Текст книги "Monster"

Автор книги: Jessica Gadziala

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

Nineteen

Breaker

I didn't sleep. Which was stupid as fuck. I needed to be sharp. Have my wits about me. Especially since I hadn't been able to find Alex. Not a trace. She was smoke. And also because I hadn't found a way into Lex's place before he got back to try to get Shoot out.

Rock. Hard place.

Because I still had to go in.

I had to show my face.

Feed him some lie about Alex not being with me.

Hell, tell him I couldn't unbreak her. That I had to get rid of her like he had suggested. He'd be pissed, but I would likely still get to keep my life. Maybe even get Shoot's too if Lex was in a good enough mood. I guess it all depended on how his meeting went.

Lex's place, like mine, was situated on a hill. Unlike mine, his had a walled-in perimeter and a manned security gate, two of his goons sitting in the booth bullshitting when I pulled up.

“Truck stays out here,” they told me and, given I didn't have a choice, I nabbed my keys and hopped out. And then, as expected, I was frisked and relieved of the two guns I had on me. Stupid fucks didn't check my boots. There was a knife in each. Not that they would do me too much good against his little army with an impressive assortment of guns, but it was something.

The gates slid open and I walked up the curving drive toward the house.

And by 'house', I meant 'mansion' because Lex lived big. Twelve-thousand square feet big. Three car garage. Endless windows (bullet resistant all). A grounds that included a tennis court, pool, and stable. Lex didn't play tennis, he never learned how to swim, and I suspected he wouldn't know a horse from a German Shepherd.

If you looked close, you would see the security cameras. And then you would notice the shadows lurking that could have been trees, but were actually men. And they were men with guns strapped to their backs.

Yeah. There was a good chance I wasn't walking out of there no matter what kind of mood Lex was in.

But, for the first time, I couldn't bring myself to really give a fuck. I just wanted to get the meeting over with.

As I rounded on the front door, one of the men moved into view, jerking his chin at me before opening the door and letting me inside.

It was as lavish and over the top as one could expect of a twelve-thousand foot estate. Dark wood. Deep tones. Expensive, very professionally placed furniture. Straight ahead was a horseshoe staircase with white (yes... white) carpeting. There was a hallway beneath it that seemed to lead toward the kitchen/dining area. To the left of the front door was a sitting room with a giant fireplace and bookshelves full of heavy tombs I was sure Lex had never even looked inside. To the right was yet another sitting room but that one had a grand piano and obnoxious, pretentious art on the walls and statues stationed around.

I wondered if he realized how his house looked to an outsider. How painfully obvious it was that he was trying to erase all the traces of the homeless street kid he had been back in the day. A kid who never learned how to play piano or pronounce the names of classical musicians. A kid who had never even heard of Proust or Machiavelli.

Granted, I didn't know shit about them either. But I wasn't trying to fuckin' act like I did.

“He wants you to see him downstairs,” the nameless guard said, nodding his head toward the hallway and I moved toward it, him a few feet to my back.

Downstairs.

As in the basement.

Great.

“Through here,” he said, leading me into the kitchen and opening a door that had wooden stairs leading downward. “You go alone.”

Double great.

“Right,” I said, nodding, and moving toward the stairs. No use putting off the inevitable.

I had been half expecting cinderblocks and barred windows. Maybe I should have known better. Estates like his had finished basements as a rule. His was no exception. I hit the landing and was in a sprawling space. Sand-colored tile floors, a deep reddish orange paint to the walls, a bar stationed far to one end beside a door.

That door was the only ominous thing in the room.

The rest of it looked like a place a man went to to relax, get away from his nagging wife, jerk off to embarrassing porn.

“Breaker,” Lex's voice called and I saw him closing the door beside the bar and coming toward me.

“Lex,” I said, nodding.

“Where's Alex?”

Right to it then.

“Not here,” I said, shrugging.

“I can see that,” he said, his voice getting icy. “Care to explain yourself?”

“Not particularly.”

“I'm not a man you want to play games with, Bryan.”

