With Extreme Pleasure Read Online Free PDF Page B

through the rest of the ride, but King didn’t know where to go, so she stayed awake and watched the familiar landmarks fly by.
    She’d grown up in Freehold Township. Springsteen’s home. She, her mom and dad, her older brother Kevin.
    Both of her parents were only children, meaning she and Kevin hadn’t spent their young lives tussling with cousins the way many of their classmates from large families had. They’d only had each other, which made everything that eventually happened so much worse.
    Twisting her hands nervously in her lap, she told herself not to think about that now. She didn’t want to think about it ever again though the way the events of eight years ago continued to drive her life, it was hard not to.
    But right now, with this morning fresh on her face and reminding her that she had no life, that she was a nobody, that she’d had to go to a complete stranger for help, she couldn’t wallow in the past, especially when she was on her way to confront it.
    And so she made herself a deal. She wouldn’t think about Kevin’s murder while she was with King—a deal that got harder and harder to stick to the closer they drew to their destination.
    She gave him directions to her family’s neighborhood, and tried not to grow melancholy as so many good memories assailed her and reminded her of all she’d lost.
    Yeah, things had gone to shit in a very big way, but she’d grown up here, celebrated birthdays with Barbie and My Little Pony parties, learned way too young that there wasn’t really a Santa Claus, cheered on her junior high sports teams from the middle of the cheerleader pyramid, lost her virginity to Wayne Hoppes in the back of his yellow Ford Pinto.
    Okay, so that last one wasn’t exactly a memory she wanted to revisit, but this had been her home, her home , goddamnit, for twenty-one years. Now it was a place where she was no longer welcome, where she no longer fit.
    Coming back here just to prove that truth to King Trahan was not something she was looking forward to, but right now he was her best hope for getting far far away from here and doing so in one piece.
    “Turn here,” she told him, pointing to the right as they approached the next intersection. He did, and once the red and green neon lights of McLanahan’s sign came into view, she added, “Slow down.”
    “What is it that we’re looking for?”
    “Edgar’s always been a fan of the big American auto. Last I knew, he was driving a late nineties’ Buick.”
    And there it was, the maroon LeSabre parked at the curb in front of the pub’s front window. The car she remembered him bringing home new her junior year of high school.
    The car he’d let her use after a lecture on buying American he’d made when her ancient Toyota wouldn’t run. The car Kevin had pummeled with a baseball bat the night Sunny, his girlfriend of six years, dumped him.
    Cady smiled remembering how many jobs Kevin had worked to pay for the repairs, Edgar never saying a word when he’d been handed the check. Then she stopped smiling because she remembered why they were here.
    “Two streets up, make a right, then a left at the third intersection. We’re the second house on the left.” The one where my whole life imploded .
    King nodded and followed her directions without asking her to repeat a single step. Since her throat had swelled, making it highly unlikely that she would’ve been able to answer, she didn’t mind the silence. In fact, it made it easier for her to come up with something to say to her mother.
    She was still working on that when the SUV rolled to a stop in front of the two-story Georgian that had once been white but had long ago gone to gray. The shutters on the upstairs windows were closed tight, keeping the memories inside. Two big oaks hugged the house in gentle shadows with the wide spread of their sheltering limbs.
    If she’d had the time, Cady would’ve sat down on the sidewalk and cried. But she didn’t, so she took a deep