No Easy Way Out Read Online Free PDF

yet, Shay would never know that Ryan was even in the mall.
    “I better go check in,” Marco said, pushing himself up from where he’d been scrunched on the floor between two large, empty containers.
    “Cut off for check-in’s not for another half hour,” Mike said, glancing over his hunched shoulder.
    “I have to check on someone in the med ward.” Marco brushed off his jeans. “I’ll be back in an hour. Then we can move down to the hiding place I have in mind.”
    Mike nodded. “We’ll gather supplies from the freezer.”
    The coast was clear outside the fridge. Marco crossed the kitchen, pushed through the service door, and started down the dim hallway.
    “I thought you were alone in the mall,” Ryan said.
    Marco nearly jumped out of his skin. The kid was near silent in his climbing slippers. “I told you to wait here until I come back.”
    “I told Mike I’d collect supplies from the med ward in case any of us got sick again.”
    “Again?”
Marco couldn’t help the gooseflesh that prickled out on his arms at the idea that one of the douches was contagious.
    “I had the flu,” Ryan said, a touch of pride in his voice.
    Marco took larger steps, tried to put a bit more real estate between him and the potentially infectious douche. “It’s not a bad idea,” Marco said.
    “So who’s in the med ward?” Ryan sped up to keep pace with Marco.
    “My girlfriend,” Marco said, wondering how hard to twist the knife and deciding the harder the better. “I think you know her. Shaila Dixit?” That took the jock down a few pegs. He stopped following for a moment, then jogged a few steps to catch up.
    “Is she hurt?” Ryan asked.
    Not the response Marco had expected, but he figured why not tell. “She passed out when she learned that her grandmother had died, at least that’s what the doctor told me.”
    “I have to see her,” Ryan said.
    “You have to stay hidden.” Marco kept walking. “People are looking for The Flying Kid.”
    Ryan grabbed Marco’s arm. “I have to see her.”
    Marco glowered back at him, not sure if Ryan could see in the dim light the amount of pissed-off-ness he felt. Ryan didn’t back down.
    “It’s your funeral,” Marco said, and continued to walk.
    Ryan stumbled slightly, trying to keep up—
aftereffects of the flu?
“So Shay’s your girlfriend?” he asked, panting as if walking was too much for him.
    Marco tried to sound casual. “It started when she asked me to help her—you were in jail, I believe—but then her sister and grandmother got sick, and now I’m kind of all she’s got.” He watched Ryan’s face change. Watched the realization sink in.
    “Does she know I was in jail?”
    The douche looked like he was about to cry. Marco threw him a bone. “I didn’t tell her.”
    Ryan nodded. “Thanks.”
    Like I did it for you . . .
    The med ward was now in Harry’s department store, according to the senator’s last announcement. Marco maneuvered through the service halls and between the empty stores with ease. Ryan followed silent as a shadow. They only communicated when Marco stopped in front of a door marked HARRY’S, LEVEL 1 , and then Marco merely held his finger to his lips and cracked the door open.
    The space before them seemed empty. It looked like some back area—shelves of shoe boxes lined narrow corridors.
    “We’re clear,” Marco said. Ryan nodded and they both slipped into the stockroom.
    They followed a path between the stacks of shoes to a swinging door, which opened onto the main level. What had been the shoe department was now lined with cots and walled off from the rest of the showroom floor by a curtain wall. A young guy with his arm in a sling dozed in a corner; otherwise, the room was empty.
    “Must have been where they treated the riot victims,” Marco said, weaving toward the only space in the curtain wall.
    “Why do you think that?” Ryan followed a step behind.
    “No bodies.”
    “I had the flu,” Ryan said. “I