Read Online Back Track by Jason Dean - Free Book Online Page A

into contact with fish.’
    ‘Your
system
.’ Rhian rolled her eyes at Vaughn. ‘That’s all I ever hear about these days. Well, you better take yourself to the bathroom then.’
    Vaughn said, ‘You know where it is, don’t you, Dennis?’
    ‘Yeah, sure,’ Dennis said and shuffled by Vaughn as he made his way out of the room.
    Rhian sat on the bed and patted the mattress. ‘This is a big old thing, isn’t it, Vaughn? Two people could get up to all kinds of mischief on here, I bet. Why don’t you take a load off? Dennis may be a while; he’s got a very weak stomach. Among other things.’
    Damn, she doesn’t waste any time, does she?
Vaughn smiled, placed his keys and binder on the bed and sat down beside her. ‘So you like the apartment, Rhian?’
    ‘I sure do. How many others are available in this building?’
    He reached for his folder and opened it to the second page. ‘Well, we’ve got 904 also on this floor. Then there’s 1507 on the top floor and . . . let’s see, another one on the fourth floor’s just come on the market. That’s just a one-bedroom, though.’
    ‘But the other two are like this one?’
    ‘More or less. They’re both two bedrooms. One’s north-facing. The other’s on this side.’
    Rhian nodded. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve got a floor plan, do you? So I can get a sense of where everything is in relation to each other. Like for the fire exits and elevators.’
    ‘Sure, I should have a few copies in here.’ He turned to the clear wallets at the back, flipped through to the ninth floor, then pulled out a folded sheet and handed it to her.
    ‘You got one for the fifteenth floor, too? That’s where the gym is, right?’
    ‘Oh, sure.’ He found the layout for the top floor and passed it over. At the same time, he angled himself so their thighs were touching. Rhian smiled, but didn’t move away. He watched her profile as she looked over the plans and said, ‘There are some great restaurants around here, Rhian. We could arrange a time and I could show you a few if you’d like. If Dennis didn’t mind.’
    She smiled at him. ‘Dennis wouldn’t have a say in the matter. I go where I please and do what I want.’
    ‘I can see that.’
    She looked at him and said, ‘We could do dinner next week, maybe. Why don’t you tell me about some of the hot spots around here. Maybe we can try some of them out, too.’
    Music to my ears
. Vaughn smiled as he began listing the wildest nightspots in the area, all the while watching Rhian’s eyes sparkle in hedonistic anticipation. He was sure she’d be an absolute animal in bed and he couldn’t wait to give her a test drive. After a while, though, it dawned on him that he hadn’t heard from her boyfriend in some time.
    ‘Is Dennis okay, you think?’ he said. ‘He’s been gone awhile now.’
    Rhian frowned as she looked at her watch. ‘Hmm, well, I wouldn’t worry too much. Maybe you could just knock on the door and see if he’s okay.’
    ‘Right.’ Vaughn stood up and walked out. In the entrance hall, he knocked a couple of times on the bathroom door and said, ‘Everything okay in there, Dennis?’
    There was no response.
    ‘Dennis?’ Still no sound. He turned the handle. The door was unlocked. Vaughn poked his face round the door and saw an empty bathroom. No Dennis.
What the hell?
    He turned to his right and saw the entrance door was unlatched. Which wasn’t good. Unauthorized people wandering around the building could reflect very badly on him. Vaughn jogged over and pulled it open. Then he heard a weird wheezing sound and stepped into the hallway. And there was Dennis, thank God, leaning against the wall. He was out of breath and sucking on an inhaler of some kind. He looked in a bad state.
    ‘Asthma attack,’ he said. ‘I get them . . . every now and then. I didn’t want you . . . to hear me choking. It’s kind of embarrassing. But I’ll be . . . okay now.’
    Man, what a pathetic wreck
, Vaughn