Monster (13 page)

Because I had shit.

I was going to take her
to that train car because I had no choice. And then fuck-knew what
was going to happen there. I needed to save her. And I needed to save
Shoot. And I had no idea how I was going to pull that off. Or even if
I would be given the opportunity. For all I knew, he was going to
have me there to shoot me. It was his style. Kill Shooter. Torture
Alex. Then kill me. He had a thing for flamboyant displays of
violence. And he liked knowing he got under your skin.

So I needed to make it
clear Alex meant nothing to me.

Wasn't sure how well
I'd pull that off, but I had to try.

Shoot, well, that was
another story.

If he knew Shooter was
a good person to pick up and hold, then he already knew the bond we
had. There was no pretending he didn't mean something.

He would expect me to
want to protect him.

I heard Alex come back
from the bathroom in her dirty clothes, holding her boots in her
hands.

“I know I'm
supposed to be wearing what I wore when you took me, but I have
nowhere else to store the heroin,” she said casually, shrugging
a shoulder.

“Not a detail I
think he will notice,” I said back, watching as she sat down
beside me and slipped her shoes on, keeping the laces loose enough
for her hand to slip down inside them if she needed to.

Still no reaction.
Still as cool as could be about the whole situation.

If, by some miracle, we
both lived through the night, I intended to figure out what was wrong
with her. What kind of life she had led to make her so collected in
the face of her own death?

What kind of person
doesn't feel some sort of grief about it?

Hell, if I knew for
damn sure I was looking down the barrel holding a bullet with my name
on it, even I'd feel something. Think about all the bitches I didn't
get to fuck. All the whiskey I didn't get to drink. All the vacations
I never took. All the retirement plans Shoot and I had bullshitted
about that never happened. Maybe think about not getting the chance
to find some bitch I liked enough to strap myself to and let her give
me a rugrat to drive me nuts for the next twenty years.

Something.

Everyone should want to
live for something.

As the old saying
went... Alex was going to die for nothing.

“Are you bringing
any weapons?” Alex asked and I noticed she had been staring at
me. For how long, I had no idea.

I nodded, getting off
the couch and moving toward the closet in the kitchen that was
supposed to be a small pantry. I pulled open the door, feeling Alex's
presence behind me, looking in on the four shelves of guns, ammo,
knives, stun guns, handcuffs, chains, brass knuckles- the works. I
still had my Desert Eagle in my truck and that was gonna go right
back in my waistband, but I grabbed a knife and slipped it into my
pocket, grabbed a second gun and a strap to put around my ankle.

If I hadn't turned and
stooped to attach the strap to said ankle, I might have seen Alex
grab a pocketknife and slip it into the boot that wasn't holding the
heroin.

“Do I look too
clean?” she asked as I stood back up.

I felt my brows drawing
together, looking at her dust stained clothes. “What?”

“Like my face and
arms and hair. Am I too clean? Should I try to muss myself up a
little?”

At that, I felt a smile
tugging at my lips. “Muss yourself up a little?”

“Yeah. So it's
convincing.”

“So what is
convincing, doll?”

“That you've been
keeping me prisoner like instructed.”

“The job was to
grab you and hold onto you. No one said I couldn't let you shower and
eat.”

“Oh,” she
said, looking out the window.

“You alright?”
I asked, taking in her drawn-together brows.

She turned back to me
with an odd little smirk. “I guess it's as good a day as any to
die, right?” As if sensing that was the wrong thing to say, she
rushed on, changing the subject. “Did Shooter sound like he was
okay?”

“He was poking
fun at the guard assigned to him, getting his face bashed into while
we were talking. So, yeah, he's good.”

Her brow went up.
“Getting beat is... good?”

I felt my shoulder
shrug. “Shoot is a smartass with a runaway tongue. If he's
still sticking his foot in his own mouth, they haven't broken him
yet.”

“Oh. Okay. So...
he's gonna be there?” she asked, her words tense. Like she knew
that was a bad complication.

“Yeah.”

She reached up, running
a hand through her mostly dry hair, making it gently slide back into
place. She sighed, nodding, accepting the added trouble. “You'll
get him out of there,” she said confidently.

“Doll, it ain't
just him I got...”

She held up a hand and
it was so ridiculous a gesture (who held up hands to silence people
anymore?) that I stopped talking and raised a brow.

“You worry about
your friend. First and foremost. Don't go getting yourself in trouble
because I screwed up and got myself in a bad situation. This isn't
your job to fix this. So take care of your friend and let me handle
myself.”

With that, she turned
on her heel and stalked to my front door. I ran a hand up one of the
sides of my head, feeling the short hair catch at my skin.

This was going to be a
clusterfuck.

I had to somehow
protect Shoot. Who wanted me to forget about him and take care of
Alex. And at the same time protect Alex who wanted me to take care of
Shoot because her plan was to kill herself. Meanwhile trying to not
piss off the notoriously mercurial and volatile Lex Keith who was
fully capable of having us all killed at once.

Jesus Christ.

I lived through this, I
needed to find a new fuckin' job.

Janitor. Used car
salesman. Guinea pig trainer.

Fuckin' anything that
didn't all but guarantee blood and terror at every turn.

I sighed, grabbing my
keys, and making my way outside.

