Frostfire Read Online Free PDF

many things because of his pride, some so reprehensible they had forever stained his soul. He knew it; she knew it. But he had never been spineless. He had fought his entire life against that indignity.
    Then why are you here? she asked, her voice turning sly. This is not your end. This is nothing but retreat. Surrender. Despair.
    “Give me the keys,” Bob said, obliterating her voice from the dead man’s head. “If you’ve gotta piss, hit the john now. And no more soda. Once we get on the road with the other one, we can’t stop.”
    “Yeah, but what if we get pulled over?” Joey asked suddenly. “I mean, the truck says cold storage, man, not dead bodies. Trooper looks back there, sees them, we’re going to jail.”
    “That’s why I’m driving, asshole. So we don’t get pulled over.” Keys jingled and a metal door slammed into place. “Hurry up,” Bob said, his voice fainter now. “We’ve only got an hour to get her before the shit we used wears off.”
    Joey muttered something indistinct that trailed off as he moved away.
    Did you hear him? she asked. You have an hour left.
    He had eternity, as far as he was concerned, but he had to make one last request. You must let me go. I want it to end.
    She laughed. I never held you here. Your pride, your stubbornness, they were your jailers. You might have freed yourself a thousand times if not for them.
    As you say. She had always burned him with her truth, but never as deeply as she did now. What difference does it make?
    You will be free of them now. But only if you choose to live.
    What have I to live for?
    Not for me , she assured him. For her.

Chapter 3

    T he big, burly sheriff’s deputy who brought Lilah home wanted to personally check inside her house, but while refusing seemed ungracious, if not a little suspicious, she turned him down. He asked again if there was someone he could call to come and stay with her.
    “The guy stole my car, Deputy, not my license or my house keys,” she assured him. “He got some Staind CDs, an old blue sweater, and a transmission that occasionally slips in reverse.” And her only means of transportation, but she’d deal with that tomorrow.
    The cop smiled a little, but he had the sharp, tired eyes of a veteran. “Was your registration in the glove box? That would have your home address on it.”
    “I always keep it in my purse.” Along with her fake insurance card and every other piece of phony identification she possessed. “Can you tell me what happens now?”
    “We’ll list your car and plates on our database and alert the patrols.” He handed her a business card with his name and phone number. “You can call me to check on the status, but unless he’s stopped or ditches the car, we probably won’t recover it. Your insurance should take care of replacing it.”
    It would if she actually had some. “Thank you.”
    “Not a problem. Keep your chin up.” He touched the brim of his hat and left.
    Once she had closed and locked the door, Lilah pressed her brow against it and released a long breath. This wasn’t the worst day of her life, but it would do fine as runner-up. Slowly she turned around. She hadn’t decorated for Christmas yet, and in the last of the sunlight from the windows, what furniture she had looked scruffier than usual. She’d tacked up a few cheap but pretty posters of landscapes on the bare walls, and made curtains from some old tablecloths she’d found at a rummage sale, but the rest of her possessions looked cheap or worn-out. Even her old Toshiba, sitting on the card table she used as a desk, appeared ready for the laptop graveyard.
    Although it was risky, she always left her computer out in the front room and switched on, and checked it right before she left and again as soon as she arrived home. Vulcan had sent her an encryption program so complicated that only a genius hacker could access it, and the moment he did, the computer would release a vicious virus that would destroy the