“Lex here?” I asked as we stepped into the office area, cheap fake wood desk, old law books on the shelves. I wondered if he did that ironically or just because they all matched. The floor was dusty in the corners and there were just old yellowed blinds on the windows, pulled closed.

He inclined his head to me and knocked on a door to the side of the bookshelf behind the desk.

A few seconds later, it opened and out walked Lex in one of his gray suits, the stain of blood almost invisible on his black dress shoes. But I saw it. And I felt myself tense. Beside me, still no reaction from Alex.

Lex's head tilted to the side, watching Alex. “I see you managed the task.”

“What task?” I asked, trying to make my words come out casual though I felt like I was talking through clenched teeth.

“You broke her.”

My head turned to the side where Alex was still just staring off at the wall. It certainly looked like I had. The smart thing to do would be own the idea. But I couldn't bring myself to so I just shrugged a shoulder.

“You might need to... unbreak her a little,” he said, his eyes coming to my face.

“Unbreak her?” I repeated, raising a brow.

“She's no good to me all catatonic.”

“Might be useful if you told me what exactly she is to be of use to you for then.”

To this, he shrugged. “That's why we're here,” he said, turning and moving back toward the door he had just walked out of. I felt my gut clench up, every instinct telling me that we shouldn't go behind that door. But there wasn't much choice with Limp Dick Rick standing in front of the main door.

Lex stepped into the room and I followed. Alex was a few steps behind me.

I was right.

We didn't want to be in there.

'There' being a room with white tile and a drain in the floor. A hose was hooked up to the bathroom sink in the room to the back. A hose that they used to wash the blood down the drain. The blood like the blood that was everywhere right then.

The blood that had come from the man that had been cuffed to the chair in the center of the room.

Young. A few years older than Alex, a few younger than me. A little pudgy and with a definite nerdy look with his black-rimmed glasses and video game t-shirt. But good looking.

Or at least... he was.

He was dead.

Likely from the sheer amount of blood he had lost.

Arterial spray fuckin' everywhere.

My eyes went immediately to Alex as she stepped through and I saw a flash. It was gone before a blink, shut down behind her wall. I couldn't even get a chance to analyze it. Shock? Horror? It was gone too soon.

“As you can see,” Lex started and my eyes drifted to his, “I have had some issues lately.”

“Who is the stiff?” I asked, nodding at the guy in the chair.

It should have bothered me. It was gory. Horror movie worthy. But I had seen worse. I had done almost as bad. I had no right to be disgusted. But even so, my stomach clenched.

“This, unfortunately, was a man I hired recently.”

“What's he do?”

“He's a hacker,” Lex said easily. “Well, he was.”

“A hacker?”

“Yes. See... I have had a series of security breaches and viruses on my computer and I had an inkling that someone was trying to gather information about me.”

Fuck. Shit fuck fuck. As much as I wanted to look at Alex, see if she was giving any of her guilt away, I kept my eyes on Lex.

“So this is the guy who has been doing it?”

“No no. This is the young man I hired to find the hacker.”

“I'm assuming he failed the task.”

“Indeed,” Lex said, slapping a hand down on the dead guy's shoulder, making his lifeless body jolt.

“And we're here seeing this because...”

“Because the threat still exists,” Lex went on, wiping a bit of blood off his hands with a white pocket square. “I got some of my men on it and when they were searching potential hackers to do the job, Miss. Miller's name came up. I was intrigued.”

Yeah, I bet he was. Once he got a look at her. Mother fucker.

“So you want her to ferret out this leak?” I asked.

“Indeed I do. Hopefully she won't be as,” he said, looking at the dead guy, “disappointing as this gentleman here.”

“So I am supposed to hold onto her until she finds your guy?”

“Or until I have time to look after her myself. Which, unfortunately, is not today. I have a meeting in the city that should keep me busy for the next week. I will need you to hold onto her until then.”

A week. I had her for a week. With Lex out of town. I could work with that. I could find a way to get Shoot out and get us all the fuck out of town.

“A week?” I asked, sounding bored at the prospect.

“Provided you can undo whatever damage you have obviously done,” he said, waving a careless hand toward Alex's stiff body. “She's of no use to me like this. She's still like this when I get back, just go ahead and get rid of her. Can't even have any fun with her when she's a zombie.”

Fun.

Fun.

I swallowed the bile and nodded. “I can do that.” I looked over at Alex, shaking my head like she was a nuisance, then looked back at Lex. “I can get her out of this sooner, you want me to put her on the case or wait for your go ahead?”

“By all means,” he said, splaying his hands that were stained red despite his rubbing, “put her to use.”

I felt myself nodding. “We done here?”

“It's no wonder no one likes working with you,” Lex said, his head tilting. “You are really a dreadful human being.” Coming from the scum of the earth, well, I guess I could consider that a compliment.

“You're paying me to hold onto the bitch. You want to dig at me about how I handle my shit, it will cost you twice as much.”

Lex sighed. “One week and I expect you to drop her off.”

“Where?” I asked, fighting the urge to toss Alex over my shoulder and haul ass out of there.

“My house.”

Shit.

He meant business with her.

The kind of long, drawn-out business I suspected her mother went through.

“Right,” I said, nodding, moving to the door, snagging the sleeve of Alex's shirt and dragging her with me. “See you then.”

Limp Dick Rick stood in the doorway until I turned back behind me, raising a brow at Lex who flicked a hand, and he moved out of the way.

Alex walked numbly to the passenger side and climbed up. I got into the driver's and tore off, not bothering to buckle. Just needing to get the fuck out of there as soon as possible.

“Are we being followed?” Alex's voice reached me, making me jump slightly.

“What?”

“Are. We. Being. Followed?” she enunciated carefully, her words heavy with something I couldn't place.

“No,” I said with confidence. I had been paying attention, my mind running the same way.

“Pull over,” she said, watching the landscape become more desolate as we left the town behind.

“It's rain...”

“Pull the fucking car over!” she shrieked, shocking me enough to pull off to the shoulder and throw the car into park.

Before I could even turn to look at her, she was out of her belt and out of the door, slamming it hard behind her.

I swung out of the car, darting around it to find her bent forward throwing up violently beside the front wheel.

Fuck.

I forgot about the body. I know that was shitty and unfeeling of me. But it meant nothing to me. Apparently, it meant something to her. It was one thing for her to see the pictures of the things Lex had done. It was a whole other to see it right in front of your eyes, to smell the blood, to see it all over.

“Deep breath,” I said, reaching into the backseat for a spare bottle of water as the rain soaked through my clothes. “It'll pass.”

“You don't get it,” she said, her voice acidic as she rinsed and spit the water.