Read Hopper House (The Jenkins Cycle Book 3) for Free Online Page B

as I shoved her backward into the room.
    “A demonstrative pronoun with a great many uses,” I said, brandishing Andre’s gun for her to see. “Now move.”

Chapter Six
    I expected her to cringe or fall backward or possibly scream.
    Instead, Rachael said, “Am I supposed to be scared?”
    “If it helps,” I said. “Get moving.”
    Rachael inclined her head as if conceding this round to me, then moved deeper into the room.
    “So what’s it gonna be?” she said. “Kill me? Rape me? Been there, done that. But between me and you, before this is over, I’ll see you strangled with your own intestines.”
    What the…?
    “And no silencer?” she said, tsk-tsking at the shame of it. “In a paper-thin hotel like this one? Whatever you do, it better be nice and quiet, and you best hope I don’t yell or put up a fight. So what do you say?”
    Blinking, I said, “Uh … what?”
    “Give me everything in your wallet and we’ll call it even. The gun, too. It’s pretty. I collect them.”
    I was about to reply when she cut me off.
    “Shush,” she said. “Did you hear something?”
    Before I could answer, Rachael stepped past me and opened the bathroom door—then backed up in surprise when Ricky came out pointing a silenced pistol at her. I trained my gun on him, and he grabbed her around the neck from behind, shifting his aim to me. He had two black eyes now.
    Ricky said, “Don’t you fucking try nothing, dick face. Just put the gun down real slow.”
    “Or what?” I said. “You’ll shoot us both? I’m directly linked to the Carpinos. When someone finds my body here, next to hers, it’ll bring down a mountain of heat on the boss.”
    He snorted. “Nope, but nice try. After Lenny gave me the job, I bought one of them jumbo suitcases. After I told him you hit me again, he said I could buy another—for you. Now I need that one for something else, so I’m letting you live.”
    While I stood there doing math, Ricky aimed at my feet and fired a round, causing me to jump. Just barely, he’d missed putting a leaky hole in my foot. For a silenced weapon, the gunshot was sort of loud, though not enough to carry out of the room.
    “Come on, boys,” Rachael said. “Don’t I have a say in any of this?”
    “Shut up, slut. I’ll deal with you later. Never banged no DA before.”
    When he said that, I clenched the gun tighter, ready to shoot him and wait out my ride in a jail cell if it came to it.
    “Oh, look at the little boy scout,” Ricky said, giggling. “Don’t hurt no women and children. Like that makes you a saint or something? That’s the problem with you medigan . All your bullshit rules. Bunch of fucking hypocrites.”
    I glanced at Rachael. She had an oddly excited look on her face, and it was freaking me out a little.
    “Ricky,” I said, “this is going to sound weird, but you may want to get out of here while you still can.”
    Ricky laughed his smug, anti-medigan laugh. “What my uncle ever saw in you, I don’t know. Now scram.” He adjusted his grip on Rachael, then smiled, slipping his hand down her blouse and cupping her right breast with his left hand. When he squeezed, she winced in pain.
    What he didn’t see was the brief, tight, smile on Rachael’s face, nor the hot flash of hate in her eyes.
    “Go on, Andre,” he said. “Get the fuck out. I got it from here.”
    “Ricky,” I said, “I don’t think—”
    Before I could finish, Rachael grabbed Ricky’s wrist and pulled it down to her stomach, tearing her blouse in the process. Without stopping, she stepped out with her leg and rolled him over her back.
    Ricky fired wildly, putting a round through the desk lamp and another through the window, which didn’t shatter. Rachael raised her leg and stomped down hard on his face. Then again, and again, and again . Then again just one more time.
    Despite that, Ricky’s chest rose and fell, so he wasn’t dead. His jaw had completely dislocated, jutting out from his face about