Tempting Evil Read Online Free PDF Page A

into a mausoleum.
    It seemed fitting that she died there. Wasn’t she better off now, anyway? She’d always said she couldn’t wait to die so she could be with Benny again.
    And now she was.
    Aaron waited in the lodge den, heart thudding, listening.
    He’d thought everyone was settled for the night. It was nearly eleven. But when he came out of his room, he’d heard Trixie in the kitchen and Joanna’s voice in the office. The fire had been banked for the evening, and Stan Wood and Karl Weber were nowhere to be found.
    He’d wanted to familiarize himself with the surroundings. And to learn more about Joanna. That would have to wait.
    He listened. Soon, there was no sound but the wind. And still, he patiently waited.
    After shooting O’Brien and leaving him in a ditch in the snow outside Pocatello early that morning, he and Doug had continued on to Monida. Aaron didn’t answer Doug’s questions about why he’d killed O’Brien. Aaron didn’t quite understand himself, but when O’Brien made that comment about Joanna being sexy, Aaron snapped. O’Brien had made him nervous from the very beginning. Unlike Doug, O’Brien hadn’t been with them the entire time since the earthquake. What had O’Brien been doing? He’d
said
he went to see his daughter, but could Aaron believe him?
    Doug stopped asking questions and they drove in silence. The morning was bright and beautiful, but almost as soon as they turned into the Centennial Valley the sky darkened and the weather reports warned of a quick-moving and violent storm.
    Still, Aaron insisted that they continue on. Joanna was only
miles
away. He couldn’t get this close and not see her.
    Doug grumbled, but didn’t really complain until they were crawling at fifteen miles an hour in blinding snow. The truck got stuck on the west side of Lakeview, and Doug got really mad.
    But Aaron saw the opportunity. There were buildings up ahead, some structures. He convinced Doug to go with him, but then they discovered all the structures had long been abandoned.
    Then they saw lights.
    Doug was excited. “Let’s go pop them and we’ll hang out here for a couple weeks. Hell, there’s
no one
around. No one will think of looking for us here.”
    The first building was a garage. Inside there was a truck and several snowmobiles. Aaron had a better idea than killing the occupants of the main house. “Let’s take these and go to Joanna.”
    “No,” Doug said subbornly.
    Aaron was getting tired of Doug’s belligerence. In many ways, Aaron just wanted him gone. But Aaron wasn’t sure he could ride one of these things. He sure as hell wouldn’t know how to fix it if something happened. And Doug understood all things mechanical.
    Aaron tamped down his anger and said, “Joanna has a sister.”
    “Probably some old hag,” Doug muttered.
    “
Younger
sister. Very pretty. I think she’d like you.”
    Aaron was certain Trixie Weber would love Doug. He was a foul, crass brute just like their old friend Lincoln Barnes. Doug liked beating up on women. Trixie liked to be beaten. Otherwise why had she hooked up with a scumbag like Linc?
    Aaron wouldn’t put a mark on Joanna’s flawless skin. That Linc had
hit
her made him want to kill the bastard all over again.
    (Who are you kidding? You’ll kill her.)
    No.
Aaron would die first. He’d never harm Joanna. He loved her.
    “You’d better not fucking be lying to me,” Doug had said. “I hate it here. It’s colder than Quentin, and wetter. Shit, I can barely feel my toes.”
    Aaron had found clothing in a shed. It fit him well, but Doug was bigger and his ski jacket was comically tight. He kept grumbling, but managed to hot-wire the snowmobiles. They sped away from the ranch.
    No one followed.
    They’d almost died in the avalanche. It had been so
loud.
Deafening. Aaron had never heard anything like it. They felt its tremor behind them and for the first time in his life he thought he would die. But they made it through.
    They