Last Safe Place, The by Ninie Hammon Read Free Book Online

a sequel.”
    “I didn’t say that!”
    “Why would a crazed fan bite your—?”
    “I don’t know!” Gabriella finally lost it. “I don’t have any idea. But he did.” She sounded hysterical, but she couldn’t stop herself. “I don’t carewhether you believe me or not. It happened. Just like I said it did. And it doesn’t matter what the police or the hospital or the doctor—” She literally clamped her hand over her mouth to shut herself up. Then she turned, raced back up the stairs to the guestroom and slammed the door shut behind her.
    She was sitting on the edge of the bed shaking when Bernie burst into the room a few minutes later. He was jubilant.
    “You were absolutely glorious!” he gushed. “Saying he bit your earlobe off—that was brilliant. I want to get some pictures to mail out with a press release to—”
    Gabriella leapt to her feet and slapped him as hard as she could. The blow staggered him, knocked him backward a few steps and caused his eyes to water.
    “You slimy, bottom-feeding, lowlife …” Words failed her. “Now the police will believe that everything I say is a publicity stunt. Do you know what you’ve done? That monster intends to murder my son. Plans to sacrifice …”
    She could see on his face he didn’t believe her. Or didn’t care.
    “Get out! Get out of here now.”
    “Just a minute here, Sweet Cheeks. This my house and I—”
    “Fine! Give me my car keys. And get out of my way.”

CHAPTER 3
    G ABRIELLA SAT ON THE BIG OVERSTUFFED CHAIR IN THE MOTEL room waiting for Ty to finish brushing his teeth so she could put him to bed and outline her plan for Theo. She’d moved them into adjoining rooms in a motel after leaving Bernie’s. Even though Yesheb was injured, in the hospital, she couldn’t face going home yet so she’d purchased three sets of clothes to replace the pajamas they’d been wearing when they escaped, along with a few necessary toiletries at Walmart. She’d made quite a stir pushing a cart up and down the aisles dressed like the Wicked Witch of the West.
    If she understood Yesheb’s mindset and motivation as well as she thought she did—and she should; she’d personally designed his depravity in excruciating detail—she was safe now, relatively speaking. But that was only true until the earth rotated through another lunar cycle.
    “I’ve got a surprise for you, Champ,” she said to Ty as she tucked him in bed. “We’re going to New York.” They often did that to see Broadway shows. It was a special treat that Ty loved. “I bought show tickets online, but we’re not really—”
    “Whatever.” He rolled over to face the wall. She stood for a moment staring at his back, then leaned over and kissed his cheek, left the bathroom light on because he hated the dark and closed the door between the rooms behind her.
    “I’ve made a decision,” she told Theo as she settled herself back down into the big chair. “If I can figure out a way to shake Yesheb’s bloodhounds, Ty and I are going into hiding until he stops looking for us.”
    “What you gone run for?” Theo asked.
    “Because the fight-or-flight reflex doesn’t offer a wide variety of options!”
    “You could stand up to that crazy man, hire a bodyguard and—”
    “I called the agency. Nobody has seen or heard from Thomas Ridley.” She was sure nobody would ever hear from him again.
    “Then hire a whole herd of bodyguards, make yo house into a fortress and then dare that fool to come and get you!”
    The old man’s blustering was maddening. “We’ll go home and collect our things tomorrow. Now’s our chance. Yesheb can’t try anything for a while, not with a broken foot. And the full moon has passed.”
    “What the moon got to do with it?”
    All the air whooshed out of Gabriella. She was so tired of all this.
    “It’s about what happens in the book, The Bride of the Beast . I wrote it in first person, from the point of view of the character Zara, and Yesheb