Ice Read Online Free PDF

cushions. If she could get to the Mercedes, she’d take her chances driving on ice. Even if she slid off the side of the mountain, that was better than being stranded with these two. She needed those keys …
    Niki gave Lolly a shove toward the staircase. “Go on,” she said, jabbing the pistol barrel hard intoLolly’s spine. Lolly took the stairs, her knees shaking so badly she half-expected to fall at any moment. Niki led her to the bedroom closest to the head of the stairs, which happened to be Lolly’s own room. “Any guns in the house?” Niki asked brusquely as she switched on the lights and looked around the neat, sparsely furnished room. “And don’t lie, because if you say no and we find some, I’ll shoot you in the face. Got it?”
    “No, no guns,” Lolly said, her voice shaking so much her words were barely understandable.
    Niki opened all the drawers, gave the contents of the closet a cursory glance, and was satisfied. There wasn’t much here, so searching wasn’t exactly a chore. There was Lolly’s underwear in the top drawer of the chest, some pajamas, and four clean changes of clothing hanging in the closet. Niki looked out the dark window, noting the two-story distance between the window and the ground with some satisfaction. Lolly looked, too, but at the window. Was that a film of ice already forming on the glass?
    Niki’s crossed the room, and Lolly stepped out of her way. “I’ll be watching this door from downstairs,” she snarled. “If it opens even a crack, I’m going to send Darwin up here to deal with you.” She glanced at the simple lock on the doorknob, and smiled. “And don’t think that flimsy lock will do you any good, not when we have these
keys.”
She indicated the pistol in her hand and took imaginary aim at the lock, making a shooting noise, then she grinned.
    The sight of those rotten teeth made Lolly shudder, but suddenly something she’d heard, or read, clicked in her brain, and she realized what drug these two were likely on:
    It was meth—another type of ice, and just as deadly.

Chapter Three
    Dazed, Lolly listened to Niki’s footsteps as the woman descended the stairs. Voices drifted up from the living room, angry at first, and then softer. Darwin laughed. The sound sent a shudder rolling through her body, which seemed to be the signal that now her brain could allow her body to feel again because she suddenly felt like one huge, head-to-toe ache.
    She began trembling. Her shoulder and side hurt from being shoved into the newel post, her scalp ached from her hair being pulled so viciously, and her cheek and one side of her head throbbed from being slammed into the linoleum. Her heart was pounding so hard she thought she might yet be sick, and she felt both sweaty and icy cold at the same time.
    Shock
, she thought, just before her knees wobbledand she collapsed on the side of the bed. That didn’t help much; her vision tilted, as if the world was turning over, and she toppled to the side. She lay there panting, trying to control her breathing, but the raw, ragged sound of her gasps filled the quiet room.
    Knowing what was wrong didn’t make her feel any better. If Darwin had come through the door right then, she’d have been completely helpless.
    Dear God
. What should she do? What
could
she do?
    She didn’t know what she could do, but one thing she did know: she’d rather die than let Darwin touch her again.
    The thought propelled her to a sitting position, and though her head swam she forced herself to stay erect. There was a very strong probability she was going to die anyway, but she’d be damned if she’d huddle there, sniveling, waiting for them to do whatever they wanted with her. She’d rather freeze to death in the ice storm than just sit here like a helpless idiot.
    One thing she wouldn’t do was make things easy for them. Moving as cautiously as she could, both because she was still dizzy and because she didn’t want them to hear her moving