Don't Leave Me Read Online Free PDF

so much cheese it’ll be big and gooey and melty––”
    “Baby, oh baby!”
    “Then we’ll box up what’s left and eat it for breakfast, too.”
    “Yeah!”
    “And then we’ll have ice cream after,” Chuck said.
    Stan let out a sound that was part rebel yell and part man sitting on cactus. Yoweeee! Eee eee eee!
    “I guess you like that idea,” Chuck said, “I guess you––”
    His phone buzzed. Private number. A whisper of dread swept his mind.
    “Yeah?” he answered.
    A voice, low, said, “Don’t be bad now.”
    Chuck’s brain felt like it clenched, actually bunched up a like a fist at the base of his skull. He pushed hate through his teeth. “You like fire, do you?”
    “Don’t say anything to anybody. She would not have liked that.”
    “You listen now, I’m getting the cops on this, maybe the feds, so––”
    “Oh no. Your brother. He could get hurt very badly if you do that.”
    Chuck looked at Stan. He was bouncing up and down on the bed with an ecstatic, ice cream-anticipation look.
    The connection cut. Chuck looked at the phone like it was a dead animal, a dead thing sitting on top of his sweaty palm.
    “Chuck, what’s wrong?”
    Chuck said nothing. Behind his eyes, shadows danced.
    “Your face is funny, Chuck.”
    “That’s me. Mr. Funny.” Chuck wanted to throw his phone through the window, shatter some glass. At least that would be something, instead of sitting around, helpless. Who was this person, or people? Why was he being singled out?
    “Chuck?”
    “What?”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Sorry? What for?”
    “Cause I’m scared.” Stan started clicking his left thumbnail with the nail of his right index finger. It was his front burner nervous tick, always had been. “'Cause I feel like the wolf man might come.”
    When they were kids they’d watched Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein . There was a scene where Lou was in a hotel room with Lon Chaney, Jr., who turned into the wolf man and stalked Lou, who was oblivious to the danger around the room. Chuck laughed but for some reason Stan got real scared. And starting having nightmares about the wolf man chasing him. It got better over the years, but every now and then he’d have the nightmare, intensely.
    “No wolf men,” Chuck said. “Not while I’m around.”
    “You mean that, or are you just saying?”
    Chuck rubbed the top of Stan’s head with his knuckles. A little too hard. Stan said, “Ow!”
    Chuck said, “I guess you don’t want ice cream, huh?”
    “Do too, Chuck! You said!”
    “Did I? Did I say that?”
    “You said, Chuck. Pizza then ice cream!”
    “Really? Did I swear on a stack of Bibles?”
    “Aw, Chuck!”
    “All right, kid brother,” Chuck said. “Get your pig face on.”

Chapter 9

    Detective Sandy Epperson pounded the table so hard she startled herself. The government-issue metal desk in the small interview room banged sharply, the sound quickly dying against the white insulation panels.
    Why was she doing this? It was late, she should be home sipping wine. But right now she was here at the station, and all she could think about was the girl sitting in front of her.
    “Look at me, Rosa. I mean look .” Sandy strafed Rosa Renteria’s sixteen-year-old brown eyes with a hard glare.
    Rosa sent back the open-mouth silent look, challenging Sandy to try to make her talk.
    “You saw it go down,” Sandy said. There’d been a gang fight on Valerio the night before, one banger shot to death. “You saw the whole thing and you think you’re being so cool and straight up. They’re using you, Rosa, they always will.”
    “You don’t know,” Rosa said. Her voice was almost comically mousy, even for someone as small as she.
    At least it was a response. That was something. A start. A crack in the wall. Sandy knew these days you didn’t get many of those. These cholas looked at any LAPD detective as mierda . Especially an African American female detective. The one thing Sandy Epperson had