Ruthless Game by Danielle Girard

Author:Danielle Girard [Girard, Danielle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers, Suspense
ISBN: 9780739417270
Amazon: B007Y1DW1M
Goodreads: 2023465
Publisher: Onyx
Published: 2001-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

Alex buttoned her pants and kicked the wastebasket, letting out a low growl. "Goddamn you, Androus."

When she got back to the table, Chris and Greg were talking, their heads almost touching.

Greg noticed her first and sat up. Chris's gaze followed.

"You okay?" he asked.

She nodded, but they all knew it was a lie. She wasn't okay. She'd been branded and all sense of okay was long gone. She was angry and she was scared, no closer to the truth than she had been a week ago. The walls felt like they were coming in. She needed to move and clear her head. She pulled money from her pocket.

Chris put her hand out. "Lunch is on Grandma."

Alex forced a smile. "Thank you."

Chris nodded.

Alex looked at Greg. "I want to go to the scene, to the warehouse. I need to see it."

He started to speak, but she interrupted. "I need to go alone."

"The warehouse is gone. They tore it down a few months after the—" Chris paused. "A few months later."

Alex didn't care. She still wanted to see the location. It had been thirty years. She wasn't expecting to find anything, but maybe the scene would help her remember. "A doctor I talked to about my memory thought it might help to try to picture it. Maybe going there will help."

Greg stood up. "Richards?"

She nodded.

Chris drew a map on a napkin. "Here's how you get there from here." She stood and handed the napkin to Alex.

"Thank you. And I appreciate all you've done," Alex added.

"You're welcome. Greg was telling me about the brother—I'm going to go back and see what I can find out about him. I'll call Greg if I learn anything."

"I'm going to check back in with the station," Greg said. "Where should I meet you?"

She shook her head. "You shouldn't. Go back up before someone finds you down here. I'll call you tonight."

"Call me on my cell phone."

She agreed. Thanking Chris again, Alex left the diner and entered the sunlight, squinting. It seemed hard to imagine that life was proceeding as normal for some people while she was trapped in a live nightmare.

She got in her car and revved the engine, pulling the visor down against the bright sky. As she followed the map Chris had made, she thought about the subtle cross on her inner thigh. It should have been spotted years ago. By her doctor or a boyfriend if not herself. Men had touched that tender skin. Fingers had run across that very spot. Why hadn't someone noticed it? Damn them all. And damn him—damn him for touching her, for scarring her.

She slammed the car into first gear and sped across the border between East and West Palo Alto.

East Palo Alto spread out before the car like the ruins of a war-torn city. Alex turned down Donahue and stared at the vacant lot where Chris had drawn the X on the napkin. A weary chain-link fence surrounded the gravel surface, bent and broken from people climbing over and under for access.

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