Deliver Me From Evil. Mary Monroe

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СКАЧАТЬ assistant is taking care of them,” Jesse Ray said sharply, sucking in his breath. “Now who is this, and what is this all about?”

      “This is about you getting your wife back and me getting paid.”

      “Listen, whoever the hell you are. I don’t know what kind of scam you are trying to pull, but it won’t work on me. Now, whoever the hell this is, if you call here again, I’m going to call the police. I don’t have time to play games. Is that clear?”

      “Motherfucker! You stop talking crazy! This is for real! We got your wife, and if you want her back, you’ll do what I say!”

      Jesse Ray let out an exasperated sigh. “My wife is at the beauty parlor. I dropped her off there myself a couple of hours ago.”

      I sat as still and stiff as a statue, looking from the telephone to Wade. At this point, Wade looked at me and pointed at me, then at the telephone.

      “You know what to say,” he whispered, shaking a fist and giving me a threatening look.

      I cleared my throat and closed my eyes as I spoke. “J.R … honey, it’s me,” I whimpered. “I’ve been kidnapped, baby, and I’m … I’m so scared.”

      CHAPTER 3

      “What the hell? Christine? Baby, what is this?” my husband asked in a low, steely voice. “Honey, where are you?” Jesse Ray was yelling now, and he sounded terrified. “Are you all right? Have you been harmed?” His voice was trembling so hard, I could almost feel it vibrating through the telephone.

      “I’m fine … for now. Please do what they tell you to do,” I pleaded, with a sob. “If you don’t … they … they are going to kill me.”

      “Shit!” Jesse Ray roared.

      “Baby, go into your office so you can have some privacy. I don’t want Kim Loo to know what’s going on.” I didn’t plan on it, but I let out a sharp sob and a loud sniff. My tongue felt like it had doubled in size, and it was flopping up and down in my mouth so hard, I could barely talk. “Baby, I’m so scared,” I managed.

      A few excruciating moments of silence passed, and I kept my eyes closed until I heard my husband’s voice again.

      “I’m in my office now,” Jesse Ray said, breathing hard. He yelled for Kim Loo to hang up the other phone. Then I heard a door slam and a glass crash to the floor. “Baby, talk to me,” he bleated.

      “J.R., don’t let anybody hear anything you say,” I warned, scraping my tongue with my teeth.

      “They won’t. I’m alone in my office, with the door closed,” Jesse Ray said in a guarded tone of voice. “Don’t you worry about a thing, honey,” he told me, his voice sounding tired and raspy now. I could imagine how hard he was sweating. Jesse Ray was the kind of man who got nervous real quick.

      “J.R., don’t call the cops. Don’t tell anybody about this,” I said, sounding as hysterical as one might expect a kidnapped woman to sound. “Please get me out of this mess. I … I want to come home—” Wade pushed me roughly to the side as he leaned toward the telephone.

      “Satisfied? You believe me now? This sound like a game to you now?” Wade asked, screaming toward the phone so hard, spit flew out of both sides of his mouth.

      “Yes, I … I believe you,” Jesse Ray stuttered.

      “And by the way, this juicy butt, big-legged woman of yours looks mighty delicious to me … yum-yum. If there’s a bitch better than this one sitting in front of me now, God kept her for himself. I will do my best and try to be a good boy. Uh, I’ll try to keep my hands to myself, but I am a man.”

      “Shit! Don’t you touch my wife!” Jesse Ray shouted.

      “Then you better get me my money on time before I lose control. And I know, you know what I mean.”

      “Don’t hurt my wife …. Please don’t hurt my wife,” Jesse Ray said, this time in a weak, pleading voice.

      “That’s up to you. You do what I tell you to do, and everything will be all right.”

      “What do you want?” Jesse Ray asked, his voice trembling. “I’m not a rich man ….”

      “Bullshit! And Santa Claus ain’t got nothing to do with Christmas,” Wade said, then laughed. “Brother, you rich enough for me! I got friends in all the right places, so I know just as much about your business as you do. I know what your black ass is worth!”

      “How … much do you want?” my husband asked.

      “Do you love your wife, my man?”

      Jesse Ray hesitated before he answered. And that gave me something else to worry about. “Yes. I love my wife very much,” he said finally. “I have always loved my wife, and I always will. She means the world to me.” I breathed a sigh of relief.

      “Then you’d be willing to pay to get her back.” I couldn’t tell if the sentence was a statement or a question, because Wade winked at me when he said it.

      “I just told you, I am not a rich man. I don’t care what you heard about me. I’m a working man,” Jesse Ray said, raising his voice again. “I don’t know why you decided to grab my wife of all people. Especially since the Bay Area is full of men with a lot more money than I’ll ever have—and the women they love. Sean Penn’s wife, Mick Jagger’s daughter. Why my woman?”

      “Well, I know about all them rich folks, but I ain’t that greedy,” Wade said, with a sinister chuckle. “And I don’t want to put myself in no position that might attract a lot of attention. I ain’t fool enough to snatch no famous person’s woman.”

      “But you are fool enough to snatch mine?”

      “Don’t you get cute with me, motherfucker! I’m the one in charge here! And I just told you, I know what you worth. I done my homework. You want your wife back. I want my money. It’s as simple as that. Do you understand me, motherfucker?”

      “I understand,” Jesse Ray mumbled.

      “Good! Now just to show you that I ain’t one of them greedy bastards you read about in the newspaper, all I want is half a million dollars.” Wade was as cool as a block of ice. He could not have sounded more casual if he’d been ordering a glass of wine.

      Jesse Ray gasped and started coughing. It took him almost a minute to compose himself. “A half a million dollars? Mister, you must be out of your goddamn mind! Who the hell do you think you are?”

      “I’m the man with the gun and your wife. You’ll get me my money, or you won’t never see your wife alive again.”

      “I don’t know who the fuck this is, but whoever you are, you are talking like you’re crazy as hell!”

      “No, brother. You are the one talking crazy.”

      “Look, be reasonable. This is not P. Diddy or Donald Trump or Bill Gates you’re talking to!” Jesse Ray shouted. “I told you, I am just a working man. I live from payday to payday. I buy my suits from СКАЧАТЬ