Night Thunder Read Online Free PDF

except for her childhood bedroom before her parents had died, looked like a hurricane had blown through and left a wake of destruction.
    The sofa cushions had been slashed and dumped on the floor, lamps were knocked over, the coffee table kicked aside. Her lovely rose silk bedding was in a heap on the floor and the drawers of the antique Regency dresser she’d so painstakingly refinished had been overturned, her clothes strewn everywhere imaginable.
    Even her trash can in the kitchen had been upended. Garbage lay everywhere on the previously shining white-tile floor, alongside pots and pans, cracked dishes, and boxes of Cheerios and macaroni and cheese and broken chocolate chip cookies.
    Shock and anger raged through her, along with the slick rush of fear.
    What the hell is so damned important about this package?
she thought furiously, and reached into her tote to pull it out. She glared at it a moment, then started to rip the brown paper off, but she stopped dead when her apartment phone rang.
    “Josy! Josy, are you there? Damn it, Josy, why’d you turn off your cell? Answer me!” Rough fear throbbed through Ricky’s voice. Somehow, she found her own.
    “They were here, Ricky. In my apartment. They’ve ruined . . . everything.”
    “They tossed your apartment? Jesus. Josy, I’m sorry.” She heard him suck in his breath. “You don’t know how sorry I am. Things weren’t supposed to go down this way. I never thought . . . listen, you need to get out of town.
Now.
”
    “Out of town? No, Ricky, that’s crazy. I need to call the police!” She sank down on her stripped-down bed, still holding the parcel.
    “Josy, listen to me. That’s the worst thing you can do. They want what’s inside the package and they’ll kill you to get it.”
    “That’s why I have to get rid of it—fast.” She heard her voice rising, on the brink of hysteria. “The police can take it off my hands and—”
    “Josy, I’m not sure who we can trust at the police department. I was set up . . . and until I know for sure how many were involved, I can’t go to them and neither can you. Pack a bag and—”
    “Are you crazy? I have a job. My boss is expecting me to turn in sketches for the fall collection in two weeks. Running away is
not
an option—”
    “Neither is dying,” Ricky yelled at the other end of the phone.
    That stunned her into silence. Ricky continued more quietly, but with that same urgency she’d heard the first time he called about the package.
    “I never should have gotten you mixed up in this. I swear I didn’t mean for this to happen. I thought . . . never mind. You have to get out, Josy, tonight, right now. I’m nowhere near the city, or I’d get you out myself, but I can’t come back. I can’t be found, not yet . . . and you can’t be found either. So pack a bag, take the package, and go somewhere no one would expect. Not to any friend, anyone they could find out about or locate. Go someplace where you can get lost for a while, until I can get to you and take the package back.”
    “Ricky . . .” She could barely speak. Her voice was a hoarse, sick rasp. “Do you know what you’re asking?”
    “Yeah. I’m asking you to save your life. And mine. You know I wouldn’t unless this was really important, Josy. These guys don’t fool around. They can’t get that package, and they can’t catch up to you. They’re not the type to ask questions and leave quietly, you know what I mean?”
    Her heart was pounding like the roar of the subway. She felt as if she were in a movie, the loud, violent, gritty kind of movie she didn’t especially care for . . . only it wasn’t a movie, it was her
life
.
    “How are you going to find me? Shouldn’t I tell you where I’m going?”
    “Not now—not on this line. Just go . . . and I mean now. Grab the package and get out—don’t use your cell phone once you disappear, buy a disposable, one with no contract, nothing to trace back to you, and don’t use it