Read Online A Righteous Kill by Kerrigan Byrne - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Kerrigan Byrne
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in all the movies? Was her hypothetical audience yelling at the screen?
Don’t go in there! If you do, you’re too stupid to live!
Run out the door and don’t look back!
Where’s your fucking weapon?!
Oh—a weapon. Good idea. She looked around her clean, bohemian-style living room for something she could use to defend herself.
Hmm, she sure had a lot of useless pillows.
Hero hurried back to the door and grabbed her umbrella from the coat/hat/umbrella stand, and brandished it in front of her. It had a metal pointy end, and she would face whatever was dead or alive in her kitchen. Her parents forced her to take martial arts with Knox and Demetri as a young teenager. It had been years and years, but probably she could kill someone with an umbrella.
Probably.
She wanted Agent Ramirez here. Luca. He would keep her safe.
Quickly pushing that thought away, she inched closer to the kitchen door on wobbly legs.
Pressing her back against it, Hero took a bracing breath before exploding into the kitchen, the point of the umbrella preceding her, ready to skewer any assailant.
Her war cry cut short when she faced an empty, albeit stinky room. Feeling foolish, she leaned the umbrella against the counter and reached for her stainless steel fridge. Yup, this was the culprit. She hadn’t stepped foot in her home for six weeks, of course every vegetable, fruit, organic cheese, marinated olive, and leftover would be rotten by now. She closed her eyes and groaned. Her last meal of wok fried tofu Pad Thai was only covered with plastic wrap and not in a container.
Dear sweet Jesus, all the rotten fish sauce.
Before she could stomach cracking the fridge, Hero opened the small window above the sink and hurried to open the living room windows to create a cross-draft. What had she been afraid of? Whoever may have been hiding behind her kitchen wall would have asphyxiated at the stench.
Throwing back her fringed, beaded blue and purple drapes, she was captivated for a brief moment by the blue of the Willamette River. Hero loved her view. In the unseasonable warm December weather, a few hardy souls still took their boats out on the choppy river, bobbing like rubber toys in a rowdy child’s bath. As much as she loved to watch, Hero doubted she’d ever dare go in the river again.
Averting her eyes and the direction of her thoughts, she lifted her gaze to the fluffy clouds drifting overhead. The weather channel called it partly cloudy. She preferred to think of it as partly sunny.
Renting a top floor, one bedroom, mother-in-law apartment off Riverside Drive had been the biggest stroke of luck. Situating it above a posh mansion over-looking the country club dock and the sparkling waters of the Willamette, well, that had been just brilliant.
It took all her body weight to open the stuck latch on the window. She loved to listen to the sounds of afternoon lake traffic. But there would be time to enjoy the view later. First, she had to get rid of whatever was making her apartment smell like a landfill.
Snatching the essential oil air freshener in the bathroom, she sprayed a liberal path into her bedroom and opened the window in there, as well. Clove and mulberry tinged the air but failed to dissipate the awful stench.
Puffing out her cheeks on a beleaguered sigh, she tried to steel herself for what she must do. No getting around the fact it was time to tackle the fridge. Hero groaned as she remembered the Kim Chi experiment waiting for her. It would be a dismal failure now, ruined by the extra five weeks it spent marinating.
Stef will have a good laugh at this, she mused.
Stef and her sister, Andra, had her undying gratitude for taking her on that Mexican Rivera Cruise. It had been just what she needed to clear her head, escape the smothering sympathy of her family, and finish healing.
Hero remembered how angry Agent Ramirez had been at her for going to Mexico without his permission. She could remember the pure, hot fury in his silky
Don’t go in there! If you do, you’re too stupid to live!
Run out the door and don’t look back!
Where’s your fucking weapon?!
Oh—a weapon. Good idea. She looked around her clean, bohemian-style living room for something she could use to defend herself.
Hmm, she sure had a lot of useless pillows.
Hero hurried back to the door and grabbed her umbrella from the coat/hat/umbrella stand, and brandished it in front of her. It had a metal pointy end, and she would face whatever was dead or alive in her kitchen. Her parents forced her to take martial arts with Knox and Demetri as a young teenager. It had been years and years, but probably she could kill someone with an umbrella.
Probably.
She wanted Agent Ramirez here. Luca. He would keep her safe.
Quickly pushing that thought away, she inched closer to the kitchen door on wobbly legs.
Pressing her back against it, Hero took a bracing breath before exploding into the kitchen, the point of the umbrella preceding her, ready to skewer any assailant.
Her war cry cut short when she faced an empty, albeit stinky room. Feeling foolish, she leaned the umbrella against the counter and reached for her stainless steel fridge. Yup, this was the culprit. She hadn’t stepped foot in her home for six weeks, of course every vegetable, fruit, organic cheese, marinated olive, and leftover would be rotten by now. She closed her eyes and groaned. Her last meal of wok fried tofu Pad Thai was only covered with plastic wrap and not in a container.
Dear sweet Jesus, all the rotten fish sauce.
Before she could stomach cracking the fridge, Hero opened the small window above the sink and hurried to open the living room windows to create a cross-draft. What had she been afraid of? Whoever may have been hiding behind her kitchen wall would have asphyxiated at the stench.
Throwing back her fringed, beaded blue and purple drapes, she was captivated for a brief moment by the blue of the Willamette River. Hero loved her view. In the unseasonable warm December weather, a few hardy souls still took their boats out on the choppy river, bobbing like rubber toys in a rowdy child’s bath. As much as she loved to watch, Hero doubted she’d ever dare go in the river again.
Averting her eyes and the direction of her thoughts, she lifted her gaze to the fluffy clouds drifting overhead. The weather channel called it partly cloudy. She preferred to think of it as partly sunny.
Renting a top floor, one bedroom, mother-in-law apartment off Riverside Drive had been the biggest stroke of luck. Situating it above a posh mansion over-looking the country club dock and the sparkling waters of the Willamette, well, that had been just brilliant.
It took all her body weight to open the stuck latch on the window. She loved to listen to the sounds of afternoon lake traffic. But there would be time to enjoy the view later. First, she had to get rid of whatever was making her apartment smell like a landfill.
Snatching the essential oil air freshener in the bathroom, she sprayed a liberal path into her bedroom and opened the window in there, as well. Clove and mulberry tinged the air but failed to dissipate the awful stench.
Puffing out her cheeks on a beleaguered sigh, she tried to steel herself for what she must do. No getting around the fact it was time to tackle the fridge. Hero groaned as she remembered the Kim Chi experiment waiting for her. It would be a dismal failure now, ruined by the extra five weeks it spent marinating.
Stef will have a good laugh at this, she mused.
Stef and her sister, Andra, had her undying gratitude for taking her on that Mexican Rivera Cruise. It had been just what she needed to clear her head, escape the smothering sympathy of her family, and finish healing.
Hero remembered how angry Agent Ramirez had been at her for going to Mexico without his permission. She could remember the pure, hot fury in his silky
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