Read Online The Night Ranger by Alex Berenson - Free Book Online

the electric lantern. Gwen closed her eyes and waited, counting to one thousand and back down. She was sure she would have fallen asleep if not for her aching bladder.
    Finally, she opened her eyes. She felt wrung out and empty. When she moved her head, she saw streaks of red and white, like her brain couldn’t keep up with her eyes. She hadn’t known until now that she could be this tired and still be awake. The others were quiet. Gwen looked at Sunglasses. He slumped in his chair, legs kicked out, arms loose. His breathing was slow and deep. He was out.
    Still, she counted another five hundred. Her heart pounded so loudly she had the crazy fear it might wake everyone in the room. Finally, she leaned toward Hailey, making sure her chain didn’t clank. For a second, less, she hissed, the sharp ugly sound that she and Hailey used at crowded parties to get each other’s attention.
    Hailey opened her eyes. Pure 200-proof panic filled her face and then she focused on Gwen. “Hailey.”
    Hailey raised a finger to her lips.
    Gwen nodded at the chair where Sunglasses slept. “He’s out.” She realized that she’d been so focused on getting to a moment where she could speak that she hadn’t thought about what to say. “How are you?”
    Hailey shrugged. Like,
You woke me to ask me that?
She was right, too. Sick or well hardly mattered.
    “Better question. Did Suggs set us up?”
    Suggs had been taken with the rest of them, but they hadn’t seen him since. Maybe the kidnappers had killed him. Or maybe he was working with them. Scott was the only one who knew him at all, and even Scott probably knew less than he thought.
    “If we’re lucky.”
    Gwen shook her head:
I don’t understand.
    “It’ll give the police a lead. Also he can reach out to James, make a deal. WorldCares can pay these guys off, get us back quietly.”
    As usual, Hailey was a step ahead of her.
    “Think we’re still in Kenya?”
    “No idea. I hope so. Same reason.”
    “Me, too.” Somalia seemed like a whirlpool, sucking down everything that came its way. “Are you scared?” As soon as Gwen said the words, she knew the question was the real reason she’d woken Hailey.
    Who didn’t hesitate. “Of course not. I’m counting my money from the book deal we’re gonna get. Now, hush before you wake our buddy.”
    For the first time since they’d been taken, Gwen felt they might be all right. Then she heard a rustling. She opened her eyes to see Sunglasses standing. The guard turned the lantern all the way up and reached for his chair and slammed it against the floor until the cheap plastic split down the middle. He stepped close to Gwen and tore off his sunglasses and tugged on her chain until her arm twisted painfully behind her. A forest of red veins covered his eyes. No wonder he wore the wraparounds. Gwen hated and pitied and feared him all at once. She forced herself to hold his gaze.
    He grabbed the lantern, stalked out of the hut. The darkness was absolute.
    “Sorry,” Gwen whispered. “I’m sorry.” No one answered.
    —
    A few minutes later, Sunglasses returned with the Joker, who wore a loose white gown that looked like something her grandmother might wear. Gwen hoped they lived through this just so she could tell her family about this moment, about their captor, a three-hundred-pound man in a nightie and a Halloween mask. He knelt beside Gwen, squeezed her arm. His hand circled her skinny biceps easily. “Do you know why we don’t feed you?”
    Gwen shook her head.
    “Answer me.”
    “To punish us, I guess.”
    “No.”
    “So we know what it’s like to be hungry.”
    “Wrong again. Because if you’re hungry and weak, you won’t make trouble. If you fight, try to escape, I may have to hurt you. I don’t want to do that. You’re worth more undamaged. Understand?”
    She nodded.
    “I would have given you a decent meal tomorrow. Another day or two, I might have let you talk. You’ve spoiled that. You’ve broken the