“Not playin' games, Lex. She ain't here. I don't feel like talkin' 'bout it. Not a game. Just how shit is.”

“It's amazing to me that you're still breathing,” he said oddly, his head tilting to the side as if it was something that truly confused him.

“Why's that, Lex?”

“Because you either lack the respect or the brains to realize who you should watch your tongue around.”

“That's me, a stupid, reckless, pain in the ass.”

“Used to be people put up with it because you got the job done and didn't ask questions or screw around. It seems that is something that has changed about your reputation.”

“Look,” I said, holding back a sigh. “Save me the lecture. Save your money. Just give me Shoot and we can both go our separate ways.”

“You see,” he started in a tone I immediately didn't trust, “that would normally be how we would handle this. You are an asset to have around even if you did screw up this job. But, unfortunately, things have... transpired since we last spoke.”

This time, I let out the sigh. “What's transpired?”

“How about a drink? Scotch? Whiskey? Vodka? What kind of man are you?”

The kind who didn't take liquor from shitheads the likes of Lex. But I could sense I was already rocking the boat and I didn't need to make matters worse. “Whiskey is fine,” I said, generally preferring vodka. But at the thought of that, an image of Alex drunk off her ass on it flew into my head– giggling, saying silly shit, coming hard and repeatedly from my mouth and cock.

Yeah. Whiskey was a better bet.

Lex moved over to the bar and I followed, wanting to keep an eye on him. He was a slimy shit. I wouldn't put it past him to slip something into my drink. But, in the end, he didn't. He just poured us each a round and we drank.

“How about we go see your friend?” Lex suggested, putting his glass back down on the bar.

“My friend?” I asked, putting my glass down as well. He had to be talking about Shooter. But why the fuck would he want to show him to me? Unless he was planning on making an example of him.

Fuck.

“Sure,” Lex said, moving to that door that I knew as bad news. “Right through here.”

Again, not having a choice, I followed.

I got my cinderblocks. But no bars. Because there were no windows. Just fluorescent bar lights across the ceiling. There were men inside. Two. Limp Dick Rick (who must have been a favorite of Lex's seeing as he was always glued to the fucker's hip), and some guy I had never seen before– younger, but solid, brown hair and eyes, utterly forgettable, standing beside a door to a small room that I figured was a bathroom.

But my eyes took all that in in about two seconds. Because on the third second, my eyes fell on Shooter. He was sitting on a metal chair in the middle of the room. Casually. Not cuffed or tied to it. Just sitting there, shoulders back, legs wide, looking almost comfortable. There were bruises on his face and I felt my blood turn to lava at the sight. Of course it had always been a possibility. Especially because Shoot was good at pushing at people's buttons.

Still. Seeing it? Yeah. I wasn't fuckin' happy.

“Heya, Break,” Shoot said, lifting his chin at me, a smirk toying at his lips. Like we had plans to go out shoot pool, drink beer, and bang bitches later. Instead of being outnumbered on the heavily guarded property of a evil fuckhead who was obviously pissed at me.

“Shoot,” I said back, just as casually, trying to keep down the surge of worry.

“You look like shit, man,” Shoot went on, nodding his head.

Yeah. I knew I did. “Yeah and you look like you've spent the last week at a spa,” I said, giving him a smile. But he knew me well enough to see underneath it. He saw the tension. The worry. He knew something was up. I could see him take it in as he straightened slightly, his eyes got more keen.

He was with me.

It was bad.

Shit was going to go down.

Lex cleared his throat as if sensing something passing between us. “We are going to transfer Shooter here to the shed in a moment,” he started and I felt myself stiffen.

The shed.

I didn't know he had a shed on his property.

But sheds and Lex... yeah those were never good things to go together.

“But first... we have a surprise for the two of you.”

Oh fuck.

My eyes went to Shoot's to see if he had any clue at what we were in store for, but he gave me a head shake. Whatever it was, he was in the dark. Which only made my stomach roll all the more.

“Chris,” Lex said, waving at the younger guy standing by the door.

