Step On A Crack by James Patterson
Author:James Patterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Chapter 57
* * *
Funnyman John Rooney didn’t know what time it was when he decided to stop trying to fake sleep, but by the wan light glowing behind the stained glass above, he guessed it was somewhere near nine.
With the thin pews proving almost impossible to get comfortable in, the hijackers had allowed them to take the seat and kneeler cushions and sleep on the floor in front of the chapel’s altar. The cushions were small, though, and the body–heat–sucking marble floor made a city sidewalk seem like a Tempur–Pedic mattress in comparison.
May I have a side of exhaustion with my terror, please? Rooney thought, rubbing his fists into his eyes as he sat up against the altar rail. Yeah, supersize it. Thanks, abduction–dudes.
At the back of the chapel, three masked hijackers sat in folding chairs, drinking coffee from paper cups. He couldn’t see Little John or the lead gunman, Jack, anywhere. With the masks and robes, it was hard to tell how many hijackers there actually were. Eight, a dozen. Maybe more. They seemed to work in shifts, everything very organized.
Rooney watched with rising anger as one of them leaned to his side and lit a cigarette off a votive candle.
A hand fell on his shoulder as Charlie Conlan sat up next to him.
“Mornin’, kid,” Conlan said quietly without looking at him. “That was brave of you to fight back like that last night.”
“You mean stupid,” Rooney said, fingering the scab on his face.
“No,” Conlan said. “Ballsy. Thing now is to do it again, only at the right time.”
“You still want to fight them?” Rooney said.
Conlan nodded calmly, and Rooney did a double take at the star’s patented steely–eyed squint. In real life Charlie Conlan seemed to be an even bigger badass than the rock–and–roller persona that had made him famous around the world.
“Yo,” whispered a voice behind them. Source magazine–dubbed “Bubblegum Ho” Mercedes Freer, who’d been released from the confessional the night before, sat up from where she’d been sleeping.
“You bad boys gonna try something?” she said.
Rooney debated letting her in on it, then finally nodded. “Just being prepared.”
“Amen to that shit,” the singer said. “Check it. One of those g’s is into me. He was talking to me through the confessional door last night. Skinny one with the shotgun, sitting in the middle up there. Yo, we could use that. I could play like I want to do him or something.”
Just then, Little John arrived from the back of the chapel with a cooler and a cardboard tray of coffees.
“Rise and shine, campers,” he yelled as he came up the aisle. “Asses in the seats. It’s chow time.”
A sudden booming, sustained sound started from Reverend Solstice three rows behind Rooney. At first, he thought the black minister was having a heart attack. But the sound turned into a note and soared, and Rooney realized that the man was singing.
“ ‘Ahhhhhhhhhhmayzing grace, how sweeeeet the sound.’ ”
Reverend Sparks, sitting next to Solstice, started singing a kind of backup.
Rooney rolled his eyes.
Download
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.
Mystery | Thrillers & Suspense |
Writing |
The Wolf Sea (The Oathsworn Series, Book 2) by Low Robert(34710)
Crowbone (The Oathsworn Series, Book 5) by Low Robert(33063)
The Daughters of Foxcote Manor by Eve Chase(23061)
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides(19031)
Shot Through The Heart (Supernature Book 1) by Edwin James(18437)
The Secret History by Donna Tartt(18183)
All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda(14761)
Ready Player One by Cline Ernest(14003)
The Betrayed by Graham Heather(12309)
The Betrayed by David Hosp(12213)
Red by Erica Spindler(12028)
Bull's Eye Sniper Chronicles Collection (The Second Cycle of the Betrayed Series) by McCray Carolyn(11952)
Kathy Andrews Collection by Kathy Andrews(11328)
Warriors (9781101621189) by Young Tom(10324)
Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell(10107)
The Last by Hanna Jameson(9805)
Year One by Nora Roberts(9308)
Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas & Mark Olshaker(8708)
Tell Tale: Stories by Jeffrey Archer(8684)
