Read Online Detroit Combat by Randy Wayne White - Free Book Online Page A

why.
    â€œShit, you ought to see the tits on this bitch. Hell, this as good as gold to me, boy. I can make some dough off this woman, cop or no cop.” He gave a feral chuckle. “But first I’m going to have me a little taste of this.”
    Hawker was surprised the woman was able to play dumb as long as she did. It took one hell of a lot of courage and self-control. But she couldn’t play dumb now. With a wildcat screech, Riddock reached out and clawed the man’s face ferociously. The car swerved violently as Hawker reached back to help her—but the goon had the last say. He brought the .357 up, slapped Hawker away, then backhanded the woman twice, hard. He spit blood from his lips. “One more time,” he hissed, “one more wise-guy move, and I’ll blow your brains out and dump you in the ditch.” He grabbed Hawker’s hair and yanked his head back. “You best just keep on driving, buddy boy. You best just keep driving while I take me a little piece of this, because the moment you stop driving is the moment you die.”
    Hawker nodded perfunctorily and tried to tune out the woman’s initial screams as the man slapped her again and began to strip the clothes off her. The vigilante’s knuckles grew white on the wheel.
    Think of something!
    The woman’s screams had become sobs as the man wrestled himself into position. “Please,” she begged him. “Not this, please.…”
    Ahead, Hawker could see the starlight glimmer of another lake. He hit the bright beams. A dirt road veered gradually off the main road toward the lake. Hawker slowly increased speed and, at the same time, rolled down his window and the window on the passenger’s side.
    â€œHey, you trying to freeze my ass off?”
    â€œIt’s getting hot in here,” Hawker said calmly. “You two are steaming up the windows.”
    The man’s laugh was ugly. “I’m the only hot one back here—so far. I got me one real bad case of the hots for this little bitch.”
    Hawker swung gradually onto the dirt road, hoping the goon wouldn’t notice. The lake was coming up, and Hawker increased speed. The snow had smoothed the ruts. There was a gradual dirt incline, and Hawker hit it going fifty.
    â€œHear that, woman? We got the windows steamed up!” The goon cackled in the backseat. “Maybe you never been with a man before, huh? Maybe there’s a lot I could teach you if you’d just cooperate.”
    Holding the wheel tight on its course, Hawker called over his shoulder, “Hey, asshole!”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œGet her to teach you how to swim first.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI think we’re in for a touch of cool weather.”
    The Plymouth lifted off the incline, seemed to hold motionless in midair for a moment, then plummeted toward the quarry blackness of the lake.…

TEN
    The car tilted perilously, twisting in midair.
    Behind him, there was the animal bellow of the man as he fought to lift his head off the seat and see just what in the hell was going on. His bellow mixed with the quick intake of breath and short scream of the woman. Had it not been for his seat belt, Hawker would have been thrown out of control. Instead, he was still behind the wheel when the Plymouth plunged thunderously into the lake.
    With the windows open, icy water flooded through in a torrent. The water was more than just a surprise—it was shockingly cold; a numbing, bone-chilling, jaw-aching cold. The car wallowed, lifting and rolling in its own wake, then began to list sideways as it quickly filled with water.
    It was sinking—and sinking fast.
    The woman screamed in earnest now. Hawker shook his head groggily. Seat belt or no seat belt, something had given him a nasty blow to the head. Water was up over his thighs and he had to force his mind to work; force it to tell his numb hands and fingers what to do, step by step. The woman