Shoot and my eyes met and the only thought that came to me was the one person left in the world that it was clear I was connected with.

Paine.

He was also connected with Shoot.

A surprise for the both of us.

Shoot turned in his chair as Chris disappeared inside the room for a second, then came back out.

And it was a surprise alright.

The kind of surprise that made me seriously think I was going to stroke.

They didn't have Paine.

They had Alex.

Chris was wrestling her out of the other room (wrestling because she was fighting like a god damn crazy woman as he did so. It got her nowhere, but I was proud of her nonetheless).

“The fuck is this, Lex?” I asked, forcing my voice to sound bored. I could feel Shoot's eyes on me, shocked, but I couldn't clue him in. Shit just got bad. And they were bad to begin with.

“It seemed I ended up having to do your job for you, Breaker,” Lex said, waving a hand toward the suddenly still Alex. Still because she heard my name and froze, her eyes snapping to mine. The anger left them (no small miracle since I knew how hot her anger ran) and all that was left was surprise. And resignation.

She thought she had saved me.

And there we both were anyway.

“So you got your girl. Our deal is done. We good?” I asked, trying to not see the horror cross Alex's face.

Lex's head tilted to the side, watching me. “This is unexpected.”

“What is unexpected? This was what you wanted. You got your hacker. Now I get my man. And we get the fuck out of here and stay the fuck out of each other's business.”

“Break...” Shoot's voice called, sounding as horrified as Alex looked. But I didn't have any way to clue him into what was really going on.

“See. I had figured you were in on this whole thing,” Lex went on, looking around like he was seeing all of us for the first time.

“What whole thing?” I asked, again, attempting bored.

“Rick,” Lex said and Rick straightened. “Can you send our other guest in before you take Shooter here off to the shed?”

With that, Rick was gone.

Leaving me to feel my shoulders get even heavier. Another guest? Knew that shit couldn't be good.

“In on what whole thing, Lex?” I asked again, feeling the ice slip into my words.

Lex considered me for a moment before he went on, “Well, see. After dispatching of Mr. Glenn Gable,” he started and I saw Alex's face sink slightly. She wasn't wearing her mask. I didn't get a chance to stop and wonder what that meant before Lex spoke again, “and finding that Alex here was someone he taught who eventually outgrew his, I will admit, sizable skills, I decided to use her for my mission. Imagine my surprise when I learned Alex Miller was the one who had been creating problems for me all along.”

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck.

I chanced a look at Shoot who was uncharacteristically serious. His eyes sliced to mine and I could see he knew what really went down. He was sharp like that. He knew I knew who Alex really was. He knew how truly good and fucked we all were.

The door opened and Rick walked through followed by a guy around Alex's age. Good looking. Almost obnoxiously so. Tall. Slim. In a tailored suit. Black hair. Green eyes. He carried himself like he knew how he looked too. Arrogant prick.

“Joshua?” Alex's voice called, sounding a mix of shocked and appalled.

Great. Alex knew the douche.

Shoulda known. With Lex, there were always contingency plans upon contingency plans. Just in case. Fuckin' A.

“Alex honey,” he said, giving her a winning smile.

“Don't fucking Alex honey me you shit,” she snapped and I fought the twitching of my lips. There was my Alex. Always a hot head. “You work for him?” she growled, her words an accusation.

“I hired Joshua here when I hired Glenn. Just to make sure Glenn was doing his job. As it turns out, Glenn was doing a job alright. But the job he was doing was protecting you.”

“You're good, Alex,” Joshua said, giving her a look like he meant the compliment, but given the circumstances, it came off condescending. “But there's always a trail. You know that.”

He was a hacker.

He was someone she and Glenn had both known.

Shit.

“You were safe,” he went on, shrugging, “up until you got back from Oscar Street and put that shit all up about Glenn. Up until that, I knew someone was out there. But I couldn't find out where you were. Who you were. Until that post. I knew you and Glenn used to... well... have an arrangement,” he said in a way that suggested he knew exactly what they had. Which only made me angrier. “But I always figured that was all that it was. An exchange of... goods. But then he was dead and you were blowing up the forums about it. That was your fatal mistake, honey.”

