Against the Night Read Online Free Page A

lightbulb.
    And he thought that she wanted him, too, though it was an attraction she clearly didn’t want to feel.
    He chuckled and took a sip of his beer. Well, that was just too bad. He wasn’t about to let her off the hook so easy. He was going to find out Angel’s secret. He had a hunch once he knew what it was, she would trust him enough to let their mutual attraction progress to its logical end.
    He wasn’t in any hurry. If the stakes were high enough, Johnnie could be a very patient man.

    “You can’t be serious. You don’t really plan to go to Kyle Bennett’s house?” Babs pulled on a knee-length T-shirt with a teddy bear on the front in preparation for bed.
    “I have to,” Amy argued as she slipped into a pair of soft flannel pajamas. It was two-thirty in the morning. The club was closed and both of them were dead on their feet. “Maybe I’ll have a chance to look around, find some kind of clue. You said he and Rachael dated for a while. Kyle probably made her all sorts of promises, lured her into going out with him by saying the kind of things he said to me. Rachael wanted to be a star. She might have trusted that he could help her get the break she needed.”
    “I don’t like it. It’s too dangerous. What if Kyle killed her? Maybe he’ll make you disappear, too.”
    Amy ignored the little shiver that crawled down her spine. “That’s not going to happen because you aren’t going to let it. I’ll call him tomorrow, get his address and set up a time on Thursday to go to his house. If I’m not back in a couple of hours, you’ll call the police.”
    “How’s that gonna help if you’re already dead?”
    Amy ignored that bit of wisdom and the little shiver it sent down her spine.
    Babs slipped between the sheets on her twin bed and pulled the covers up over her. “How are you gonna get there? You don’t even have a car.”
    Amy brightened. “No, but you do.” She gave her friend a sugary smile. “And I know you’re going to let me borrow it.”
    Babs scoffed. “Traffic’s a lot different in L.A. than driving in Grand Rapids.”
    Amy sat down on the edge of the bed. “You said you’d help me.”
    “I know, I know. It isn’t the car. It’s just that I’m afraid something will happen to you.”
    “We don’t even know if Kyle’s involved.”
    “Even if he isn’t, he might try something and then where will you be?”
    Amy didn’t want to think about that. Getting attacked by some Hollywood weirdo was a terrifying thought. “Okay, so you’ll loan me your car and your pepper spray.”
    Babs laughed. “I knew I liked you the first time I talked to you on the phone. Okay, we’ll figure something out.” She yawned behind her hand. “Listen, what about getting the Ranger guy to help you? He’s supposed to be an expert on that kind of thing.”
    Amy drew back the covers and slipped beneath the sheets. “I thought about it. But I can’t afford him.”
    “I saw you two talking tonight. Maybe he’ll work for something besides money.” Babs wiggled her eyebrows. “I wouldn’t suggest it except that you’re thinking about doing it anyway.”
    “I am not thinking about doing it.” Oh, she so was. She had always walked the straight and narrow, always been the good little girl. But since she had come to L.A. and started dancing half naked, she felt free for the first time in her life. She knew that if she got the chance, she was going to have sex with Johnnie Riggs. “Besides, he might not show up in here again.”
    “He’ll show up.”
    Babs was probably right. Just thinking of the determined way he had looked at her tonight made her stomach contract. “Maybe I’ll talk to him a little, see what he has to say.”
    “Good idea.” Babs yawned again. “In the meantime, turn out the light. We both need to get some sleep.”
    Amy thought of the conversion she needed to have with Johnnie Riggs. She closed her eyes, but she couldn’t fall asleep.

 
    Three

    Johnnie arrived