Deadly Embrace Jackie Collins (the reader ebook .TXT) 📖

She refused to allow her son to grow up in an atmosphere where there was no love or respect, and as each day passed, she and Sam seemed to argue more and more.

She had to make a decision. And the sooner she made that decision, the better it would be for all of them.

Chapter Twenty-one

Tuesday, 10 July 2001

‘I can’t breathe,’ Natalie said, gasping for air. ‘I think I’m about to faint.’

‘Don’t!’ Madison said. She was equally scared, but desperately trying not to show it. Her face was splattered with blood and there was a tight knot of horror in her stomach from the senseless murder she’d just witnessed. She kept on thinking of Jake, and wishing he were there to protect them.

The gunman, in a fit of anger and frustration, suddenly ripped off his ski mask and threw it on to the ground. He was pale and thin-faced, with pointed features and a long nose. His hair was cut close to his head, Marine style, his skin was shiny with sweat, and he had wild, staring, stoned eyes.

He looks like one of those neo-Nazis, Madison thought. Or one of those skinheads who hate everybody.

‘See what you made me do!’ he screamed. ‘See what you mothafuckers made me do! Get me a fuckin’ van, or I’ll shoot another of you.’ He retreated to the other side of the room, where he and his two cohorts formed a tight group.

Cole removed the cloth from one of the tables and draped it over the girl who had been shot. She was obviously dead.

The women hostages were wailing and sobbing. The male ones were just plain scared.

‘He’s a kid,’ Madison whispered to Cole. ‘Did you see his face?’

‘I saw it all right,’ Cole said grimly. ‘Wish I hadn’t.’

‘I know,’ she agreed. ‘He can’t be more than seventeen or eighteen.’

‘Listen,’ he said, in a low voice, ‘I’m gonna try an’ talk to some of the guys, see if we can take ’em.’

‘No, Cole. He’s got an Uzi, he could kill every one of us.’

‘I don’t think so,’ Cole said.

‘Why not?’ Madison said urgently. ‘He’s already killed twice, he’s got nothing to lose.’

‘We can take him, Maddy. Like you said, he’s a kid.’

‘Surely you know what kids are capable of?’ she argued. ‘Remember the Columbine School massacre?’

‘Then what’re we supposed to do?’ Cole asked, completely frustrated. ‘Sit here and take it? Give him a chance to pick us off one by one?’

Cole was right: they had to do something. But then, it was foolish to take risks.

‘I need to talk to that hostage negotiator again,’ she said, feeling strangely brave. ‘It appears they have no intention of getting a van here. Maybe I can convince them.’

The main gunman swaggered into the centre of the room. Now that he’d removed his ski mask he seemed boastful and triumphant. He surveyed his captives.

Madison raised her hand. She noticed white powder on the tip of his nose and her stomach flip-flopped.

‘What the fuck d’you want?’ he yelled, eyes glittering dangerously.

‘Let me speak to the negotiator again.’

‘You did shit last time.’

‘I know I can help,’ she said, her words almost tripping over each other. ‘Please, can I give it another try?’

‘Yeah,’ he sneered. ‘Tell ’em what went down here. An’ tell ’em that in fifteen fuckin’ minutes I’m shootin’ another one.’

‘I don’t want to be alone tonight,’ Sofia said, as the Bentley pulled up in front of the boarding-house she was staying in.

‘Excuse me?’ Gianni said. He had never met anyone like Sofia before: she was a girl full of surprises.

‘I don’t want to be alone tonight,’ she repeated, biting her lower lip. ‘Have you got a floor or something I can camp out on?’

He raised an eyebrow, surprised. ‘Are you asking to come home with me?’

‘You’re trustworthy, aren’t you?’ she said, deciding that he was. ‘And anyway,’ she added, ‘you know what I can do if you’re not. Scream bloody murder.’

‘I’m staying in a hotel. If you like, I will book you into a room.’

‘You don’t understand,’ she explained. ‘It’s not that I need a room, it’s, like, I can’t be alone right now.’

‘You can’t be alone,’ he repeated.

‘Sometimes I get totally freaked in the middle of the night and have bad dreams.’

‘You wish to sleep with me?’

‘Not sleep with you,’ she corrected. ‘Be in the same room.’

‘You are making no sense, young lady,’ he said sternly.

‘Hey, c’mon, don’t call me young lady like you’re some old dude ready for the graveyard. How old are you anyway?’

‘Forty-six. I’m sure, as far as you’re concerned, forty-six is an old…dude.’

‘Are you gay?’ she asked, fixing him with a direct gaze.

‘Do I look gay?’ he replied, affronted.

‘No,’ she said, thinking that he looked like he’d stepped out of a magazine ad for expensive male fashions. ‘Thing is, these days one never knows. Actually,’ she added, with a sigh, ‘I wish you were.’

‘You do?’

‘Jace, one of my best friends, was gay. The problem was there was no way I could keep tabs on him. We were travelling round Europe together, and he kept on, like, totally getting himself into weird situations.’

‘What sort of situations?’

‘Stuff you wouldn’t approve of.’

‘May I ask how old you are?’

‘Um…uh…eighteen.’

‘How long have you been travelling round Europe by yourself?’

‘It’s cool,’ she said, not wishing to get into a discussion about her travels.

‘If you were my daughter it wouldn’t be…cool.’

‘My dad doesn’t give a shit,’ she said, shrugging. ‘He’s probably glad to be rid of me.’

‘Where is your father?’

‘Who knows?’ she said vaguely. ‘Sometimes he’s in New York, sometimes Vegas. That’s where I’m from, y’know, Las Vegas.’

‘People are actually born there?’

‘What did you think? That everyone goes there just to lose their money?’

‘Las Vegas is an odd place.’

‘You ever visited?’

‘Once, for a special charity event.’

‘Of course,’ she said sarcastically. ‘Why else would a dignified man like you be caught dead in a hokey place like Vegas?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘You’re, like, so up yourself,’ she said, shivering.

‘I beg