Monsters - Matt Rogers (icecream ebook reader TXT) 📗

it’s instant money. You study and you ain’t get shit, not right away. That’s the hard part. Doin’ something and there’s no reward there for you. The reward comes later, way later, when you smart and you know what to do, know how to take care’a yaself. The real hard work is planning for that day, like ten years from now. Am I making sense?’

Slater threw the hand wraps in the washing basket he kept in the garage for workout clothes. ‘Yeah, Tyrell. You’re making all the sense in the world.’

‘That’s what you been tryin’ to teach me, ain’t it? I guess it took a while to click.’

‘Most people go their whole lives without it clicking.’

‘How long did it take you?’

‘Longer than you. But some people realise and don’t apply it. Don’t be one of those people.’

‘I won’t. Quiz me.’

‘Huh?’

‘You helped me with game theory, remember? That homework I had. Ask me somethin’. See if I remember.’

Slater hid a smile. ‘“Monopoly. Perfect competition. Oligopoly.” List them from highest to lowest market quantity.’

Tyrell barely hesitated. ‘Perfect competition, oligopoly, monopoly.’

‘Why?’

‘Perfect competition usually produces the highest quantity. Monopolies usually produce the lowest ’cause there’s no urgency to fight off competitors. Oligopolies end up in the middle.’

‘Nailed it, kid.’ Slater let the smile out. ‘You’re gonna do great things.’

They both heard commotion inside the house. The front door slamming open, someone moving through the kitchen. Tyrell raised an eyebrow. Slater led the way, the teenager falling in line.

They found Alexis throwing greens into a blender for an on-the-go meal, her aura burning. They both sensed the focus. She turned to them.

‘There’s trouble,’ she said. ‘I’m going to California.’

14

It took Alexis nearly twenty minutes to explain everything, then she hurried off to pack a bag.

After she left, Slater sat on a stool at the end of the kitchen island without blinking or speaking, stoic as he processed the news. Tyrell had stayed for the whole discussion. They could’ve sent him away, but neither of them had any interest in trying to hide their lives. They knew he’d eavesdrop anyway, so it was better he was there, taking in what was happening in real-time instead of catching muttered snippets from around the corner.

When they were alone, Tyrell muttered, ‘You don’t look happy.’

Slater lifted his blank gaze to the boy. ‘I always look like this.’

Tyrell swung off his stool. ‘Ain’t my business, man. But I think you don’t like that she doin’ what you do. Or, at least, doin’ it on her own.’

‘That’s not true.’

‘Ain’t it?’

He sauntered away to his room, leaving Slater alone. He sat still for another twenty minutes before Alexis reappeared with a packed duffel in one hand and her phone in the other. She swiped a couple of times, tapped a few buttons, then slid it back in her pocket. ‘Flight’s booked for later this afternoon. I’ve got to be at Boston Logan in a couple of hours.’

Slater nodded.

She wordlessly crossed the room, pulled out the stool next to him, sat down and faced him so they could look each other in the eyes. ‘What’s on your mind?’

‘I want to come help.’

She digested that. ‘Don’t you have business to take care of? You’re a hundred percent now, right? Recuperated.’

He couldn’t have lied even if he wanted to. She’d heard him lift six hundred and eighty pounds off the floor earlier that morning, and dried sweat caked his skin from the boxing workout. ‘Yeah. I’m a hundred percent. But the list can wait.’

‘Can it?’

‘I’ve let those scumbags walk around as free men for the last six weeks. What’s another few days?’

‘You don’t know how long my thing will take. You don’t know it’ll only be days.’

‘Even still…’

‘You’re not going to be able to protect me.’

He didn’t respond.

‘Not all the time,’ she continued. ‘I don’t need a babysitter. I’ll be fine.’

‘You want the truth? I don’t want to lose you. That’s the truth.’

‘You think I can bear losing you when you go off to wage war with God-knows-who?’

That made him stop, switch his perspective, come to realisations. It only took him a few moments. He took her head in his hands and kissed her forehead. ‘Okay.’

She gripped his hand. ‘You mean it?’

‘I mean it. I’ve seen you in action. If you were hopeless I’d put my foot down, no matter how much tension it caused. But you can handle yourself. I trust you to keep yourself alive.’

‘How flattering.’

‘It should be. You know how few people I trust.’

She nodded slowly. ‘If I need help, I won’t hesitate to call. You know that.’

‘Uh-huh.’ He gazed into space, over her shoulder, continuing to process what she’d told him. ‘Damn. That’s a real shame.’

‘What?’

He looked back at her. ‘I watched that Vitality+ news report with you. I remember it vividly. Kills me that it’s not real.’

Alexis smirked. ‘If it makes you feel any better, Mary told me that it does exist. It just doesn’t work the way they want it to yet, but a media storm like this only comes around once in a blue moon and Heidi’s clearly trying to capitalise on it. Whatever that takes…’

‘Do you have the photo of the board member? What was his name?’

‘Jack Sundström. And no. Heidi only showed it to Mary in a flash. Didn’t send it to her for obvious reasons. And I’ve been refreshing the news. He’s still missing.’

‘Could it have been a fake?’

‘I don’t think so. Not the way she spoke. She was absolutely sure.’

‘Then you need to be on guard. The moment your plane touches down. You don’t beat someone to death unless you’re sending a message. A bullet is infinitely cleaner. There’s a reason they did it that way.’

‘Obviously.’

He sighed. ‘Probably more for my own reassurance than yours.’

‘You take care with that list,’ she said. ‘Based on what happened with Kian Grant, I’d wager every scumbag on it knows each other. Maybe it’s all connected, the whole underworld, all the way across the country. You know…six degrees of separation…that sort of thing. Maybe all monsters know