Rogue by Gina Damico Read Free Book Online Page B

into our car?”
    “Norwood’s primary objective,” said Uncle Mort, “is to beat us to Necropolis. Guaranteed. The president leans much closer to his side than to ours, I’m afraid, and he’s going to exploit that as best he can. He knows what we’re up to—”
    “He knows we’re trying to destroy the portals?”
    “Maybe not that specifically, but he knows we’re up to something nefarious. He’ll want to stop us, and you can bet he’ll convince the president of it too. By the time we get to Necropolis, it’s likely the whole city will be on the lookout, ready to stop us at any cost. Especially Lex.”
    Lex flinched. Elysia—who apparently didn’t give a fig that Lex now had a record of strangling her peers—noticed her discomfort and gave her arm a loving squeeze. Lex let out a long breath toward the ceiling, half expecting the coursing air to be filled with gnats and locusts. She was evil, after all. And she sure didn’t deserve friends like this. They should all be as mad at her as Ferbus was, especially Driggs. She didn’t deserve sympathetic squeezes. She didn’t even deserve to be in the same solar system as these people.
    She should be punished. She should be in the Hole.
    Her nerves jolted at the thought. The Hole was the worst imaginable kind of punishment for Grims—a deep, dark pit in the middle of Necropolis. It deprived them of the bliss of the Afterlife for as long as possible, keeping them alive but under horrific conditions. Lex and the Juniors had been sentenced to it but had managed to escape before anyone could drag them there.
    She doubted they’d be that lucky again.
    “So we’ll drive as far as we can,” Uncle Mort said, finishing up his talk, “and then hide out for the night. I know a place that should be able to hold all nine of us.”
    “Nine?” Pip asked after getting an elbow to the ribs from Bang, who’d CBan

    Uncle Mort glanced at Pandora, then back at the Juniors. “Okay, kids. Brace yourselves. And try not to yell
too
much.”
    Elysia’s hand tensed on Lex’s arm. “I hate when he says that,” she whispered.
    Uncle Mort gave them a sympathetic smile. “Remember that old chestnut about the wickedest Grim of all time?”
    He poundedon the roof. Grotton’s head popped down through the ceiling, a snaky grin stretching from ear to ear.
    The screams were so loud, Dora nearly drove into a tree.



4
     
    The stuffed buffalo head on the wall stared straight ahead, its dead eyes unconcerned with the plight of the odd crew that had just pulled in off the highway.
    “You really think stopping here is a good idea?” Lex asked her uncle, eyeing the buffalo. A strange decoration for a small-town deli, to be sure, but then again Lex wasn’t really up to date on the interior design trends of small-town upstate New York.
    “Of course,” Uncle Mort said, counting out a stack of bills and placing them on the counter. “Don’t you think a cross-country run-for-our-lives road trip just screams ‘time for a picnic’?”
    “I would not have thought that, no.”
    “Well, that’s because you’re a total noob.”
    The girl reappeared behind the counter with two bagfuls of wrapped sandwiches. “That’ll be sixty-seven dollars and two cents,” she said, smiling sweetly at Uncle Mort.
    “Thanks,” he said, giving her a wink as he handed her the bills. “Keep the change, hon.”
    She giggled. Lex rolled her eyes.
    “Smooth move, Clooney,” Lex said as they exited the deli. “Do we need to pencil in some time for a sexy rendezvous? I think there’s a motel down the street that rents rooms by the hour.”
    “Pop quiz, hotshot: Let’s say someone shows up in this town and starts asking questions about a hooligan band of teenagers accompanied by two ghosts, an ancient woman, and a devastatingly attractive chaperone. Which one do you think that girl will be more likely to remember?”
    Lex grumbled. “The chaperone.”
    “You seem to have forgotten a couple of key