Read Allegiance (Joe Logan Book 4) for Free Online

his converted loft on 163 rd Street, and he was mellow.  Being amped-up on snow was out of this world.  He was full of confidence and knew that he was invincible.  Everything seemed clearer and better when he was high.  He was Yang to Frankie’s Yin.  They worked well together, but he was the more positive of the team; as bright as the sun, whereas Frankie was more like the dark side of the moon, negative and always imagining pitfalls that did not exist.
    Lennox rapped the glass with his knuckles.  Watched as the shape of a guy moved down the lit hallway, and smiled as the door was opened.
    “Yes, who are you?” Tony said to the black man, whom he thought looked vaguely like Mike Tyson, and had the same build as the ex-boxer.
    “Friends of Margie,” Lennox said.  “Is she here?”
    Tony attempted to close the door, but the muscle power behind the hand that pushed it back was overwhelming.  And the heel of the same hand struck him in the chest with what he imagined to be the force of a mule’s kick, knocking him over like a ninepin.  He struggled to breathe as he lay on his back and the two strangers entered the house.
    Frankie closed the door.  Chewed furiously on the now tasteless wad of gum, and then kicked the fallen man in the side with enough force to crack two ribs and probably rupture his spleen.  The loud groan of pain from the man instantly brightened his outlook and was almost as rewarding as a deep drag off a cigarette.
    “Stop it!” Ellen shouted from the door to the living room.  “Leave him alone, you bastards.”
    Lennox chuckled; a rumbling hu-hu-hu.  The scrawny bitch was staring at him as if he was a fuckin’ Martian.  Funny how intimidation and violence got peoples’ attention far quicker than talking ever did.
    Frankie got hold of Tony’s shirt collar and dragged him into the living room, and Ellen actually stepped aside to let him pass.
    “Sit down on the floor, woman,” Lennox said to her.  “And don’t move or speak unless I tell you to.”
    Ellen wanted to ignore him and just lash out with her hands and feet, but could see the menace in his dark unblinking eyes, so did as she was told.
    “I asked you a question,” Lennox said to Tony, who was lying on his back and trying to take shallow breaths to ease the pain in his side.  “I’ll ask you once more, and if I don’t believe what you tell me, your wife will be the one that gets hurt.  Where is Margie Newman?”
    “The hospital…Bellevue,” Tony lied.  “She left here a few minutes before you arrived.”
    “Is that your car in the driveway?” Frankie said, drawing his gun and screwing a silencer onto the end of the barrel as he spoke.
    “Yeah,” Tony said, swallowing hard at the sight of the pistol.
    “So being as how Arnie Newman’s car was shot up, and that Margie doesn’t have a vehicle, how come you didn’t drive her there?”
    “A friend took her.”
    “And the friend is…?”
    Tony was not going to lie anymore and risk Ellen being assaulted.  “An ex-cop,” he said.  “He used to work with Arnie.  His name is Joe Logan.”
    “Describe him and the car he’s drivin’,” Lennox said.
    “He’s a big guy, six-four or five.  Built like a linebacker.  We didn’t see the car.  He parked along the street.  Told us that Margie was at risk.”
    “Why should she be at risk?”
    “He thinks that whoever shot Arnie will come after her.  That’s all we know.”
    Lennox and Frankie looked at each other.  They believed the man; he was too scared for both his wife and himself to lie to them.
    They got a full description of Logan, and the number of Margie’s cell phone.  Perhaps they would’ve tied the couple up, gagged them and stashed them in a closet, but Ellen annoyed Frankie by telling him that if he laid a finger on her sister-in-law he would be one sorry sonofabitch.  Idle threats and insults made by nonentities were like a red rag to him.  He punched her in the face, left-handed