Temping Is Hell Read Online Free PDF Page A

cup of coffee. “I don’t have a lot of options, Yagi. I’m down to one year. Just one damned year to find all these guys and take care of them.”
    Yagi was silent for a moment. “Do you think you’re ready?”
    Thomas took a big sip of the coffee, scalding the roof of his mouth. Caffeine , he thought gratefully. “You’ve been training me for five years. You tell me.”
    “You’re ready physically,” Yagi admitted. “Considering you don’t have the powers most signatory bargain for, your reflexes and abilities are fairly impressive. But mentally… emotionally…”
    Thomas frowned. “What are you saying?”
    “You’re going to need to kill twelve people. Thirteen, including Cyril.” Yagi’s face was stern. “And more than that, you’re going to have to bend rules, break laws. You’ll need to do things you find repugnant, with people you find repulsive. If you aren’t willing to do that, you won’t be free . But once you take this path, you can’t go back. So I repeat: are you ready?”
    Thomas closed his eyes for a second. He pictured Elizabeth, the first time he’d met her, smiling quietly behind her desk, looking like Grace Kelly. Then later in their relationship, hanging on his arm, dazzling paparazzi in a stunning white dress.
    Then much later, writhing in agony in a hospital bed.
    Finally lying still, in a pool of blood .
    He grimaced, then forced himself to drink the rest of the coffee, putting the cup down before his hands shook.
    This wasn’t about getting free.
    This was about revenge.
    “I’m ready,” Thomas said, and his voice rasped slightly. “I will do whatever it takes to kill Cyril Roman.”
    Yagi nodded, a small smile of triumph hovering around his lips.
    “To start with,” Thomas added, turning back to his desk, “I think I may have figured out a way around Al.”
    …
    Kate walked into Fiendish at eight forty-five on the dot, feeling only a little draggy. To try and counter the slump, she’d indulged in a Venti pumpkin spice latte before she walked into Maggie’s office.
    “Good morning, Mag— I mean, Ms. Maggie. Did you get a chance to go over my notes?”
    Maggie didn’t even look up from her breakfast—an egg, bacon, and cheese laden bagel thing almost as big as her head—or her iPhone, from which the sounds of dying video game pigs wailed. How the woman remained that stick thin was a bit of a mystery, Kate thought with envy. Maggie finally swallowed, then registered Kate’s presence.
    “What are you doing here?”
    Kate figured she was kidding, but Maggie’s cool stare obviously wasn’t a joke. “I finished the personnel files you requested,” Kate said.
    “You didn’t do what I asked.”
    Kate froze. “Excuse me?”
    “I asked for a phone directory ,” Maggie said with slow, condescending exaggeration. “And I don’t see anything on my desk that looks like a phone directory. So I’m a little surprised that you have the nerve to show up here at all.”
    With all the crap on your desk, how would you know?
    Kate gritted her teeth. “It’s electronic,” she returned in the same slow, insulting cadence. “It’s completely searchable—a true personnel database . If you’re going through annual reviews and need to assign raises, you’ll have everyone’s pay rate. If you need to get a password, it’ll be right there. Everything that’s on the questionnaire is included, so you can change one thing without filling in or crossing out anything.” She paused. “ And you could print off a phone list.”
    “Yes, but is it what I asked you to do ? ” Maggie stood up, brushing crumbs off her skin-tight black suit. “I’m afraid I don’t tolerate incompetence.”
    “Incompetence?” Kate bristled, half in shock, half in fury.
    “Maggie?” Thomas stuck his head into the doorway, frowning. “Listen, I need one of the guys from I.T…. Oh. It’s you.” He shot Kate a small, surprised smile. “We meet again.”
    Kate blinked, some of her anger