Drawing Dead Read Online Free

said. “That’s crazy.”
    “That
would
be crazy,” Buddha agreed.
    “And suicide is crazy,” Tiger added.
    “Hemp was dead as soon as we got that first phone call,” Cross said, acknowledging the Amazon’s deductive powers. “We couldn’t be sure he’d be using one of his little sample cases anytime soon, but we know he keeps them on the top floor. That was part of the deal. By now, anything under fifty yards of Tracker’s scope is as good as gone.”

    “I NEED to talk to Tiger alone, okay?”
    “Just in time,” the Amazon said, as the others crossed through the hanging strands of black ball bearings that made up the “door” between the back office and the poolroom. “How come I’m the only one who didn’t know about this thing with Hemp?”
    “You know what a rolling bounty is?”
    “No, I don’t. And I don’t see what that has to do with—”
    “A rolling bounty is like a river, only it runs below ground. Everybody in Gangland knows, you got something that’s worth something—something to
us,
I mean—we’ll give you a fair price for whatever it is. And we’ll make sure nobody will ever find you, too.”
    “You got a call Hemp was going to have Sharyn
killed
?”
    “Yeah.”
    “So you—”
    “Took care of it,” Cross interrupted, deliberately avoiding any details. Tracker had reported to him, and it wasn’t a report he wanted to share with the others.
    “It was a head shot. Only way to make sure. At that distance, it’s easier to stop a high-speed round from being a kill-shot. Only time for one try—I wasn’t going to use a suppressor, not from that far away. If I couldn’t be sure, it would have to rain .50-cals, and that would be like calling 911 ourselves.
    “Only thing is, I put the one shot on the ‘X’ spot—he was dead before he dropped. But then his chest kind of…exploded. I couldn’t see that well through the scope, but the whole cavity opened, like it burst open from the inside.”
    “What’s with this secret-society stuff all of a sudden? If I’d known about it, I would’ve—”
    “You just answered your own question. The last thing we need is for one of us to step on a land mine.”
    “Killing Sharyn, that was just a play? To lure Ace out into the open?”
    “Ace? Sure. Him, and anyone else who couldn’t…control themselves. The hit didn’t even have to be successful. If Princess thought anyone had so much as
tried
to hurt Sharyn, he’d just stroll over to Hemp’s building, climb the stairs to the top floor where that punk has that famous ‘terrace’ of his, and start throwing pieces of him over the rail. And Rhino’d have to go with him.”
    “Hera!”
Tiger chuckled, picturing a cartoon-muscled man in full war paint casually walking across town with a giant black-headed Akita on a chain that would take two strong men to lift, followed by a formless shape that dwarfed them both. A formless shape carrying an Uzi in each hand, with four more on straps around his telephone pole of a neck. “The only thing you’d shoot at
any
of them would be a cell-phone camera.”
    “Don’t leave out Ace. And he wouldn’t be walking.”
    “So it was just you and Buddha who could get cold enough to TCB?”
    “And Tracker.”
    “But not me?”
    “No, not you. Even if you could control your temper—which is
always
a guess—you’d draw a crowd.”
    “And Rhino and Princess, never mind Sweetie,
they
wouldn’t?”
    “Even a canned-heat-drinking schizophrenic off his meds would know enough to give them a wide berth. But every man you passed would just
have
to get a closer look.”
    “Huh!” Tiger half-growled, but her heart wasn’t in it.

    “THAT PLAY didn’t work. But it won’t be the last one.”
    “Who?”
    “Hit the light switch.”
    “I thought you’d never ask.”
    “Tiger…”
    The room plunged into darkness.
    “I see it!” the Amazon whispered. “That’s their way of…warning you?”
    “I don’t know. All I know is, whatever