Free Shadow Kill (Nick Teffinger Thriller) by R.J. Jagger

his gut and a second in hand, Teffinger watched it from a lounge chair on Del Rey’s patio under the shelter of the upper level deck. Jagged flashes of lightning ripped across the sky, whipping like a downed power line. Wild thunder ricocheted through the clouds with the power of a thousand maniac drums.
    It was raw.
    It was powerful.
    The force of it all worked its way Teffinger’s blood.
    It made him alive.
    It made him an animal.
    Del Rey stepped to the edge of the patio and stood under the water cascading off the upper deck. Her hair matted down and her blouse soaked to the skin. She swallowed what was left of her drink and threw the glass into the backyard.
    Then she went into a sensual, trancelike dance
    Her arms went up.
    Her hips swayed.
    Her lips opened.
    Her eyelids dropped.
    Every fiber of Teffinger’s being screamed for him take her, right now, this second, before the universe ticked even the smallest tick.
    He resisted.
    Instead he watched.
    He drank her in with his eyes.
    He let her into his blood.
    She stepped over and straddled him. The wetness of her thighs and her drenched shorts worked its way through his pants and onto his skin.
    It was good.
    It was right.
    It was destined.
    Her lips came to his, stopping just short, so close that the warmth of her breath filled every pore of his body. She licked his neck and pushed down with her body.
    Electricity ripped across the sky.
     
    In that split second Teffinger’s peripheral vision detected something out in the field, a long ways off, eighty or a hundred yards, possibly a dark silhouette, possibly a man. Before he could focus on it the world defaulted back to blackness.
    A heartbeat later another bolt of lightning flashed.
    The silhouette wasn’t there.
    He stared at exactly where it should be.
    It wasn’t there.
    There was only prairie grass whipping with a voodoo curse.
    “Teffinger, what’s wrong?”
    “I don’t know,” he said. “I thought I saw something.”
    “What?”
    “I don’t know.”
    He kept his concentration on the location and waited for the next explosion of lightning. I came quickly. Nothing was there that shouldn’t be. Still, his gut churned and he shifted to get up.
    “Get in the house, turn off all the lights and lock all the windows and doors,” he said.
    “Teffinger—”
    “Do it. Hide somewhere and don’t come out until I tell you to.”
    “Teffinger, this is crazy.”
    “I’m not taking any chances,” he said.
    “There’s nothing there,” she said. “It’s just a trick of the night.”
    “Get inside. I’ll be back.”
     
    He ran towards the mark.
    The weather immediately assaulted him with thick heavy pelts driven by a horizontal wind, working its wicked way into his eyes in spite of his best squinting. The world under his feet was black and uneven, twisting his ankles and stressing his knees.
    The rain soaked through his clothes.
    It made them heavy.
    It made them grip.
    He forced more power out of his body to compensate.
    His speed didn’t slow.
    With every pounding step he got closer and closer to whatever it was that was out there.
    He took another step, and another and another.
    His heart pounded.
    His chest heaved.
    Suddenly something was in front of him, low to the ground as if waiting, not part of the topography. It caught his foot on the upswing and sent him in a violent trip. He tried to brace before he smacked face-first into the ground but wasn’t fast enough. His forehead hit something hard and unforgiving. Fireworks shot through his brain. He got to his feet, staggered and then fell to the side.
    Everything went black.
     
    The next thing that happened was gunfire.
    It pulled him out a deep unconsciousness long before he was ready. It made him staggered to his feet. Then a voice shouted, “Don’t move!”
    He instinctively dived.
    It did no good.
    The gun went off again before he even hit the ground.

    25
    Day Four
    July 11
    Friday Night
     
    Teffinger rolled when he hit, not sure if