Reapers: The Shadow Soldiers Read Online Free Page B

felt strange.  
    Arriving in Central City once more, Burns ascended from the tram station and headed back to Lagona ’ s pub.  
    The night was the pub ’ s busiest hours, especially when it was raining like it had begun to, so Burns didn ’ t expect the empty room he saw when he walked in. It looked like the place was closed; even the lights were off. Nobody seemed to be home. Except Burns noticed there was one person hidden in the shadows behind the bar table. They were thin and short, so probably not a man. Certainly not Lagona.
    He continued toward the bar anyway. Lagona was notorious for denying thugs their “protection money,” as they often demanded. Burns feared they might have finally mustered up the courage to confront the man. They ’ d be sorry. Killing Ben Burns’ only friend was a very bad move.
    Yet, for all his courage, even Burns’ breath was taken away when the person finally revealed themselves. It wasn’t some thug as he ’ d originally suspected. It was much worse. It was the woman who’d been following him all day. She still had her fresh face, but she ’ d donned a leather jacket and some blue jeans.
    The woman approached Burns, and the only thing separating them was the bar table. Burns spoke first, which he didn ’ t do much of.
    “Where ’ s the old man?” he asked, quick and short. The woman tilted her head ever so slightly before suddenly realizing what he meant.
    “Oh, Dad. He had an emergency and had to leave, so he asked me to take over cleanup for the night. My name is Alex. I ’ m his daughter,” she told him, but Burns wasn ’ t buying it. Partly because he ’ d spotted the woman all day and partly because he ’ d actually met the real Alex Lagona. Whoever this person was, they had gone through a considerable amount of trouble to follow him, which meant they were very bad news…he didn ’ t need anymore bad news.  
    “Right. Alex,” he went along, trying to buy time to formulate a plan out of the encounter.
    “My dad told me to expect you. Ben Burns, right?” she asked, putting out a hand in an offer for a handshake. Burns complied and shook her hand. It was cold.  
    “Your father talks a lot about you,” he mentioned, casually scanning the dark corners of the pub to see if the mysterious woman had any backup.  
    “He talks a lot about you too, Ben. He may have a shotgun strapped under this table, but deep down inside, I know that he loves people,” she joked, drawing a fake smile from them both.  
    Shotgun, Burns started to think, but figured he wouldn ’ t be able to get to it faster than she would.  
    “Hey, is everything okay?” she asked suddenly. He had been darting his eyes around the pub the whole conversation, and apparently she had noticed. Shaping up, he looked decisively at her pale blue eyes.  
    “It ’ s fine. I just came to speak to your father, but since he ’ s not in, I think I ’ ll be going,” he told her, moving around the side of the bar and heading for the back door of the pub.  
    “Oh, come on! You don ’ t want a drink?” the woman asked as she followed him stride for stride from the other side of the mahogany bar table. He kindly shook his head to her offer.
    “No thanks. Five years sober,” he explained as the woman pushed through a partition on the side of the bar and stopped directly in front of him, blocking the door in back. He readied himself for a fight, but she didn ’ t seem to have that idea. Instead, she looked at the ground and began to fiddle with her belt loop.
    “Wow, this is awkward,” she abruptly stated.  
    “What?” he asked, continuing the conversion while looking for a way out.  
    “Well, my dad sorta set us up,” she revealed. At first Burns thought back to the old days when a setup meant a trap. Then he realized what she meant. “Like a date,” she clarified. This woman really did want to shadow him, and she was pulling all the stops in order to achieve it.  
    “That ’ s a kind