Read Love Game for Free Online

cried. “Darlin’, I thought you were dead!” I looked up to see Lucy’s head hanging over the side of the balcony.
    “I’m almost dead,” I said, stating what I thought was obvious. “I can’t hold on much longer.”
    “Spencer is on his way down,” Lucy assured me.
    “Did he get thrown off the balcony, too?”
    Spencer tossed over a rope ladder and slithered down it. “I’ve got you,” he announced, wrapping his arm around my waist.
    “No, leave me and save yourself,” I said.
    “Are you kidding?”
    “Yes, of course I’m kidding! Get me out of here!” I was losing patience. It had been a hell of a day. A catastrophic car accident was one thing, and I could even handle explosions and fireballs, but hanging one hiccup away from an untimely demise would have tried even the Dalai Lama.
    Spencer tugged, but I held on tight to the rail. “Let go, Pinkie,” he ordered.
    “I am! I am!”
    “No you’re not.” He plucked at my fingers, trying to pry them loose, but they held on tight.
    “They’ve got a life of their own,” I said, panicking. “They’re not letting me go.”
    “You are certifiable.”
    “Says the man who threw me to my death.”
    “If only,” Spencer said. “Dead people don’t talk.”
    “You’re a riot, Spencer. I always laugh at men who try to kill me.”
    Spencer tugged again, but my fingers wouldn’t come loose. “I didn’t try to kill you.”
    “You did. You’re John Wayne Gacy with a badge.”
    “You wound me, Pinkie. Gacy was the ugliest of all the serial killers.”
    “Well, you pissed me off.”
    “Look,” he said. “Why would I want to kill you? I’m not married to you.”
    My fingers sprang loose like magic, and Spencer caught me, slamming my body against his. My feet found the rungs of the ladder, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
    I sank into Spencer, wrapping my arms around his neck for dear life, and allowed him to take my weight and climb up the ladder. He laid me on the balcony and knelt next to me. His new Armani suit had taken a beating. Served him right.
    Lucy bent over and studied me.
    “You all right, darlin’? I never saw anything like it. You hung on like a bobcat’s jaw clamped on Bambi’s leg.”
    “I guess I’m fine. Spencer tried to kill me,” I said.
    “I was trying to save her life,” he growled.
    “He tried to save everybody,” Lucy told me. “Ran in to clear us all out of the house so we wouldn’t be burned alive. It would have been brave if there was a fire, but the fireball didn’t catch, just a lot of show. Then he remembered he threw you off the balcony.”
    I struggled to my feet. I was a little shaky, and I was impatient to get home. Grandma would have a gooddinner waiting for me, with mashed potatoes, hopefully.
    “Where’s my purse?” I asked. “Oh, no.”
    I looked over the side. My new lip gloss was about halfway down, nestled in the pointy leaves of a yucca plant. The gloss was the perfect color. I had discovered it at the bottom of the clearance bin at the drugstore. It was the last one in stock.
    I scanned the canyon, but my purse had vanished, along with my car keys, wallet, and a half-eaten Hershey bar. Luckily I had put Uncle Harry’s three hundred dollars in my pocket.
    “We really should hurry, Gladie,” Lucy said. “We need to find Luanda.”
    “I have splinters in my hands,” I said.
    “I wonder if your Grandma knows where to find her,” she said.
    “Who’s Luanda?” Spencer asked.
    “I’ve got bush in my hair,” I said.
    Lucy waved off Spencer. “We’re on a case, darlin’.”
    “What case? Pinkie, what are you up to?”
    “I lost my car keys,” I said. “And my spider clothes are in the trunk.”
    Spencer crossed his arms in front of him. “Did someone die again?”
    I looked at my hands. “Can you get tetanus from splinters?” I asked.
    THE FIRE department gave the all clear about an hour later. It turned out Uncle Harry’s security guard, Kirk, could start my car without