Wolf Point by Edward Falco Read Free Book Online

like you hadn’t slept in days.”
    “Hadn’t,” she said. Her blouse was buttoned up to the neck. She grasped her shoulders with her hands, huddled into herself, and shivered. “Jeez,” she said. “I remember this little inlet like it was a mountain overlooking the ocean. It’s so small.”
    “I’d offer you my jacket if I had one. You look cold.”
    “I bet you that sweater’s warm,” she said.
    T started to take off the sweater, and Jenny touched his hand to stop him. “I’m only kidding with you,” she said. “Don’t take me so seriously.”
    “Why wouldn’t I take you seriously?” He pulled the sweater off and then carefully pushed it over her head and onto her shoulders, holding his hands inside the neck hole and stretching it out so that it would go on easily. When he was close to her, leaning over her, once he had pushed the sweater over thethick profusion of her hair, she tossed her head a little to move the hair away from her eyes and leaned slightly toward him, as if expecting a kiss.
    T backed away. He had on a black cotton T. He rubbed his bare arms for warmth.
    “Thank you,” Jenny said. She touched his chest, laying a hand under his collar bone. “You’re really muscled,” she said. “You’ve got to be working out with weights.”
    “Used to,” he said. He looked back toward the line of cabins beyond the inlet. “So what’s the story with this place? I peeked in the window. It’s nice. Who’s Chuck?”
    “My uncle,” Jenny said. “How’d you know his name?”
    “Guy where I got directions. He said he hadn’t been here for a while.”
    “Wouldn’t’ve. Busy man.”
    “And?” T said. “It would be cruel and unusual not to unravel any of this for me. I mean, I’ve been a good guy, haven’t I? You’re not going to make me just drive away without—”
    “Why do you have to drive away?” she said. She pouted, dramatically. “Would you leave me here all alone with Lester?”
    “I thought that was the deal,” he said. “I deliver you, and—”
    “But you don’t have to,” she said. “There’s plenty of room.” She put her hand on his knee. “You could stay.”
    “You want me to stay?” T put his hand over hers. “You want me to spend the night here with you and Lester?”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    “Because.”
    “That’s not an answer.”
    “Okay,” she said, serious. “Because you have money. Because you have a car. Because we’re in trouble, and, honestly—” She hesitated a moment, apparently considering her words. “Maybe you were supposed to pick me up on the side of the road. You sure as hell wouldn’t have come into my life any other way.”
    T said, “You think that you were destined to meet me?”
    “Maybe.”
    T wasn’t at all sure what they were talking about anymore. “Let’s—” he pressed on. “Let’s get some things out of the way.”
    “Like?”
    “Why are you in trouble? What’s the life-threatening danger?”
    “That’s all Lester,” she said. “I swear. And it’s too long a story for out here.” She looked back to the car. “Let’s wake up Sleeping Idiot and I’ll tell you inside.”
    “How about a short version?” T said. “Anything. A few clues.”
    She stood up and offered him a hand. “Lester stole money from people you’d have to be crazy to steal money from— ‘axis-of-evil’ types. He came to my place and before he was in the house five minutes, the guys he was running from showed up. That was three days ago and we’ve been hiding and moving ever since.”
    T took her hand and pulled himself up. “But you—” he said. “You didn’t have anything to do with it?”
    “Nothing,” she said. “I was getting myself back together after a whole bunch of my own trouble. I just bought my house. I was back in school.” She suddenly sounded angry. “Don’t let’s go through the whole thing right now,” she said. “There’s plenty of time.” She started up the rocky incline, leaving T