Alex was already
sitting in the car, buckled up, calmly pushing back the cuticles on
her nails like we weren't very possibly walking into a well
orchestrated trap.

If she wasn't so set on
dying, she would make one fuck of a good criminal.

--

There were two SUVs
parked out front the warehouse, empty, the hoods already cool to the
touch. Further cementing my idea that we were heading into a trap.
Alex didn't look at me as she unbuckled and went to her door.

I grabbed my gun,
shoved it into the waistband of my pants and met Alex by her side of
the car.

“Thanks for
trying to help me,” she said, looking at the building in front
of her while she spoke to me.

“Ain't done
trying, doll,” I said, but she shrugged, biting on the inside
of her cheek. “You ready?” I asked, already all too aware
of how well prepared she was to get this done.

“Yup. Let's get
this over with.”

She fell into step
beside me as I let us in the front door, into the hall, then slowly
down the stairs. Beside me, she was calm as could be. No sweating. No
struggled breathing. Just oddly empty eyes and straight shoulders.

Meanwhile my heart was
a fuckin' jackhammer.

We reached the bottom
landing and I could hear voices around the corner. Alex paused and my
hand went out, landing on her hip for a brief second. Her eyes went
up to mine and she made her lip twitch upward before turning away
again. My hand dropped and we moved forward as a unit, stepping
around the curve of the wall and into view of the train car.

Four heads turned at
the shuffling of our feet. Lex, two of his goons, and Shoot.

Lex was closing in on
middle age with dark hair, dark eyes, and a thin build. His goons
were big piles of muscle, one ugly with a shaved head and black eyes,
one average looking with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Shoot had a
busted lip (likely from his taunting of Limp Dick Rick when we were
on the phone earlier) and a fading black eye. He was hunched just the
slightest bit to his left, suggesting he likely had bruised or busted
ribs. But he was alright. And the fuck even gave me a smile and a
half-wave when he saw me.

I shook my head and I
saw Alex's brow raise slightly, taking him in.

Whether it was because
of his manner or because he was a good looking guy, I had no idea.

The train door was open
and I stepped through first, Alex on my heels.

“Breaker, so nice
to see you again,” Lex said, his slick voice leaving a slimy
film on the air.

“Lex,” I
said, nodding at him. “Shoot,” I said, nodding at him too

“You must be
Alex,” Shoot said, letting one of his panty-melting smiles
spread across his face. “Been keeping my brother company?”

“More like
driving him up a wall I'm afraid,” she said easily. To anyone
else, she seemed as at ease as Shoot himself. But I had noticed that
her eyes hadn't so much as moved across the car. She found Shoot and
she kept her eyes there. Like she was too afraid to look at the
people who held her fate in their hands.

“Well, we're
here,” I said, looking at Lex. Wanting to get down to it. The
suspense wasn't helping anything.

Lex nodded. “Alex
Miller,” he said and I saw the way her hands flexed outward
slightly before she balled them in fists, lifting her chin, and
turning to face the man she hated most in the world.

“Lex Keith,”
she said in a tone that was like jagged glass.

“You're prettier
than I expected. My men said you were a looker, but I had no idea you
would be so...”

“Are we flirting
with the hostage or having a fuckin' meeting?” I broke in,
trying to make it look like I wasn't paying any attention to Alex and
her clenched jaw and even paler than usual skin.

“Nothing wrong
with being a little civilized, Breaker,” Lex said, and images
of those beaten girls in the file popped unbidden into my head. Yeah
he was real fuckin' civilized.

“Slept on a cold
concrete floor last night. Forgive me if I ain't in a small talk
mood,” I said coolly. If he knew anything of my reputation,
he'd know I was never in a small talk mood. I got my orders, I
followed through. Hell, if we didn't have to have any words
whatsoever, all the better.

Out of the corner of my
eye, I saw Alex move closer to Shooter. Not me. Shooter. If I wasn't
trying to make it look like I couldn't care less about her, she'd be
getting one hell of a look. Shooter didn't seem phased by it. Women
always seemed to flock to him. Apparently even in life or death
situations.

The surge of jealousy I
felt at that was sudden and unexpected. And completely fuckin'
ridiculous. It made no sense. I wasn't that type of man. I didn't get
jealous. But, fuck, I still had her taste in my mouth.

“Of course,”
Lex said, breaking into my thoughts. “Let's get down to
business.” He paused, looking at his men, something silent
passing because they moved slightly. One going toward the door to
block the exit and one moving behind Shoot and Alex. “Plans
have changed.”

“We had a deal,
Lex,” I said, letting my voice have an edge because it was
expected when someone welshed.

“We did. But the
deal has... evolved.”

“Evolved,”
I repeated through clenched teeth.

He was giving me
nothing. Aside from his men moving, there was nothing to go on. No
inflection to read. No smile. Fucker had a great poker face.

“Yes. See... my
need for Alex is not as pressing as I had originally thought.”

His need for Alex? The
fuck was that supposed to mean?

“Gonna need more
details than that Lex. And I ain't got all day.”

I got a brow raise for
my rudeness, but it was expected of me, so he said nothing about it.
“Yes. As it turns out, I won't need her for another few days.
But, you can understand why I couldn't exactly let her go back to her
life now that she knows about our little... arrangement.”