Body Rides Read Online Free

light. He could also see the neat little patch of hair at her groin.
    After a while, he forced himself to look away from her.
    He looked toward the body of the man he’d shot.
    ‘Still there?’ Elise asked.
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Thought so.’ She lifted her left hand away from her side and put it on Neal’s shoulder. ‘Still no police,’ she said.
    ‘Not so far.’
    ‘I don’t think they’re coming. Not unless we call them ourselves. Which I don’t think we should do.’
    ‘We have to,’ Neal said.
    ‘No, we don’t.’
    ‘Sure, we do.’
    She squeezed his shoulder firmly, but not so hard that it hurt. ‘Listen,’ she said.
    He gave the rope a rough tug with the pliers. The jaws slipped off and the pliers leaped sideways. ‘Damn!’
    ‘Stop it for a minute. Listen. Nobody has to ever find out about any of this.’
    ‘He was going to kill you.’
    ‘Yeah. And he’s dead. So it’s not as if he has to be apprehendedor put on trial or anything. He’s already been . . . brought to justice. He’s never going to hurt anyone again. So what’ll we accomplish by bringing in the cops?’
    Neal shrugged. ‘I’m not sure, but . . . You don’t just walk away from something like this.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘I killed this guy.’
    ‘In self-defense,’ Elise reminded him.
    ‘Maybe it won’t look like self-defense if we run away. It’ll make us look like the criminals.’
    ‘How will you explain your gun?’
    ‘Tell the truth.’
    ‘Do you have a permit, or whatever?’
    ‘Not to carry. Are you kidding? In L.A.? Nobody gets a carry permit. Not unless you happen to be the chief of police, or something. That’s why crime’s so out of control around here.’
    ‘The thing is, are you going to be in trouble?’
    ‘Maybe. They won’t prosecute me for killing the guy, I’m pretty sure. Though I guess his family could always sue me. You know, for wrongful death.’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘I guess that’s very likely, if he has family. Not that they’d win. But I’d be up to my neck in legal stuff . . .’
    ‘And what about the gun?’ Elise asked.
    ‘Carrying a loaded gun in my car . . . I’m pretty sure it’s a felony.’
    Her hand tightened. ‘You could go to jail ?’
    ‘I guess it’s possible.’
    ‘My God. For saving my life?’
    ‘Well . . . The main thing is, I did what had to be done. If I have to go to jail for it . . . those are the breaks. I mean, I sort of assumed that risk when I started carrying the gun. But I’ll probably just end up with a suspended sentence and a fine.’
    ‘What sort of fine?’
    ‘I don’t know. A thousand bucks, maybe.’
    ‘Okay, get this rope off me.’
    He lifted the pliers, clamped the knot, and started tugging again.
    ‘I didn’t think it’d be that bad,’ she said.
    ‘What?’
    ‘The trouble you could get into.’
    ‘Hell. The way things work these days, you’re in trouble if you look at someone funny.’
    ‘I wasn’t going to mention that.’ A slim crescent of teeth appeared in the blur of her face, then vanished. ‘Anyway, none of that will happen if we keep quiet about all this.’
    ‘I’m the one who’ll be in trouble. You haven’t done anything wrong.’
    ‘Do you think that’ll matter? By the time the media gets finished with us?’
    Neal grimaced. ‘You’ve got a point there.’
    ‘You know exactly what’ll happen. They do it to every body. Doesn’t matter how good a person you might be, they won’t quit till they make you look like the scum of the earth. If they can’t find dirt on you, they’ll make something up.’
    ‘Yeah. That sort of thing happens.’
    ‘All the time,’ Elise said.
    ‘Well, most of the time.’ As he said that, the knot gave a bit. He pulled harder. The tight bundle of rope came apart. ‘There.’
    ‘I’ll get it.’ Elise let go of him and worked on removing the rope.
    Neal watched her.
    She said, ‘Even if they don’t try to trash me – and they will – I don’t much like the idea of suddenly