Read Absolution for Free Online Page A

nodded.
    “Why did you kill and mutilate Sam Benton?”
    Wayne lifted his right hand off the floor and wiped at sweat that was running down his forehead, through his eyebrows to sting his eyes.  “You expect me to admit to murder?” he said.
    “I expect you to tell me the truth or die in this room.  You know the law.  Nothing you say to me at gunpoint would hold up in a courtroom.”
    “Shoot the bastard,” Andrea said from where she was now sitting on the far bed.
    Wayne turned his head and saw the young woman staring at him with pure hatred in her eyes.
    “You want for me to give this lady her gun back?” Logan said.
    “No,” Wayne said.  “Benton worked for Slater.  He used to meet up and pay off guides and contacts in cash.  He got greedy and started skimmin’ a few grand here and a few grand there.”
    “What contacts?”
    “Mainly border patrol officers and cops.”
    “Including Sheriff Clay Manders?”
    “No.  Manders couldn’t be bought.”
    “So who told you about me, and where I was?”
    “One of Manders’s deputies. Lance Deerbolt.”
    Ten minutes later, Logan had all the information he needed about Slater.  “We’re leaving now,” he said to Wayne, aiming the gun at his head and pulling the trigger, pleased to see the spreading stain at the man’s crotch and his eyes widen in fear as the loud click signaled that he had made sure that there was no round in the chamber.  “Your buddy is in the bathroom taking a nap.  But take it as gospel that if either of you two scumbags comes at me again, I’ll kill you both.  Do you copy that?”
    Wayne nodded and then slumped sideways with a low grunt as Logan leaned forward in the chair and swiped him hard across the side of his head with the silencer of the gun.
    “You got a car?” Logan said to Andrea.
    “Yes, it’s parked round the corner in the next street.”
    Logan put the three handguns in his rucksack along with the cell phones he had found in his attackers’ pockets, and then collected his windbreaker from where he’d hung it in the closet.  “So let’s go,” he said.  “We need to talk.”

CHAPTER FIVE

    Wayne had no idea as to how long he’d been out.  He sat up and groaned aloud as bolts of pain shot through his head and face.  He turned, put his hands on the top of the bed and levered himself up to his feet, but then had to sit down on it for a minute as dizziness affected his balance.  He took deep breaths and watched as drops of blood dripped out from his nose into his lap, and swore aloud to God that he would find Logan and kill him, very slowly.  If the ex-cop had had any sense he would not have left him alive.  It demonstrated that Logan didn’t have the guts to kill someone in cold blood.
    Wayne got to his feet again and went to the bathroom door, to open it and be faced by the sight of Gary sitting in the tub, trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey. He had a gash on the side of his head, and was still unconscious.
    Wayne turned on the shower and waited until the ice-cold water brought Gary back to shivering awareness, then turned it off and unpicked the knots of the cord that bound his partner.
    “What the fuck happened?” Gary slurred.  “Did you nail the sonofabitch?”
    “Do I look as though I did?” Wayne snarled.  “Get the fuck out of there and let’s go.  The bastard knows everythin’.”
    Gary climbed out of the tub and stood bowed over with his hands on his thighs.  He felt nauseous.  He was suffering from double vision and he thought he may have a mild concussion.
    Wayne went back into the room and assessed the position they were in as Gary got his act together.  Logan had taken their guns and phones, and had left with a young woman who was obviously pissed with them and had wanted the big stranger to blow him away.  What was that all about?  And why did Logan give a shit?  This wasn’t his business, so what the fuck was he doing poking his nose in where it didn’t