Monsters - Matt Rogers (icecream ebook reader TXT) 📗

‘I’ll tell you what to say to Heidi. But you need to go in like nothing’s wrong and—’

‘No,’ Mary whispered. ‘No, please.’ Unbridled fear in her tone. ‘Don’t make me go back there. Please don’t make me go back there. I’ll do anything. Fucking anything. But not that.’

Alexis took the phone away from her ear, pressed the top of the device to her forehead as she closed her eyes, sighed out her frustration. There was a solution, but Mary sure as hell wouldn’t have the composure to do it. Not even close. Which left a single option.

She brought the phone back round. ‘Okay. Don’t leave the apartment. Don’t answer your door for anyone. I’ll catch a red-eye and I’ll be there by tomorrow.’

‘What?’

‘I’m going to do your job for you, Mary.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘We look the same.’

A pause. ‘Not exactly the same, surely.’

‘No.’

‘Then it’s not enough.’

‘It’ll be enough to get past reception, I’m sure. No one looks too closely at the same people coming in at the same times, day in, day out. All I need is to make it to Heidi’s office. Then I’ll handle the rest.’

Silence. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘That’s not for you to worry about, because there’s no way you’d be able to do it yourself. Now promise me you’ll sit tight.’

Terror in her voice. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

‘Does Ava have your address?’

Mary said, ‘Yes,’ in unison with Ava’s nod across the table.

Alexis said, ‘Then I’ll see you soon.’

She hung up.

Ava’s mouth hung ajar, flabbergasted. ‘You’re not serious.’

Alexis met her stare. ‘I’ve got nothing better to do.’

‘You…’ Ava trailed off. ‘You don’t have to do this.’

‘No one has to do anything they don’t want to do, Ava. That’s the freedom we possess. There’s always a choice.’

‘I told you I was only looking for…advice.’

‘Advice wouldn’t cut it. So this is the way it is.’

‘T-thank you?’

‘Don’t thank me yet.’ She slid out of the booth. ‘I’ve got shit to prepare. I’ll call you with what I need before I get on a flight. Addresses, more details about Vitality+, that sort of thing. Keep your phone close.’

‘Of course.’

Alexis walked out, leaving Ava alone and confused.

13

Slater told himself he’d rest his shoulder after the deadlift PR, but he couldn’t help it.

He was born and bred for work.

Alexis had been gone for nearly an hour when he grew restless, wrapped his hands, and slipped on sixteen-ounce Everlast boxing gloves.

In truth there was little concern about re-injuring his rotator cuff. What with the strength of the surrounding musculature and the chemical assistance that he and King had always used to maximise recovery, he had confidence he was back to one hundred percent. The government used to provide them with special “supplements” free of charge, but now Alonzo was the one who tracked the substances down for them, the highest-grade designer steroids available, the stuff only Olympic champions usually had access to. They’d been microdosing in exact quantities their whole career with no side effects. With their workloads, they simply wouldn’t survive without a special regimen.

He ripped combinations into the heavy bag in the garage: 1-2-3-2s, 1-2-5-2s, 2-3-2s.

Jabs and crosses and hooks and uppercuts until the lactic acid burned in his arms and his shoulders puffed up like bowling balls.

No tendon pain.

In the clear.

Tyrell came into the garage thirty minutes later, as Slater unspooled his sweat-soaked hand wraps.

The boy said, ‘Man, you ain’t good at takin’ it easy, are you?’

It was late morning already, but Tyrell had nowhere to be. There was only a couple of weeks between the end of Harvard’s summer school program and the beginning of the regular fall semester, but for Tyrell it was much-needed downtime. It had taken all the willpower his maturing brain could muster to pass “Introduction to Entrepreneurship,” “Computer Science for Business Professionals,” and “Introduction to Financial and Managerial Economics.”

Slater shrugged. ‘I feel good as new.’

‘Me too. Thought I’d need more time after those seven weeks. They were hard as fuck.’

Slater paused the unwrapping process to stare at Tyrell. ‘Only swear when it’s necessary.’

‘Aight. When’s it necessary?’

‘Whenever you feel like it. Just don’t overdo it. And be tactical about where.’

‘You swear all the time.’

‘Not around you. I’m tactical.’

Tyrell rolled his eyes. ‘What you think Alexis’ up to with Ava?’

‘No idea. She’ll tell us when she gets back.’

‘Man, you should see that Ava woman. I seen her around the drop-off zone a couple times. She off the dope. Alexis gonna get the shock of her life when she sees what she look like now. She ain’t seen her since more than a month ago ’cause I asked her to stop dropping me at school. But, yeah. Ava’s a whole different person.’

‘That’s the real hard work,’ Slater said. ‘Making choices like that.’ He gestured to the heavy bag, coated in drops of perspiration. ‘People think this is the hardest thing you can do. They’re so wrong. The hardest work is the little decisions. The choice not to pick up the needle, not to eat that donut, not to slack off mentally.’

Tyrell nodded. ‘Man, you so right. I been thinkin’ about that, actually. About where I came from…’

Slater watched the boy closely. ‘Tell me.’

‘Like, my old life seemed harder, right? Hanging around drug dealers. Always scared. Not knowin’ if I’m gonna get shot that day. But really those were the easy decisions. Like, quick fixes. There’s a lotta pain but also a lotta money. So I’d believe all my homies back then when they’d say, “Man, I wish I was rich and spoiled. That’d be easy.” But now I see. Like, you’re rich. But you work harder than anyone I ever met and you don’t even have a job. I’m not…’ He trailed off, looking at the floor. ‘I’m not sayin’ this right…’

‘You’re doing great. Keep going.’

‘When I was studyin’, I was thinkin’, “This ain’t hard work.” I used to stand on street corners and deal dope. That was work, not sittin’ in front of a book. But you deal dope and