DARK BLISS (Dangerous Games,) Read Online Free

husband?”
    She shook her head. “ A family friend. I’m staying with him and his wife. He’s managed our investments since before I was born. Sort of a second father to me. Mom and Daddy had a great marriage but it was a May-December thing. Mom died of cancer two years ago. Daddy’s seventy-two and frail. He wants to sell the mansion, so it’s being renovated. He’s staying with Aunt Angela in New York but since I’m still going to BU–”
    “BU?”
    “Boston University. I’m sorry. I’m babbling. You don’t need to know my life story. What I mean is Richard was against this whole trip. He’s protective. Thinks I can’t take care of myself.” She sighed again. “Maybe he’s right. Can we go now? This place… it gives me the creeps.”
    “ Not just yet.” He walked to Carlos, who lay on his stomach, his shattered skull a mess of blood and bone. He lifted the dead man’s shirt, exposing his back. He got the shirt he’d cleaned with and used it to pick up the branding iron.
    The girl had turned her head away from the corpse. “What are you doing?” she asked in a baffled tone.
    Rock didn’t answer. He thrust the branding iron onto Carlos’s back and quickly pulled it away. The girl shrieked. “Oh my God! Why did you do that?” She backed away from him, eyes wide, suddenly afraid again.
    Rock tossed the brand away. “Come over here,” he told her.
    “No!” she said in disgust and fear.
    “I need you to take a look.”
    “You need me to do that? Why? So I’ll know what I would have looked like?”
    “No, to see if it means anything to you.”
    “Mean anything? Are you out of your mind?”
    Rock suddenly strode to her. She stepped nervously backward but he grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her toward the corpse until they stood beside it. She squeezed her eyes shut like a child who refused to see something unpleasant.
    “For God’s sake, open your eyes.”
    “No!”
    “Just one look.”
    “No!”
    “We’re not leaving until you do.”
    After a moment, she opened her eyes and after shooting him an angry look, turned to view the still smoking brand and its strange design.
     

     
    “ Ugh! All right, I looked.” She turned and walked a short distance off. Rock followed her. “What in the world is that supposed to be?” she asked.
    “What did it look like to you?”
    “Like a heart with a slash through it.”
    “ That’s what I saw too.”
    “What could it mean?”
    “Nothing maybe. Sometimes cattle brands work the owner’s initials into the design. Sometimes they pun on the name, like ‘Hart’ for instance. Sometimes they’re about the name of the ranch. Main thing is for it to be different from the rest. Maybe that’s all this is. Or maybe it does mean something.”
    “Like what?”
    “Well, like a ‘no smoking’ sign. Except this stands for, I dunno, ‘no heart.’ Something like that. And it doesn’t ring any bells for you?”
    “Nothing. Why should it?”
    “This branding business is weird. Maybe they weren’t just after any pretty woman.”
    “You mean, they were after me?”
    “Possibly.”
    “All right but why brand me? Do you think one of them has a ranch?”
    “I doubt it. Man busy with a ranch doesn’t run into town for a little kidnapping. This might not be a cattle brand.”
    “What else could it… oh !” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Oh my God.” She wrapped her arms around herself as if to ward off a cold wind. “At first I thought they were after me, right up to the minute they were about to burn me.”
    “You mean kidnapped for money?”
    “Yes. ”
    “That happens down here but they don’t pick people at random. Do you have money?”
    “All my money is in a trust fund, but yes, my family’s wealthy. Very.”
    “Doesn’t make sense to kidnap someone and brand her. That’s crazy.”
    “No, it doesn’t make sense. Maybe it never will. Maybe it will always be a mystery. I hope so. I’ll have nightmares about this for a