HEX Read Online Free PDF Page A

sunbed and now encrusted on the inner wall of her skull.
    â€œShush, hon,” Delarosa said, and he drew her up close. “Get out of here, before I call the police!”
    â€œYou’re going to regret this,” Claire said, but Grim pulled her away.
    â€œNever mind, Claire. It’s useless.”
    That night he called Delarosa on his cell phone and begged him to give up on the purchase. When the man asked him why he was going to so much trouble, Grim told him that Black Spring suffered from a three-hundred-year-old curse, and that it would infect them, too, if they decided to settle in town, and that they’d be doomed until their death, and that there was a wicked witch living in Black Spring. Delarosa hung up.
    â€œDamn you!” Grim shouted now, staring at the movers. He threw his pen at the big screen and the twenty monitors around it jumped to new camera angles, offering views of people loafing around in town. “I was doing you a fucking favor!”
    â€œRelax,” Warren said. He folded up his newspaper and laid it on the desk. “We did everything we could. He may be an intellectual, cocksuckin’ asshole, but at least he’s our intellectual, cocksuckin’ asshole. And she looks like a juicy little piece.”
    â€œPig,” said Claire.
    Grim stabbed at the screen with his finger. “In the Council, they’re rubbing their hands together. But when these folks raise hell, who’s going in to clean up the mess?”
    â€œWe are,” Warren said, “and we’re good at it. Dude, let off some steam. Be happy we’ve got something new to bet on. Fifty bucks on a home encounter.”
    â€œFifty bucks?” Claire was shocked. “You’re crazy. Statistically speaking, home encounters never come first.”
    â€œI feel it in my fingers, baby,” Warren said, and he began drumming on the desk. “If I were her, I’d go over and check out the new meat, if you know what I’m saying.” He raised his eyebrows. “Who’s in?”
    â€œFifty dollars—you’re on,” Claire said. “I say they see her on the street.”
    â€œThe security cams,” chimed in Marty Keller, their online data analyst, from the other side of the control center. “And I raise the stakes to seventy-five.”
    The others stared at him as if he had lost his mind. “Nobody ever sees those things if they don’t know they’re there,” Warren said.
    â€œHe will.” Marty nodded at the monitor. “He’s just the type. They see the security cams and start asking questions. Seventy-five.”
    â€œCount me in,” Claire said promptly.
    â€œMe too,” Warren said, “and first drink’s on me.”
    Marty tapped Lucy Everett, who was in the chair beside him listening in on phone calls. She took off her headphones. “Say what?”
    â€œAre you in on the bet? Seventy-five bucks.”
    â€œSure. Home encounter.”
    â€œGet the fuck out of here; that’s my bet!” Warren shouted.
    â€œThen you have to share the winnings with Warren,” Marty said. Lucy turned around and blew Warren a kiss. Warren wiped it off and dropped into his chair.
    â€œWhat about you, Robert? You in?” Claire asked.
    Grim sighed. “You guys are more disgusting than I thought. Okay, they’ll hear about it in town. There’s always someone who can’t keep their mouth shut.”
    Marty jotted it down on the whiteboard with a dry-erase marker. “That leaves Liz and Eric. I’ll send them both e-mails. If they join, we’ll have a kitty of … five hundred twenty-five dollars. That’s still two seventy-five for you, Warren.”
    â€œTwo sixty-two fifty, darling,” Claire said.
    â€œSilence, dragon woman,” sulked Warren.
    Robert Grim slipped into his coat to get some pecan pie in town. His mood was spoiled for the rest of the day, but at