Dust to Dust Read Online Free PDF

damned, hell itself, as if the earthquake had opened a rift in the fabric of the world and tumbled these silent monuments into a more fitting world.
    She used her hands to guide her in the dark, her eyes drawn to marble angels that lay open-eyed and eerie against weeping cherubs.
    She had never been here before, and she tried to gauge her progress through the narrow alleys of this bizarre kingdom of stone.
    She heard a thump and went still. Someone had just entered the yard behind her, and that someone was moving silently, stealthily—and steadily—in her direction.
    From somewhere ahead she heard a sound, like a gasp, followed by a choked-out scream, feminine and terrified.
    Viv.
    She hurried in that direction, then froze, as a shadow—dark, tall, moving like the wind—rushed up on her heels. She barely had time to dodge to one side, and even so, he nearly touched her as he raced by.
    She followed as quickly as she could and found herself near a display mausoleum, an example of what the wealthy dead could attain. Stained-glass windows caught what few streaks of moonlight there were and cast a not-quite-earthly glow. It was strange, but beautiful, with gargoyles reminiscent of Notre Dame sitting above the hardwood door, behind an iron railing. Bas-relief saints carried the splendor of the stained glass on their shoulders.
    The mysterious man who’d brushed past her in the dark was nowhere to be seen.
    The mausoleum door was open to the night, and a match flickered within, casting enough light for her to briefly glimpse the three men and the lone woman inside.
    Nicky, bleeding, his eyes blackened, was arguing with Bo.
    Who still held Viv.
    â€œLet the girl go, Bo. You’ve got the diamonds, so let’s get out of here before that killing machine comes after us!”
    â€œAsswipe!” Bo raged. “The girl is mine, and there’s plenty of time now for a little fun. You want to run like a dog with your tail between your legs, fine, get the hell out of here. How the hell you were beaten by that scrawny fucker, I’ll never know. Now quit whining like a two-year-old. We’ve got the goods and the girl, and this is a fucking empty tomb in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night after an earthquake. Who the hell is going to find us here? What the hell, you chicken-liver. Fuck you, run!”
    Nicky never had a chance to reply.
    Something dark loomed out of nowhere, blocking Melanie’s view into the mausoleum.
    Then Nicky came flying out, as if he were a sack of dry leaves tossed into the wind, and crashed to the ground in a motionless heap.
    Melanie burst into a run when she heard another terrified shriek tear from Viv’s throat.
    But as she neared the mausoleum, Bo and the stranger who had appeared at the shop suddenly came bursting out of it together, locked in a deadly tangle of arms and legs, nearly knocking Melanie over.
    She ignored them, aware that there was still another man in the tomb with Viv.
    â€œI’m sorry,” he was saying to the terrified woman. “I’m sorry, but I have to…I mean, you’re a witness,” he told her.
    He truly sounded miserable.
    Too bad.
    Melanie attacked.
    He had a knife out, intending to stab Viv, who had been pressed back against the empty sarcophagus displayed in the would-be tomb. She was desperately clutching the marble.
    Melanie threw herself straight at the attacker’s back. He howled, grabbing at her and taking his attention off Viv.
    â€œRun!” Melanie commanded the other woman, who wasted no time before obeying.
    The thug was huge. Heavily muscled. He dislodged Melanie’s hold, and she leapt away from him as he swiped at her with the knife. She needed more room to maneuver, she realized.
    The second Viv was out the door, Mel backed out of the mausoleum herself, the thug following her.
    She could hear thrashing around her, and realized Bo and the stranger were still locked in deadly