Red Widow (Vivian Xu, Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

icy tiles as the air rushed back into her lungs. The door
loomed less than ten feet away, teasing her with escape. If only
she could reach it in time before the blade buried into her back.
She spun around to meet her assailant as it bore down—and she
couldn’t believe her eyes.
    “ You—I saw you at the
vigil,” Daniel gasped, clutching a knife in her hand. “What are you
doing here?” Vivian continued to crawl on her hands toward the
exit. Daniel reached out but Vivian fiercely batted her hands away,
choking for breath. She finally slung Vivian’s arm around her
shoulders and eased her into a chair.
    “ What are you doing
here?”
    Vivian stroked her throat, trying
desperately to erase the deadly caress of the blade.
    “ What the hell is wrong
with you?” she finally gasped. Daniel rushed over to the sink,
filling a glass with water. Vivian quickly gulped it
down.
    “ Now tell me what you were
doing in Krista’s apartment.” Vivian hammered the glass down on the
table and took in Daniel with her smoldering eyes.
    “ I’m part of the
investigation into Krista’s disappearance.”
    Daniel’s expression hardened into
something unreadable.
    “ The police?” she
sputtered. “But—but you don’t look anything like a police officer!”
Vivian’s deviant appearance certainly didn’t lend itself to an
officer of the law. Her flurry of red hair, tattoo-stained skin,
and scarlet contacts meshed more with the social misfits. “I’m so
sorry! I thought you were the kidnapper! You aren’t going to arrest
me, are you?!”
    Vivian shook her head.
    “ Well, I’m unofficially part of the
investigation. So no, I can’t arrest you. But believe me, I wish I
could.”
    “ I’m sorry! Like I said, I
didn’t know!”
    “ You’ll understand if ‘I’m
sorry’ doesn’t quite cut it.” She released another haggard cough
from her throat. “I’ve been following leads to the local
disappearances. I’m partnered with a homicide detective.” She
immediately regretted those words. Terror seeped into Daniel’s
face, replacing the blood in her veins.
    “ Do the police suspect
Krista is dead? Is that what happens to the women who
disappear?”
    “ No, I don’t know if Krista
is dead!” she pleaded. “But if she is…” The silence grew thick
between them.
    “ I still don’t understand
why you’re here.”
    “ I thought I could find
some clues about Krista’s disappearance, something that could lead
me to her.” Her toes recoiled from the icy water pooling on the
floor.
    “ This place is a mess. Did
Krista live like this?”
    “ No. I haven’t disturbed
anything since the night she vanished. The police insisted I touch
nothing… I haven’t even entered her room since her boyfriend fled
town. But I heard the window open and had to investigate. I thought
maybe Krista had come back—or the kidnapper.”
    “ Nothing says ‘welcome
home’ like a knife in your throat.”
    “ Sorry,” she smiled
sheepishly. She stowed away the blade in the kitchen drawer, and
Vivian breathed a little easier. She looked out the window, where
Prague gleamed lustrously like a Pandora’s box of jewels. Even now,
so many women slept soundlessly in their beds, assured they would
never meet the same fate as Krista. After all, ignorance is bliss,
right? Nikolai certainly thought so.
    “ What can you tell me about
the night she vanished?”
    Daniel’s head drooped.
    “ There’s something I heard
that night that’s been consuming me from the inside. I remember
lying awake in my bed, struggling to fall asleep. Sometimes I just
lie there for hours, listening to the traffic.”
    “ What did you
hear?”
    Daniel closed her eyes, washed away in
the sounds and sights of the night Krista vanished into the
shadows.
    “ I don’t know.”
     
    * * *
     
    The traffic purred outside Daniel’s
window as cars ferried teens on their way to cyber clubs and other
gems of the city night life. Sweeping the hair out of her eyes,