Blackwater Lights Read Online Free PDF Page A

stubbed it out. “How about this instead. There’s a friend of mine who can explain things much better than I can. He runs a study group, in fact. You should talk to him.”
    “He lives here? In town?”
    “About twenty minutes from here. His name is Crawford. He’s having a big party tomorrow night. And I do mean a
big
party. I could introduce you to him, and you could talk to him about it.”
    She waited for a response. Her foot brushed against his. “I might be able to,” he said. “If my friend gets back.”
    That didn’t satisfy her. She tapped the back of his hand. “You should never pass up an interesting proposition from someone you just met—you might miss out on an opportunity you’ll never have again.”
    He looked up from their hands and nodded. “Sure. I’ll go.”
    “Excellent. Where are you staying exactly?” she asked.
    He told her.
    She raised her eyebrow. “The porn guy’s house?”
    Shit
. “You know Kevin?”
    “I know
of
him. I’ve seen him around—he’s famous. The churchgoers hit the roof when he moved here. But I don’t know him personally—I guess we run in different circles.” She finished her beer. “It’s at the end of that long dirt road, past the high school?”
    He nodded.
    She pulled a pen and paper out of her purse and wrote directions to Crawford’s house. “The party starts around ten. I’ll be there by eleven-thirty.”
    Ray took the paper, folded it, and put it in his pocket. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d arrived at a party after nine. “Should I bring anything?”
    She smiled. “Just an open mind.”
    He pulled his wallet from his back pocket. She pushed his hand aside. “Hey, Carter,” she yelled to the bartender. “Put this on my tab, okay?”
    Carter smiled and nodded.
    Lily leaned over the table. The top of her shirt bowed open. “I’m so glad I met you, Ray. And these things happen for a reason, you know. See you at the party.” He waited until he heard the door open to turn and look at her. She caught him looking and smiled. His face burned.

    Using Kevin’s desktop, he checked his email—nothing—and sent a short, terse response to Kevin’s last message:
I need to talk to you. Seriously crazy shit going on here. Call me ASAP. Your line, not my cell
.
    A popup window appeared.
New message
.
    His first impulse was to open it—it was probably Kevin texting or emailing him. It could be something private, though. Kevin’s tastes had always been surprisingly vanilla for a professional porn producer, but maybe he had stuff he kept to himself. Didn’t everyone?
    Then again, if it was a message from Kevin, he could just take a quick peek.
    He clicked Open.
    A larger window overtook the screen. A splash graphic faded in, with a swoosh of electronic music and a breathy, female computer voice:
Welcome to SeXplanet
.
    The screen went black, and then a woman’s face stared into his. Ray jumped. She was young and pale with short black hair, her face taking up most of the huge monitor, almost larger than life. Her lips were full and painted black. “Hey, nasty boy.”
    Ray didn’t know what to say. She seemed to be looking through him, as if he were invisible. He didn’t know how to end the program—there was nothing obvious to click on.
    “What’s up, baby? I thought you might be there. Turn on your cam. I want to see you.”
    “I’m not Kevin,” Ray said.
    She snorted. “I don’t care who you are. Turn on the cam. I don’t do one-way.”
    “I’m sorry,” Ray said. “I didn’t mean to open this. Can you just tell me how to quit?”
    Her face drew closer. “See that little camera icon at the very top?” Pointed with her finger at the top of the screen. “Up here?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Click that.”
    He did. Nothing happened. The girl drew back from the camera and smiled. “Wow. Shit. You’re cute. A lot cuter than him.”
    Now she was looking directly at him, as if she were inches away, behind a plane of glass. The