Read Online Both Ends Burning (Whistleblower Trilogy Book 3) by Jim Heskett - Free Book Online

bruises, hadn’t seriously harmed me.
    Outside that shack near the Rio Grande, Glenning had threatened to kill me slowly, but would he have actually gone through with it? Somehow, I doubted it. Wyatt Green and Darren had implied they were going to kill me, but I don’t think they would have, either. I think they wanted to scare me.
    Why had I been spared? Why was I so important, or lucky, or blessed by the gods? Or was I simply misreading the whole situation, and they hadn’t had the opportunity to kill me yet?
    When I finally reached the patio, a motion sensor clicked on, casting light in a wide swath around me. I jumped to the left, out of the path of the beam.
    While I panted, I took the latex gloves out of my back pocket and slipped them on. When my pulse had slowed enough that I was a few shades below heart attack level, I crossed the patio and tried the sliding glass door. Just as I’d hoped, it was unlocked. Crept inside a sunroom filled with patio furniture and more than a dozen hanging plants. The humidity in this room brought an immediate sheen of sweat to my exposed skin. As I slinked along in a crouch, tentacles of hanging plants brushed against my shoulders and head. All this foliage reminded me of the jungly area by the pond where Omar and I had met the coyote.
    Where Omar had died and floated down the Rio Grande like a piece of driftwood.
    I closed my eyes to focus as I crawled on my hands and knees to the door that would lead into the house. The tiles felt good on my hands, probably warmed by some expensive under-the-floor heating system.
    I don’t know why I despised the affluent so much.
    I inched my head up until I could see inside. Through the glass panels in the door, I spied a kitchen, with some running lights above the cabinets, casting the room in a dim amber glow. I pressed my ear against the glass and listened. Couldn’t hear anything.
    I reached up and gripped the knob. It twisted in my hand.
    I let go, realizing that if I turned that knob and was wrong about my alarm guess, the whole mission would end right there. I’d have to run for the fence as a blaring siren pounded in my ears. Or, even worse, Edgar could have a silent alarm on the house.
    But what choice did I have? I was here. I was committed.
    “Okay, Candle,” I whispered. “Time to man up and do this. Pick your balls up off the floor and get inside.”
    I twisted the knob, opened the door, and nothing happened. Just the hum of the fridge broke the silence of the room. My eyes flicked all around the kitchen, looking for blinking lights or the sound of any subtle beeping. Nothing.
    I checked the time on the phone. Gave myself five minutes to allow for the cops to show up if I’d just triggered a silent alarm.
    Taking a breath to steady my nerves, I slipped into the kitchen, full of shimmering granite and stainless steel appliances. Not a single thing out of place. Like Kareem’s house in Boulder, except much larger.
    From the kitchen, I could go two ways. A dining room to my left and a swinging door straight ahead led to something else.
    I crept forward to the swinging door and closed one eye to spy through the crack along the doorjamb. I saw a woman, sitting in a leather chair, who looked about half Edgar’s age. Daughter, maybe, or trophy wife. Tablet computer in one hand, glass of wine in the other. She was wearing a pair of fleece pants and a Michigan State sweatshirt.
    In a few seconds, the sound of footsteps thumped down some nearby stairs.
    The woman turned her head toward the sound. “Everything okay?”
    Edgar sat at a second leather chair, letting out a prolonged grunt as he sank into it. “Yes, he’s fine. He just needed his binky, and I rocked him a little bit. The doctor says we should stop swaddling him. He’s old enough.”
    “Maybe so,” she said, “but let’s hold off on that for a few days. I can’t be up half the night right now. I need my sleep before I go on my trip.”
    “Of course, dear,” Edgar