Read Bone And Cinder: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (Zapheads Book 1) for Free Online

also noticed that she was wearing his backpack.
    “But plans changed,” she said.
    She’s robbing me, the bitch.
    Did she even know how to use the Glock?  Not that it was that difficult to figure out, with no safety and all.  Untrained shooter or not, at this range, she could easily do some damage.
    He’d have to think his way out of this.  And his bullshit reservoir was bobbing down near the E.
    “Kara, what the hell are—”
    “Craig Everson.”
    Something about the name was familiar.  But why would she blurt it out with a gun pointed at Mackie’s face?
    “Stay with me, Mackie.  Do you remember someone named Craig Everson?  I need to know you recognize that name.”
    He didn’t.
    And then he did.
    Suddenly, all the shit happening in the post-apocalyptic solar shitstorm world outside made a lot more sense than what was happening in Allie’s dorm room.
    Craig Everson.  Small time lowlife.  A meth head that made the mistake of getting pinched at a routine traffic stop with Krider’s product in the trunk of his car.
    And Krider’s orders.
    “I know this doesn’t get easier, Macklin.  You’ve done this a few times before and you’ll do it again, but it never gets easier.  Still, I need you to take care of this, and you know you will.  You can leave his family out of it, but you know what needs to happen to Mr. Everson.”
    And Mackie had taken care of it.
    Followed him home one night after he made bail and put a round in his forehead while his old lady screamed on the front porch.
    Krider wasn’t a big fan of witnesses, but Mackie had been sloppy that night, all the Vicodin in his system blurring his good judgment.  Or maybe some buried spark of decency inside him had turned him away from another innocent kill.
    “He was an epic screw-up, don’t get me wrong,” Kara said.  “But he did a lot of good for me and my mom.  And when you took him away, she completely fell apart.  All the shitty men in her life, and here was one that had a problem, sure, but he didn’t hit us, did his best to keep the bills paid.  Didn’t try to put his dick where it didn’t belong.  When you killed him, she just couldn’t handle it.”
    “I...” He ran down the list of possible excuses but didn’t bother wasting his breath. He justified his actions as protecting the ones he loved, and topped it off with the consolation that he was really just putting lowlifes out of their misery.  But even lowlifes had loved ones who would suffer their loss.
    Now he understood why she’d looked vaguely familiar.  He’d probably glimpsed her while staking out Everson, refusing to focus on her features because that would have humanized her.
    “I came home one afternoon and found her in the basement,” Kara said, her face sharp with shadows.  “She’d blown out her liver on booze and pills.”
    You can leave the family out of it .
    Sure.
    “You were his stepdaughter?”
    “Almost, But they weren’t married yet. And I don’t think I need to tell you I’m not an Evans-Lawson student, either.” Kara smiled, but the expression held more sadness than amusement.  “Nice place, but who the hell could afford tuition?”
    “Then why are you here?”
    “I came here for Allie .  I wanted to take her away from you the same way you took Craig from mom and me.  That was my plan, to be a new girl in the area looking to hang out with some cool college kids.  Then I’d just happen to be where Allie was one night and strike up a conversation.  I wanted us to be friends, and then I wanted to kill her and make damn sure you knew that it was all your fault.  And I figured you’d hear about it, and like the raging psycho you seemed to be, you’d immediately come gunning for revenge.”
    Mackie’s head spun.  Beside him, Allie thrashed and moaned.
    “But how did—”
    “How did I know it was you?  I knew the kind of circles Craig ran in.  So I started asking questions.  Apparently, that got back to Lucas Krider and