Justice Burning by Elle James

Author:Elle James [James, Elle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781626950535
Publisher: Twisted Page Inc.
Published: 2016-06-07T04:00:00+00:00

7

Phoebe waited several minutes inside her apartment, praying Nash would leave soon. What he’d shared had touched her so deeply, she could barely swallow past the lump in her throat. The things he’d endured as a soldier in the war were far worse than anything she’d had to go through. How did you compare a broken fingernail to losing men you care about because of bombs and gunfire?

More exhausted than she’d ever been in her life, Phoebe stared at the little bed with the clean sheets. She almost gave in and fell onto the mattress, fully clothed. She could have been asleep in seconds, but for the little matter of her dead fiancé in the trunk of the rental car.

With a sigh, she peered through the mini-blinds.

Nash’s truck was gone. The only vehicle left was Lola’s bright red 1967 Ford Mustang. The lights were off in the main house, as were the lights in the neighboring houses.

Phoebe grabbed an old steak knife from the kitchenette and flipped the switch next to the door, plunging herself into darkness. Giving herself a minute for her eyesight to adjust, she waited, hand on the doorknob. Then she turned it and hurried out of the apartment and down the stairs. Moving through the alley behind the house, she clung to the shadows and half-jogged, paralleling Main Street until she came to the road where Rider Grayson’s auto repair shop stood.

She crossed Main Street and slipped to the back of the shop. With the knife in her hand, she slid it into the doorknob key hole and turned. Nothing. The movies made it look so easy. How did they do it? She tried slipping the knife into the doorjamb to jiggle the locking mechanism. The door was a heavy metal one, as was the jamb. She bent the knife trying.

Finally, Phoebe straightened and glanced around, gooseflesh rising on her arms. If she couldn’t get in through the door, what about a window? The windows were those old warehouse style with multiple little panes on one major assembly. Phoebe grabbed several wooden pallets and stacked them beneath one of the windows then climbed onto the unsteady pile.

There in the middle of the shop was the rental car. Fortunately, the trunk was still closed. Unfortunately, the vehicle was up on a lift. To get into the building would be hard enough. Accessing the trunk while it was several feet off the ground would be nearly impossible.

Disappointed and too tired to care, Phoebe eased to the edge of the pile of pallets and started to slip off. The stack shifted, several of the pallets sliding off the top, taking her with it, making a loud cracking sound as wooden slats snapped.

A dog in a yard behind the shop barked, another joined, and soon lights lit up back porches and dog owners yelled at the barking dogs.

Heart pounding double-time, Phoebe rolled off the pallets, jumped to her feet and beat a hasty retreat back to the garage apartment. First thing in the morning, she’d run by the shop and wait for Rider to change the tire.

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.