Read Online Her Last Whisper by Karen Robards - Free Book Online Page A

tried not to watch too obviously as, grimacing, he managed to sit up. It cost him a lot of effort, she could tell. She let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding as he succeeded, then felt a renewal of worry as he sat there on the floor with his arms resting on his bent knees and his head hanging, as if that small action had sapped every bit of his strength. She’d never known Michael to be anything but whipcord tough, so to see him like that was disconcerting. But still, the fact that he could sit up was a good thing. It was
definitely
progress. She felt a spurt of hope.
    Maybe they would make it out of there before the hunter came back, after all.
    She asked Tony, “Are you saying her sister’s been
murdered
?”
    “She’s disappeared,” Tony repeated, clarifying, “No body’s been found. That’s one reason Kaminsky’s so frantic: she’s hoping her sister’s still alive and we can locate her in time to save her life.”
    “Oh, God.” What Charlie’s every instinct urged her to do was clap her hands over her ears and not listen to another word. The last thing she wanted, the last thing she needed, was to be drawn into another life or death search for a serial killer.
    “Not your problem,” Michael intoned without lifting his head.
    He’s right
, she told herself. But her fingers tightened around her phone.
    Tony continued, “Apparently the two of them were together in Vegas on vacation.”
    “See there, Sugar Buns took a vacation, and she wasn’t the one who flat-lined.” Michael lifted his head at last. His eyes were still eerily black, but the lines around his mouth had relaxed a little and his jaw was not so tight. Except for the ashen cast to his skin, and those disconcerting obsidian eyes, he looked almost back to normal. “Good to know
somebody’s
got her priorities in order.”
    Charlie kept (most of) her attention focused on Tony. “So what makes Kaminsky think her sister is the victim of a serial killer?”
    “Listen to her message,” Tony recommended.
    There was no longer any way to try to avoid the true purpose behind his visit. Throat tightening, Charlie said, “You—
she
—wants me to help find this guy, right?”
    “Let’s see, didn’t you almost die the last time you got mixed up with Dudley and the gang?” Michael’s voice had acquired a real edge. “So I’d say your answer needs to be ‘a big thanks for thinking of me, but stupid really isn’t my middle name.’ ”
    “I came to see if I could take you to Vegas with me,” Tony admitted. “Tonight. The plane’s waiting at Lonesome Pine Airport right now.” Something in her face must have told him that she wasn’t exactly jumping for joy at the prospect, because he added, “I know it’s a lot to ask.”
    “Ya think?” Michael demanded savagely, those black eyes glittering as they fixed on Tony. “After you nearly got her killed the last time, jerkoff?” He shot a glance at Charlie. “Your answer’s
no
.”
    Charlie ignored Michael, and pressed the button that allowed her to listen to the first of her cell phone messages.
    “Goddamn it.” Michael’s attention had shifted to Charlie. “They were finding serial killers for a long time before they started dragging you into it.”
    The phone beeped, and the message started to play.
    “I need your help,” Kaminsky said without preamble. Her usually brisk voice was low and strained. “My sister’s missing. We’re in Las Vegas, at the Conquistador, and she didn’t come back to our room Saturday night. I thought maybe she met somebody, so I didn’t start getting really worried until Sunday night, when I called the police and got the local office involved. By Monday I was running the details of her disappearance through the FBI computer system. I got a match with three other women who vanished in Las Vegas over the past year. I did some more checking and there are actually seventeen over two years.
Seventeen
. Attractive young women who