Abandon The Night Read Online Free PDF Page B

women seemed to find attractive. “I could grow my hair longer,” he offered, gently tweaking Zoë’s nipple. “Wear it in a queue.”
    She snorted and, to his surprise, reached to brush her fingers over the unruly mess of his hair. He realized with a start that he couldn’t remember her ever touching him except with demand, when they were going at it.
    Except for that very first time, when she caressed his cheek.
    “You’d be a lot damn safer if you cut this shit off. Or at least shorter.”
    “Safer? You mean so you won’t be able to pull on it when we’re fucking?” He resisted the urge to close his eyes; her fingers, gentle on his scalp, felt so good.
    She looked at him in exasperation. “You’re blond, genius. The
gangas
go after blondes. Didn’t I fucking tell you to wear a bandanna to cover it, so I wouldn’t have to save your ass again?” Quent laughed and she narrowed her eyes, realizing he’d been teasing her. “Dumb blonde,” she added. And gave a sharp little tug on a curl.
    Then he sobered. “When we found Sage, we also found Remington Truth too. Sort of.”
    Only recently had Lou and Theo Waxnicki and their Resistance learned that Remington Truth, a former leader of the U.S. government’s National Security Administration, had also been a member of the Cult of Atlantis. A variety of clues had helped them put the pieces together that the
gangas
, who came out only at night and called for
“Ruuuth…ru-uthhh…”
were really calling for Remington Truth, searching for him by order of the Strangers. The fifty-some-year-old Truth had had blond or silvery hair, which explained why the
gangas
abducted anyone with light hair.
    As for brunettes and redheads…they were simply mauled and torn apart if caught by a
ganga
.
    Quent, with his honey-colored hair was apparently blond enough that the simple monsters thought him a candidate to be Remington Truth…and that was how Zoë had come to rescue him.
    A fact that she continually reminded him.
    Zoë eased back and sat up, all remnants of teasing or flirtation gone. Her velvety eyes grew serious. “Holy hot damn. And you just now fucking decided to tell me?” Then she crossed her arms under those delicious breasts. “You sort of found him? What the hell does that mean?”
    “Right. Well, apparently, the Remington Truth that the Strangers—and the
gangas
—have been searching for since the Change is dead.”
    “So they’ve been looking for a dead man for fifty damn years?” Zoë gave a little rusty laugh. He saw a flash of dark humor in her eyes. “Fucking boulderheads.”
    He couldn’t have said it better himself.
Gangas
were not only brainless, but so awkward they couldn’t climb anything but low stairs.
    “We’re
told
Truth’s dead, though we don’t know how long that’s been the case. This is according to his granddaughter…whose name, interestingly enough, is also Remington Truth. Same really blue eyes, but she’s got long dark hair—no wonder the
gangas
were confused.”
    That bit of information was just as interesting to Zoë as it had been to Quent and his friends, if the way she straightened up was any indication…although he wasn’t exactly sure why. Did she realize how badly the Strangers wanted to find Truth? Did she know that the Strangers had feared the man for some reason? That was why the Resistance was so intent on trying to find him—whatever the Strangers feared could only be a benefit to the Resistance. If they found it first.
    “His granddaughter,” she said, eyes narrowing in thought. Or suspicion.
    “Or so she claimed, before pulling a gun on us and disappearing. I’m not certain how much credence we ought to give her statement.” Quent felt a wry, humorless smile tug his mouth. “You might also find it interesting that, after she slipped away, she forced your friend Ian Marck to drive her off at gunpoint.”
    He watched her reaction closely. Aside from being a bounty hunter who worked for the