Broken World by Kate L. Mary Read Free Book Online Page A

about control with him.
    “Whatever, Angus.” I turn back around.
    He doesn’t say anything else. The pages
of his magazine crinkle. Guess he went back to his Penthouse. Gross.
    Axl climbs back in and starts the car.
When he pulls into a parking space, the sudden urge to get out of the car overwhelms
me. Being in here between the brothers makes me feel like I’m trapped in a
mine. Just a couple days. That’s it.
    The air in the diner is smoky and thick.
There is one open table. The waitress who leads us there probably hasn’t slept
in a week. Her eyes droop. She has a thick raspy voice and an even thicker
cough. Smoker.
    “I’ll grab you folks some water and be
right back.” She barely glances at us as we sit down.
    Joshua and I take one side. The brothers
take the other. Axl keeps his eyes on his menu, but Angus glares at me. He
brought his can. How am I going to eat with him spitting in that thing?
    Joshua can’t sit still. He studies the
menu for a few minutes, then glances up at Angus’s hard stare. Then back down
at the menu. Back and forth it goes. He makes me more nervous than Angus does.
    Finally he jumps up. “I have to use the
bathroom. If she comes back, I’ll take a burger and fries.” He hurries away
without looking at any of us.
    “What the hell is goin’ on?” Axl asks as
soon as Joshua walks away. He looks at his brother, not exactly glaring, but
almost.
    “Nothin’. Just had a talk with the
stripper earlier. Wanted to make sure she knew she couldn’t screw her way
between us.” Angus spits into the can.
    Axl rubs the bridge of his nose like the
conversation hurts his head. He’s not alone. “Nobody is screwin’ anybody. Just
drop it, will you?” He won’t even look at me when he says, “Tell him.”
    “Look, no offense, but you guys aren’t
exactly my type.” Lumping the two of them together isn’t really fair. Truth is,
now that I’ve been around Axl a little more, I don’t think he’s a thing like
his brother. But I want Angus to get over this and convince him I’m not
interested. Because I’m not. I’m really, really not. “Men like you are pretty
much the reason I don’t date anymore. I have a bad track record. It usually
ends up with me getting the shit beat out of me.”
    Angus smiles, like the sound of someone
beating me up appeals to him. It probably does. Axl’s stormy eyes flash. They
are so similar to his brother’s, but so different.
    But do I detect a little bit of hurt in
them?
    Axl tears his gaze away from me and faces
his brother. “There. Good ‘nough?”
    Angus seems to relent a little. His body
relaxes. “Fine. Wouldn’t want to make the good doctor uncomfortable or anythin’.
We may need him.”
    Axl goes back to his menu. I actually
agree with Angus. We have no idea what’s going to happen. What if this is the
end? Having a doctor in our group might be a good thing.
    Joshua isn’t back before the waitress,
so we order for him. The second she’s gone I get to my feet. “I’m going to
pee.”
    The diner is crowded. I have to squeeze
my way between waitresses and patrons, dodging trays and elbows. I bet they
haven’t had a crowd like this in here since the 1950s.
    There’s a line for the restroom. I stand
at the back and dig through my purse until I find Emily’s picture. She smiles
at me, and my heart aches.
    I didn’t want to give her up, but I was
sixteen. It wasn’t safe in my home—if you could even call it that—and there was
no way I could bring a baby there. It was just me and my dad. Mom had run off
with a neighbor when I was ten. Not that I can blame her for leaving, but I do
blame her for leaving me . She must have known dad would need a new
punching bag if she left. She obviously didn’t care. That hurts even more than
the beatings did. That she didn’t care about me.
    I loved Emily the moment I saw her. She
was so tiny and pink, and her face was all smashed in from birth, so ugly-cute
like all newborns. I loved her