Nightfall by Laura Griffin Read Free Book Online Page B

only chance.
    She rolled to her feet and
rocketed down the alley, toward the noise and cars and people that
meant safety. Faster, faster,
faster! Every cell in her body throbbed
with the knowledge that he was behind her. Her heart hammered. Her
muscles strained. Faster! For the first time, she thought of a gun and
imagined a bullet tearing through skin and bone. She surged
forward, shrieking hoarsely and racing for the mouth of the
alley.
    Behind her a car door
slammed. Tires squealed over the asphalt. She glanced back as the
gray car shot down the alley, moving away from her. Taillights
glowed. Another screech of tires as the car whipped around the
corner.
    Maddie stopped and slumped
against the side of the building. Her breath came in ragged gasps.
Her lungs burned, and it felt as though her heart was being
squeezed like a lemon. Something warm trickled down her face. She
touched a hand to her cheek and her fingers came away
red.
    Tears stung her eyes as she
looked down at herself. Her purse was gone. Her camera was gone.
Her phone was gone. She wasn’t gone, at least. She was here—in one shaking, terrified,
Jell-O-y piece. But her knees felt so weak she didn’t know if they
would hold her up. She closed her eyes and tried to
think.
    She couldn’t stay in the
alley. But she couldn’t go back in that garage—maybe never again.
She looked out at the street, at the steady flow of cars and
people. Her gaze landed on the neon sign in the window of the
sandwich shop. It glowed red in the gray of dusk, beckoning her to
safety with its simple message: OPEN.
    Maddie pushed away from the
wall. On quivering legs, she stumbled toward the sign.
     
    ***
     
    The two men were cops, she
could tell at a glance. Maddie watched them from her place beside
the patrol car, where she’d been sequestered for the past half hour
answering questions from a rookie detective who’d probably been in
diapers when she got her first speeding ticket. Maddie knew almost
everyone in the San Marcos police department, but didn’t it figure
the first responder to her 911 call would be someone she’d never
laid eyes on before—someone who didn’t have the slightest interest
in doing her a favor by moving things along. Added to the scraped
chin, the swelling jaw, the lost purse, and the stolen Nikon, it
was just another addition to the crapfest that had become her
day.
    And if her instincts proved
right, the party wasn’t over yet.
    Maggie watched as the two
mystery men walked up to the patrol cars parked in front of the
sandwich shop. Definitely cops. But they were more than that,
clearly. She pegged them for feds based on their dark suits, and
that guess was confirmed when one of them flashed a badge and
exchange words with the patrol officers milling on the sidewalk.
Jeff Grimlich—a cop she did know—had just emerged from the shop with a
steaming cup of coffee. He said something brief and gave a nod in
Maddie’s direction, sending them her way.
    Maddie checked her watch.
Whatever these two wanted, it wouldn’t likely be quick. She looked
them over. The one leading the charge appeared to be mid-thirties,
like she was. His shaved head coupled with his solid, stocky build
would have made him look like a bouncer—had it not been for his
suit and the determined scowl that said cop.
    Maddie shifted her gaze to
his friend. Taller, probably six-one. Broad-shouldered, muscular,
lean at the waist. He had sandy-brown hair that was cropped short
on the sides and longer on top. The word military popped into her head. It
wasn’t just the haircut and the build, but the supremely confident
way he carried himself. He was watching her, too, but in contrast
to his partner’s expression, this guy looked utterly
relaxed.
    “ Are you sure you don’t want to get this looked
at?”
    She turned her attention to
the EMT handing her an icepack. Maddie pressed the pack to the side
of her face, where a bruise was forming.
    “ I’m good.”
    “ Because it’s