Lies Read Free Page B

python that sliced the flesh from his arms and back and chest.
    The pain was too terrible to endure. But he had endured it.
    He had begged for death. Sam Temple had begged to die. He had begged the psychopath to kill him, to end it, to give him the only relief possible.
    But he had not died. He had endured.
    Pain. Too small a word. Pain and awful humiliation.
    And the whip kept coming down, again and again, and Drake Merwin laughed.
    Sam woke up in a bed of tangled, sweat-soaked sheets.
    The nightmare did not leave him. Even with Drake dead and buried under a mountain of rock, he had Sam under the control of his whip hand.
    “Are you okay?”
    Astrid. Almost invisible in the darkness. Only the faintest starlight filtered through the window and framed her as she stood there in the doorway.
    He knew what she looked like. Beautiful. Compassionate, intelligent blue eyes. Blond hair all wispy and wild since she’d just gotten up from her own bed.
    He could picture her all too easily. A picture more detailed than real life. He often pictured her as he lay alone in his bed. Far too often, and for too long. Too many nights.
    “I’m fine,” Sam lied.
    “You were having a nightmare.” It wasn’t a question.
    She came in. He could hear the rustle of her nightgown. He felt her warmth as she sat at the edge of his bed. “The same one?” she asked.
    “Yeah. It’s getting kind of boring now,” he joked. “I know how it ends.”
    “It ends with you alive and well,” Astrid said.
    Sam said nothing. That had been the outcome: He had survived. Yes, he was alive. But well?
    “Go back to sleep, Astrid,” he said.
    She reached for him, fumbled just a little, unable to find his face. But then her fingers touched his cheek. He turned away. He didn’t want her finding the wetness there. But she wouldn’t let him push her hand away.
    “Don’t,” he whispered. “You just make it harder.”
    “Is that a joke?”
    He laughed. The tension broke. “Well, not an intentional one.”
    “It’s not that I don’t want to, Sam.” She bent over and kissed his mouth.
    He pushed her away. “You’re trying to distract me. Make me think about something else.”
    “Is it working?”
    “Yes, I’d say it’s working very well, Astrid.”
    “Time for me to go.” She stood up and he heard her moving away.
    He rolled out of bed. His feet hit the cold floor. “I need to do a walk-through.”
    She stopped in the doorway. “Sam, I heard you come in two hours ago. You’ve had almost no sleep. And it will be dawn in a couple of hours. The town will survive that long without you. Edilio’s kids are on duty.”
    Sam pulled on a pair of jeans and zipped them up. He considered telling her about Orsay, about this latest craziness. But there would be time for that later. No rush.
    “There are things out there that Edilio’s guys can’t handle,” Sam said.
    “Zil?” Astrid said. The warmth was rapidly draining out of her voice. “Sam, I despise Zil as much as you do. But you can’t take him on yet. We need a system. Zil is a criminal, basically, and we need a system.”
    “He’s a punk creep, and until you come up with your great system, someone needs to keep an eye on him,” Sam snapped. Before Astrid could react angrily to his tone, he said, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to take it out on you.”
    Astrid came back into the room. He hoped it was becauseshe was just too attracted to him to leave, but that wasn’t it. He could barely see her but could hear and feel that she was very close.
    “Sam. Listen. It’s not all on your shoulders anymore.”
    “You know, I seem to remember a time when you were all in favor of me taking on the responsibility,” Sam said. He pulled a T-shirt over his head. It was stiff with salt and smelled like low tide. That’s what happened when you washed clothes in salt water.
    “That’s right,” Astrid said. “You’re a hero. You are without a doubt the biggest hero we have. But, Sam, we’re going to