Whispers at Midnight

Whispers at Midnight Read Free

Book: Whispers at Midnight Read Free
Author: Karen Robards
Tags: Suspense, Romance, Mystery
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life.
    “You know, maybe we could move to Atlanta,” she said to the dog as she opened the car door and slid in behind the wheel. At the thought, which had just popped into her head out of nowhere, she felt an unfamiliar glimmer of excitement.
    The dog, which had settled into the passenger seat, made a soft sound and came to its feet, watching her with a sudden fixed intensity that caused her to glance at it twice. Then she realized why it was looking at her like that: she’d just fished the Twinkies out of the bag. The dog was clearly a Twinkies junkie too.
    “Hang on a minute.”
    Holding the package one-handed, Marsha ripped it open with her teeth as she drove out of the lot. The sweetly intoxicating scent of the world’s ultimate junk food filled her nostrils. She took a bite—it was so good she thought she might die—then broke off a piece and passed it to the dog. The road was deserted, a narrow ribbon of black losing itself in the deeper blackness of the rural countryside as it led out of town. Except for the red glow of the last stoplight before she got to the turnoff to Sue’s, there was an almost complete absence of light. The Taurus could have been alone in the universe, she mused as she braked. This little three-stoplight town—was it really the best she could do in life? As she took another bite of the Twinkie, her head was suddenly full of thoughts of Atlanta. Marsha Hughes in the big city—wouldn’t that be something? She could make a whole new—
    She sensed rather than saw it, felt rather than heard it: a movement in the backseat. The dog, scuttling backward so that its tucked-in tail was pressed up against the door, began to bark hysterically, its eyes fixed on something over her shoulder. Her heart leaped. Instinctively she started to glance around—and an arm whipped across her neck from behind. Giving a scared little cry that was almost immediately choked off, she grabbed at it with both hands. Her nails clawed desperately at sweaty, hairy male flesh. The smell—the smell—she remembered that smell… .
    The sharp point of what she guessed was a knife pricked the skin below her ear. She went abruptly still. Eyes widening, she felt the warm slide of liquid down the side of her neck and realized that he had drawn blood. Gasping for air against the brutal hold that felt like it was crushing her throat, she broke into a cold sweat.
    “I told you not to tell,” a hoarse voice whispered into her ear.
    The hair stood up on the back of her neck. Everything—the barking dog, the changing stoplight, the night itself—receded as she realized who was in her backseat.
    Horror turned her blood to ice.

2

    “H ERE, PUP, PUP, PUP. ”
    The dog backed away, its white teeth showing in a near-silent snarl. The man looked at it with hate. It should be dead. When it had jumped over the front seat at him, he’d hit it hard enough to send it crashing into the rear windshield. Stunned, it had bounced off the windshield and dropped onto the seat beside him, landing on its side but struggling to get up, its feet feebly paddling the air as if it were trying to run. He had put his knife through it in a vicious downward chop even as he’d grabbed Marsha by the hair to keep her from leaping out of the car. The dog hadn’t moved after that. By the time he had Marsha under control again, its bloody little body had been limp. He had pushed it down onto the floor between the seats, and hadn’t thought about it again.
    Until it had come flying out of the passenger side window just as he’d returned to the car after settling things up with Marsha.
    For a moment, as it continued to snarl and back away, he contemplated just turning around and leaving it. Limping and dripping blood like it was, it didn’t look like it had a chance of surviving for long out here in the country. If it didn’t die of its injuries, likely the coyotes or some other predator would finish it off by morning. But still, it was a loose end.

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