Ice by Linda Howard Read Free Book Online Page B

users into physical wrecks, rotted their teeth out, took over their lives, and a lot of time killed them.
    The man reached out to grab the woman where her ass should be, and instead of being insulted by the move, she laughed. Gabriel heard her too-loud rough laugh, as she fell back and into her companion. A hand came up and he saw the pistol she carried; it was a revolver, a big one, a .357 or even a .44. Adrenaline spurted through his veins, drastically intensifying his alertness. He didn’t have a weapon with him; it hadn’t even occurred to him that he’d need to come here armed.
    The armed woman turned, and he stepped back enough that she wouldn’t be able to see him through the window. A rush of relief filled him. The thin, wasted, angular face didn’t belong to anyone he knew. Maybe it had been years since he’d seen Lolly, but no one could change that much, even on meth. That wasn’t Lolly.
    That didn’t mean she was in the clear. Were these friends of hers? Had Lolly Helton changed in other ways, maybe not physically, but in the type of person she was? If she’d become a dealer and was caught up in this shit, he would turn around and take his chances in the truck. What else could he do? Somehow he didn’t think the couple in the living room would take kindly to being interrupted. Meth users were violent, unpredictable. They’d probably shoot at him as soon as he knocked.
    But where was Lolly? He couldn’t leave without seeing for himself if she was okay. The Mercedes left out in the storm made him uneasy. Had these two brokenin, killed her? With meth users, anything was possible, and none of it was good.
    Remembering the reflected light from upstairs, he left the porch as silently as he’d stepped up, and moved back until he could see the windows. The curtains were drawn over the front window, so he circled to the side of the house. At least the curtains on that window were open. He had to move well out into the yard in order to see through the second-story window … and there she was.
    Lolly was moving around the room, passing by the window now and then. Her face wasn’t thin and wasted, like the couple downstairs, and even from here he could see that she was intent on … something. She pulled on a sweatshirt, even though she already wore something that looked strangely misshapen and lumpy.
    As if she’d put on every piece of clothing she could find.
    As if she were preparing for escape.
    Gabriel took a deep breath, ignoring the cold in his lungs and the chill that surrounded him. Shit, his dad had been right. Again. Lolly
did
need rescuing.
    He looked toward the detached garage. Maybe he could find a ladder in there.

Chapter Five
    Every household needed a ladder, he thought, even if the house was used only a few times a year. Surely there was one around somewhere; his dad had always said Mr. Helton was a careful man, and a careful man would have a ladder. The most logical place where a careful man would put a ladder was in the garage, right? Cautiously he opened the side door into the garage, turning on the flashlight so he could see. The garage was fairly small, built in a time when most families owned only one car, and mostly empty. There were some odds and ends, some folding lawn chairs, and—
yes!
—a ladder.
    He dragged it out from behind the lawn chairs, and his heart sank. This wasn’t much of a ladder. For one thing, it wouldn’t reach all the way to Lolly’s window.For another, it was wooden, and it was old. The rungs weren’t in good shape; two were broken, and he wasn’t at all sure any of the others would hold his weight. But Lolly didn’t weigh as much as he did and she was the one who’d be on it, so maybe it would hold together long enough for her to climb down. If not … then he hoped she’d bounce. No, hell, he’d have to catch her, he thought sourly. The way his luck was running, if he didn’t catch her she’d probably fall on him and break his leg, or a few