Trust Me by Jeff Abbott Read Free Book Online Page B

don’t need to be praying. Everything’s cool if you do what I say.’ Eric let go of the medal as though it burned him; Luke tucked the silver back into his shirt.
    Eric put his gaze back to the street. ‘Saint Michael. He’s the one who casts Satan out of Heaven, right, sends him plummeting to Hell?’
     
    ‘Yeah,’ Luke said. ‘Who sent you to this hell, Eric?’ This might be his only chance to reason with him. They were waiting, for God knew what, and Eric was scared. He swallowed past the broken-glass ache in his throat. ‘The woman on the phone? Who is she?’
    ‘Shut up.’
    ‘She’s giving you orders.’
    ‘Shut up.’
    ‘She ordered you to kidnap me. Why?’
    Eric kept his eyes locked on the street. ‘Hello,’ Eric said. Luke followed Eric’s stare and saw a flicker of light as the homeless shelter’s door closed. A tall older man approached their car, his weathered face lit by the juxtaposition of passing headlights and the pool of a street-lamp. He was dressed in the uniform of the homeless, a shabby coat, a bandanna secured over greasy hair.
    They waited in silence as the man approached.
    ‘Start the car,’ Eric’s voice crackled energy, as though the exhaustion of the past several hours was forgotten. ‘Pull out into the street.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Just do it.’
    Luke started the engine and pulled out onto the street. The homeless man was forty feet ahead of them, walking on the left.
    ‘I have to be sure,’ Eric said to himself. ‘Stay close. But not too close.’
    Luke stopped the BMW at a light. The homeless man kept walking, stare fixed ahead on the buckling sidewalk.
    The light flashed green.
    ‘Go,’ Eric ordered.
    Luke drove the car, closed the gap on the homeless man. They drove past him and the man glanced up.
    ‘Drive another block then go back,’ Eric ordered.
    Luke U-turned at the next light and now the passenger side window was closer to the homeless man. Eric studied his quarry.
     
    ‘It’s him,’ Eric said. ‘Okay. Be cool, be cool.’
    Luke wasn’t sure if Eric was talking to him, or to himself.
    The homeless man raised his head as he walked on in his broken shuffle. He wiped at his nose with the back of his hand. Another man waited at the street corner, leaning against the traffic light, turning to watch as both the first man and the BMW approached. The second man - dressed in a leather jacket with a colorful bald eagle stitched on the back, jeans and heavy dark sunglasses unnecessary at night - seemed to sense trouble rising; he turned and ran into the shadows of an alley at top speed, glancing once over his shoulder. Luke saw naked fear on his broad, scarred face.
    ‘That guy in the eagle jacket was going to talk to the homeless man,’ Luke said. He was not sure why he said this thought aloud, but he had seen a smile of expectation rise and then fade in the second man’s face. Luke had the sense they were interrupting something - a rendezvous or an appointment. The homeless man stopped as the leather-jacketed man rushed away from the scene.
    They drew level with the homeless man and he paused as the BMW crawled to a stop, Eric lowering the window.
    The homeless man took an awkward step forward into the pool of light.
    Then he turned and began to hurry away. Walking with purpose, digging into his pocket.
    ‘Follow him,’ Eric ordered with a hard jab of the gun into Luke’s tender ribs.
    The homeless man broke into a run. He cut across the street toward the parking lot of a bank. The building looked new, the foothold into the neighborhood for the revitalized edge of downtown.
    ‘Catch up with him. I have to talk to him,’ Eric said.
    The homeless man ran toward the narrow, empty drive-through lanes, toward the soft glow of the ATM machine.
     
    ‘Cut him off, don’t let him get away,’ Eric said.
    Luke cut the BMW between the homeless man and the building. He glided into the ATM lane and slammed to a stop; the driver’s side was close to the ATM, the