The Fix Read Online Mia Sheridan

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary, Suspense Tags Authors:
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Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 128083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
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He considered running again, his eyes moving around the man to the door as he weighed his chances. “Don’t think about it, kid,” the guy said, obviously reading his intention as if it were spelled out on his face. So, okay, the guy wasn’t a total nose picker, but he still looked pretty dumb.

“Think about what?”

“Running. There’s nothing out there for miles around except bears. Did you know a grizzly bear’s bite can crush a bowling ball?”

“You’re a liar.”

“It’s the truth. You wanna test it out? Your chances of getting past me are zero to none, but even if a miracle occurred and you managed it, then you’d have to survive in the wilderness. There are grizzlies and snakes and wolves out there, and you’d have no food. Plus, it’s twenty miles to the nearest town, if you’re walking in the right direction. Not to mention, I’d hunt you down, and I’d find you.”

Cyrus’s gaze went to the door again and then moved to the window, where the sun was showing above the trees. He had no way to fact-check this loser, but the view out the window at least partly supported what he said. It looked like he was in the middle of nowhere. And when he’d pressed his ear against the glass, he could hear the roar of what sounded like water.

“I don’t have any parents,” he told the man. “They died, and I live with a foster family who doesn’t even like me. They definitely won’t give you money. They’re probably glad I’m gone.” Maybe they’d let him be taken. That idea caused a lump to form in his throat. He knew the man and woman he lived with wouldn’t care if he lived or died, but the thought that they might have turned him over to a crazy man who lived in the woods made him feel lower and lonelier than he had in a long time.

“They know all about you, kid.”

“Who’s they?”

The man shrugged. “Who knows. They, the ones who make things happen. The dealmakers. The operators. Those with money and connections. The all-powerful they. You and me? We’re just cogs in their machine, my man. Once you accept that, everything’s easier. Not everyone has to seek the kingdom of they. A lot of pressure. Too much stress. Take their money, and keep your mouth shut, and you can coast. That’s all I want, just to coast.”

He was a cog? In a machine? Cyrus didn’t even know what a cog was. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

The man laughed. “At least you have some grit. I thought I was going to be dealing with a blubbering sissy. But I see you’re squared away. That’ll make it easier for you.”

Make what easier for me? But Cyrus had asked question after question, and the man had barely offered any helpful information whatsoever. What he did know now was that he’d definitely been kidnapped—there was a man outside his door, and if the man could be believed at all, others were coming to get him in about a week.

And Cyrus knew that any others who were coming to get him from a cabin in the middle of nowhere, where he was being held by a kidnapper, were bad, bad news.

Cyrus was no stranger to bad news. He’d been living bad news since he was eight years old.

He had to get out of here, and he had to do that before they arrived.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Cami pressed both hands over her mouth to hold back the moan of despair and surprise and a hundred other emotions that were lodged in her throat. Rex looked at her, his expression similarly conflicted.

He’d grabbed a pen and a pad from her counter as they’d watched and listened to the exchange, and now that the boy was alone again, investigating the contents of the greasy paper bag the man had left, Rex lowered the volume on the computer. “Foster care,” he said, meeting her wide eyes. “His parents died.”

Cami lowered her hands and then squeezed them together to contain the shaking. Then she closed her eyes and simply breathed, letting the anger and sadness stab at her until she could bear it. When she opened her eyes and placed her hands on the table, she noticed him lift his hand slightly, as if moving to touch her. It stayed in the air for a heartbeat before he lowered it again. “Do you think Elora Maxwell relocating to the Virgin Islands and the lawsuits against her adoption agency has a connection to this?” she asked.

“Maybe. I can’t see how this child’s adoptive parents’ death would be her fault, but it’s possible. If they died of something drug related because she didn’t vet them properly or something like that . . .”

She nodded slowly.

“I think that’s something to be investigated later,” he said. “The why and the how he ended up in foster care. But if this is your son, now we don’t have to spin our wheels wondering where his parents are.”


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