Go-Between Read Online Free

Matt the money.
    â€œWow. That’s a big tip.”
    She shrugged. “Make sure it gets divided up.”
    â€œWhat about the bottle?”
    Michelle glanced at the two customers on bar stools. Students, she thought, a girl and a boy who looked like they’d barely reached drinking age. On a date, probably. Nursing draft beers.
    â€œYou like wine?” she asked them. “It’s on the house.”
    Outside, the fog was thick, leaving her face damp with its chill. She kept one hand on the butt of her .38 as she clicked on her key to unlock the Prius, parked behind Evergreen.
    Stupid, she thought, sliding into the front seat. He’s not waiting out here to kill me, or kidnap me. He wouldn’t have come into the restaurant that way if that had been his plan.
    Whatever it was he wanted her to do would be his version of revenge. Or the start of it. He’d put her in some situation that she couldn’t get out of. Where she’d be afraid, all the time. Terrorized.
    She remembered the things he’d threatened her with, before. She remembered the things that he’d done.
    It’s all a game to him. It’s fun.
    She arrived home, not remembering the drive.
    Still keeping her hand on the pistol, she clicked off the alarm and went inside.
    No Danny. He wasn’t due back yet, but still, she’d wanted desperately to find him here. She wanted to tell him what had happened. To have him hold her.
    She went out to the garage and retrieved one of the burner cell phones.
    They could have kept the phones in the house safe, but that looked bad, Danny had said. “Just throw them in a box of crap in the garage. Like it’s a piece of junk we haven’t taken to the electronics recycling. If anyone finds one, you don’t know what it is or how it got there.” A cheap phone, with no GPS. Prepaid minutes, bought with cash at a big-box store in another state.
    She dug out the charger, stashed in a different bin on the workbench. Plugged in the phone. Went to texts, and punched in a number.
    A two-character text: 86.
    She waited. No response.
    Okay, she thought, it might still be okay. He could be on his way back. He could have already tossed the phone.
    She went back into the house. Grabbed her iPhone. Her “Emily” phone. The one with the plan through AT&T, the one that she paid for out of her “Emily” bank account every month, like a normal person.
    She called Danny’s “Jeff” phone. “Hey,” his recorded voice said, “Sorry I missed you. Leave a message.”
    â€œHi, it’s Emily. Can you call me back, as soon as you pick this up. It’s important.”
    He turns his phone off all the time, she told herself. If he’s still doing his run, it would definitely be off. Stashed in a signal-blocking bag, to make sure it couldn’t be tracked.
    But he was supposed to have his burner cell on, if he was still doing his run.
    She went to her bedroom closet. Retrieved another cell phone from her other hobo, a Marc Jacobs she didn’t use much any more. Her “Michelle” phone. Also prepaid. A risk, she knew. But she didn’t keep any numbers in the phone book. Deleted the calls she made after she made them, as well as any incoming.
    The only person who had the number was her sister, and Michelle had already changed it twice.
    She couldn’t tell Maggie what had happened in Mexico, or after. Where she was now, what she was doing. She’d seen Maggie and Ben once, eight months ago, meeting them in Santa Barbara for a “getaway weekend.”
    â€œYou can’t ask questions,” she’d told Maggie. “Only call me if it’s an emergency. I mean, a real emergency.” She’d given Maggie an email address too, that she accessed through a VPN. “Use that first. I’ll check it every day.”
    It wasn’t foolproof. Cutting off all contact would have been the safest thing to do. But