Read Nowhere to Run for Free Online

it wouldn’t happen to him. He would be one of the few who could control himself.
    He should have known better. Occasional recreational use had turned into addiction. There was no use sugarcoating it. He was hooked, and his was an expensive passion.
    Russ closed his door, glad again that he had one of the inside offices, lacking windows. Others might complain about the sunless boxes to which they’d been assigned at the Broadcast Center, the gigantic dairy which had been converted into KEY headquarters, but Russ’s space suited him just fine. He could have his privacy when he wanted and needed it.
    He pulled his wallet from his pocket and took out a credit card, a crisp twenty-dollar bill, and a small, precisely folded paper envelope. Carefully opening the envelope, Russ tapped the powder down into the crease. Using his desk as his workspace, he took the edge of the credit card and rhythmically chopped at the cocaine, dissolving the tiny clumps that had formed. When he was satisfied that the powder was all the same consistency, Russ rolled the twenty-dollar bill into a thin tube and placed it against his nostril. As he bent his head down to the desktop, the currency tube became the delivery chute through which he snorted the white powder.
    He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror that hung on the wall opposite his desk. He watched, loathing himself, as his eyes began to water and his face reddened. He shot his cuff out from beneath his soft leather jacket and raised the back of his hand to wipe at his nose. Disgusting behavior, but man, the feeling that was coming over him was great.
    It was almost a cliché, wasn’t it? The entertainment reporter hooked right along with the Hollywood stars and music giants who had gotten in too deep. Sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. Life in the fast lane.

Chapter 12
    He could tell the sweet young thing was uncomfortable, but Gavin pushed on anyway. After Linus’s tongue-lashing at the morning meeting, the veteran business correspondent needed something to make himself feel better, bigger, more important. The pretty intern with her unlined face, tight sweater, and short skirt was just the ticket to massage his wounded ego.
    The college students worked for free just to spend time at a major broadcasting network. Sometimes the necessary connections were made to help with getting a job at KEY after graduation. At the very least the students walked away with an impressive credential to list on their résumés.
    The interns were bright-eyed and eager and easily impressed. Gavin looked forward to the new crop of females who started working each semester. Lily was the pick of this fall’s litter.
    Long blond hair, with wispy bangs that fell into her big, soft brown eyes. Bambi-esque, Lily’s eyes were. Innocent and trusting, so unlike the steely, dark eyes of Marguerite, his shrewish wife.
    Resolutely, Gavin pushed from his mind the thought of the woman he had been chained to for a quarter of a century and continued making conversation with Lily.
    “I was thinking that you might want to come with me this afternoon for an interview I have to do down at the NASDAQ,” he offered. “It would be good experience for you to get out of the building and see some field reporting.”
    “Gee, thank you, Mr. Winston, that would be great. I really appreciate you doing that for me.”
    “Call me Gavin, dear. Mr. Winston makes me feel like I could be your father.” He chuckled.
    The intern laughed nervously. My father is younger than you are, she thought.

Chapter 13
    In the time she had between the morning meeting and her appointment with Yelena, Annabelle quickly went through her e-mails, deleting another one of Jerome’s pleas that she finish reading his manuscript, and then she called home. The phone rang again and again until, finally, Mike answered.
    “I was just about to hang up, honey,” Annabelle said, trying to keep the concern out of her voice. “Where were you?”
    “Lying