Read No Turning Back (The Traveler) for Free Online

block away
    The Volvo continued moving and hit the curb, running up on the sidewalk.
    Angered by the turn of events, and tired of being civil to a lying woman, Johnny fired three shots as Gabrielle leaned toward the door to make a second attempt of escape. And with Eugene losing control of the wheel, all three bullets missed her. But when the passenger side door slammed hard into a street pole, the heavy green door smashed Gabrielle’s right arm and shoulder.
    She groaned in agony. The door swung back open as she began to hang halfway out of the car.
    Johnny took aim at her with the gun at point-blank range. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, the passenger side door slammed hard again into a telephone pole.
    The ferocious jolt of the pole against the swinging car door crushed Gabrielle’s body in between the hard metal and the pole, while Johnny’s head launched into the windshield, breaking his neck upon impact.
    The windshield shattered into broken shards of glass as the man’s body went limp against the dashboard.
    Once the car had come to a stop on the curb, only the driver, Eugene, had survived the wreck, with a broken left wrist, a dislocated shoulder, and minor scratches to his right arm, face and neck. Gabrielle’s battered body slumped out of the passenger side door.
    “Oh my God!” a young mother bawled from the sidewalk with her daughter in hand. She couldn’t stomach to look at it. She sunk her head into her hands and closed her eyes as her daughter broke into terrified tears.

Chapter 5
    Saturday afternoon at Gary’s record store, Taylor looked toward the front entrance and froze.
You’ve got to be kidding me!
    His eyes stretched wide and his heart skipped a beat from behind the cash register. Melissa Weddington was walking in, accompanied by the young blonde who had flirted with Gary at the store earlier. She was still wearing the company’s colorful T-shirt.
    Taylor dashed into the back to warn Gary, who was organizing boxes of records and CDs in the back of the store.
    “Gary, the girl from earlier just walked in with Melissa.”
    Gary looked at him and paused, perplexed over what Taylor was telling him.
    “What?”
    “You know, the blonde who bought this ugly shirt from you this morning. Well, she just walked in with Melissa, and she’s still wearing the shirt.”
    “Do they know each other?”
    “I don’t know, but they walked in together,” Taylor informed him. “And I’m sure Melissa recognizes the shirt.”
    Gary nodded and thought about what to do. “Okay, well, I don’t know what’s going on, so I’ll just play it cool. You walk back out, and I’ll come out only if Melissa asks for me.”
    Taylor nodded back.
    As soon as Taylor returned to the cash register out front, Melissa and Valerie were waiting for him.
    “Hey, is Gary in the back? I need to speak to him for a minute,” Melissa asked civilly. She was gorgeous with dark-brown hair, a radiant smile and beige safari shorts, a white tank top and sandals over her perfectly tanned skinned from a summer vacation in Negril, Jamaica. She made Valerie look like an eye-candy cheerleader in an attention-getting shirt that was obviously too tight for her.
    Taylor and the other staff members responded curiously.
    Okay, he just needs to find out what’s going on,
Taylor told himself.
If anyone can handle this, it’s Gary.
He had witnessed his friend work magic with aggravated women before.
    “All right, I’ll go back and let him know.”
    Gary walked out a few minutes behind Taylor, careful to keep his cool.
    “Hey, what’s going on? I see you made it over today a little earlier than expected,” he commented. It was only after three. He didn’t expect to hear from or see Melissa until closing time. He didn’t acknowledge Valerie at all. She still had a great set of twins in his company tee, but that was about it. Nothing else about her could stand up next to Melissa’s bounty. It was a no-brainer for a sporting man. So