Worth Dying for (A Dying for a Living Novel Book 5) Read Online Free PDF

walk?”
    Winston flops over onto all fours rather ungracefully and his cinnamon bun tail trembles.
    Ally wraps the scarf around her head and hides the rest of her blond hair under her hat. She mumbles words that I can’t understand as Maisie slips Winston’s collar and leash on.
    I tug the scarf down, uncovering her mouth. “What was that?”
    “I said, ‘can you tell it’s me?’”
    I put the scarf back in place and take a step back. No. I can’t. I doubt anyone else could recognize her from the slit between her hood and scarf either. Maisie bundles up too, but she doesn’t have a long scarf. I grab mine one off the back of a chair and wrap it around her head until she’s only a pair of eyes too.
    “Okay. You guys can go.”
    I get two bundled waves and the pair shuffles from the room.
    I watch the door click closed for a second time, a growing sense of unease settling over me. When I can no longer hear feet shuffling down the hall and the clank of Winston’s collar against the chain, I close my eyes.
    “Gabriel?” I ask the empty room.
    Silence.
    I take a breath and try to still my pounding heart.
    “Gabriel, are you still there?”

Chapter 4
    Rachel
    “ I ’m freezing!” I yank at the bottom of my dress. The stiff fabric doesn’t give. We hang a right at the next street corner and the wind is even worse on this avenue. “Where’s this goddamn subway tunnel?”
    “Love, perhaps you’d be warmer if you wore pants.” Gideon’s eyes fall on the bare skin between my knee-high boots and the lace of the petticoat protruding from beneath my dress. He grins, the look in his eyes devilish.
    “Why would I hide my legs when I garner such a strong reaction from you, Cariño?” I purr, rolling the word between my teeth.
    “I’m not complaining.” A smile tucks into one corner of his mouth. “ You are.”
    I dip my chin into the scarf around my head. Only my eyes are exposed to the bitter air. It’s enough to pull tears from their corners.
    “Will you be all right? We need you focused for the day ahead.”
    “Don’t insinuate that I’m weak.” I glare at him. “I know what has to be done.”
    “Perhaps you’ve changed your mind about murdering the girl. It wouldn’t be weakness. I would understand.”
    I push Gideon. He trips, stumbling on the pavement, but doesn’t fall.
    “Stop questioning me, Gid. Brinkley trusted me with this.”
    Brinkley. I see him in my mind: the leather jacket, the scars, the gruff voice. So rough around the edges, a very fuck-you-I’m-Johnny-Cash kind of man. My hero. He pulled me from a hell worse than I could’ve imagined and returned me to the world of the living. When he liberated me from that merciless drug lord’s tyranny, Brinkley could’ve asked me for anything. Anything and I would’ve given it to him.
    “I don’t question your loyalty to the cause,” Gideon says, righting himself. His smile is tight. “I know what he did for you.”
    “He gave me my revenge.” I unclench my jaw before I crack my teeth. “He made sure there was nothing left of Chaplain.”
    “Almost nothing,” Gideon corrects.
    I stop walking. “What?”
    “If you think about it, Chaplain still lives on in Caldwell. Caldwell has his gift, his partis power. I suppose as long as that exists, a part of Chaplain will also exist.”
    “No.”
    “Regardless, we’ll get the documents, pick up some scarves, and then kill the girl. Then we will be that much closer to saving the world. Are you coming?”
    I can’t draw enough breath into my nose. The idea that even the smallest part of Chaplain still exists—Chaplain the rapist. Chaplain the snuff filmmaker. Chaplain with the burning eyes that haunt my dreams. Oh, how I play the day we met over and over in my head—Chaplain with his long and easy stride, his black turtleneck and leather pants. His curls. The way he reached out and tucked the hair behind my ear as if he didn’t need permission to touch me. And the stupid way I’d