Beyond Revenge (The Ransom Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

with a sedative , t hen
I woke up on Robert’s doorstep.
    Shining the light around the floor and
down the dark hallway on the other side of the door
gives me nothing.  This part of the building looks just as abandoned as the
rest of it.  It’s clear that this was never Russo’s place.  It was just a
meet-up point, a venue for Mark’s betrayal of me to run its course.
    We have the option to go left or right down the hallway with nothing to guide us except a
lit red exit sign.  They would have taken Morgan out a more discre et way than we came in, of that I’m sure.
    We follow the exit signs to a side door
leading out of the building into an alleyway.  For a moment I feel blinded by
the sunlight radiating from above and by the realization that we have so little
to go on to find Morgan.  I turn around and walk in circles, frustrated and losing patience by the second.
    “Calm down, Leo,” I hear Robert call
from just outside the door.
    He’s bent down inspecting the pavement, taking in a faint but fresh
set of tire tracks there.  He pulls out his phone and takes picture s of them from multiple angles and distances above the ground.
    He stands up and looks at me, slightly
hopeful.  “It’s not much, but it’s something.  We might be able to trace the
tires to a vehicle type, and then trace the vehicle to an owner.”
    I try to remain positive, but a set of
tire tracks is not what I was hoping to walk away with from this place.

4
     
    Her Resilience
     
    ∞
     
    In what she faced,
    others would have
fallen.
    She should have
been destroyed.
    Remained silent.
    All hope lost.
    But she stared
into the eyes of evil
    and held their
gaze
    with fire,
    with voracity.
    Her beautiful
resilience.
     
    ∞
     
    After leaving Russo’s fake headquarters, about a million different ideas flowed through
my head for what to do next, but none of them involved
sitting idly in a nearby diner while Robert did his detective thing.
    I’ve been antsy since the moment we sat
down.  Robert ordered sandwiches for both of us even though I told him I wasn’t
hungry.  He’s been using his laptop and the free Wi-Fi
in the restaurant to research the tire tracks he found, fully immersed in what
he’s doing while I sip anxiously at a cup of coffee.
    We’re both about halfway through our
sandwiches before he finally speaks to me.  “I think this is it, and it’s even
better than I could have hoped.”  He flips the laptop toward me.  There’s a
blocky-looking pickup truck on the screen.  “The tread
marks match some really old tires.  They stopped making them years ago .  They were designed for Chevy trucks from the early eighties.”
    I let some of Robert’s optimism seep
into me.  “Can you search registration records for this kind of truck?”
    “Already on it.  We’ll still have a lot
of results to sort through, but the pool of potentials will be less than if the
tracks belonged to tires for a more modern vehicle.”
    My mind lingers on how long it will take to get through such a list of vehicles and
locations when the waitress shows up with our check.  The wisdom of an
older woman hides within her eyes, but she maintains a
youthful look behind her long blond waves of hair and the vibrant smile on her
face.
    While Robert fishes cash out of his
wallet , I decide to do a little research of my own.  I
turn the laptop toward the waitress.   “Have you seen
this truck model around the diner before?”
    The smile on her face fades slightly. 
She remains composed, but I can tell I’ve made her uncomfortable with my
question.  “Sorry, haven’t seen one of those around here.”
    She grabs the cash from Robert ’s
hand before he has even offered it to her and turns on her
heel to walk away from us.
    “Wait !  
Please,” I call out desperately , standing up to reach for her arm and grabbing hold of her in two long
strides.  She’ s terrified as she looks at me, and I quickly realize I’m holding on to her more