Ultimate Supernatural Horror Box Set by F. Paul Wilson, Blake Crouch, Scott Nicholson, Jeff Strand, Jack Kilborn, J. A. Konrath, Iain Rob Wright, Jordan Crouch Read Free Book Online Page A

I’m not.”
    “I admire your discretion, Fred.  Which brings me to the heart of our little talk.  You will receive a generous tip tonight, Fred.  An extravagant tip.  It is meant to not only seal your lips tighter than usual, but to erase from your memory everything that occurs from this moment until you drop me off at LaGuardia.”
    “You’re not going to mess up my passenger area, are you?”
    “I’m not planning to.  But on the subject of ‘messing up,’ I feel obliged to give you a warning: In my homeland we have a way of dealing with someone who has seen too much and talks about it.  We cure him of his affliction by removing his tongue and eyes.  Unless we’re feeling particularly merciful, in which case we leave the eyes and take only the eyelids.  And the tongue, of course.  The tongue always goes.  Do you understand what I am saying, Fred?”
    Emilio hoped the driver would not take this as an empty threat.  He knew of no such tradition in Mexico, but that didn’t matter.  He meant every word, and would personally do the cutting.  And enjoy it.
    Fred gulped.  “Yeah.  Loud and clear.  No problem.”
    “Excellent.  Then you can look forward to being hired whenever Senator Crenshaw comes to town.”
    Fred’s expression did not exactly reflect unbridled joy at the prospect.  He said, “You want to hit the Dog Collar now?”
    Emilio folded the stiletto blade and put it away.
    “Yes.  Immediately.”
    As they drove on in silence, Emilio hoped the Senador had some plan for Charlie, some solution for the threat he posed.  For he was indeed a threat.  In order to be president, the Senador first had to be nominated by his party.  And in order to secure that nomination, he had to run in primary elections in various states.  Emilio had studied all this in his civics lessons for his citizenship test, and he’d heard the Senador discuss it numerous times, but none of it made much sense.  However, one thing that did make sense was that many of those primary states were in regions of the country where a the right kind of rumor could tilt a close race the wrong way.  And if the primaries were going to be as hotly contested as the experts were predicting, having a maricon son might be the kiss of political death.
    But there seemed to be more to it than that.  The Senador seemed obsessed with finding Charlie and keeping him under wraps.  Emilio didn’t understand.
    What he did understand was that whatever kept the Senador from the White House also kept Emilio from the White House.
    The White House.  It had become Emilio’s dream.
    Not to become president.  That was to laugh.  But for Emilio Sanchez to accompany the Senador to the world’s center of power, that was the ultimate spit in the eye to the many throughout his life who had said he’d go nowhere, be nothing unless he changed his ways.
    But I never changed, Emilio thought.  And look at me now.  I am the most trusted aide of United States Senator Arthur Crenshaw.  I am riding in a stretch limo through New York City.  I have my pick of the women in the Senate Building in Washington.  I own my own Coup de Ville.  And I’m still moving up.  Up !
    Even now he loved to drive his shiny Cadillac back to his native Tijuana and park in front of the old haunts.  Pay some street tonto to guard the car while he went inside and watched their eyes go wide and round as he flashed his money and rings and bought a round for the house. 
    In the span of a few heartbeats the word would get around: Emilio’s back!  Emilio’s back!   So that when he strolled the narrow streets the children would follow and call his name like a deity and beg for his attention.  And not far behind them would be their mothers and older sisters, doing the same.
    He loved to drive by the St. Ignatio School where the priests and sisters had tried to beat some religion into him and make him like all the other sheep they imprisoned in their classrooms.  He loved