Night Thunder by Jill Gregory Read Free Book Online Page A

going to be a very temporary home. She’d depleted most of her combined checking and savings account when she’d made the ATM withdrawal, and after paying cash for her airline ticket and the Blazer and then laying out the security deposit on this place, she only had six hundred dollars left. She’d have to count her pennies—or find some part-time work while she was here and earn a little money on the side.
    In the small bedroom that overlooked the meadow she found a double bed, nightstand, and closet, but was dismayed to discover that there weren’t any linens—only a mattress pad, a pillow, and a cheap polyester-cotton quilt. She’d need to buy a set of sheets, a pillowcase, and blanket . . .
    Anxiety rose up suddenly and she felt her stomach clenching. She probably should have just booked a room at the Saddle-Up Motel she’d passed on her way into town. It would have definitely been more affordable. But it had looked isolated and shabby and she’d passed it up in favor of finding a bed-and-breakfast or something. But it turned out that Thunder Creek didn’t have a bed-and-breakfast—only the Saddle-Up Motel, the Pine Hills apartments, and the Crystal Horseshoe Dude Ranch, which was all the way at the other end of the spectrum, far too plush and pricey for her to even consider.
    The Pine Hills had made the most sense. She’d have privacy and security—and anyone searching for her would probably check in motels and hotels, not in an apartment building.
If
anyone even
was
searching for her. They were probably after Ricky, not her.
    What in the world is he mixed up in?
she wondered for the hundredth time.
And what does that stupid package
have to do with it?
    She closed her eyes, praying he was all right, praying he’d show up soon to take this damned package off her hands.
    She had a life to get back to in New York—what was left of her life, at least—and she couldn’t stay here in this speck of a town forever.
    But while she was here . . . Josy rose from the bed and strode to the window, staring out at the meadow and the distant mountains shadowed in darkness now. While she was here, she’d clear her head, come up with some ideas, and get them sketched out for Francesca.
    And she’d find Ada Scott. She wasn’t sure if she’d approach her or tell her about the connection between them, but she’d find her, and at least know what her grandmother looked like, who she was.
    It would make the time go faster until she could go home. It would distract her from the fact that she could be in danger. It would keep her from thinking about Doug.
    And surely by the time she finished with all of that, Ricky would be in touch, he’d show up, he’d take the package off her hands and explain this mess to her.
    All she had to do was take it one step at a time.
    Exhaustion dragged at her. She’d been driving long hours for days on end, eating at truck stops and greasy spoons. What she really needed was a massage and a facial at the Red Door. A Pilates workout with Jane at the gym. She needed a martini at the Soho Grand, take-out Mongolian beef from Shun Lee Palace, and ten hours’ sleep on her own fluffy featherbed complete with cloud-soft DKNY linens.
    Instead, she sat on her nubby green sofa and ate half a chicken sandwich and a bag of potato chips. After a final sip of tepid Coke, she pushed Ricky’s package into the shadowy recesses of a kitchen cabinet, curled up on top of the thin maroon quilt atop her bed, and fell asleep until the sun woke her in the morning, shining like a fiery opal in the pristine blue Wyoming sky.

Chapter 4

    JOSY DROVE THE TWO MILES INTO TOWN EARLY the next morning armed with a shopping list and a plan. Though she was ravenously hungry, she’d discovered that her right rear tire was indeed flat, as the dark-haired stranger on the stairway had told her, so she pulled into Slade’s gas station first and arranged to have the spare put on, then walked swiftly up the street to Bessie’s