Confer, Lorelei - Deadly Deception (Siren Publishing Classic) by Lorelei Confer Read Free Book Online Page B

her as soon as possible so’s we can get her to Norfolk, or we’ll be fish food.”
    “You should stay and look for her. It’s your fault anyway. And when Boss pays you, you can send me my half of the money.”
    “Your half? You must think I’m an idiot or something? When I’m doin’ all the work, I get at least seventy-five percent.”
    When Joe turned around, he saw that Amanda had stopped walking toward the van. She stood steady, looking straight ahead at him. He saw a burst of pure rage, raw and deep appear on her face.
    “After your actions today, yes, you are an idiot,” she said through tight lips. “And I have had enough of your harebrained ideas.” Her face contorted in anger, reddened, eyes bulged, and her mouth tensed. Her hands became fists at her sides. She leaped toward Joe, flinging herself on him, knocking both of them to the ground. They rolled off the sidewalk and onto the stone gravel on the outskirts of the park, arms and legs flailing. She grabbed his hair and pulled. When he grabbed her hands and squeezed them tight, she squealed and let go of his hair. Then she tried to scratch his eyes out with her long, sharp fingernails.
    Joe had had enough. Between the girl giving him such a hard time, defying his every order, and now Amanda giving him orders, he was up to his eyeballs in shit and wouldn’t take anymore. He rolled away from her, pulling a gun out of his jacket pocket as he got up on his knees. As she rolled to sit up facing him, he pointed the gun between her eyes, the cold metal of the barrel touching her forehead.
    Amanda froze, staring at Joe’s face. His threatening stare enough to let her know he’d kill her if she crossed him. Joe looked around at the few people still milling around the almost-dark park. He motioned with his gun for her to get up. Amanda stood and brushed herself off.
    “Just shut the hell up,” he said through gritted teeth, holding the gun at his side, close and ready. “Don’t say another word. I don’t want nobody hearin’ our business, so let’s get back to the place so we can figger this out.”
    Under the cover of darkness, Joe followed Amanda as she walked stiffly in front of him back to the van. He looked over his shoulder for any sign of followers or interest.
    After parking about a block away, Joe followed Amanda in the door. “Amanda, go sit on one of the beds. I’ll get you a drink,” Joe told her, pushing her to the side as he closed and locked the door.
    “No, I’ll get my own drink,” Amanda told Joe. “I wanna make sure I know what I’m drinking.”
    Insulted, Joe shrugged his shoulders. “I ain’t gonna use you that way,” Joe said, walking to the kitchen.
    “That’s just what I’m gonna make sure of,” Amanda said, following close behind Joe.
    They sat, fuming and furious, with their drinks. When Joe’s cell phone rang interrupting the tense silence, they jumped, startled. Joe shook his head as he looked at the caller ID, hesitated a second, then flipped it open.
    “Oh hi, boss. How ya doin’?” Joe said as he turned around and looked at Amanda with menace in his eyes.
    “I know, boss, but we kinda ran into a snag here.” He listened for a few seconds. “I know, boss, we’re tryin’ to…” Interrupted, he listened, then said, “Okay, boss, I will.”
    Joe could hear Amanda’s anxiety increasing with her deep breaths, heavy sighing, and fidgeting as she waited for an explanation from him. She was still seething over her earlier altercation with him and he didn’t want to deal with her attitude again.
    “Well, what did he say?” she asked as she stood.
    “Boss said we hafta drop the girl in Norfolk by Tuesday at midnight. He didn’t wanna hear ’bout no problems. We just gotta have the girl there by then,” he answered without turning around to look at her.
    Amanda began screaming. “What have you gotten me into? I want out of this right now. I don’t even want any money!”
    “That ain’t gonna