Read Online Monster: Made & Broken (A Mafia Bad Boy Romance) by Nora Ash - Free Book Online Page A

understand the importance of the next bit. “And if anyone should come asking for me, tell them you’ve never heard my name before. It’s safest that way.”
    Susie paled a bit, but nodded again. “Okay, Evelyn. Be safe.”
    I gave her a weak smile, unwilling to make a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep. “Thank you.”
    I had thought the first time I walked into the nursing home when my mother moved in was a tough day, but it was nothing in comparison to today—to leaving for the last time. It took everything I had not to lose my mind as I walked out through the sliding doors.
    The dark street outside was nearly empty, and I hurried along the pavement to get to the nearest station where I knew there’d be more people and I wouldn’t be alone. I tried my best to push down my anxiety as I turned down the small road that connected to the station a few blocks down.
    I only made it maybe twenty yards before someone grabbed me from behind, pressing a cloth into my mouth and a bag over my head.
     
    * * * *

Chapter 9
    Evelyn
     
    I squinted at the sudden light when the bag was pulled off my head.
    I didn’t know where I was or who had taken me, and my heart hammered a terrified beat behind my ribs. Whoever it was, I knew this wasn’t going to end well for me.
    After they snatched me, I’d been thrown in the backseat of a car with my hands zip-tied behind my back. My abductor had driven for perhaps half an hour or more before he stopped and slung me over his shoulder, carrying me to this room and sat me down in a chair. There had been stairs, and I had a sickening feeling that I was back in the horrible basement where I had thought I would die. Well, perhaps that premonition would still come true.
    But once my my pupils got accustomed to the light, I noticed it was brighter and less orange than that basement had been, and there were no stains on the walls. The stench of blood and human decay was also absent.
    I had an odd moment of relief, as if my upgraded cell meant that perhaps things weren’t as bad as I’d thought—until I finally spotted my captor.
    Marcus stood in front of me, arms folded across his wide chest and his handsome face drawn into dark, angry lines.
    “ Mmph!” My panicked cry was muffled by the cloth in my mouth as I jolted backward in my seat in an attempt to get away from him. Flashes of the blood spraying around him as he descended on Leo like a feral beast flashed in my mind’s eye, and any relief I may have felt vanished in a rush of panic-fueled adrenaline.
    “ We need to talk,” he said, his voice as grim as his face. Unfazed by my flinch when he reached out toward me, he pulled the cloth from my mouth and tossed it on the floor. “I suggest you cooperate.”
    I nodded shakily without taking my eyes off of him. Though he was clearly very, very angry, the ferocity I’d seen in his gaze the moment our eyes locked in Brigs’ basement wasn’t there now, and whatever else might happen, I knew my best chance of survival was to not provoke it to reappear.
    “ What did Brigs want from me?”
    “ A-a pen drive,” I whispered.
    His eyes widened for a moment and then narrowed to slits. “Did you get it?”
    I nodded again.
    Marcus’ lips flattened for a moment. “How?”
    The shame that filled me surprised me. He had me tied up and at his mercy, and was possibly going to kill me before the night was through—and I still felt guilty for what I’d done? Clearly, something was very wrong with me.
    “ Your nephew’s birthdate. You—it was obvious he means a lot to you, and I figured…”
    His eyes glowed with fury at my revelation, and I shrank back in the chair, terrified he’d lose control again.
    “ Did you steal anything else?”
    “ Money,” I confessed, the shame returning with force. “T-ten thousand pounds. B-but I have five of them in my purse, you c-can have them back.”
    Marcus arched an eyebrow at me. “Brigs told you to steal money from me, along with the pen