Read Online Like a Knife by Annie Solomon - Free Book Online Page B

Spier's death."
    He rose. "Well, the city appreciates you coming forward. We'll check this out." He turned to go.
    She rose to see him out, trying to decide whether or not to ask about Nick. This might be her only chance to find out what had happened to him, but it wasn't smart to ask; the less she knew, the better. And yet questions about her kidnapping and his safety gnawed at her, an open sore that wouldn't heal.
    Still debating, she walked Detective May to the door, where he gave her shabby office a sharp-eyed scan. "Hard to imagine Nicky Raine working here."
    She remembered Nick's tense dedication and found her mouth tilting up in a small smile. "He did a good job. Never missed a day."
    The detective shook his head with a curt laugh. "The conscientious janitor. Well, I guess he's back in more familiar territory now."
    Her awareness sharpened. "What do you mean?"
    "He won't be hammering nails for Rennie Spier."
    "R-Rennie Spier?" She frowned.
    "That's right." May tucked his notepad into his pocket. "Swimming with the sharks again."
    "Are you sure?"
    He shrugged. "As sure as anything in life." He threw her a cynical smile and left.
    Rachel closed the door behind him, a sick lump in her stomach. Nick couldn't be working for Spier again.
    Her hand tightened on the doorknob. What was it her father used to say? We may have been victimized, but we don't have to be victims. Well, she was tired of feeling like a victim.
    Setting her jaw, she reached for her purse. The local branch of the public library was only a few blocks away, and she strode down the streets doggedly. When she got there, it didn't take long to find the information she needed; the accident had put Spier and his arms-dealing business on the front page for days.
    She copied the articles and spent the night reading them. Compelled to devour every scrap of information, she ignored the rumbling in her stomach that meant dinnertime had come and gone. She didn't stop to check the clock on the wall or stretch her legs. She read the. words again and again, each time hoping they would say something different. Something better. But it was always the same.
    Spier represented a vast empire that fed on violence, the kind of violence that had killed her mother. How could Nick be a part of that horror?
    It must be a mistake. A misunderstanding. She wouldn't believe it. Not until she heard it from Nick's own mouth.
    Chapter 5
     
     
     
    Nick stood in the center of a neighborhood park on Staten Island and held up the surveillance photographs, comparing them to his surroundings. Around him, kids ran while mothers watched. Wrinkled men played dominoes at a cement table. He counted benches, swings, all the ingredients except one. No gnarled tree. He clamped his jaw down on a howl of frustration.
    Every day. Every goddamn day for weeks, he'd tramped through the five boroughs looking for the park with the gnarled tree.
    Every day he came up empty.
    Marty had been no help. "You want to fuck Rennie," he'd said, "don't expect me to help you pull down his pants."
    Marty was off on his own search for the boy, vying for the prize of Rennie's approval. It was a sad, one-man competition; Nick could care less.
    Clenching his hands into fists, he walked the two blocks to his car, searching for the dead zone he'd lived in for the last six years. The numbness was gone. He was furious at Rennie, panicked he wouldn't find Isaac, and Rachel-every day guilt racked him. Was she all right? Was the light back in her eyes? Newly awakened feelings thundered inside him. On his way to the car, he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and forced himself to breathe normally.
    What he wouldn't give for a drink. Fot the once-familiar whiskey haze. Anything to dull the roar.
    He looked down. The photographs were crumpled in his hand. Slowly, he released his taut fingers and smoothed out the boy's image. Two faces haunted him now. The one in the dream and this one. Every day both faces pulled him in deeper and