Writ of Execution by Perri O'Shaughnessy Read Free Book Online Page A

“No one should know I’m here or who I am. I don’t have anywhere else I can run. I’ve been safe here, but now—unless I can think of something—can’t you help me? Can’t anybody help me? There must be a way.” She rocked the chair closer to Nina’s desk and leaned forward. “I didn’t have the money two hours ago—I should just leave, but—but—I need it, you understand? I have to take the risk, I need that money! I had no life before, just fear.”
    They sat around and thought.
    “Why can’t it just be simple?” the girl said, calming down. “Why are there always strings? Why can’t it be—”
    “Unalloyed,” Kenny Leung said, eyebrows drawn together as if he were reevaluating the adventure. Some of the strings on the money were starting to look more like steel cables.
    Nina checked her watch. She felt a headache leaking from the left side of her head to the right. She was not at her sharpest after midnight. “Is this someone you are afraid of connected with law enforcement?” she asked.
    “Oh, no.”
    “Someone’s trying to kill you. That’s what you said, right?”
    “He wants to take me down. But he’s not going to. If I have to kill him first, I will. I’m trained in weaponry and self-defense. It has to stop here.” She squared her jaw. Nina suspected that a buff physique was in hiding underneath the jeans and sweater.
    “I see.” Nina gave Paul a sideways glance. He didn’t look like he had any bright ideas, and he didn’t look happy.
    “You think I’m crazy or paranoid,” the girl said. “I’m not.”
    “Then your safety has to come first,” Nina said.
    Paul jumped in. “Then this is really your lucky day. I have quite a bit of security experience, up to and including securing the safety of a United States senator. I’ll go with you and stay with you until other arrangements can be made. You won’t be harmed. You won’t have to defend yourself.”
    The girl said, “You have to accept that if he finds out where I am, there will be nothing anyone can do to stop him.”
    “Your name’s going to be splattered across the pages of newspapers all over the U.S.,” Paul said, “whether you like it or not. This is not like the lottery, where you have some control, at least right at first.”
    Nina said, “If you do claim the jackpot, the casino may require you to sign paperwork agreeing to have your name and picture used for publicity purposes. Do you have a restraining order against this man that is after you? You’ve tried to stop him? There is a strong stalking statute in this state.”
    “The law. Sure,” she said. “Forget it.”
    “Why? Why haven’t you gone to the police?” Paul asked.
    “I tried that already, before I came here. Somehow, there’s never any evidence.”
    Paul started to ask another question, and Nina understood his curiosity, but they had already gone too far. She shook her head once, sharply, and he sat back in his chair.
    “Can’t you do anything to help me?” the girl said, turning back to Nina. “Tell me what to do! Is it hopeless? Do I have to just blow the money off?” She leaned back, as if exhausted with the effort of explaining.
    “I could put it in my trust account,” Nina said. “But I can’t just go in as your agent without you and keep you anonymous. It’s the IRS. They’ll insist on something from you. We could demand that your name not be provided to the press, but—”
    “Get real,” Paul interrupted.
    “What about my idea? Telling them I’m married? Giving them a name?” the girl said.
    “You’re saying, Kenny gets handed the check and he hands it over to me, right there at the casino. That would keep it safe and gain us time. But you’d still be lying about your name. It could void the jackpot. I’m sure that there will be some sort of rule providing that. They are just not going to let you get away with using a false name.”
    “Then I guess I can’t go back.”
    Kenny Leung’s alarm lifted him out