Death Run Read Online Free Page A

in a car and it was pulling away.Jade emerged from behind the sofa. She’d been ready to fight the men to get Rich free. But a glance from her hiding place at the four men in carnival masks had been enough to tell her it was no use. She’d end up being captured herself. It made her sick to her stomach, but the best option was to leave Rich to fend for himself.
    At least he wouldn’t be on his own – Jade would follow. But then she saw Rich bundled into the car opposite the hotel and her heart sank still lower. She couldn’t follow a car.
    But she’d try. She wouldn’t give up and abandon her brother. Jade was out of the hotel and running after the car as it started up the street. She kept to the shadowed side of the pavement, hoping they wouldn’t spot her. Mercifully, the dark limousine was going quite slowly up the uneven street. And Jade ran every day. If it kept to this speed she might – just might – keep it in sight.
    The car reached the end of the street and turned right. Almost immediately it turned again – towards the main street. Jade hesitated. Should she follow, or should she take a risk? She’d lose the car if she just followed. She’d risk it, she decided – take a shortcutshe’d discovered along an alley and over a little canal bridge. That would bring her to the same junction as the car was making for. Probably making for…
    At the junction, Jade paused for breath. There was no sign of the car. It couldn’t have got here already. But, after almost a minute, Jade realised it wasn’t coming. It was too distinctive for her to have missed. She’d gambled and lost. The car had not been heading for the main road at all.
    With a shout of frustration, Jade turned and kicked the wall behind her.
    The car stopped abruptly and Rich was thrown forward in the seat. Someone laughed as he collided with the back of the seat in front. Then the door opened and he was hauled out. If they didn’t take the blanket off soon, he’d suffocate.
    Indoors again. It sounded large – echoey. Even through the blanket the place smelled old.
    Suddenly the blanket was pulled off his head and Rich spluttered and coughed as he rasped for breath. The room was dim and unlit, but he blinked at the relative brightness of it.
    A golden gargoyle face was close in front of hisown – so close his breath misted its cheek. Then it was pulled off, just as Rich’s blanket had been. A man with short black hair and a neat pencil moustache stared at Rich through disbelieving eyes, and let loose a tirade of rapid Italian.
    Rich didn’t understand a word of it, but it didn’t sound polite.
    Then, in English, “You are not Chance!”
    â€œI am,” Rich retorted. “Richard Chance.” And he gave a short laugh as he realised what had happened. Despite everything, it was almost funny. The laugh made him cough and he gasped for breath again. “You were after Dad, weren’t you? You just assumed he’d come back to the hotel, and as soon as someone came in you stuffed a blanket over them and bundled them off. Sorry.” He paused for another cough and was pleased to find his throat was easing a little. “You took a chance and got the wrong Chance.”
    The Italian stared back at Rich. He didn’t look at all happy. Maybe Rich shouldn’t have laughed at him, but it was too late now. The man stepped back and snarled something at the others. Two of them grabbed Rich roughly by the shoulders and dragged him deeper into the old building.Jade’s foot hurt. She had no one to blame but herself – for everything. She limped slowly along the pavement, walking back the way she had expected the car to come. It must have turned off somewhere between the junction and where she had last seen it.
    Five minutes later, she turned a corner and saw the car parked at the kerb. The whole area was run down and dilapidated. The walls of