Stormrage Read Online Free PDF Page B

leaning against the side. She simply nodded at him and continued into the restaurant.
    Inside , the restaurant was brightly lit and smelled of grilled onions, fresh hotdogs and the sweet tang of relish. Raven smiled and stepped up to the counter where a familiar face grinned at her from behind a massive cash register that was new around 1955.
    "Good afternoon , Ms. Storm," the freckle-faced teen said with a dimpled smile.
    "Hi , Nadia," Raven said, somewhat surprised the girl hadn't called her detective. "Can I get the usual with one sweet tea and one black coffee?"
    Nadia punched in the order and Raven handed over the cash.
    "Keep the change, I heard about your college fund," Raven said.
    Nadia grinned wider and said, "Thank you, Ms. Storm, every little bit helps."
    Again with the Ms. Storm, Raven thought.
    She dismissed any questions as her to-go tray was delivered. The smell of hotdog relish and ketchup was too good to resist. She picked up the tray, smiled at Nadia again and exited into the cold afternoon, balancing the tray in one hand and her coffee in the other.
    Once outside she took a sip of her coffee and instantly spit the oversweet concoction out, spilling the food tray as she did.
    "What the hell?" she snarled. "Nadia knows I hate sugar in my coffee!"
    She turned and looked back at the restaurant. This time she took in the man by the van, which was blocking the back door, and Nadia's strange behavior. On a hunch she turned her coffee cup over. On the bottom was written '211 Robbery in Progress'.
    "Ray? You okay?" Levac asked, joining her in the middle of the lot. "You dropped all the food."
    " Yeah. Call dispatch and tell them we have a 211 in progress, at least three armed suspects, maybe four," Raven replied, pulling her Automag.
    "We do?" Levac asked, looking at the restaurant.
    "Either that or it is going to be a 187 for putting cream and sugar in my coffee," Raven said. "Check the bruiser by the back door."
    Levac nodded and started to pull his own piece. Raven stopped him with a look.
    "Call it in then cover me through the back door," she said.
    "Be careful, Raven," Levac said.
    Raven smiled and continued toward the restaurant. She needed this more than she needed a hotdog. She was almost to the bruiser at the van when he turned toward her.
    "Can I help you?" he asked in a southern twang.
    "Yeah, you can lay down on the ground while I arrest your buddies inside," Raven replied. "Payroll day, is it?"
    The man laughed and pulled a snub-nosed .38 from his pocket. It looked ridiculous in his ham-sized hand.
    He got as far as "I don't think…" before Raven shot him through the forehead, spraying his tiny brain all over the side of the van.
    She didn't wait for the body to fall. She was through the back door and moving, a predator in search of prey.
    Ahead she could see two men standing outside the restaurant's tiny office while the owner worked at unlocking the safe. A third man was pushing hotdogs around the grill while a fourth was watching Levac through the windows. All were armed with pistols save for the one on the grill, who had concealed a shotgun next to his legs. None of the men appeared to have heard the shot over the sizzle of the grill and the roar exhaust fans.
    "You know, every week my friend Nadia there has been making lunch for me and my partner," Raven said in a conversational tone. "I always order the same thing with a black coffee. She's a great kid, going to be a doctor someday and she never makes a mistake. But today my coffee had cream and sugar. A lot of sugar. I came back to complain and what do I find? You clowns trying to rob a Chicago landmark. Why don't you put those weapons down, lay down on the floor with your hands behind your back and say 'I'm sorry' one thousand times while we wait for someone to take you away."
    Instantly the men responded by drawing their weapons. Raven shot the man looking out the window, blowing him through the glass to land face-first on the sidewalk. As he