Read Online Switch by Janelle Stalder - Free Book Online Page A

rationalized that it was because he’d be dead himself before he even made it out of this room. The other part knew it was for a lot more selfish reasons. Killing her would be like destroying a fine piece of art. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it. “Are you going to be a good girl?” He could have sworn she growled. He chuckled again, he couldn’t help it. This girl was all sorts of entertaining to him. Slowly he removed his hand and almost wanted to groan when he got his first look of her soft, plump lips. God must hate him, he decided.
    “We both know you wouldn’t make it out of here alive if you killed me,” she said.
    “Who says I care if I don’t?” he countered. Her lips pressed together angrily. “Now, tell me how you knew about the meeting tonight.”
    “Tell me how you’re blocking me,” she shot back.
    He shook his head. “I’m not going to do that, we both know that.”
    “Everyone out there has a wall up. How?”
    He rolled his eyes. “You’re wasting your time…” he tilted his head. “What’s your name?”
    She opened her mouth then closed it again, as if rethinking her response. “Dinah,” she answered.
    “Dinah,” he repeated. She cocked one eyebrow as if to say ‘what of it?’. He smiled at her feistiness. “Okay, Dinah , I want to know how you knew about the meeting.”
    She looked away for a second, deciding. When she looked back his heart actually jumped. Not good, he thought. He could not have those sorts of reactions to her. Other parts of him were jumping to life as well just from lying on top of her, and that was really not good.
    “Some old man was brought in,” she said. “I don’t know his name. He had the same sort of wall as the rest of you, but I was able to break it down enough to get that information.”
    “What did he look like?”
    She shrugged awkwardly. “I don’t remember.”
    “Did you kill him?” For some reason he really wanted her to say no.
    “No.”
    He actually let out a sigh of relief. Why did it even matter?
    “I don’t normally kill unless I have to,” she said. He stared at her, surprised by her honesty. “I don’t know why I told you that,” she admitted.
    “Cause you don’t want me to think you’re a monster?” he suggested.
    “I don’t give a shit what you think of me.” He fought the urge to smile again. His little spitting kitten. Whoa, whoa whoa. Not his. Why the hell did he just think that? It was time to wrap this up.
    “I need you to get you and your men out of here, without anyone else dying. Think you can manage that?”
    “What am I supposed to tell Roman?”
    “I don’t know, I’ll leave that up to you. But make sure it’s good enough to convince him it’s time to leave.”
    She bit her lip, drawing his attention there. Unwanted desire built in his stomach that he quickly pushed away. “Fine. What about you?”
    “What about me?”
    “Are you going to tell anyone about me? Not only do you know I’m a girl, but you’ve seen my face. That’s very dangerous information.”
    “For now, I’ll keep it to myself. Can’t make any long term promises.”
    “Fine. Neither can I.”
    He looked into her eyes, knowing that she could bring a shit storm down on all of them if she wanted. “Fine.”

    Something very weird had just happened to her, and it wasn’t that she had been taken off guard. To be honest, even though she was trained, she was still a lot smaller than most opponents. Without being able to hear the other person’s moves, she was pretty much SOL. The fact that he got the best of her wasn’t really all that surprising. She was more shocked she hadn’t considered that possibility before she asked Roman to leave.
    No, what was weird was that when he’d asked for her name her initial reaction was to respond with Charlotte. Not once in five years had she gone to give someone her old name. What was it about him that had brought that out of her? It disturbed her, almost as much as the