Not Looking for Love: Episode 6 (A New Adult Contemporary Romance Novel) Read Online Free PDF Page A

room the door opened into. It's supposed to be lit by fluorescent lights, but most of the bulbs are busted, some of them still hissing and flickering.  
    A bone crunching thud is followed by a scream that cuts right through my brain as we descend the stairs. The smell of blood, piss and shit makes me retch.
    Mike gives no indication that he even heard the scream as he leads the way down the dark hallway towards the room where it came from. I'm falling behind. I absolutely, positively don't want to know what's on the other side of that door.  
    But Mike is already knocking on it, and it opens almost immediately, an older man wearing a black, vinyl butcher's apron standing on the other side. His hair is nearly white, and his eyes look like a frozen sea.
    "Michael," the man says happily like we're his dinner guests or something. "Come in."
    His eyes fix on me. "And this is your brother?"
    I have the urge to say no.
    Mike nods and waves me forward. I have no idea how I get my legs to move, how I make it to the door.
    Inside the room, a guy is suspended off a hook hanging from the ceiling by his arms, his feet barely touching the large dark green, bloody tarp covering the floor. The man’s blond hair is a mess of blood, some dried some fresh, and both his eyes are swollen shut under huge purple bumps. Acid is rising in my throat so fast I'm sure I'll die from it at any second.
    Mike pushes me further into the room, follows after me. I force myself to look away from the dying man, and fix my eyes on Vlado. He's got one of those faces that makes it seem like he's smiling all the time. Maybe its the way his thin skin colored lips naturally curl up at the edges, because there's no smile in his cold, light grey eyes.  
    "I am Vladimir Milosevic," he says. "Call me Vlado. I'd shake your hand, but they are dirty."
    He looks down at his palms and I follow his gaze. He's right, his hands are covered with blood.
    The guy being tortured seems to have passed out. Or maybe he's dead.  
    "And that's Ciril," Vlado says, and points to the corner where a second guy wearing an apron is standing by a desk covered with knives, axes, hammers. This guy's apron is white, or was, before it got drenched in blood.
    Vlado follows my gaze, and then points to the guy hanging off the ceiling. "His name is not important anymore, but you should be looking at him. This is what happens to anyone who tries to run from me. You only have Michael to thank that this isn't you."
    The point of all this hits me like a blow to the stomach. What the fuck is Mike involved in? What did he get me into? Gail will never be safe, if he gets these people to hunt her.  
    "It won't happen again," I murmur and mean it. It's the only way to keep Gail safe.  
    "Take another good look, then you can leave," Vlado says and I obey, the sight of the poor man now etched into my brain forever. I'll probably never close my eyes without seeing Gail in his place. I'm out of all options, and this is just the beginning.
    "I have to take a leak," Mike says once we're back upstairs, but I ignore him, stride across the hall and out the door. I need air. I need to start pretending none of this is real.
    Outside, I lean against the side of the building, take deep breaths, trying not to throw up.  
    The guy who held the door open for us walks over, holds a pack of cigarettes at me. "Have one."
    I shake my head.  
    "Go on," he says, pulling one out half way. I take it, let him light it for me, try not to cough. I've never been much of a smoker.
    He's eyeing me again, something close to pity in his eyes now.  
    "You hitting on me or something?" I ask. Maybe he'll hit me, beat me to death for suggesting it, and then all this will be over by no fault of my own. That's how it would have to be. By no fault of my own.
    He twists his face up. "No. What the fuck kind of question…"
    He's not getting mad though, not hitting me.
    "I just thought I’d ask," I say. "I'm never really sure with guys. Don't