“It's only a mistake if you didn't know the risks, Joshua,” she spat, her body freakishly still.

“You meant to get caught?”

“I meant to get the word out there that a good, kind, funny, awkward little hacker. One of us. Someone just like you, Josh, before your ego ran away with you... one of our own, your friend, was tortured and killed for no good reason. That needed to get out there. People needed to be aware. Diligent. Not get wrapped up with shitheads like Lex. I didn't care about the risk to myself. I was doing the right thing.” She paused, taking a breath, eyes throwing daggers at the Joshua guy who had the good sense to look a little taken aback. “The only one of us here who made a fatal mistake was you.”

“Alex...” he tried to break in. But there was no stopping Alex when she got angry. And she was pissed.

“Do you think men like Lex are good employers? Do you have any idea how many of his own men he's had killed? No?” she asked, looking around. “Thirty seven as of my last count. Some of them because they were being disloyal. Some just for the fuck of it. To exercise his power. Or because they pissed him off. I know you Josh,” she sneered. “He'll get sick as hell of you in a few weeks. Then know where you'll be? In Oscar Street with your throat slit, arterial spray covering the walls. Just. Like. Glenn. But there won't be me around to tell everyone what a good guy you were. What a sad, gruesome, pointless death you had. Because, frankly, you'll have fucking deserved it.”

Joshua paled, looking around at his surroundings like he was seeing them for the first time.

Alex was right. He was as good as dead. And he just realized it himself.

I'd feel bad for the little shit if he wasn't the reason Alex was in that room.

“Well, well,” Lex broke in, clapping his hands together. “I guess he didn't break you after all. Alls the better for me,” he smiled in a evil, awful way at her that made all of the halfway decent men in the room (meaning me, Shoot, and even the sniveling idiot Joshua) stiffen. “Alright,” Lex said, his authoritative tone back. “Rick, you can take Shoot with you. Call in two extra sets of hands first. One to take Joshua here back to his room. The other to... lend me a hand.”

I moved. Fast. So did Shoot.

I was across the room and tearing into Chris, the guy who was holding Alex. Her body slammed hard into the wall then fell to the floor, but I was too busy sinking my fists into the guy's face to check on her.

But I barely got four good punches in before I was pulled away. I looked over to see Shoot already restrained by Rick.

My eyes flew to Alex who was pushing herself up.

It was worth a shot.

Shoot was thinking the same thing, giving me a shrug before he was hauled out of the room.

“Chris, I think you better take Joshua to his room then get yourself cleaned up. Greg can stay in here with us.”

Greg was the guy who had led me through the house and toward the basement earlier.

Greg was probably the only one out of the three who actually could restrain me.

Great.

And then he did.

And everyone else was gone.

Leaving just me being held down by Greg. And Alex across the room being approached by Lex.

Fuck.

No.

I knew where this was going.

And

Fuck

No.

I saw the realization hit Alex's face at the same time I felt the knowledge spread through me. She moved fast, reaching into her boot. For the heroin, I realized. She was going to end it. I was going to have to watch her OD and die.

Jesus fuckin' Christ.

But she wasn't fast enough and Lex had her by the throat, pulling the heels of her feet off the ground and slamming her up against the wall. Her arms swung out, trying to hit him, then trying to pull his hands off her neck as her air supply started to make her head fuzzy.

Then one of his hands moved away. But only to curl on itself, then plunge forward. Hitting her jaw much like he had made me do. But he wasn't holding back like I was. I heard the crack. I saw her head slam in the other direction. His hand dropped from her throat and then there was just the sound of his fists in her face. Her center. And her muted grunts as she tried not to show weakness.

“Stupid bitch thought you could take me down? Stupid fucking cunt. You are no one. No one!” he yelled. Alex's body fell forward, her palms slapping the ground in front of her to brace her fall. She was facing me, but her head was down, blood dripping onto the concrete below her.

