Read Embrace The Night for Free Online

scene.
    Not to mention the fact that he’d just about gone over the edge—
back
over the edge—there in that room. He was right there, right on the fucking line. It would have been so easy…too easy…to finish the
gabacho
off. He’d killed for much less. Those dirty hands and greedy mouth manhandling Sage, tearing at her—
    Simon blanked his mind.
No. Don’t fucking go there.
    But it still nestled in his body, that cold rage, as he cruised quickly and silently through the hallways that led to the uninhabited part of the hotel.
    He could have acted on that rage, and no one would have been the wiser. In fact, in this world, it was more than like the Old West—a man had to take the law into his own hands because there wasn’t widespread authority.
    There were a few small prisons cells in Envy, but not much of a legal system. Simple trial by jury…if anyone made it that far. No, most of the time, it was up to the individual to mete out the punishment if someone was caught in the act, which could include banishment.
    But Simon had a more severe punishment in mind, and he found the thought more tempting than he fucking should.
    He could even go back now and take care of the bastard. A heartbeat, a quick twist and a snap or a well-placed slice, and it would be over.
    Simon strode faster, putting distance between himself and the temptation. Stepping over that line, even in this case, would be only the beginning of a very slippery slope.
    Now he understood what Jesus felt like in the desert, when Satan had tempted him. The enticement was everywhere…and he had to fight it. Though he had the power, the strength, and the protection, he couldn’t act on it.
    At last he reached the split doors that led to the old elevator shaft. The area was dim and cluttered with debris and cobwebs in staged neglect. He found it short business to open the doors, and they slid apart silently and easily once he pushed the right combination of the buttons.
Down, up, up, up, down.
    Simon’s mouth twisted in a reluctant smile. Obviously the Waxnicki brothers were not only computer and electronics geniuses, but also Bond fans. He stepped through the open doors onto the landing of a tight spiral staircase, and the doors rolled closed behind him, leaving the world dark.
    But he knew the trick—step on the right side of the third stair—to activate a soft glow of light.
    At the bottom of the spiral was a smaller room, another display of perpetual neglect, and Simon felt around for the latch that opened the door to the lab. Moments later, he slipped inside.
    The room was warm and hummed with the whir of computers and soft buzz of monitors. He found the lights that illuminated the spare space, which was filled with nothing but tables lined with computers, monitors, and keyboards. He quickly situated himself at one of the stations Sage often used.
    Fully aware of the limitations of the haphazard, patch-worked Internet, Simon didn’t expect to find the information so easily. But it took only a few minutes using the Yahoogle search engine to pull up the news article he remembered seeing, and to scan through to confirm his memory. He’d been right.
    Considering that he’d been functionally illiterate until he was fifteen, Simon still felt a little thrill of amazement that he could so effortlessly breeze through the printed word. Even though he’d been reading fluently for more than twenty years, the memory of his frustration, and then belligerence, when it came to understanding how the letters fit together to form words had not altogether left him.
    He considered his education the single gift he’d received from Mancusi. The only thing that had made his years of hell worthwhile.
    Just as he turned off the computer monitor, he heard a quiet
ding
.
    Pinche.
Someone had just opened the elevator doors above.
    Simon moved quickly to turn off the lights in the lab just as he recognized the soft ringing of footsteps on the upper stairs. He drew in a deep