Frostbite Read Online Free PDF

busted out the door window.
    Before jumping in, I ditched my dress shirt then tore loose a sleeve from it.
    “Here,” I said as I tossed the makeshift rag underhand at Sophia. “Put your hair up and wrap it with this. Need to change up a little. Look like we belong in this truck.”
    Coming to the parking garage exit of the Hotel Soku, we rammed the security arm rather than slowing down to pay or risking interaction with someone. With Sophia holding on for dear life, I maneuvered the rocking, rusting husk of a truck onto Collins Avenue to take A1A away from the area.
    “Whooo! Just like old times!” Sophia cheered as she looked back at the scattered traffic honking madly at us from our near miss with them.
    But that was her.
    The wild, fiery risk taker to my cold, calculating self.
    “Thank you ... again,” she allowed herself to say as we came to a red light by Bal Harbour, trying to pretend all was normal. “I ... I don’t know how they found us,” she mumbled as she allowed her weary head to touch the truck’s worn, peeling headrest.
    “You’re being tracked. That’s how,” I said gruffly, allowing my anger to bubble up. I checked the rearview mirror, searching for the Audi with diplomatic plates or anyone else who might be in pursuit. Nothing. Yet. “Want to tell me why they want you so bad?” I asked as I shifted the old truck, straining its gears to move through the light that was now green. Knew I should’ve left South Florida when I had the chance.
    “I dunno,” she replied, busy pretending to admire the Trump Grand in the distance up the road. As if she hadn’t seen more opulent places in her lifetime. Wanted her to be honest. Instead, she remained opaque. Should’ve left her, just like this state, when I had the chance.
    “Talk,” I prodded. Even more sternly this time.
    “I said, ‘I dunno,’” she repeated.
    Thinking back to the trackers being used at the hotel, I asked, “What did you bring with you from that place?”
    “Nothing. Shit. When you sprung me, I didn’t have a chance to grab anything.”
    “Not even earrings or a necklace or something?”
    “What part of ‘No’ don’t you get? I was completely naked when we left. Remember?”
    “Yeah,” I replied. Not that I believed her. I still gave her lovely body a once-over. Nothing obvious to my eye. “Still ... they’re tracking you somehow.”
    “What do we do then?”
    In response, I made a sudden U-turn on Collins Avenue then turned into the parking lot of a 7-Eleven on our right. We were in Sunny Isles Beach now. Maybe we had an hour or two, maybe minutes.
    “I need to check you,” I said as I turned the radio off. Just as the rapper Pitbull was saying his call phrase, “ Dale! ”
    “You heard him,” Sophia teased. “ Dale. Hit it. Let’s go. If you’re gonna check me for hidden objects, might as well make it fun. Give ’em a show inside the store.”
    She turned toward me, sliding across the dingy bench seat until our bodies contacted one another. Remembered a similar seduction back when Sophia was pretending to be something she wasn’t. And as she leaned over, coming face-to-face with me, her back to the steering wheel, that didn’t make me any less reluctant to play her game for a moment.
    Didn’t stop me from kissing her. Plunging my tongue between her parted lips. And tasting her thrills once again.
    She placed my hands on her exposed stomach, letting me feel there first. Without finding anything and before I lingered too long, she moved them up to her sides. Still nothing felt other than the tingles her flesh gave me. I moved my hands inward, traipsing lazily over the curves of her breasts. The only objects I found there were hidden no more. I stayed there awhile, her moans goading me as I massaged and pinched her hardened nipples between my fingers. Our kisses grew, a fire threatening to ignite the truck’s cabin. From her lips, I moved to her ear, blowing in it softly while tracing the edges