Blood And Bone by Dawn Brown Read Free Book Online

spittle. The mix of booze and smoke on Tic’s breath turned his stomach.
    “I wouldn’t count on it.” Des could hardly get the words out. His lungs squeezed like they were slowly being flattened. “If I turn up dead or beaten so bad I can’t remember my own name, who’s the only person with a grudge against me?”
    “Ah, hell, I don’t want to kill you.” Tic twisted his arm farther back. Red stars flashed in front of his eyes. His shoulder was ready to pop from the socket. What did they want him to do? Say uncle ? “This is too much fun.”
    For a moment, Tic released the pressure and the white-hot agony receded to a throbbing ache. The reprieve was short-lived. Tic’s fingers tangled in his hair as he yanked Des to his feet and shoved him into the side of a truck. His elbow struck the fender and pain exploded in his arm. But before Tic could get his hands on him again, Des caught him with a knee to the gut. The larger man grunted, wrapped his arms around his middle and dropped to his knees.
    With Tic down, Des darted for his car. Joey grabbed for him, but only managed to get a handful of shirt. Des swung and struck him in the nose, grim satisfaction filling him when something crunched beneath his knuckles. Joey howled and doubled over, cursing.
    For a moment, escape seemed like a real possibility. Des turned quickly, but something thick and solid struck him square across the face, sending him sprawling across the gravel lot. The stones scraped his hands and up his wrists.
    When he looked up, Tic stood smiling over him, rubbing his fist into his palm. Slightly behind Tic, Norton looked nervously over his shoulder. “Maybe this ain’t the best place, man.”
    In the distance, thunder rumbled low and menacing. Another storm was blowing in.
    “Anderson,” Joey said, his voice muffled by his hands tepeed around his nose. Blood seeped between his fingers. “Everyone says how fucking smart you are, but that weren’t smart. That weren’t smart at all.”

Chapter Four
    “While some fathers who kill do so as an attempt to clean the slate and start anew, others murder out of an overdeveloped sense of ownership of their families. This was believed to be the motive behind Gwendolyn Grey Anderson’s murder.”
    — excerpt from Blood and Bone by Shayne Reynolds
     
    The rain eased as the storm moved on. Shayne adjusted the pace of her windshield wipers from frantic pulse to leisurely swoosh and squinted into the darkness. Her turn should be coming up. At least, she hoped so. These back roads were difficult to navigate during the day, but next to impossible at night.
    Well, she was almost home now, and—
    A large, silver streak darted from the darkness and stopped across both lanes.
    A car.
    Her heart stopped. She stomped on the brake. The back end of her car swerved, tires sliding on wet pavement.
    “Damn. Damn. Damn.”
    She jerked the wheel hard, car skidding sideways. The other vehicle loomed closer.
    “Shit!” She hunched her shoulders, tightened her grip on the steering wheel and waited for the inevitable crunch.
    It never came.
    Her car slid to a stop, the bumper less than a foot from the other car’s passenger door.
    “Oh, my God.” She flopped against the seat, closing her eyes, relief flooding her trembling limbs.
    That was close. Too close. She opened her eyes and leaned forward, prying her fingers from the steering wheel.
    Fat drops of rain pelted the windshield. The yellow beams from her headlights gleamed off droplets on the side of the other car—a Rolls Royce, no less. Thank God, she hadn’t hit it. The last thing she needed was a car accident. Why would someone pull out like that? And then just sit there?
    Alarm bells clanged inside her head, memories of Tic and threatening phone calls all-too vivid. Thunder rumbled, low and distant. Lightning flashed, and for a split second the night lit up like day. A large man lumbered toward her car, then darkness closed in once more.
    Forget this. She