Deliver Me From Evil. Mary Monroe

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СКАЧАТЬ again. “You need to tell me who this is, and you need to tell me now,” he said in an impatient and amused tone of voice.

      “You’ll find out soon enough. Like I just said, we got your wife. And what a fine piece of tail she is! If you want her back with her pussy in one piece, you’ll do everything I tell you to do. Now, first thing is, you don’t call no cops, and you don’t tell nobody else about this. If you do, I’ll know about it, and you can forget about ever seeing this sweet little woman of yours again. Any questions?”

      Jesse Ray let out an impatient sigh. Then he laughed. He laughed. He cackled long and loud, like a hyena. My mouth dropped open, and I stared at the telephone. My life was at stake, and my husband was laughing!

      “Man, what the fuck is wrong with you? Didn’t you hear what I just said?”

      “I heard you,” Jesse Ray said, still laughing.

      “You think I’m playing? You think this is funny?”

      “Hell, yeah, this is funny,” Jesse Ray said, mumbling profanities under his breath. “But I got work to do, so you have to call me back at a better time.”

      I sat there in slack-jawed amazement. I could not believe what I had just heard.

      “Harvey, I know this is you. I’ve heard you use that same voice when you do your lame-ass impressions. I must say, you are beginning to sound more and more like the Godfather, so keep practicing,” my husband said in a stern voice. “But don’t practice on me. I’m a busy man.”

      “Shit! Look, I am not playing with you! Damn you to hell!”

      The room got so quiet, I could hear the water dripping in the sink in the bathroom across the hall.

      “Are you still there, motherfucker?” Wade shouted, kicking over a chair.

      “Yes, I’m still here.”

      “I told you, I wasn’t playing with you! Do you understand what I’m saying?”

      “And I am not playing with you, either, Harvey. You are my only brother and I love you, but you are one sick-ass puppy, and you need some serious help! I begged you for years to get some therapy, and you didn’t. Now look at what you are up to. Now let me get off this phone so I can get back to work.”

      Wade and I looked at each other at the same time. My mouth was hanging open wider than his. My husband had just hung up.

      CHAPTER 2

      Wade redialed the number to the video store, one of three that my husband owned and managed. Jesse Ray had worked hard to build his small empire, and he had taken me along for the ride. Not as an equal partner, but more like a paid companion. He never let me forget that it was his business, period.

      “Woman, you are a lot more trouble than you are worth,” Wade shouted at me, giving me a cold look. “You better pray that your old man comes through with that half a million bucks. All this drama I’m going through, I better get paid! What the hell kind of fool did you marry? What kind of man puts his wife’s kidnapper on hold?”

      “I told you, my husband doesn’t know I’ve been kidnapped,” I reminded.

      “This is some … Hello? Yes, I need to speak to Jesse Ray Thurman,” Wade yelled, tapping the top of the telephone with his finger.

      “Herro. This is Vlideo dwama.” The cute but heavily accented voice that answered this time belonged to Kim Loo, the twenty-two-year-old Korean woman who worked for my husband. Of all the people who worked for my husband, Kim was the most valuable. As his assistant manager in the main store, she was dependable, punctual, trustworthy, and smart. She even took care of all the accounting. Even though Kim was young and had some mysterious affiliations with the local Asian massage parlors, I didn’t worry about her working alone with my husband. She looked like a sumo wrestler and had the face of a mule.

      “I don’t believe this,” Wade hissed. He glared at the telephone like it was a pile of shit. He glanced at his watch as I sat there, with my heart beating about a mile a minute. “I said, put Mr. Thurman back on the telephone.”

      “Misser Turman busy,” Kim Loo said. “I happy to assist you. We are located at—”

      “Listen, bitch, I need to speak to your boss!”

      “Misser Thurman very busy,” Kim Loo answered in a shaky voice. In addition to the massage parlors, Kim had also run with one of the toughest Asian street gangs in the Bay Area. She was not a timid girl, but she sounded frightened now.

      “Busy my ass. Look, china doll, you put that black-ass nigger back on this telephone right now, or I’m going to come over there and teach him, and you, a lesson you won’t never forget!” Wade warned, still looking at the telephone with disgust.

      “Misser Thurman reely busy talking to his brother on other telephone,” Kim Loo explained. I was glad to hear that she no longer sounded frightened, but she did sound impatient. And under the circumstances, I didn’t know which was worse.

      My biggest fear was that she would put Wade on hold for ten minutes or hang up on him altogether. Like Jesse Ray, she was probably thinking that this call was a prank or some disgruntled customer. But if Jesse Ray was on the other line, talking to his brother, Harvey, he knew now that the caller he’d just hung up on was not his brother. That gave me some hope. I was almost as anxious to get this “incident” underway as Wade was.

      “Shit! I’m going to stay on this phone. You let your boss know that!”

      “Who I say is calling?”

      “Just tell him this concerns his wife and her whereabouts and her safety,” Wade answered with a smug look on his face. “You tell him that I’d like to make him an offer he can’t refuse. For the right price, he can have his wife back.”

      There was some mumbling on my husband’s end and, suddenly, a sharp, shrill yell. I couldn’t tell if it was coming from Kim Loo or Jesse Ray. But the next voice I heard belonged to my husband. “This is Jesse Ray Thurman,” my husband said, sounding more serious now. “Who are you, and what is this all about?”

      “You alone? And you better tell me the truth, motherfucker, because I ain’t playing,” Wade said in a firm and threatening manner. He no longer bothered to disguise his voice.

      “Uh, something like that,” Jesse Ray replied.

      “What the fuck does that mean? Are you alone or not?”

      “Uh, my assistant manager is here … and a few customers,” Jesse Ray muttered.

      “Get rid of them motherfuckers. Every last one of them! That chink heifer assistant manager, too!” Wade demanded.

      “Please hold on—”

      “Hell, no! Hold my ass! This shit has gone on long enough! You put me on hold again, and you won’t never see your wife again. It’s time to get down to business! Do you understand me, asshole?”

      “Yes, I … I do understand,” Jesse Ray said in a hollow voice. He paused, and I heard Kim Loo mumbling in the background as Jesse Ray dismissed her.

      “You СКАЧАТЬ