Silenced Read Free Page A

out. Jax reaches down, grasps me by the shirt collar, and helps me up. I lean against the rape booth for support.
    “Very good!” Jax whispers. “The mainframe is just printing your mission objectives. Then, I will take you to Miss Evans.”
    I pant and shudder, listening to the sound of an ink jet printer, and glare at the Colonel. “Fuck was that?” I almost snarl.
    After months of torture, letting my cursed blood slowly off me, and getting my ass handed to me by a phone booth, the snarl isn’t very impressive. But right now, it still makes me feel better.
    “Oh, these are the Compound Six manuals. Our workers receive orders and, often, training in them. They are each programmed to specific skill sets. Then these beauties feed into our mainframe.”
    I wipe my mouth with my hand, wondering why he didn’t just say a bunch of fucking computers, and then my eyes rest on his eye patch and move on.
    I’m still breathing hard when he hands me a dark blue folder. “No... Colonel. What did it do to my frickin' neck?”

    Jax half smiles. “That’s just a little insurance. You will, after all, be leaving the Compound. I have to be able to keep eyes on you.”
    I match his smile. Tagged like a fucking blue whale. I rub the tender skin at the back of my neck. Then, I sway on my feet and grip the booth tighter to stay upright. Jax extends his arms so that they hover over me without touching, just in case he needs to catch me.
    “Perhaps you should rest up first. Eat maybe. Then, I can arrange for Sadie to…”
    “No.” I cough, then shake my head to push back the dizziness. “No, I see her now. That was the deal.”
    Jax stares me down with his good eye, then nods his head over my shoulder. A woman appears at my left side. She tucks her shoulder under my armpit and pulls me away from the booth I’m clinging to for life.
    I glance down at her in surprise. She’s stronger than she looks.
    I let her lead me all the way down the hall and through the double white doors at the end. There, the only pair of eyes worth living for, hell worth dying for, study me in disgust.

Strong girl leads me into a room with a big, round conference table. All the other structures float to the periphery. The only thing I can really see is the table and Sadie. She turns from where she’s seated and jumps up.
    I breathe a little easier. She’s still human and she’s running toward me. I hold out my arms, and she skids to a halt. I shift my weight between both legs and open my arms wider.
    “Shorty?”
    As she backs away she pinches her nose and her face screws up like she smells shit. I sniff the air and almost wretch.
    She does smell shit. My cheeks puff out because now that she smells me, I smell me too. And, real talk, I smell worse than a pile of troll vomit.
    “Um, you can stay over there.” She returns to the chair she was just seated in. “You smell like ass.”
    “Watch your mouth,” I say, walking over to sit a considerate three chairs away from her. This bitch is comfortable. They still have leather at the end of the world.
    “So,” I say, leaning across the table to get a better look at her. “You okay? Hurt? Hungry?”
    Her chin juts out. “I’m fine. They wouldn’t have caught me if I didn’t go back for…” She shakes her head, fanning out the massive pile of dark curls on top of her head. “Anyway. I’m doing better than you.” She leans over the table and mirrors me. Her lips press into a thin line. “I can’t believe you let them catch you.”
    “I missed you too, kid.”
    “Or that you agreed to help these asshats.” She leans farther across the table and pinches my arm.
    “Ow!” I rub the spot as she jerks back out of my reach with a smug grin. “I said watch your mouth. You sound like a dirty douche. And try some manners on, jackass.”
    She shoves out her lower lip, and her face wrinkles until her eyes disappear in a mess of creases.
    “What have I told you about making this face?” I trace a