumbled on the stairs and stayed upright only because Wayne was too busy tripping on adrenaline to notice. On the ground floor Wayne used the light of the motion sensors and one wall clock to find the rear doors. The switch for the shutters was beside the lights. He pushed it and waited as the shutters ground open in torturous fashion.
    They basically flew across the rear lawn. The only sounds Wayne could hear were a pair of stubborn hounds. Wayne dumped the guy in the bow. Jumped in after. Jerry and Foster both wore their masks. Wayne hefted the man by his hair. “Is this him?”
    The two men leaned forward. Foster whispered, playing for gruff, “Show me his eyes.”
    Wayne ripped off the tape. Their hostage whimpered.
    Jerry shifted his bulk forward a notch, causing the guy to whimper again. Jerry had gone from a bulky man in shorts to a menace.
    Foster said, “That’s our boy.”
    Wayne made all his motions out where Dorsett could clearly watch. He took the pistol from his belt. Screwed in the silencer. As he did so, he talked. “Your security system is shorted out. You’re almost two miles from the security station by the bridge. A passing guard might have heard the explosion. A neighbor might have called it in. They might run a check. But they’d have to go around to the rear of the house to see the problem. Otherwise it’s just you and me, Dorsett. You understand the situation?”
    Wayne stuck the gun’s business end hard against the guy’s nose. Pulled back the trigger.
    When the prisoner started kicking, Jerry moved in and sat on his