Read Online Moonlight Rises (A Dick Moonlight Thriller) by Vincent Zandri - Free Book Online

Rather, I nearly killed me. I’m not sure how I’d react to another case of love gone sour over another man. But I know it wouldn’t be good.
    I hobble towards the door that leads to the staircase.
    “You look into the contract baby selling business,” I say to Georgie. “Then meet me my place later on tonight. Seven o’clock.”
    “What’s the plan?”
    “Surveillance mission.”
    “Lola?”
    I shake my head.
    “Peter Czech.”
    “I’ll bring coffee and sandwiches.”
    “I’ll bring the binocs,” I say, limping up the steps. Painfully.
    “And why are we doing this?”
    “I’ve got a bad feeling about Mr. Czech.”
    “When was the last time you felt good about anybody who hires Captain Head-Case?”

CHAPTER 9

    LOLA IS PATIENTLY WAITING for me upstairs. I’m not usually the sneaky type, but even with the wound in my side and half my body numb, I try to step as lightly as possible, which isn’t easy with my limp.
    Maybe I’m being paranoid about nothing.
    But then, maybe my built-in shit detector is trying to tell me something. As I slowly open the door onto the living room, I can see through the crack that Lola is texting something into her cell. Frantically texting. When I open the door all the way and limp out, she quickly stuffs the phone back into her bag, plants a smile on her face.
    “How is it?” she asks referring to my newly sutured side.
    Her hands are trembling. I look at them. She looks at me looking at them. We don’t speak about our noticing the same things. But it’s like we’re shouting at one another.
    “No more bleeding. But it’s gonna be painful later on.”
    She stands up, the strap on her bag hanging off her shoulder. I hear a distinct chime coming from inside it.
    “Sounds like you just got a text.”
    She nods, eyes wide. Her hands go from trembling to outright shaking.
    “Go ahead and read it, Lo.”
    If she were in possession of an Adams apple, it would be jumping up and down in her neck along with her shaking hands.
    “We need to get you home,” she says through clenched teeth.
    “Yah,” I say, my right hand pressed against my side. “I should get home.”
    Turning, I head for the front door, knowing in my bones that Lola is hiding something from me, and that it quite possibly has everything to do with Some Young Guy. The man I saw embracing her when I was dead.

CHAPTER 10

    PULLING UP IN FRONT of my new Hudson riverside loft which is situated inside the now deserted Port of Albany, Lola kills the Hummer engine like she’s about to come inside with me. She almost always comes inside with me.
    “I can handle it from here,” I say. But I’m lying. It isn’t the truth. If I were being honest I would tell her that I’m exhausted, in pain, and not sure I’m thinking all too clearly. But I know that Lola’s hiding something, and it makes me want to run away, not have her in for a sleepover.
    I open the door. She reaches out for me, takes hold of my arm.
    “Richard,” she says, tightening her grip on my forearm. But instead of saying anything else, she just clams up, her grip tight on my arm. “Richard, I.”
    “What is it?”
    I know she’s trying to tell me something. But her lips are sewn shut. Until she says, “I want you to consider not going ahead with this Peter Czech thing.”
    What the hell is happening here? First three masked men beat me senseless over my new client, and now Lola is getting in on the action.
    “Lola, what are you trying to tell me?”
    She bites down hard on her lip. “I don’t have a good feeling about it. Look at what’s already happened.”
    I feel the pressure of the stitches on my side as the Lidocaine begins to wear off.
    “I’ve never backed down from a gig before, Lo. And I’m not about to start. Besides, Czech has his claws buried in me now. And I also want to find out who those masked bastards are, why they killed me once already, why they want me to drop my client, and last but most certainly not the least,