The Demon Senders Read Online Free PDF Page B

clear when he said my partner wanted to fill me in, so I turned away from the door (after standing back upright and straightening the three bar stools I knocked over) and looked towards where Hazy Face had pointed.
    She was sitting clear across the other side of the bar, not looking up at me but just sitting there shaking her head slowly back and forth.
    “I think I’ll pass on the gig thing,” the bar owner said, calling me out of my daze. “Take your CD back. I’m not in the mood for American nostalgia.”
    “Missed that gig,” I thought to myself, surprised I even cared.
    I walked over to the woman Hazy Face called my partner. It was a little weird walking the length of the bar. Like I said, there weren’t a lot of people sitting and drinking but not one of them even acknowledged me or the fact I was just sent spinning and crashing into the bar by a dude whose face was as clear as two hundred-year-old glass.
    “You know that asshole?” I asked the owner, who was standing behind the bar, braced by both arms, his sights fixed on me.
    “Nope,” he said. “And ain’t interested in getting to know him. I’ve seen him a few times before but as long as he pays his tab, I don’t give a shit who he is.”
    When I got within ten feet of the woman Hazy Face suggested to be my partner, she stood up, dropped a hand full of cash onto the bar and headed out towards the rear exit.
    I guessed I was supposed to follow her.

CHAPTER SIX

    “You gonna slow down so I can at least talk with you?” I said when I got outside. Weird thing about walking out of a bar in the middle of the day: Doesn’t matter if you had no drinks or twenty, the sun always seems to be three times brighter.
    “We shouldn’t talk here,” she said, not turning back to face me. “Either hop in my car or follow me. I know where we can go.”
    Though I did a pretty good job of denying the whole “weird old guy in my Astro van” event, I wasn’t comfortable getting into her car. Didn’t want another ride with anyone connected to the whole twisted scene. “I’ll follow in my van,” I called back to her. I intended to sound authoritative but the squeaky voice that eventually carried my intention revealed my fear more than my feigned strength. “White van, parked in front.”
    “I know what you drive, Mac. I’ll pull around front.”
    I followed her black Honda Civic for at least forty-five minutes before she pulled into an apartment complex. As we weaved our way through the mostly empty parking lot, I saw her extend an arm out through her window as she pointed towards a sign that read “Visitor Parking Only: All Others Will Be Towed at Owner’s Expense.”
    “Guess she wants me to park here,” I said to myself.
    Whoever she was, she wasn’t much for waiting. By the time I shut down the Astro and hopped out of the van, she was already approaching the front door of apartment building six. I thought if I hurried my pace it would make her think she was in charge of this whole rendezvous, so I took my time, making double sure my van was locked up tight.  
    I remember thinking I had absolutely no idea who this woman was, why the heck I followed her out of the bar and why in the world I was about to walk into, what I assumed to be, her apartment. With all those doubts and questions running through my mind, my legs seemed to slow down even more, like my worry was weighing them down.
    “Any day now,” she said. “You’ve been spotted twice already. It’s not a smart idea to be so casual about your exposure.”
    I picked up my pace.
    We walked up two flights of stairs without a word being said between us. She just kept on walking down a short hallway and I just kept on following. I did have the presence of mind to notice her body as I followed her down the hall, and damn, it was worth the notice. Her blondish hair almost glimmered though the hallway lighting was poor at best and she had one of the best sets of legs I’ve seen in a long while.