Gator's Challenge Read Online Free Page A

winding drive to the new institute and noted the monsters roaming around. It didn’t bear thinking what would happen if the world found out monsters lived among them.
    The brisk dawn air hit him, and he inhaled deeply, filling his lungs, a man grasping at a freedom taunting him just out of reach.
    The fresh, crisp air and wide-open sky teased Wes. It called him. Leave this place. Swim free. Hunt for pleasure, not for others.
    Funny how that voice sounded an awful lot like his inner beast.
    The freedom he’d lost chafed. The fresh air taunted him with—
    The acrid smoke curled from the tip of the cigarette he lit, wiping away the torturous reminder of what he couldn’t have. He pushed back against the insidious whispers telling him to escape.
    If I leave, what will happen?
    It didn’t bear contemplating, and he wouldn’t second-guess his choices now, not when he knew he’d make the same decision again.
    Regret was for pussies. A real man made his bed, and he fucking lied in it, even if it was lined in nails, rusty ones.
    Argh. He threw the cigarette, but its feathery weight worked against him. The lit butt caught in a gust of wind and flew back toward him.
    Fucking hell. The discarded smoke hit the one rip in his jean-clad thigh and singed. He flicked it away, but the damage was done. A hint of red there and a dose of heat to sear the skin— mmm, barbecue.
    Not funny, you sick bastard.
    As Wes rebuked his inner gator, he slapped himself, only to hear a voice he never thought to hear again after last night.
    “You’re slapping the wrong part of your body. Why don’t you stand up and I’ll help you get the right spot?”
    Melanie. What is she doing here? I thought she escaped.
    He straightened, ignoring the taunting red cigarette glowing on the concrete patio that ran the perimeter of the building. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
    “No hello for an old friend?” She arched a brow, the thin line of it truly evocative, especially when she angled a hip.
    A petite five-foot-something, Melanie had curves, and a fiery attitude to match her wild, wavy hair. At times like these, when her irritation coursed unbound, Latina fire burned in her eyes and accented her words.
    He shook his head. “How did they catch you?” And why wasn’t he informed? Andrew kept him apprised of most of his moves, something Wes needed given his defined role as personal guard. He used to enjoy the position of head guard at Bittech until he’d been brought over to this new place. Over here, he’d hovered in limbo since some dick called Larry already seemed to be charged with keeping the place secure.
    “What am I supposed to be doing?” he asked as Andrew handed him a box in his old office.
    “Bringing this to my car.”
    “Not the box”— asshole—“ I mean at this new place. If that other dude is running shit, then what’s my role?”
    “You’ll do whatever I tell you or else.”
    Apparently do whatever Andrew said didn’t include letting Wes in on his plans for his wife.
    We could easily make her a widow, his sly gator reminded.
    I’m thinking about it.
    Melanie deserved better.
    Like us.
    No. Better as in someone who wasn’t a dick.
    As Melanie blasted him, most of it about him being a lying sack of shit that she wouldn’t piss on if he caught fire, he caught words that froze him and made him interrupt her litany of his faults.
    “Rewind. What do you mean Andrew kidnapped the boys?”
    “Oh, please. Don’t act so innocent,” she snapped. “You guys made it pretty clear last night that you’re chummy. Don’t tell me you don’t know.”
    He shook his head. “I haven’t seen your boys. Are you sure Andrew has them?”
    Brown eyes pinned him with disdain. “Know a lot of other guys with a flying lizard on staff?”
    “Which lizard?”
    “Does it matter?”
    As a matter of fact, it did. “That bastard. I can’t believe he’d stoop to scaring his kids like that.”
    “Then you don’t know Andrew very