I fought.

Against the hold. Trying to get to her.

Then Lex got down on the ground behind her, kneeling, grabbing for the waistband of her pants.

And the swirling in my stomach rose up my throat.

At the same moment, Alex's head rose to mine. For the barest of seconds, she was there. And then the mask came down and I knew she was gone. She was accepting her fate. She was going to be raped and killed by Lex Keith.

Just like her mother.

It was then, watching her shut down, watching Lex's sick face twist in desire as he pulled down her pants. It was then that I realized I still had a card to play.

It was something that came back to me the night before when I was laying in bed not sleeping and thinking over my conversations with Alex.

Like when she told me about her mom. Told me about what her mom went through at Lex's hands. For years. Before she got away. And when I thought about it hard enough, it made sense. There was even a similarity.

“You're gonna watch me fuck the woman you love as she screams for you to save her and you know damn well you can't,” Lex's eyes bore into mine as his hands went to the front of his pants.

My eyes begged her to snap out of it.

To tell him herself.

Why wouldn't she? It could save her. Was it worse, somehow, for her to admit it? Did she even admit it to herself? It wouldn't exactly be out of character for her to bury that and pretend it didn't exist.

But it did.

And if she wasn't going to use it, well, I sure as fuck was.

“Knew you were a sick fuck, Lex,” I said, feeling Greg's arm tighten around me, seeing Lex pause and look at me. “Didn't think you'd be as twisted as to rape your own fuckin' daughter.”

The look of shock over his face would have been priceless in any other situation. His eyes bugged. His shoulders slumped.

I was vaguely aware of Alex's eyes snapping to mine.

“What?” Lex growled.

“Yeah. You stupid shit. Got all these men, got all these hackers, looking all into your shit and somehow you missed that little gem.”

“No,” he said, moving away from Alex, zipping his pants.

“Yep. Know who her mom is? Think hard. Hell, just take a fuckin' look at her,” I spat. “I've seen a picture. She's the fuckin' spittin' image of her mother. Shouldn't be too hard for you to draw up the memory. Since you kept her in your house, beating and raping her for years before she finally got shot of you.”

Lex moved around toward Alex, grabbing her face. And I got to watch as his own face paled until he was practically see-through. Then he dropped her like she burned him, moving away.

“Allison,” he whispered, shaking his head.

I didn't know her name. Alex never said it. But Lex was clearly seeing a ghost from his past.

“Yeah. One of the many women you've broken in your time. She just so happened to be lucky enough to get some help along the way. Got a life. Raised her daughter. Killed herself though when Alex was sixteen. Know anything about that?” One look was all I needed to know he did. That he had, like Alex guessed, seen her that day. Leading her to kill herself to save them both. “Yeah. I bet you do. Killed herself that day, ya know. That's when your daughter decided to dedicate her life to taking you down.”

“Daughter...” he repeated, looking down at Alex who had pushed herself back onto her knees and pulled her pants back up.

“Yeah you...”

My voice trailed off. Or, rather, it was drowned out, by the sounds of gunfire. And then, incredibly, almost unbelievably, explosions. Enough that the ground shook. Enough that Greg got startled and I got my window. And I fucking took it.

I wasn't aware of Alex or Lex while my anger drained into bashing Greg's face fuckin' unrecognizable.

But then there was a scream and my head shot up to see Lex's hands covering his face, his groaning very much like that of a dying animal.

And there was Alex, hands shaking holding the pocketknife I had slipped her the day we went to Oscar Street. It was bloody. As were the hands Lex was holding to his face.

I flew across the room, taking Lex out with one punch, and grabbing Alex.

“We got to go... now!” I yelled over the sound of the world ending around us. “Doll,” I said, hands to her shoulders, shaking her hard once, until she looked at me and the mask fell. “We gotta go.”

“I stabbed him,” she said, looking down at his body.

“God damn right you did,” I agreed, pulling her toward the door, but not before I snagged a gun off Greg's prone body. “You finally got some vengeance. Now let's get the fuck outta dodge.”