Girl on a Slay Ride Read Online Free PDF

slender man came forward into light from the windows of the cabin to the right of Mallory. He was smiling. It was too empty a smile to mean anything. Mallory disliked it. And he disliked the man. His features were too neatly regular. And there was a peculiar dark and muddy quality to his eyes.
    “Good evening,” he said pleasantly. His voice was as smooth and empty as his smile.
    The bigger man had not moved.
    The slender man said, “Sorry I bothered you. We were just curious. You camp, I see.”
    Mallory’s fear was swallowed by anger. This man was either a fool or took him for one. He said, “You’ve looked in my car enough to tell that.”
    Mallory stayed on the small porch of the cabin, his fists clenched. Take it easy, he cautioned himself. Don’t push them. Make them explain themselves.
    The smaller man had stopped a few feet from the porch step. Neither he nor the bigger man made any move to leave.
    The man said, “Do much camping in this part of the country?”
    Mallory drew a deep breath. “When I can find the time,” he said. He forced his voice to sound more civil.
    But the man’s quiet gall was stretching Mallory’s nerves as if they were tightened violin strings. He wanted to blurt out, “All right. So she’s with me. Or is it the securities you’re after? Start something, damn it, and get it over with.”
    But he said only, “Any more questions?”
    If the man noticed the tautness in Mallory’s voice he gave no indication. He said, “You know the country well, then?”
    “Yes,” Mallory said. “I was raised here.”
    The man nodded. He said, “Good night,” quietly, gave Mallory another of his meaningless smiles, and turned away. The bigger man followed him slowly. Mallory watched them go to the end cabin and disappear inside.
    He went back into his own unit and shut the door. Denise was standing by the window. She let the draperies fall back as he came in. He switched on the light.
    The soft glow enveloped her, outlining the long lines of her legs, the curve of her hip and waist, the boldness of her breasts. Her mouth was moist, her face still puffy from their love-making. But there was no longer desire in her eyes. There was only fear. She said with dull hopelessness, “They’re going to kill me, aren’t they?”

Chapter V
    M ALLORY said, “I don’t know what they want. But let’s get out of here.”
    “Rick hired them to kill me! I know he did!”
    He realized she was close to hysteria. He said quietly, carefully, “I thought so at first, but then I saw their Oregon license plates. Then I thought they were after the securities. Now I’m not so sure. They only seemed interested in camping.”
    Hope flared in her eyes and then drained away. “They’re trying to trick us, Cliff. How could they know about your securities? And their license plates don’t mean anything, don’t you see that? The syndicate has men everywhere. Rick could have traced my plane to Portland and called his contact there.”
    She went to the bed. She sagged suddenly as if her knees could no longer hold her up. She made an effort and sat up straight. “They asked about camping because they want to know where you’re taking me. So they can follow us. So they can kill me when no one is around.”
    If she was right, they’d kill him too, Mallory thought. But he still couldn’t accept the idea. This kind of violence, the kind Denise feared, had no meaning for him. It belonged only to war in his experience. He knew it must exist. He read about it in the newspapers every day. But knowing about it and believing in it were not the same thing.
    He said, “If they’d wanted to kill you, they could have done it before now. Back at the junction. When they passed us on the road before we got here. When we came from the café.”
    She said with soft incredulity, “You still don’t believe me, do you? Not really?” She was on her feet, clawing at his arm, shaking him. “But you don’t know Rick! You don’t