A Cold Day in Hell Read Online Free PDF Page B

away.”
    “I don’t mind anything but the fog,” she said, leaning forward. “Look how thick it’s getting.” She rolled her window down an inch and succeeded only in letting cool, heavy vapor into the van. “Your headlights bounce back at you.”
    She reached for the gearshift and her fingers closed on the thigh he’d hitched up instead. Eileen whipped her hand away. Angel felt singed. He got a backlash, a hot backlash all the way to the base of his spine. They had touched so little—mostly accidentally.
    Tonight he’d planned to be alone with her, for as long as he could keep her with him. And he’d planned to point out the benefits of getting closer, much closer. Eileen had been the perfect, immaculate mother for long enough. Too long, from Angel’s point of view. When a woman’s accidental hold on his thigh gave him pre-orgasmic spasms, the waiting game had gone too far.
    “I should have kept a closer eye on what Aaron’s been up to,” Eileen said.
    Shit. “You’re not on your own with this. Not that I think there’s anything to worry about.” Unless someone had put out a hit on Sonny.
    Angel gritted his teeth.
    “This isn’t a road, it’s an overgrown, abandoned track,” Eileen said, and right on cue the van bumped up and over the buckled blacktop.
    “You’re right, it’s not much of a road.” He turned in his seat to peer through the fog toward the trees. “The bayou can’t be so far away.” He had never explored out here.
    “Farther than you think,” Eileen said. “It’s close back toward town but around here there’s a lot of swampland before you get to the water.”
    “What’s in there?”
    “In the swamp?” She glanced at him. “It’s not pretty unless you get-off on mud and standing water and sodden ground in every direction. And critters—the kind you’d rather not meet.”
    Angel said. “And voodoo stuff, too, huh?”
    “I don’t know anything about that.”
    “Are you afraid of that bull?” Angel asked. “Don’t waste fear on superstitious crap. Unless you fancy one of those little velvet spell bags filled with—grave dust, is it? That’s supposed to keep you safe, isn’t it?”
    “I doubt it.”
    “Make you wildly passionate then?” Angel said, deliberately trying to catch her off guard. “Mixed with snake droppings and skunk hair? A pinch of dried fire ants to make you hot, and puree of hundred-proof alcohol to make you helpless? Sounds good to me.”
    He saw how she bit her lower lip and figured she hardly heard him babbling to fill up any silence. Just as well.
    She surprised him when she said, “There are things in these parts that you don’t mess with. Ignorance can get you into big trouble.”
    Angel bit back a retort. Eileen was the last person he would have expected to believe in the old arts.
    The little red taillights on the Morgan glowed, then faded to pink as the fog thinned and thickened.
    “Watch out! Will you look at that?” He grabbed the dashboard. “The kid slammed on the brakes with no warning.”
    Eileen pumped the brakes on the van and came to a stop with inches to spare behind the Morgan
    “I’m terrified for Aaron,” Eileen said. She found his hand and wound her fingers in his. “Call Matt Boudreaux now. We ought to have the police here. And our own doctor. We could get hold of Mitch Halpern. You know he’d come right out.”
    “You heard what Sonny said. This Chuzah doesn’t want any official company.” He rubbed her hand between his. It wasn’t her way to reach for comfort.
    “If it turns out we have to go to Matt about this, he’ll be steamed.”
    Angel made sure he didn’t show how much he liked that idea. “Go with me on this. Matt would do the same if he was in our position.” Maybe he would; maybe he wouldn’t. Eileen didn’t need Matt Boudreaux around—for any reason.
    Reluctantly, he let go of her hand and pushed out of the van. Sonny didn’t appear but Eileen walked toward the Morgan.
    Angel said,