Monster by Jessica Gadziala Read Free Book Online

just be to torment me before he came and
took me out as well. Probably making me watch him rape and torture
Alex before he did me in just to prove he had the upper hand. “And
so would Alex,” I added.
    Paine
sighed. “Just hide her somewhere, man. Give her some food and
cash and a burner and tell her that if she doesn't hear from you in
two weeks, to take off. She's a hacker... she can
get herself a new identity. She can disappear.”
    “Then what, man?
Wait for Lex to drag me in and kill me?”
    Paine shrugged. “Or
find a way to take him out.”
    “What? By myself?
You said yourself, criminal armies have tried and failed, man.”
    “Yeah, but the
girl you got locked up... she's been looking into him... she's prolly
got a lot on him. Stuff you can use. Ask her for access to it. See if
you can use any of it to find a way to take him out.”
    “And you expect
me to be able to do this all fuckin' level-headed knowin' he's got
Shoot and doing god knows what to him?”
    “Ain't helping
him by standing here talking to me now are ya?”
    Well, he had a point.
    “Go home. Get
some sleep. Get that poor girl some food. Then get her to agree to
let you look over her files.”
    “Yeah,” I
said, putting my glass down, suddenly feeling the weariness seep into
my bones.
    I couldn't bring myself
to go home, instead grabbing a sleeping bag and sleeping at the top
landing of the stairs leading to the train car. When I had checked in
on her when I got back, I had found her burrowed under the blankets I
had given her, lying on her side, hood up, hands under her face in
prayer position, dead asleep.
    On a cold, hard, dirty,
bloody metal floor.
    Feeling very much like
the worst kind of savage, I fell into an exhausted sleep.

Six

    Alex

    Waking felt a bit like
death warmed up. Every bone in my body felt brittle. My skin felt
frozen and the entire side that had been lying on the ground felt
sore. I sniffled against the cold morning air, pushing slowly into a
seated position, grumbling as everything creaked and objected to
motion.
    My hand went up and
across my body, massaging the sore muscles of my shoulder.
    “Sorry about the
floor,” Breaker's voice found me and my head jerked up to find
him watching me from beside the doors, leaning against the wall,
looking very much like he had been there a while.
    “Were you
watching me sleep, you creep?” I asked, my words more than a
little surly. I was not, in any way shape or form, a morning person.
Least of all when I spent my night tossing and turning on a cold,
hard floor.
    “It's noon,”
he said, shrugging.
    “That's not an
answer,” I said, slowly getting onto my feet, rolling my
shoulders.
    “Come here,”
his voice called, sounding almost soft.
    My brow went up. “Is
that an order?”
    “Christ, woman,
how are you so moody the second after you wake up?”
    “Maybe it has
something to do with being held against my will,” I said,
crossing my hands over my chest.
    “Or maybe you're
just a bitch,” he said, giving me a smirk.
    I felt my eyes lower.
“You're an asshole.”
    “Yep,” he
agreed, not the least offended. “Now come over here,” he
urged, letting his hands drop down by his sides.
    Alright.
    It was crazy to go to
him.
    I knew that. On a
rational level.
    But someone did not
tell my feet that.
    Which
may or may not have had something to do with the fact that the cold,
hard floor wasn't the only reason I had been tossing and turning all
night. No, that also had a little something to do
with a dream I kept having involving the badass blonde-haired,
bearded, Hulk of a man telling me to come to him.
    Let's just say the
dream was very vivid.
    And very dirty.
    When I was within a
foot of him, his arms moved out, reaching for my shoulders, and
sinking into them- wrenching a half-groan, half-whimper out of my
mouth. At that, the humor dropped from his lips and his eyes got
intense.
    “Why are you
massaging my shoulders?” I asked, having to lick my dry