Jolene 1 Read Online Free

leaned forward, although his wrists caught the back of the chair so he could only go so far. “I didn’t do anything.”
    “Oh,” Jolene said, “forgive me for not believing that.”
    “Good morning!” Stranger exited the kitchen having heard their chatter. “I see everyone’s awake. Listen, Hightower’s about to throw some bacon on the skillet. Does everyone like pepper on their bacon? Afterward, he’ll scramble some eggs in the bacon grease. Ingenious. Are the two of you hungry? Because he’s cooking the whole package.”
    Jolene and Troy stared blankly back at Stanger. Actually, Jolene had started to think about the shotgun under her bed. And the pistol behind the headboard. Could either gun still be there? If Stranger and Hightower were the professionals Stranger claimed they were, probably not. If Jolene were in their shoes, the first thing she would have done would be to sweep the place. Didn’t matter where the guns were anyway without a way to use them.
    “Well, this is awkward,” said Stranger. “Look, if it were up to me, you’d both be dead and buried in unmarked graves deep in the woods right now. Obviously, we’ve had to improvise a little bit. So just sit tight. I’m waiting on a phone call. Once I get the word, I’ll let you decide between yourselves who gets offed first. Sound fair?”
    As Stranger returned to the kitchen, Troy whispered to Jolene, “I don’t know about that guy.”
    “Yeah.”
    “You think he’s crazy or it’s just a show? Like, to intimidate us?”
    Jolene sighed, her mind racing to find a way out of that chair. “I don’t know.”
    “I think it’s both,” Troy said. “I think he knows exactly what he’s saying. Exactly how insane he sounds. I think he’s enjoying himself.”
    Jolene attempted to tug her hands-free of the duct tape binding. “Might be why he chose this line of work. So you said you didn’t want to tell me why you’re here, but then you insisted you haven’t done anything. Did I understand that correctly?”
    Troy relaxed in his chair, his shoulders slouching. “Yeah. That’s about right.”
    Jolene ceased her escape attempt. The duct tape was tight. Nothing on the coffee table to help, just some old books she never got around to reading. And a candle. The remote sat on the television. A pair of scissors resided in the kitchen in the drawer with her silverware, but for many reasons, that did not help here.
    “Well,” Jolene said, “You either did or did not do something to provoke the wrath we are both now experiencing. So which is it?”
    Troy clicked his tongue, peeved. “If I say, isn’t that, like, entrapment?”
    Jolene shook her head. “I would have to coerce you into something stupid to constitute entrapment. What I’m asking about is any of the stupid things you’ve already done to get here.”
    “It wasn’t me,” Troy said. “Alright? It’s my sister. She got involved with a bad crowd.”
    “This crowd?”
    “I don’t know who specifically. From what I can tell, these guys aren’t distributors. They’re hitmen. They’re hitmen, right?”
    “Yeah, I think so. What’s that talk about distributors?”
    “My sister . . .” Troy hesitated. “She started selling cocaine. I swear I didn’t know until a few nights ago.”
    “I take it you learning about her affairs is what preceded your abduction?”
    “Actually,” said Troy, “she disappeared first. When I woke up the first time, before the big guy knocked me out again, the other one, Stranger, he asked me some things. Apparently my sister took off with some cash that didn’t belong to her.”
    “And now they want to know where she is.”
    “Yeah, but I don’t know where she is.”
    “How much money did she make off with?”
    “I don’t know.” Troy shrugged. “But I’m here.”
    Jolene glanced up at the clock. Nearly eight thirty. At some point, her deputies would become concerned about her absence. She should have been at the department by six