B00724AICC EBOK by A. J. Gallant Read Free Book Online Page B

was immediately fearful of the two men that stood there. She screamed but they were on her in less than a second. They knocked her down and taped her mouth. They rolled her into a carpet and Tanner sat on the girl. Harris went out to the car and watched and waited until a clear path from the house to the trunk of his car was available. They were never happier than when they were in the process of committing a crime. It made the brothers feel as though they were untouchable, and that had been the case.
     
    Harris strolled into the living room where Tanner was sitting on the old brown leather sofa, which was cracked from years of abuse. He told him that the girl was secured and clapped his hands together with force. A little dance was performed at the idea of the riches that was to come. Tanner looked proud as he nodded. He was finishing the last beer. He placed the empty bottle down hard on the coffee table and then waved the note at Harris and commenced to read it aloud:
    Two millions dollars in untraceable cash
    Or every night when the clock turns to eight
    Your lovely daughter will experience some
    Good old fashioned rape
     
    The two shared a high five. They were so proud of the note that they could burst. “That is on the nose. Every damn night as the clock gets close to eight, they’ll be mentally tortured and they’ll have to give us the money. That is sooooo tight!”
    “ I know,” Tanner agreed. “Genius writing if I do say so myself.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
     
     
    IN A DILAPIDATED HOTEL off I-95, four biters with their hands on the hilts of their Japanese Wakizashi swords surrounded Thelma Gordon on the stained queen sized bed. The nineteen inch blades were not to be utilized this night. A single roach climbed up the wall behind her and stopped, almost as if observing the goings-on. The room had a slight odour of pesticide that obviously hadn’t done its job. It was quiet as they waited for a response. She was disillusioned with things in general and her mangled life in particular. Thelma wasn’t frightened of the vampires, although she knew she would become so if she was to face the end at their fangs. She rubbed the back of her own neck and was aware of their prying eyes; she started to scratch. Their tactics of intimidation had not been as effective as they had anticipated.
    The television was on CNN but the box was so old that the anchor Wolf Blitzer was barely recognisable; he may as well have been an alien selling the latest ray gun. The bible that came with the room was in perfect condition, as if it had never been touched, yet someone had placed it beside the box. Once Thelma had been a beautiful and talented pianist, having been quite adept on the keyboard, but those days were long gone and now seemed to belong to someone else. She wouldn’t recognize herself in the mirror if she could go back twenty years. Her facial attractiveness was perceptible if one looked hard enough and with some imagination, beyond the scars, dirt and melted and matted brown hair. Her sunken eyes were sad things to behold. Thelma had fallen asleep with the curling iron. She had multiple scars on her left cheek from a long ago battle with a lady of the evening, and had been held down by the pimp and forced to endure the indignity of the olive wood handled Italian switchblade. She was in her early forties but could easily pass for a senior.
    Thelma was almost always high on drugs, and this night was no exception.
    Matt and Joshua stood on one side of the bed, with Luke and Noah on the other, all dressed in dark suits as if they were about to head out to the office. Luke cracked his knuckles out of habit but no one seemed to mind; he had mesmerising blue eyes that the ladies found irresistible and inch long brown hair. But the foursome waited patiently for the leader of the group to arrive. They could do nothing without his express permission. They had failed at extracting