Hidden Pearl by Rain Trueax Read Free Book Online

then on. It was just another place that nobody had cared if she disappeared.
    Turning the water as hot as he could stand it, S.T. stood under the shower until he felt he'd rid himself of the smell of beer and smoke. The bars had been unpleasant places to dig for information. He didn't drink. In his case alcohol would have been a two-pronged risk--a Navajo mother and an alcoholic father.
    Many years before, S.T. had decided if he ever wanted to kill himself, taking a gun and putting it to his head was a better way than walking the alcohol road.  From what he had learned Shonna hadn't come to the same conclusion, or if she had, it had come during those six months when she'd apparently shifted gears in her life.
    The knock at the door of his motel room interrupted his muddled thoughts as he was pulling on a pair of jeans. When he opened the door, he knew he didn't know the man; but he'd seen him somewhere on his dreary tour of bars.
    He stepped aside as the large, burly man, without words pushed into his room. The man turned then to glare at him. “Just wanted to see up close the kind of scum who don’t come around to see about his sister until it's too late."
    "Well, you've done that."
    The man walked across the room and again faced S.T., his hands folded over his chest. "She thought you were somebody important. You ain't."
    “You were one of her friends ?”
    The man glared. "That's no never mind of yours. I come to tell you nothing about your sister is your business now!"
    "How well did you know her?" S.T. asked, managing to hold onto his temper but barely.
    "Better than you obviously."
    S.T. lowered himself into the only chair in the small motel room. "That wouldn't have been hard." If he wanted to know what this guy knew about Shonna, holding onto his own anger was his best hope.
    "Ain't you ashamed of yourself?" the man asked, belligerence tainting his words with the rage that poured out of his eyes, showed through his bodily stance.
    "For what? Not knowing my sister? That wasn't all up to me. Not that it's any of your business."
    "A man oughta take care of his sister." He hovered over S.T. "I’d like to teach you a lesson. Suppose if I did, you’d get me thrown in jail. You look like the sort."
    S.T. rose so that their noses all but touched. They were of much the same height, although the stranger probably had the advantage by thirty pounds if not more. In age though, S.T. guessed he had the edge at ten years younger if not more.
    When the man raised his fist, S.T. was ready for him, grabbed the arm and twisted, spinning the man around so that his arm was pinned against his back. "What's your name?" S.T. hissed into his ear.
    "Go straight to hell."
    "No thanks. I've been there." He lifted a little on the pressure he'd placed on the arm. The man sucked in his breath. "Your name?"
    "Petrovsky," the man grunted. "Ed Petrovsky."
    "It's kind of strange you coming here like this. Maybe you know more about what happened to my sister than you've admitted. You one of her boyfriends?"
    "I didn’t have the money for that," he said.
    S.T., thinking the man was calmed down, stepped away from him, releasing the imprisoned arm, and immediately knew he'd made a mistake. Petrovsky swung on him, his fist connecting solidly with S.T.'s jaw.  S.T. tried to back away, escape the punishing blows, but another battering slam landed, half stunning him, throwing him against the motel wall.
    "Fight, you coward," Petrovsky snapped. S.T. ducked the blow that followed the words, and this time landed a blow of his own solidly in Petrovsky's stomach. He decided he had to make this fight short and quick or the larger man would have him for lunch. Absorbing a slam to his stomach, S.T. retaliated by a quick series of jabs, then a punch intended to lay Petrovsky across the floor. It had done the trick with lesser men, but Petrovsky was built like a bull and only shook his head.
    "Too bad you didn't... fight harder for her... when you had the chance,"