Learning to Stand Read Online Free PDF Page B

to see if he would tell her more. He didn’t.
    “ How much money did you
receive for killing my brother, my husband and my
teammate?”
    “ I didn’t kill them.” The
Weasel bristled as if she touched a sore nerve. “I could have, but
I didn’t. This guy shot me.”
    “ I could have killed you but
didn’t either,” Raz said.
    Alex glared at Raz. He shrugged his
apology.
    “ Was your contract to kill
them?” Alex asked.
    “ Yes, as you know, my
contract was to kill them in exchange for money.”
    “ What kept you from killing
them?” Alex asked.
    Shrugging, the Weasel looked away from her.
Alex watched the man grapple with a decision. She hoped if she was
silent long enough, he would tell her what she needed to know. But
he wasn’t answering even the preliminary questions.
    Alex reached to turn off the recorder when
an explosion went off overhead. This blast was met with an equal
detonation closer to where they were.
    “ That’s an explosion chain!”
Vince yelled. “Everyone down!”
    F

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Raz threw himself on top of Alex. They fell
backwards in her chair just before a particularly violent
explosion. The lights in the room flickered, sparked then went out.
The room shook. Every chair fell over. The mortar made a tinkling
sound as it fell onto the concrete floor. A portion of the ceiling
tiles crashed onto the table. The hot air filled with cement dust
and mortar.
    And somehow, the room remained intact.
    “ Was that for me?” the
Weasel yelled over the explosions. He belly crawled until his face
right next to Alex’s. “They want me dead.”
    “ Yes,” she said.
    “ I thought… I thought the
explosions were for you or these guys or the weirdo the guards
didn’t know or...”
    “ OK,” Vince yelled. “That’s
probably it.”
    “ I...” The Weasel shook his
head back and forth.
    “ Call!” Alex
yelled.
    “ Hutchins.”
    “ Olivas.”
    “ Mac Clenaghan.”
    “ Rasmussen.”
    “ Drayson,” Alex finished.
“Guards.”
    “ Here.”
    “ Your prisoner is over
here.”
    Through the dark, a circle of light from a
head light came in their direction.
    “ Jeez, I knew it,” Troy
said. “Do you guys ever take a break? Any chance you have, you’re
humping away.”
    He reached down to help Raz up.
    “ That’s you, Troy,” Alex
said.
    Midway up, Raz’s back seized in spasm. Raz
let out an involuntary gasp. Troy set him down next to Alex.
    “ You know? That is me,” Troy said.
“Mattie, I could use a hand here.”
    Another headlamp circle of light moved
across the dark room.
    “ I love the ladies,” Troy
said.
    “ All ladies. One at a time,”
Alex, Raz, Matthew and Troy said together. They laughed.
    Matthew took Raz’s other arm.
    “ Can you stand?” Matthew
asked. “Alex, do you have your pill packet?”
    “ Yep,” Alex said.
    Alex rolled to sitting. Digging through her
pockets, she found the packet of pills John insisted she carry with
her. She gave the packet to Matthew.
    “ Ready?” Matthew
said.
    With Matthew and Troy supporting him, Raz
stood. He shifted back and forth then nodded. Troy and Matthew let
go. Raz tried to take a step but was unable to.
    “ Maybe you should sit for a
minute,” Troy said, “Collect your thoughts and all.”
    Alex righted a chair and the men helped Raz
into the chair. Matthew gave Raz a couple anti-inflammatory pills
and a pain pill from Alex’s packet. He offered one to her but she
shook her head.
    “ I need a report,” Alex
said.
    “ What about me?” the Weasel
asked.
    “ Guards?” Alex asked. “Can
you stay with your prisoner?”
    “ Yes, Major.” The guards
helped the Weasel back to a chair then stood with him.
    “ Olivas? Where’s my
feed?”
    “ MAJOR!?!?” A man’s voice
boomed over the room’s audio system.
    “ Sergeant?” Alex
asked.
    “ I was able to hook up
everything, but the connection wasn’t working,” Troy said. He
walked with her over to where he’d hooked her pocket computer to
the phone