Terror Stash Read Free

now?”
    Joel’s head came up. Hope shone in his eyes. He quoted the price and Caden was startled. “Jesus Christ, they’re practically giving it away!” He shook the shirt he still had a grip on. “And you can’t afford even that much?”
    Joel dropped his head again. “It’s not just me...”
    Tiredness washed through Caden. The fatigue was an echo of the restlessness he’d thought he’d got rid of. It was the flip side, the bone-weary energy-sapping sensation that had been robbing him of sleep and peace of mind for far too long.
    Dull anger touched him. “Why here? Why now?” he growled.
    “Huh?” Joel looked up again, a wrinkle between his brows.
    Caden let his head roll back. “ Goddamn it !”
    He let Joel’s shirt go and stepped back, massaging his fingers. Joel stared at Caden’s hands as he worked them, fear blossoming on his face and Caden realized the kid was bracing himself for a beating. Tiredly, Caden lifted his hands palm up and let them drop.
    Time to climb back into the trenches again.
    He studied Joel. “You’re not going to have the quantities I need, not if you’re working under the table. Tell me who you get your stuff from and I’ll give you some of my buy.”
    “Free?” The flare of hope and excitement in his face was almost painful to watch.
    “ Gratis ,” Caden agreed.
    Wariness touched him. “How much of it?” he asked.
    Caden grimaced. “It’s the blonde, right? I bet this was her idea.”
    Again, the flush touched Joel’s cheeks. “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, man.”
    “Yes, you do, but I’ll leave that one alone. Tell me your supplier, instead.”
    Joel hesitated. Caden watched greed and Joel’s wounded ego battle it out on his face. Desperation won. “His name is Stewart.”
    Caden was genuinely startled. “Stewart Connie ?”
    “I don’t know his surname. He hangs out at—”
    “I know where to find him,” Caden growled. He grabbed his towel, walked around to the right side of the car and climbed in behind the wheel. The seat, even though it was fabric, was almost too hot to sit on.
    Joel followed him around and ducked down to look at him as he rolled down the windows. “Where do I find you again? To get the stuff?”
    Fury licked at him but Caden pushed it away. “I’ll find you.”
    Joel gripped the window. “How do I know that, man? How do I know that you won’t snake me?”
    It was a surfer’s term, but Caden understood it well enough. “You’ll just have to trust me.”
    He peeled out of the parking lot, spitting gravel everywhere, careless of the paintwork it would chip. All his good feelings about the day and good old laid-back Yallingup and Margaret River had evaporated.
    So much for the sign the dolphin had given him. Gut instinct. Shit. “Next time you want to follow your nose, Rawn, stay at home,” he muttered.
    Well, at least he knew exactly where to find Stewart Connie. The man wasn’t bright enough to stay out of the business despite near-death encouragement, so he certainly wouldn’t be smart enough to change the way he did business.
     
     

Chapter Two
    Until the moment when Greg hit the water from ten feet up, doing better than fifteen miles an hour, Montana had been gripped with alternating waves of silvery adrenaline-spiked pleasure and fear that loosened her gut and flooded her mouth with copper-tasting spit.
    The moment she’d stood up on the board and turned the sail to pick up the breeze, she’d recognized that both the wind and the hidden strength of the surges creating these monster waves were greater than she had anticipated. By then it was too late. The only way to get out of it was to pick up a wave and sail back to the beach. Arriving in one piece was going to be optional.
    She’d seen Greg crest a wave as he paddled out to the surfers’ customary line-up area and tried to be comforted that she wasn’t the only one out here today. Greg, though, was a hotheaded jerk that few people liked. A