Read Online Double Cross [2] by Carolyn Crane - Free Book Online Page B

nothing, as you so love to say? The man who stole your freedom in order to get out of that infernal restaurant? Now you’re asking me how I feel about turning a few criminals around so I can stay free?”
    “I guess.”
    “How the hell do you think I feel about it? I didn’t see the sun for eight years.”
    “Right.
Of course.
I guess for a crazy moment there I forgot—”
    “Well, don’t. I never said I was a good person, did I?”
    The ache in his words stops me from replying.
    “And I’d do anything to keep from being trapped in that restaurant again. And you’d do anything to stay sane and alive, so don’t pretend it’s not true. And neither of us wants to hand over the keys to Ez to let her make us do Lord knows what in our sleep.”
    My heart pounds from his intensity, and I have the crazy idea that his pounding heart is making mine pound. I look away, feeling so sad, wanting to undo the conversation.
    The breeze shifts and the gas fumes hit us. The gas station truck guys are hurrying to pack up. “They’re acting like an Indy Five Hundred pit crew,” I observe.
    “Can you imagine if the Dorks shot that truck?”
    “Oh, right.”
    More silence.
    I ask if there are any leads, and I’m surprised when he tells me he has a suspect. His telepaths already nabbed a guy. I’m grateful for this spot of good news.
    “We’ve got him at HQ,” he says. “This suspect is immune to highcap powers and he wears glasses—that’s why we picked him up. The guy doesn’t feel like a killer, though I can’t tell without seeing his structure. Telepaths can’t read him. We’re questioning him the old-fashioned way.”
    “I hope not too old-fashioned.”
    His expression is unreadable. “A little faith, Justine.”
    “What if this guy’s innocent? That’s all I’m saying.”
    He puts on his sunglasses. Mirrored glasses, and I get a pair of distorted Justine images—two long pale faces, long dark hair, dark eyes. I hate my reflection unless I’m steeled for it. It’s the kind of thing Packard would know.
Screw you
, I think.
    He turns and walks off.
    Fine. I’m eager to get in there and see Ez anyway.
    Wait—why should I be so eager to see her? I stop at the doorway, suddenly uneasy: my eagerness to see her feels like a leftover tidbit from a dream. Did she do something in my head as I slept? The idea of it creeps me out. I pull open the door. She has to be crashed.
    “Nurse Justine! What a nice surprise!”
    “Well, hey, Ez.” I set my purse on the ledge in front of her window, eyeing a couple gazing over the balcony rail, wishing they’d leave. “How are you?”
    “How am I? Aside from parasites probably colonizing my liver?”
    She’s fishing for me to say they’re not colonizing her liver. I paste on a forced-looking smile and hold up the bag and coffee cup. “Look what I brought you.” Thecoffee cup just fits through the window hole on my side if you pour some out and tip it a little. I set it in the gully between us. “And I wasn’t sure how you take it so there’s cream and sugars.…” I pull them out of the bag and plop them down on the metal tray next to the coffee.
    She stares without touching the stuff. “You think I have them, don’t you?”
    “Did I say I thought that?”
    “In so many words.” She clutches her stomach. “Oh, my God. I have a deadly case of parasites.” She looks up. “I sent off for Klosamine today. The topical and the pill. They’re overnighting it.”
    “If it’s an offshore pharmacy, you can’t trust those, you know.”
    “I don’t have much to lose, do I?”
    “I don’t know about that.”
    Her fine little features sharpen with fear. “That was a nonanswer!”
    “No, it was a statement. I don’t know about what you have to lose. Obviously, I just met you.”
    “Yet you don’t deny it’s a possibility that I may lose something.”
    I push the coffee nearer. “Don’t let it get cold.”
    “Obviously I shouldn’t have caffeine. Some