Heartbreak Inc. by Alex de Campi

Author:Alex de Campi
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Urban fantasy
Publisher: Solaris

The acrid odor of burnt hair hangs in the air of the bedroom. The blindfolded girl on the bed makes a small whimpering sound and writhes against her bonds, clearly uncomfortable with what she can hear.

“Give me my book,” Eric says. He’s naked under the robe, a protruding belly over a pigeon chest, all covered in sparse dark hair.

Evie turns towards him, hugging the book over her heart like a shield. “I’m sorry,” she tries. “I was looking for the bathroom and I got lost?”

Eric snorts in derision and strides forwards. His gun never strays from where it is pointed, at the center of her forehead. His free hand reaches out for the book.

Evie shrinks away from his sallow, silk-robed figure, the grasping hand in the black latex glove. She backs up into something hard and for a moment assumes it’s the door.

But doors aren’t warm.

Then everything tips over beyond rational understanding.

Eric Overstreet’s eyes look past her shoulder and widen and he begins firing the gun and the bullets should be hitting her but they’re not, because she’s been thrown to the side and there’s someone in front of her and it’s Misha and she watches him take three slugs to the chest and keep walking forwards and she knows she’s not hallucinating because Eric sees it too and his eyes are terrified and he’s backing up and firing again but his gun is going click click click and Eric is begging and the girl on the bed is screaming around the ball gag and Misha backhands Eric halfway across the room, right into a fucking awful porcelain lamp of the Rape of Persephone, and the gun bounces out of his hand onto the rug, thud thunk, and Evie decides it’s time for her and the book to get the everliving fuck out of there but as she gets up to flee there’s a hand on her upper arm like a band of iron and Misha turns her round to face him and his eyes are black, all black, like a Japanese horror movie, and he wrenches the book from her arms and even as she squeals, “No, don’t hurt it,” he shoves her towards the door and orders, “Walk out of here,” and then he is ripping the book apart and throwing its pages in the fire and it’s like voices in harmonic chorus are screaming in her brain.

She sees blood begin to drip from the book’s torn spine, thick and dark.

She runs.

Evie comes to herself outdoors, gazing at the shifting aqua-blue glow of the pool. She has a glass of champagne in her hand and no idea how she got it. All she knows is that the panic is receding, its cold steel claws extracting from her chest, the stifling pressure slipping back into the shadows. She’s shaking, but it’s from the increasing chill of the night air rather than nerves. The intrusive buzzing whispers of the book, its anguished screams, it’s all gone from her head. All is silence now; even the crickets have gone quiet.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.