Catch the Lightning

Free Catch the Lightning by Catherine Asaro

Book: Catch the Lightning by Catherine Asaro Read Free Book Online
Authors: Catherine Asaro
holography.” He kept grumbling in his own language, but he took the paper and went to the stacks.
    I laughed and bent over the card catalog.
    A moment later someone spoke behind me. “Hey, Tina. You got a new boyfriend?”
    I looked up. Nug stood there, dressed in jeans and a jacket.
    String and Buzzer were with him, two guys who looked like their names: String was taller and skinnier than Nug, and Buzzer looked like a stocky old buzzard.
    “He’s coming right back,” I said.
    Nug smiled. “New guy, looks like.”
    I didn’t like it when Nug smiled. “From Fresno.”
    “Fresno?” Nug laughed. “Shit. That’s worse than coming from Cleveland.”
    “What do you want?” I asked.
    “Talk nice to me.” Nug stepped closer. When I tried to scoot my chair back, he closed his hand around my arm. “What’s the matter?” He wasn’t smiling now. “You can’t take that pretty nose of yours out of the air for two fucking seconds?”
    Martinelli spoke from behind the counter. “Leave her alone, Matt.”
    Nug looked up, his lips twisting in a scowl. But he did let go of my arm. Then he put his hand inside his jacket.
    He pulled out a 9-mm. Luger.
    Both Martinelli and I froze. Nug stretched out his arm, pointing the gun at Martinelli. “Shut up, old man.”
    I couldn’t believe he was pulling a gun on Martinelli in the middle of the library. I should have known something was wrong, with Nug wearing a jacket when it was so hot.
    Nug glanced at String. “Make sure he doesn’t bother us.” String ran to the counter and hauled himself over it. Drawing his knife, he tilted his head toward the wall, an area out of our view. Martinelli retreated and String followed.
    Nug turned back to me. “Well.” He smiled again and it didn’t look any better now than it had the first time. “So you got a new boyfriend.”
    I swallowed. “He doesn’t like me talking to other guys.”
    “That so.” Nug stepped closer. “What does he like?”
    I leaned back. “Don’t.”
    “Don’t,” he mimicked. He shoved the gun into his jacket, then pulled me out of the chair and put his arms around me. “This what he wants, chiquitita?”
    “Stop it!” I lurched away and thudded into Buzzer. He grabbed my upper arms and held me in place.
    “Sweet Tina.” Nug was gritting his teeth. “We can’t have her, can we? She’s too pure. You think I don’t know, don’t you.”
    I stared at him. “Know what?”
    “You never gave me the time.” His mood cut around him in angry black and red streaks. “But I gave you slack. I thought, ‘She’s different. Try harder.’ Well, I tried, and you didn’t even look at me, like you thought you was too good. Even then I gave you slack. Thought maybe that cousin of yours told you shit about me. I gave you more slack than I’ve ever given anyone.” He pointed at me. “I seen you this morning, slut. I seen you come out with that guy. He there all night, Tina? You fuck him all night?”
    “Nug, please,” I said.
    “What’s wrong?” Nug said. “I got everything he has. Maybe better.”
    I was sure he had sent his men after Althor. They probably pulled him into one of the back rooms. And Nug wasn’t stupid. Although we were in a library with a large window, Buzzer’s body hid me from view. Anyone outside would see only what looked like Buzzer and Nug talking Nug glanced at String and jerked his chin. I heard a thud, metal hitting muscle, followed by a grunt, and the bigger thud of a body hitting the ground.
    “Come on,” Nug said. “We’re outta here.”
    As they took me to a side door, String jogged up next to us. We came out in an alley between the library and the cleaners. No windows broke the walls on either side, no place where someone might look out and see I needed help. A mist of furious red sparks hung around Nug, smelling like vinegar and soot. Another one of his men was waiting in the alley, a skinny guy named Pits.
    “Get the car,” Nug told him.
    Pits took off,

Similar Books

Circus of Blood

James R. Tuck

Some Girls Do

Clodagh Murphy

Green Girl

Sara Seale

Arsenic for the Soul

Nathan Wilson

State Secrets

Linda Lael Miller

A Common Life

Jan Karon

Every Day

Elizabeth Richards

A Christmas Peril

Michelle Scott

Autumn Thorns

Yasmine Galenorn

The Room

Hubert Selby Jr.