Read Broken (The Broken Series Book 1) for Free Online Page A

let out a shaky breath. He was right. I didn’t know either of them at all. But from what Alexander had told me, I really did think he had his brother’s best interests at heart. But I didn’t want to get into that with Jack. I didn’t think provoking an argument on my first day was the best way to start my new job.
    “So what would you like me to do?” I said, deliberately changing the subject. “Have you had breakfast?”
    Jack perked up a little at that. “Are you a good cook?”  
    I cringed. “Not exactly. I can do simple stuff though.”
    “Can you cook eggs?”
    “Uh, yeah, how do you like them?”  
    “Scrambled,” he said and nodded to the small kitchen behind the breakfast bar.  
    To my annoyance, he followed me, wheeling the chair around behind me. Seriously? He wasn’t going to watch me make eggs, was he?  
    “The eggs are in the refrigerator and the bread is in that basket over there. I’ll have two slices and two eggs scrambled,” he said as if he was ordering breakfast in a diner.  
    “Right,” I said. “I can do that.”
    I’ve cooked breakfast thousands of times; it’s not as if it was difficult. But with him watching me so intently, I was all fingers and thumbs.  
    I caught my hand on the refrigerator door, banged my head and almost dropped the eggs as I took them out of the refrigerator. All the time, Jack just sat there, looking at me with a trace of a smile on his lips, like I amused him.  
    I took a deep breath to try and steady my nerves and broke the eggs into a small glass bowl. I cursed under my breath as I dropped a small piece of shell in there and spent a few seconds trying to fish it out.  
    Jack’s eyes never left me.  
    If this was a sign of things to come, it was going to be a very long day.  
    When I finally served up the eggs, he only picked at them to start with.  
    After a couple of bites, he said, “Pretty good.” Then wolfed the rest down. “Not bad. Are you not having anything?”  
    “I already had breakfast.”  
    He nodded and then put his knife and fork down.
    “So, what did you do before this, Kristina? Have you always been in nursing?”
    “No,” I said, slowly. I wondered how much he knew about me. Perhaps he had spoken to Alexander again last night.  
    Jack grinned wolfishly at me. “I get all my gossip from Maria,” he said. “She tells me everything.”  
    “I see.”  
    “So tell me about you,” he said, looking far too curious for my liking.
    I squirmed under his gaze. “There’s nothing to tell.”
    “Sure, there is. There must be. Everyone’s got a story.”  
    I shifted a little in my seat, feeling uncomfortable. I didn’t really enjoy telling people about my past, let alone people I’d only just met. If he thought I was going to spill my guts to him, he had another thing coming. He looked like he was only after entertainment anyway. It’s not like he really cared.
    I shook my head. “Really, I had a pretty boring life. I grew up in Miami, with my sister and our mom. End of story.”
    “You’re right. That does sounds boring,” Jack said.  
    “So, what about you?” I said, trying to change the subject and bring it around to something that wasn’t focused on me.  
    Jack gave me a sarcastic look. “Because you haven’t heard? My life story was plastered on all the gossip websites and newspapers around the world. You probably know more about me than my own mother did.”
    “I don’t really read that sort of stuff.”  
    Jack took a breath and exhaled deeply. “Well, I used to race cars, had a crash and I ended up in a wheelchair. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.” He gave me a tight smile.  
    I didn’t know how to reply so I stayed silent.
    After a beat, Jack said, “I don’t think much of your small talk. I thought you were here to entertain me.”
    He was being obnoxious and it was getting to me. Why was he determined to be so difficult?  
    “What do you usually do?” I asked.