Bone Machine Read Online Free PDF

he had nothing but hatred for Marco Kovacs.
    Marco Kovacs. The name had meant nothing to Donovan until two weeks previously. Until Francis Sharkey, the solicitor Donovan
     and his team usually worked for, had explained it to him.
    ‘Kovacs is trying to make inroads into this country,’ Sharkey had said a fortnight earlier, legs stretched out, feet crossed
     at the ankles, hands clasped over his expanding waistline, enjoying, as usual, the sound of his own voice.
    Donovan, sitting opposite on a leather sofa in the planning suite of Albion, his company, had watched him as he had talked.
     The offices were the ground floor of an Edwardian bay-fronted house in neo-gentrified Summerhill Terrace behind the motorbike
     shops and second-hand/fenced goods shops on Westgate Road. They hadn’t been in long; the fresh paint and new wood smells reminding
     Donovan of his cottage in Northumberland. Three surprisingly comfortable dark-leather sofas went around the walls and into
     the bay. They were supposed, Peta had explained, to put people at their ease. In the centre of the room was a low-slung glass-topped
     table. On that was an open laptop.
    Donovan felt a swell of pride rise within him. Albion. He loved the name. Sounded like some superhero team. Would have to
     be the X Men or the Doom Patrol, he thought wryly. A collection of extremely gifted misfits or damaged outsiders pooling their
     talents. He didn’t dare share that thought with the others, though. He could imagine the response.
    They had achieved a lot in a short time. It was over a year since Jamal, then surviving as a rent boy, had, literally, run
     to Donovan for help and in doing so not only brought Donovan back to life again but also introduced him to Peta and Amar.
     Sparked the chain of events that led to the formation of Albion.
    Peta Knight sat back on the sofa, totally at ease, taking occasional pulls from a bottle of water. Ex-policewoman and private
     security consultant, black belt in tae kwon do. Not that anyone would know that to look at her, he thought. All they would
     see was an attractive, slim blonde. Something that Donovan knew she was not against using to her advantage.
    Next to her sat Amar Miah. He had been working with Peta’s short-lived private detective and security company when Donovan
     met him, using his audio-visual skills for surveillance work. More worryingly, he had also been using his camera skills to
     film private gay orgies for a rich client, a job that although lucrative was threatening to leave Amar with a spiralling cocaine
     habit and a prematurely shortened lifespan. Thankfully he had pulled around and was past that now, drug free and a keen gym
     partner for Peta. Donovan, despite many invitations, had never felt the urge to join them.
    Jamal sat opposite, leaning forward, engrossed in whatever was happening on the screen of the laptop, face furrowed, neat
     cornrows resting on the rim of his Stussy hoodie. Peta had expressed concerns at putting the boy on the payroll, saying he
     was only fourteen and he should be at school. Donovan had argued that his previous life on the streets and at the mercy of
     predatory adults wouldn’t make for a happy school life. Jamal was better off working with them, and they could all take a
     collective responsibility for his education. And since social services didn’t know he was there in the first place and would
     only send him to a children’s home if they did, Peta, with some reluctance, had agreed. Amar was fine about it. Jamal had
     also made friends with a boy who lived in the village that Donovan was very pleased about. He hoped it would help him regain
     some of his lost childhood.
    He tried not to smile, the pride was so strong. It wasn’t much and they all had to take turns in rotation in managing the
     office, but it was working. It was working.
    Sharkey looked around. ‘Lights, please,’ he said.
    ‘Jamal?’ said Donovan. ‘If you could tear yourself away from
Grand