Here Comes the Night Read Online Free Page A

slid into the driver’s
seat.
    “Tony, what are you doing?”
    “Ever drive an old Mustang?” His eyes got a dark, oily look.
    “Get out of the car. If he catches you…”
    Tony looked pointedly up and down the alley. “He’s not here.
I think he left in a SUV.” He raised his eyebrows to her in an invitation.
    Erika knew the look. “Oh no. Hunh uh.”
    He reached over and opened the passenger door. “We’ll just
take it for a little whirl.”
    “Are you insane? Tony, you can’t do this.”
    Tony shrugged and put the car in gear. He let the car crawl
forward as he teased her. “Okay, see ya.”
    Erika ran alongside, still afraid to get in.
    Tony leaned over and opened the passenger door. “Come on,
just a quick joyride.”
    As they got closer to the end of the vacant alley, Erika
looked around. The few people in the sidewalks across the street seemed
indifferent to them and the car.
    “Come on, baby. Five minutes.”
    Erika finally gave up and hopped in. “You are so bad.”

Chapter 12
    Buck came to, enveloped in the putrid smell of a moldy
canvas bag. The guy in the back seat had thrown it on his head, apparently,
after he’d zapped him with a stun gun. He felt the urge to gag, but steeled
himself.
    As he stirred, Buck knew from the sound of the engine that
he was in a different car, probably an SUV. Stale cigarette smoke lingered in
the interior.
    He could hear another male voice with a Mexican accent
coming from the front seat. The vehicle was moving, he guessed, at about forty
miles an hour, and he could still hear traffic, so they must still be in the
city.
    Buck lay in the floorboards, his hands bound in front. The
scratchy canvas of the dank hood rubbed against his neck and face, and his
mouth was duct taped.
    In front he could hear the hoarse laughter of the large man
who had grabbed him from the Mustang. Another male voice, who was probably
driving, sounded Hispanic, with a muffled quality.
    “This fucking tooth is killing me,” the Mexican voice said.
    “You need some good drugs, man.” A rustle of paper. “Hey,
you see Miss September? Big tits.”
    “They all got ‘em.”
    “I wouldn’t throw her out of bed.”
    “You don’t want anyone that pretty.”
    The big guy laughed. “ I do.”
    “No, man. I’ve had a lot of pussy, and, trust me, a girl
like that—even when you’re doin’ ‘em, they’re still posing like for pictures.”
    “Yeah, like you’d know, Elvis.”
    “I do know, Meatface,” the other man insisted. “They’re a
cold piece of ass. They don’t even see you, you know? They look at you
like...like what they’re really watching is how you’re lookin’ at them.”
    Buck heard the magazine slap closed. The big man shifted his
weight in the passenger seat and said, “What in hell, you say? Fuck you, Jorge,
you can even ruin a centerfold.”
    The Hispanic man chuckled. Then after a moment, “Here we
are.” Buck felt the voice directed toward him. “Don’t try anything now. My
tooth is killin’ me and I’d love to beat the shit out of you.”

Chapter 13
    Angie stepped inside the Wrangler Bar and Grill, a cowboy
water hole a block down from the boutique. She found a place at the bar where
she could see the traffic on Exchange.
    A bartender dressed like an Old West card dealer came over.
“What can I get ya?”
    “Extremely dry Stoli martini, straight up, no fruit,” Angie
said smoothly, then added. “Make it a double.”
    When her drink came, she asked, “You got a pay phone?”
    “Down the hall, ma’am. You need change?”
    “No, I got it.” She took her drink with her and nearly
drained it in the hall while she weighed calling him or not. Her own anxiety
won out. He was more than hour late driving his car down the boulevard.
    Finally, she dropped some coins in the pay phone and dialed
Buck’s cell.

Chapter 14
    Tony steered the Mustang down Exchange Avenue with two
fingers while he slithered his right hand between Erika’s thighs.
    She