Ridge Creek by C L Green Read Free Book Online Page B

with body pressure only and no words, Jake
makes me stand in the doorway.  Before I have time to register what he is
doing, he powers up his drill and pulls the two screws holding the board over
the mirror away.  Dropping the board to the floor next the sink, he turns to me
and gives me a chin lift.
    With my eyes now pinned on the mirror and what I am sure is
his permission, I walk straight up and look.
    I gasp as my hands fly to my face.
    Holy shit.
    One entire side of my face is a patchy combination of green
and yellow bruises.  There are smatterings of small left over scabs from my
facial gravel rash as well as one long thicker scab on my right cheekbone. 
There is however, no swelling.
    Taking a few minutes to examine my face I run my fingers
over each bruise and marvel that my face still looks normal – ish.  It may have
scabs and it may be green and yellow but it’s not distorted out of shape or
anything.  I breathe a sigh of relief and turn to see Jake watching me
intently.
    “This is going to take a truckload of make-up to paint
over.  Can I use your phone?”
    I watch as his eyes crinkle and the green sparkles a little
brighter.  Grinning, he nods.  Reaching into his back pocket he pulls out his
mobile phone and hands it to me.  Quickly dialing my hacker friend’s number,
the phone nearly rings out before she picks up.
    “Yo,” I hear her familiar voice on the end of the phone and
nearly cry in relief.
    “Ems, it’s me,” I almost choke the words out.
    “Ari!” She shrieks into the phone and I have to hold it away
from ear.  “You’re fucking alive! ”
    Bringing the phone back to my ear I look up to see Jake
leaning against the doorframe as he blankly watches me on the phone.
    “I am.  Long story.  I have to vanish babe.  Like big time vanish.  
New I.D. and I need my money.”
    “You’re fucking alive !” She shrieks again and I wince
at the high-pitched noise.  Shaking my head I’m about to remind her of my
request when her voice softens and she asks, “Did he hurt you?”
    Not wanting to go into it right now I answer softly, “Yeah
he did.”
    “ Mother. Fucker.”
    “I need to vanish,” I remind her.
    Pausing for a few beats, I hear her breathing steadily down
the phone.  “Okay,” she announces.  “We can do this.  We already had half a
plan when the dumb fuck started whinging about your money so we can do this. 
Where are you?”
    “Somewhere called Ridge Creek.  Apart from that I have no
idea.”
    “Right,” I hear her fingers tapping on a keyboard.  “This is
good.  You realize you are over four hours away don’t you?  You’re not even in
State.  He’s not likely to find you there.” 
    “Where am I?”
    “You’re in lower-central New South Wales.”  I hear her doing
some more tapping.  “You got any money in your normal accounts you want?”
    “No.  There was only a couple of grand there and if he see’s
movements on my accounts he’ll track it.  I just need the money I left with
you.  You keep fifty, and I’ll make-do with the other two hundred.  Thank fuck you talked me into hiding it.”
    “There’s more than that…” She says almost warily.
    “More?” I ask her confused as hell.  “It hasn’t been that
long since I shut my business down, how is there more?”
    “Investments baby.  I couldn’t help it.  It was just doing
nothing sitting there.  The interest was okay , but I knew it could do
better.”
    “How much is there now?”
    “Five hundred and sixty thousand dollars.”
    Fuck.
    “You’re shitting me?” I whisper reverently into the phone. 
“You should be a banker, not a hacker.”
    I watch Jake’s eyebrows lift in question and a small smirk creases
his mouth.  Obviously he’s finding this conversation amusing.
    “I don’t need that much.  I’ve got nothing to spend
it on.”
“You do now girl.  You’ve got a whole new life to build.  It probably won’t
even be enough.  On that thought, leave