Through a Glass, Darkly (Assassins of Youth MC #1) Read Online Free PDF

their income. These whacked fundies are a gold mine, Fortunati. Literally, because I think he owns a gold mine nearby.”
    So that was how we left it. I’d be stuck there for at least another three weeks, although the way Ewey made it sound, he had some longer-term goals in mind.
    That’s how I came to be pacing, chugging, and looking at the red velvet cake of the eastern mesas when Allred Chiles called me on his burner. I was pissed, but actually things were looking up. Already, I was finagling in my brain to find a way to see Mahalia again. She’d done something to me—stuck deep in my craw and wouldn’t let go.
    “Mr. Fortunati. I liked the way you stood up for yourself to that bruiser associate of yours.” I bristled. Was he calling Tim Breakiron more buffed and fit than me? I fucking worked out. Most days. Breakiron was just wider than me, like a fucking barn door. “I’ve been informed you might be available for the next few weeks for a specific job I have in mind. You mentioned you run a rock quarry.”
    “Yes, sir.” Good God in an evil world. Now someone else was farming me out to the sticks for grunt work.
    “I have a very lucrative gold and silver mine just outside of Avalanche. Beautiful, rich veins, about twenty-four ounces per ton. Lava rock too, such as you’re familiar with, but I’ve heard rumblings there might be iron, platinum, and tungsten. It’s a twenty-acre parcel with three full-time employees filling the trucks. I’ve had to send the manager elsewhere. Now, those ten men are unruly union men. Men of the Church of Good Fortune, but unruly nevertheless.” Chiles chuckled condescendingly. “Sort of like yourself, now that I think on it. Anyway, Fortunati. Seeing as how you’re going to be around twiddling your thumbs for a while. Feel like getting paid to oversee these roustabouts?”
    I jumped right in headfirst, as was my habit. “Sounds intriguing. What about my associate, Breakiron?”
    Understandably, Chiles was skeptical. “Does he have quarry experience, anything to do with geology?”
    “No. He drives a truck for me in Bullhead, but he also hauls for other companies.”
    “I really have no need of truck drivers. I’m stuck with these union assholes. I can pay you a competitive wage. Beats what you’re doing meanwhile. Think you can do it, Fortunati?”
    “I’m in.”
    I really was. My earlier excitement at seeing potential mining operations came to the fore now. In a desolate wasteland, as alone as a man could possibly be, I was stuck with a twatwaffle like Tim Breakiron. I needed others around me. I was a family man deep down, contrary to what Ewey had said about me breaking hearts. I sort of envied Mahalia with her built-in family. That’s what I had had with my club. A patched member was never alone. Now I was. Running the mining op would give me something to do while I waited for the Russian ladies to arrive.

CHAPTER FOUR
    GIDEON
    M y bottle was empty, so I chucked it in the dumpster with a loud, dull thud and headed for my room to get my room key. I’d seen a bar named the High Dive up on Crosstown Street. I could easily walk to it. I thought I’d knock back a few more, maybe meet some locals. I’d seen a few hippies walking around, and some rough types like me. Bikers, hunters, ranchers. Avalanche seemed to have been a thriving community twenty years ago when Allred Lee Chiles moved in with his congregation, building temples, schools, and weird houses to fit lots of women. Somehow he’d either sucked all the life out of the town, or scared everyone off.
    But I rummaged around a few seconds too long, and Breakiron was all over me.
    “Going to check out that bar? Yeah, sounds good. I’m bored out of my skull. Read every last boob magazine at that liquor store. Hey, I saw some Morbots inside the gate giving me the eye.”
    “Oh yeah?” I asked tiredly. I was starting work tomorrow, but I didn’t want to tell Breakiron. Who needed the extra drama? “I’ll