Blizzard Ball Read Online Free PDF

take the money. I will be no problem.” He opened his hands in a gesture of giving. “Cigarettes, beer, anything.”
    “Turn the sprinkler off, Jamal.” Eduardo ordred. The soggy hood of his sweatshirt dropped like a monks cowl.
    “I must then call the landlord. I am just a tenant and I have no such understanding.”
    “No comprehendo?” Eduardo shoved the barrel of the gun into Jamal’s chest, knocking him backwards into the snack food shelf. A bag of Doritos broke open, spilling onto the flooded floor. The triangular pieces bobbed about like a regatta. “Where’s the FedEx boxes of cash?”
    “I only have the cash in the register. Please take it and go.”
    “Rafie, look around!” Eduardo shouted over the food aisle. Rafie had removed his soggy itching ski mask and was huddled in the corner with a grocery bag over his head as an umbrella against the sprinkler shower. The leather soles on his shoes had separated, and water wicked up his pants to his knees.
    “If we don’t find the cash, we’re gonna blow that rag off your head.” Eduardo’s dark-brown eyes fixed hard on Jamal and his braided skullcap.
    “I do not want any harm. Tell me, where did you hear about such great money?” Jamal dropped to his knees in prayer, sinking his forehead into the water.
    “Hey, Eddie, I found it!” Rafie yelled out from the back room.
    “Hurry! Load ’em in the car!” Eduardo swung the shotgun barrel hard across Jamal’s head. “I’ll take care of this pescado.”
    Rafie swiped his forearm over the windshield in a half-assed attempt to clear off the freshly fallen snow and jumped in the car. “Eddie, cra-a-nk up the car heater!” Rafie stammered, his blue lips quivering. “My pa-a-nts are frozen, I can’t straighten my legs.”
    “Open a box and sniff some cash, that’ll warm you up.” Eduardo flicked on the overhead dome light.
    Rafie reached into the back seat, retrieved a FedEx box, and stripped back the sealed flap. “Hey, man, something’s not right here.” He dug deeper into the box, tossing off small bundles of paper.
    “What?” Eduardo hit the brakes; the car fishtailed and bounced off the curb. He grabbed the package and shook the contents onto his lap. Neat bundles of pink tickets bound with rubber bands tumbled out.
    “What is this shit?” Rafie ripped open another box, then another and another. “No money.”
    Eduardo struck a Bic lighter to get a better look. “Fucking BlizzardBall Lottery tickets.”
    “Hey, maybe we win the lottery,” Rafie cracked.
    “Shut up.” Eduardo examined the FedEx shipping labels, all addressed to Vancouver, Canada. “Alita, she set us up for some bad luck, man.”
    Alita Torres could never have imagined that her big mouth was responsible for what lay outside her bedroom door at 4:00 a.m. Nor could she have foreseen that her two roommates would pawn her silver-turquoise bracelet to buy a shotgun, or that they would stake out the local convenience store for over a week on a path to robbery.
    She emerged from her bedroom to find FedEx boxes stacked throughout the living room and kitchen. She cinched her bathrobe and swept back a twist of raven hair. Pink slips of paper stuck to her bare feet as she made her way into the kitchen. She tried to rub some understanding into her eyes. “What the hell’s going on?”
    “A mistake,” Eduardo said, tearing off an end of a breakfast burrito and feeding it to the dog.
    “You’re a mistake, all right!” Alita raked a FedEx box off the kitchen counter. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, but you and your cerveza-guzzling shadow better run it right out of here.”
    Alita was twenty-four, single, attractive, and serious enough to be left alone—although that didn’t stop men from staring at her long after she had passed them by. Alita had taken control of her life, unlike her ass-backwards idiot roommates. They treated her like the virgin queen she wasn’t, then expected her to be their personal