Let It Ride Read Online Free

a brisk walk down the sidewalk.
    â€œMom!” Jordan dropped the clean clothes and went after her. Her mother shouted and cried for someone to help her as Jordan tried to reason with her.
    Several people were staring, but that was the least of her worries. The last time Tammy had been this bad, it had taken a trip to the doctor’s office and a sedative to calm her down. Just getting her to the doctor had been a nightmare involving a 911 call.
    The knowledge that her mother would require a special facility soon broke Jordan’s heart.
    One day at a time. The saying had become her mantra. Sometimes it was the only thing that held the panic at bay and allowed her to keep going.
    â€œLook, Mama.” Jordan pointed at the convenience store beside them. “They have slurpies. Can I haveone?” Asking for her mom’s permission was an inspired tactic. Soon, Tammy had bought her little girl her favorite childhood treat and was happily back at the bus stop with their clean clothes, which by some miracle were still sitting where Jordan had dropped them. Crisis averted.
    For today.
    Â 
    A LOUD BANGING jerked Cole off the bed into a crouch, his right hand scrambling for his weapon. It took a moment for desert terrain to fade and the lush hotel room to come into focus. His breath came in short, heavy spurts. He wasn’t in hostile territory, covered in sand and blood, making his painful way back to base.
    Snapping his wrist up, he checked the time, wiped his temple on his shoulder, and stood. Eighteen hundred hours. Six o’clock. In the evening.
    The hotel door banged again. McCabe yelled, “Jackson, you in there?”
    Cole scrubbed his face and ran a hand through his hair, then moved to let his buddy in. “Geez, McCabe, what the hell’s with all the pounding?” Not waiting for an answer, he turned and headed for the john, leaving McCabe to make himself at home.
    When he returned, McCabe was slouched in a corner wing chair, boots propped on the writing desk.
    â€œYou could have just called my cell,” Cole said, rummaging through his duffel.
    â€œI did.”
    Damn. Cole hadn’t heard his cell ring. He still hadn’tadjusted to not being a hundred percent. Like he wasn’t a whole man.
    Maybe it was true.
    â€œYou look like crap, buddy. You been asleep all day?” McCabe asked.
    â€œI’m on vacation.” After seeing Jordan safely on the bus, he’d come back to his room, but he hadn’t slept much. He’d had the nightmare again and then he’d lain awake thinking about his last mission, going over in his head what he could have done differently. If he hadn’t been such a damn hotshot.
    Avoiding his thoughts, he’d headed for the Centrifuge downstairs—God love Vegas’s twenty-four-hour casinos—and nursed a couple of tequilas until soaps came on the television behind the bar. But he wasn’t about to admit any of this to McCabe.
    McCabe leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head. “I got us tickets to the Bullring at the Motor Speedway tonight,” McCabe said. “Thought we’d head over to the all-you-can-eat lobster at the Mandalay first. Grady and Hughes are waiting downstairs.”
    The thought of seafood made his stomach heave. “You guys go on.” He shot his buddy a cocky grin. “I’ve got a bet to win.” No way he could hold his head up around McCabe if he lost this wager. They’d been competitors since their first day of flight training.
    McCabe shot off the chair. “Are you kidding me? These are front-row seats to Legends Cars. They got Thunder Roadsters, man. That Keno girl won’t end her shift until 2:00 a.m. You got plenty of time.”
    He didn’t know which irritated him more. That McCabe called her ‘that Keno girl,’ or that he knew when her shift ended. “Her name’s Jordan.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œThe blonde from last night.