Read Deliverance for Free Online

bouncers managed velvet-roped lines. Maliha wouldn’t mind dancing, and she’d gone to a few of the clubs with her friend Randy Baxter. Randy was Maliha’s window into normality, a twenty-something friend who knew nothing about Maliha’s background. But Maliha only drank on rare occasions and almost never to the point of intoxication. The stakes were too high. She didn’t want a stupid accident or a slow response to land her in Rabishu’s hell forever, her quest overcome by a few giant margaritas.
    Maliha’s heart beat faster at the prospect of some action. She prowled the alleys. For the next hour, she saw nothing except some couples who’d slipped into the entranceways to make boozy love. Heavy clouds moved in, followed by a brief downpour. People on the streets ran for cover and did their best to crowd into the clubs, leaving the sidewalks less crowded. Maliha waited out the storm in the shelter of a recessed doorway. Rivulets of water ran down the alley, sending the filth down another block. Two condoms and a banana peel floated by near her feet. The storm ended as suddenly as it started, but colder weather had come in behind it. Maliha considered going home. With the sidewalks less crowded, the likelihood of finding someone in trouble decreased.
    I’ll give it a little while, but it’s not exactly a starlit stroll anymore.
    As she rounded the corner of a new alley, suddenly a motion-activated spotlight came on about halfway down. Two men stumbled into the light. One pinned the other up against the wall, and she saw the glint of a knife in the light.
    “Stop!” She ran toward the men, racing the movement of the knife. She yanked the man’s knife hand back sharply and twisted it, hearing bones in his arm break. She banged his head into the brick wall and stepped out of his way as he fell to the ground unconscious. Damage had already been done by the attacker. The victim slid down the wall, bleeding heavily from a wound to the abdomen.
    Maliha searched the victim’s pockets, found a cell phone, and called 911. After the call, she put pressure on the injured man’s wound. She’d have to stay until an ambulance arrived, not an ideal situation, but the knifed man’s only chance.
    She heard a whimpering noise from outside the lighted area and turned her head to check. Just as she did, a man came hurtling out of the dark at her.
    “What did you do to my brother, bitch!”
    He collided with her. She was on her knees in the wet alley, bent over the man who was bleeding, and his impact sent her sprawling. Then he was on top of her and punched her in the side with his fist.
    “I’m going to kill you!” he screamed in her face.
    She brought her elbows up and hit him sharply on both sides of his head. She pushed him off her and scrambled to her feet.
    “I don’t have time for this,” she said, dragging him over to the wall. “Sit still and shut up.” A quick punch to the face ensured that he did just that. Maliha went back to compressing the blood flow from the man she was trying to save.
    The whimpering got louder.
    “Is there someone else out there? An ambulance will be here soon. If you can come over here into the light, do it.”
    The wounded man opened his eyes, half slits filled with pain. “My wife . . .” Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth.
    Maliha heard a dragging noise and then saw a woman, mouth gagged, wrists tied, bone projecting from an open break at her ankle, trying to wriggle across the ground.
    “Your wife’s fine,” Maliha said. “She’s here with me. Hang in there. Help’s coming.”
    Maliha pulled the woman over close to her, removed the gag, and cut through the plastic ties.
    “Oh my God! Is Steve dead? Is my husband dead? Oh my God!”
    “Calm down. He’s not dead. What’s your name?”
    “Belle.”
    “Belle, do you think you can press here,” Maliha said, indicating the bleeding wound, “if I move you closer?”
    “I think so . . .” Belle slipped into