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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.
