With Extreme Pleasure Read Online Free PDF Page A

and glanced at the display. “Got a Cady Kowalski listed right here. Freehold Township.”
    Her past. It was destined to haunt her forever. “And if you call that line, you’ll find it’s no longer working.”
    “Yeah, but there’s an Edgar Kowalski at the same street address.” King secured his phone, flipped his blinker, and changed lanes. “I’m guessing he’s either an ex, a brother, or your dad. If it’s the first, then never mind. If it’s one of the others, I can’t see that it would kill you to go there until you can figure things out.”
    That’s because he was blind to the ways of the Kowalski world. Spelling it out would only be inviting trouble, and so she didn’t say a word, trying not to imagine what would happen—and failing because her imagination wasn’t really required—if she showed up at her parents’ front door.
    If her mother was there, the reception wouldn’t be much better than what Cady had received in the bathroom from Alice this morning. But if Edgar Kowalski was indeed at home instead of living the high life at McLanahan’s Pub…
    And then a light went on, a cartoon bulb dangling above her head. The best way to prove to King that she couldn’t go home again might be to do just that. Show him how long it would take to have things figured out for her.
    She wasn’t so stupid, however, as to do so without first checking to see if the coast was clear. What Alice had inflicted on Cady’s face was nothing compared to the damage Edgar Kowalski could do.
    She took a courageous breath, knowing no amount of courage would change things. “If I tell you how to get to my parents’ house, you have to promise me that you won’t drive off and leave me the second I climb down from this seat.”
    “I’ll wait as long as you need me to. Hell, I’ll carry your things inside.”
    Cady held back a grunt. He didn’t have to sound so relieved to be getting rid of her, did he? Then again, she could see how he’d think her a nuisance, the way she’d dragged him into her drama. As if her cuts and bruises weren’t enough, there was the business end of Alice’s gun.
    They had an hour or so ahead of them. She could share her life’s story between here and there, or she could sit back and stew and hope her hands didn’t shake so much that he noticed and started in with the platitudes, or worse, with wanting to know what was wrong.
    She didn’t want to tell him. What she wanted was to show him the greeting she’d receive, the one for which she was already bracing. Then maybe he’d get it. Then maybe he’d see that there was no way she was staying in Jersey when so many people here wanted her gone.
    After that, he’d have to take her with him, right? Or at least put her on a bus. She could always get in touch with him once she was settled and have him ship her her things, assuming he would agree to keep them and not toss them in the first Dumpster he saw.
    Hey, a girl could dream, couldn’t she? Maybe this one wouldn’t turn into the usual nightmare. No, this plan might not be the best one she’d ever come up with, but with the way this day was going and time not being her friend, it was all she had in her.
    And so she said, “Fine. But I’ll need you to make a quick detour.”
    “What kind of detour?” he asked, all suspicion and hooded eyes again.
    She didn’t even know why she’d said that. He wouldn’t know if he was detouring or not. “If I tell you now, that’ll ruin the surprise, won’t it?”
    Of course, there was no surprise.
    She just wasn’t up to explaining that going by the house where she’d grown up depended on her father having stopped off for a round—or ten—of drinks before going home from work to the dinner he wasn’t going to eat that her mother hadn’t wanted to cook in the first place.
    Cady wasn’t sure if staying in Manhattan wouldn’t have been the better choice between the two hells.
    “I’m not much of a surprise kinda guy,” King said,