The Betrayal of Renegade X (Renegade X, Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

off of a dirt road.
    There’s also a quote from a satisfied parent. I was at my wits’ end with my daughter. I didn’t know what to do. And then I found The Wellness Preserve.
    I stare at it in horror.
    “Damien?” When I don’t answer her, Amelia steps around me so she can see what I’m looking at. “Oh. My. God.”
    I open my mouth, but no words come out. I feel numb.
    She smirks at me. “You were right. He sure respects you for telling him the truth.”
    “Shut up.” Maybe it’s someone else’s, not Gordon’s. It’s in his desk, with his stuff, but it can’t be his. He’s probably just holding it for a friend.
    “He respects you so much that he’s sending you to live on a farm. That’s what happened to Tiffany’s cousin’s dog when it peed on the floor. It had behavioral problems, so it ‘went to a farm’ and never came back.”
    My palms start to sweat. “That’s not what’s happening.”
    “That’s what it looks like is happening. But don’t worry, you’ll probably be a lot happier out in the country, with more room to run around and chase rabbits.”
    “He wouldn’t send me away.” He promised. “This must be for you. Since I think we both know which one of us belongs on a farm.”
    “Well, he doesn’t have to send you anywhere.” Amelia points to the words therapy program . “I’ve heard about places like this. They can do your shock therapy at their facility while you live at home. It’s a lot cheaper than the extended-stay option.”
    “I don’t need shock therapy. Or any therapy. This brochure must have come with the magazine.”
    “ Heroes Monthly doesn’t come with brochures. And you have been messing up a lot lately. I’m not surprised he thinks you need professional help.”
    “This place is for nutjobs who use their powers to destroy stuff and can’t control themselves.” Messed up kids whose parents don’t know how to deal with them and want to pawn their problems off on someone else.
    “Yeah, and who does that sound like? You’re doing badly in school, you’re always breaking things with your power—”
    “On accident. I don’t destroy stuff on purpose. And I haven’t done anything like that in months.” That Gordon knows about, anyway.
    “It still counts. You got arrested for it. And expelled. Plus, you zapped that guy the other night, and that was on purpose.”
    “That was different.”
    “You’re always mouthing off and talking back and not listening. And people are still taking pictures of you, even though you’re not the Crimson Flash’s only kid or anything.”
    “Wow, Amelia. Jealous much?”
    “You’re not even that special. But everything you do ends up on the news, and that makes Dad look bad. So obviously he has to do something about you. Seeing that you put a superhero in the hospital was probably the last straw.”
    Before what? Before Gordon decides I’m a lost cause? “He knows I wouldn’t hurt anybody. I mean, not without a good reason.”
    “Yeah, well,” she says, a smug smile spreading across her face, “he’ll know that even better after you get your lobotomy.”

Chapter 3
    I MASH THE BUTTONS on the controller, but my heart’s not in it. The dinosaur Riley’s playing does a spinning attack and whomps me with its tail a bunch of times. Somewhere in my mind it occurs to me to block, but my thoughts don’t reach my hands fast enough.
    My alien clutches its chest and dies dramatically on the screen, even though it died from being beaten to death by a Tyrannosaurus, not a heart attack. Though it’s also an alien, so maybe it doesn’t actually have a heart in its chest, even if it’s shaped like a human.
    “Oh, boy,” Riley says, with no enthusiasm in his voice. “I win again . It’s like you’re not even trying.”
    “I’m letting you win. It’s your Christmas present.” It’s better than the one I’m getting, which is betrayal. From Gordon.
    He makes a face. “I hope you saved the