and along came SPIDER ( A Martina Spalding Thriller ) (Spider Series Book 1) by J.R. WRIGHT

ask anyway.  “Did you get a fair settlement in the divorce?”
    “Are you kidding?  As
it turned out, he didn’t own anything.  The house we lived in and even the cars
we drove were all in his father’s name.”
    “Didn’t you think that
was a little strange?” Marti said through the opening from the kitchen.
    “I was blown away by
it.  And so was the court.  But I didn’t care.  I just wanted out.”  Tears then
began flowing down Gloria’s cheeks.  She used her bulky white robe to dab them
away.  “I should have known, though, the way he insisted I pay the household
expenses from my income.”
    “Did he make you keep
your job… or was that your idea?”
    “Oh, hell, yes!  That
was understood before we tied the knot.  He didn’t want another wife lounging
around the house all day, as his first had done.”
    Martina came to Gloria
with a steaming hot cup of tea, then took a cup to the easy chair and sat it on
the adjacent table.  “Would you care for a little brandy in yours, Gloria?” 
She knew Gloria preferred hers that way and returned to the kitchen for the
bottle.
    “Yes, thank you,”
Gloria responded, wondering what she would be doing now without Martina here to
comfort her.  “You’re an angel!”
    “You’d do the same for
me,” Marti said, but her mind was on Raym Koffee.  Where could she find a
picture of him?  She thought that important to know.  Should he come around
again, she then would know to be on her guard.  In fact, if he were here now,
she knew exactly what she would to do to him.  The sonofabitch!
    “Were you here in the
apartment when he beat you?” Marti asked. 
    “In his car.”  Gloria’s
eyes watered again as the horror of it all flashed through her mind again.  “He
dumped me out at the curb when finished with me.  Like some bag of garbage.”
    “Oh, Gloria!”  Marti
went to her.  “The cheap bastard!  He carries on an affair with you in his
car?”
    “Not usually,” Gloria
said, amused at Martina’s animated tirade.  “He has a small studio apartment
across town for that.”  She sniffled and fumbled with the robe.  “Today was
different.  He got angry when I told him this was the last time.  He beat me as
he drove.  And then, at some place under a bridge, he pulled me out of the car
and into some bushes.  That’s where he ripped off my clothes and raped me.  Then
afterward, he beat and kicked me some more.”
    “Oh my God!  This has
to be reported!”  Martina began pacing the floor again.
    “You see!” Gloria
shouted out.  “That’s why I didn’t want you to know, Martina.  Apparently you
weren’t listening.  This guy could kill me, or have me killed.  If you knew him
like I do, you would know it’s true.  There’s nothing I can do.”
    “At least let me get
you to a hospital.  You should be checked out for internal injuries.”
    “Don’t forget, I’m a
nurse too.  I’d know if I needed medical attention.”
    And so it went for
another hour.  In that time Gloria got sufficiently drunk on the brandy for
sleep.  Marti helped her to bed, then sat with her until she was resting
peacefully.  Sleep, however, didn’t come as readily for Martina.  She laid
awake for hours mauling over all the information Gloria had given her.  She
desperately wanted to do something to help her friend, but outside of going to
the cops, she was at a loss as to exactly what.  But she wasn’t about to give
up on account of that, regardless of the extremes to which she needed to go. 
Perhaps she ought to check into buying a gun.  God knows she had plenty of
experience in using them.  Her father had seen to that with the numerous times
he had taken her hunting or just plinking tin cans at her grandfather’s farm,
using his arsenal of weapons of near every kind. 
    However, a gun was only
part of the equation.  One could prove to be useful in protecting her friend,
but what she needed was a plan to rid this animal from