The Hard Bounce - страница 76

She pulled back forcefully. “No! Oh, no you don’t. I have to get to work. I’ll call you tonight. You can buy me a fabulous dinner with your newfound wealth.” One more quick peck and she was off. I watched her car pull around the corner.

With two spectacular sexual exercises lumped on top of my brutal lack of sleep, I felt like I could nap until the Bruins won another Stanley Cup.

I dropped back down on my bed, her smell still in my sheets. I drew in a deep breath of it and smiled. Rolling over, my hand felt something silky under a fold in the comforter. “Well, I’ll be damned,” I muttered. In her haste and confusion, Ms. Reese had left behind her frilly little blue panties. She said she had to go home to finish her hair. Should I call her and let her know she was air-surfing under her skirt? Could make for an interesting day at the office for her.

I must have drifted off for a little while, because my doorbell chimed, waking me from a wonderful dream about a world without panties.

Dammit.

I opened the door with a smile, expecting to barter for the return of her drawers.

Instead, I got a gun barrel in my face.

I froze in confusion.

The gun slowly lowered from my nose, and I got a brief look at the face at the other end of the arm. Dirty blond hair cut in a flattop. Pale skin and one blue eye. The other was a milky cataract, a bright scar from the corner of the socket worming over the ear like a pink garter snake. He stood a couple inches over me and wore an expensive-looking suit on his wiry frame.

The stranger in my doorway with the gun pointed at me beamed like we were long-lost friends. He was still smiling when he pulled the trigger.

Bang.

Gravity can be a damned mean bitch.

The gun barked, and my right leg flew back and away. My left foot slipped sideways and I came down hard, smacking the side of my face against the foyer wall as I dropped.

I lay facedown on the hardwood, gritting my teeth so hard a molar snapped like a popcorn kernel. A hot wetness spread underneath me as I lay there, staring at my shooter’s expensive shoes. I hoped it was blood. Please God, I thought, if I’m gonna die right here and now, don’t let me piss myself. My whole body shook uncontrollably. I knew I was shot, but it didn’t hurt.

Yet.

Then I felt the cool metal of the barrel pressed against my forehead. I closed my eyes tight against the impact I was sure would follow.

Nothing.

A gently brogued voice said, “Be easy, boy. Be easy if this was a kill. You’re lucky the word was just to hurt you bad.”

A piece of paper being shoved into my hand, dry fingers closing my fingers around it.

I opened my eyes to see the expensive shoes walking away.

Then the pain came.

Boy-motherfucking-howdy.

It sliced through me like somebody had laid me open with a straight razor beginning behind my knee and cutting up into the back of my skull. I screamed with the sudden intensity of it, clutching my leg. When the initial shock of pain subsided, I unclenched my fingers from the blood-smeared paper. An address, mine, handwritten in block letters in black ink. Underneath it, another address.

Kelly’s address.

In pure panic and rage, I leapt to my feet, paying instantly for the stupidity. My dead leg buckled, sending me crashing back to the floor, bright new eruptions of pain blinding out the world. I almost passed out right there, but the frenzy overrode everything else. I pushed myself up on shaking rubber muscles and propped myself against the wall, weight balanced on the leg that wasn’t shot.

A door opened above me, and Phil trotted down the stairs. “Jeez, man. What was that sound?” He poked his head in my doorway. “What the hell are you-holy shit!”

“H-help me,” was all I could say. My wires were scrambled. Too much pain. Too much fear. Too much. Too much.

“Holy shit!” Phil’s skin tone went to chalk. “Dude, you need an ambulance.”

“No!” I said, louder than I meant. Phil jumped back at the ferocity in my voice. “Does… that van drive?”

“Yeah. I think so. But wouldn’t an ambulance be better right now?” He took a couple steps toward me, and I grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him into the wall.