Culprits by Richard Brewer

Author:Richard Brewer [Brewer, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Polis Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Vivian hesitated. “Sounds risky, dangerous. Jim’s smarter than you think.”

“You saying you can’t pull it off? All you have to do is lose him, if it comes down to that. You could do this blindfolded. You ain’t afraid, are you?”

“Screw you.” She didn’t want to go along with Tony but she didn’t have another idea to throw back at him. “Let’s get home,” she said. “Go over this again. I may not have a choice. I don’t like that but I guess I can’t do anything about it.”

. . .

Back at the house, Tony babbled for more than an hour about his so-called strategy to escape Kilroy and Big Jim and then live happily ever after on Vivian’s stash. To shut him up, she led him to the bed and turned his brain to mush with her usual skill and creativity. When they finished with the sex, she offered him the bottle of Jim Beam. He chugged a shot, curled into a ball, and fell asleep in less than two minutes. Through it all he missed that she was thinking about something else.

She lay in darkness, repeatedly going over every detail of what her next steps had to be. She couldn’t wait until tomorrow, she knew that much. When she was satisfied with her vision, she used her training to make her body sleep for one hour. She eased out of bed at three forty-five a.m., threw on fresh clothes, stuffed protein bars, water, gloves, a hat, and other essentials into her backpack. She lifted Tony’s gun belt from the coat hook where he kept it. A little after four a.m. she slipped the truck keys out of Tony’s jacket and silently left the house.

She’d worried that Tony would hear her start the truck. The diazepam in the bourbon would help keep him in dreamland. Good thing Tony had a pharmacy in his bathroom’s medicine cabinet. Same old Tony. As an extra precaution she jabbed the left front and rear tires of the Crown Vic with her knife. She mounted the pickup and began her trek.

She drove without headlights. She expected to confront Big Jim at every corner. Her head moved from side to side and her hands gripped the steering wheel tight, too tight. She stopped at an intersection. Vivian breathed in as much air as her lungs would hold, then slowly let it out through her nostrils. She returned to the lessons she’d learned from hours of grueling practice and training. Focus on the goal; awareness of all obstacles; clarity of action; endurance of mind and body. She took three more deep breaths.

She could handle Big Jim or any other Texas cop.

When she was sure that no one followed her, she flipped on the lights and sped to her money.

. . .

Big Jim grabbed Tony’s ankles and dragged him from the bed. Tony woke up when his head bounced on the carpet. He sat up on his haunches, nude and disoriented. Big Jim slapped him.

“You sonofabitch! You let her go.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.