Lust Read Free Page B

empty room in this outer-borough frat house.
    Yeah, he was taking a chance. Whoever had hurt him the first time could be after him still. But he was as good as dead, hidden away in Dmitri’s apartment. He had to take this chance.
    â€œDude, you okay in there? We were just going to getsome beers—you want to come with?”
    â€œYeah! I was just looking for my checkbook,” Sam said, scribbling out a check for a ridiculous amount of money and taking it out to the living room. “Here you go. First and last month’s rent, plus a security deposit.”
    The beers were going to cost Sam pretty much everything left in his account, but that was okay with him. Pretty much everything was okay with him right now. He was completely psyched to restart his life. All he had to do now was find a job.
    So what could a guy with a back full of scar tissue and half a college education do to pull down some cash?
    He followed his new friends to the dark Irish pub downstairs and watched three beers get ripped open in rapid succession. He took one and tipped it back, feeling the cool bubbles slip down his throat. Of course. Why hadn’t he thought of it before? He had enough hard-luck stories of his own to know how to listen to everyone else’s. He’d be a bartender.

TOM
    I see mountains. Snowy mountains. They’re beautiful, cold, remote. I’m not a fool. I recognize them. I am in Siberia.
    Siberia. Like some kind of Soviet Union-era dissident. I suppose it has its own romantic appeal. Except, of course, that most of those dissidents ended up dying of consumption.
    I’m amazed at how calm I’m remaining. I know that I’m infuriated enough to bang my head against the wall of my jail cell, to grab the bars of my cell and pull on them until my knuckles break. This is unbearable.
    I’m in Siberia, a region so remote it doesn’t even have regular telephones, let alone cell phones.
    My cell is eight by eight. Too small for a primate at the Bronx Zoo.
    I can see the other prisoners exercising in the courtyard. I’m not even allowed to socialize with them. I’m locked up here like Hannibal Lecter.
    And who’s to blame for all this?
    Loki. Once again, Loki.
    The human mind cannot bear this kind of cruelty. Mere days ago, I was in the arms of my soon-to-be wife, enjoying the rosy glow of my new family. Watching Gaia become close to her new stepsister, Tatiana. Eyeballing Gaia’s boyfriend, Ed. What made me think I could be a normal father with a normal family? What made me consider the idea of taking Ed aside to make sure he had Gaia’s best interests at heart? I’m no father. I couldn’t even stay clear of the evil creature who was once my brother long enough to finish dinner. Before it was done, I remember coughing . . . then choking . . . then blackness. Until I woke up here.
    He did it to me again.
    Perhaps my calm comes from the knowledge that this time I will destroy him. This time I will make Loki pay for the pain he has caused me, by eradicating him from the earth altogether. No matter what.
    Even if it costs me my own life.

the old psycho—killer
    A week ago she’d been wishing Oliver dead—now she was bantering over cell phone etiquette with him.
    Dripping With Nostalgia
    â€œOW. OKAY, THAT HURTS.”
    â€œIt’s supposed to.”
    â€œYeah, but it really hurts.”
    â€œNo pain, no gain, Jake.”
    â€œNo gain, then! Ack!” Jake dropped the bulbous kettle-drum he had been holding up with his foot. It hit the floor with a crash, which was immediately followed by three thudding sounds from the floor below.
    â€œThat’s old lady Teverasky,” Jake said. “I think you made her week. She loves hitting her ceiling with her broomstick—it reminds her of the old country, where they do that for sport.”
    â€œDon’t try to distract me,” Gaia said, crossing her arms. “I’m