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“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.
