Thicker than Blood Read online

  Life literally teemed from every corner of this place, as if Purgatory were a busy New York City sidewalk, not an old factory complex stuck in the middle of nowhere. It was both fascinating and frightening, so much life all in one place, filled with people who didn’t seem afraid like the citizens in Fredericksville. In fact, these people seemed the opposite, laughing and joking as if this were just any other day, not four years into the crumble of civilization.

  Eyes followed us as we passed, dirty faces assessing us from head to toe. Some people offered us friendly smiles, others were more apprehensive. But the men all had the same look in their eyes—greed—evident by their lascivious grins, their hands rubbing together, knuckles cracking, their appraising eyes running up and down the length of us.

  Jutting my chin out, I ignored the catcalls, ignored the quivers that ran up Leisel’s arm and into my own. Picking up our pace, I ensured that we stayed directly behind Alex, no more than a distance of two steps at all times. Even so, Alex’s presence didn’t calm me as I’d hoped it would, not when I could still see all those greedy eyes.

  Eventually, at the far end of the open area, we turned down a quiet corner and entered a tall building. On either side of us, the walls were crudely painted with names and dates, images of both the past and the present. The hallways were lined with large metal drums, men filling them with some sort of yellowish liquid, as if preparing for something.

  The entire place was surprisingly cleaner than I’d thought it would be, the floors swept free of debris, items piled up and organized on shelves or neatly stacked in containers. Amazed, I continued to stare, wondering how many different supplies they must have in a place this size, and how they’d obtained it all.

  Finally we approached a set of concrete steps that led to a heavy steel door, two armed guards stationed at the bottom.

  “He up there?” our escort asked the guards, jerking his chin in the direction of the door.

  One of the guards answered, a short, stocky man with shockingly red hair. “Yeah, you know the drill, knock and wait before you go in.”

  We started up the stairs, only to be stopped by one of the guards placing a firm hand on Alex’s chest. “What do you need?” This guard was taller than the other and lankier, but his gaze was hard and forbidding.

  Cocking his head to one side, Alex eyed the man disdainfully. “Everything,” he bit out.

  The soldier’s gaze slid away from Alex, landing on me. Seeing him, the look in his eyes, I knew what was about to happen, and a shiver of anxiety slid up my spine.

  “I can get you anything you want for a night with that one.” Biting down on his bottom lip, the guard switched his appreciation toward Leisel. “Or that one,” he continued. “We haven’t had fresh pussy here in months, and I’d like a workout with ’em before they end up in the Cave.” He looked back at Alex, his brow arched in question.

  “They’re not for sale,” Alex answered, the muscles in his back tensing.

  “You’re tapping both?” The soldier laughed once before looking back at me. “He satisfying you?” His gaze shifted between Leisel and me. “Both of you?”

  It was Alex who answered. “I am,” he practically growled.

  The guard let out an unsatisfied breath of air, yet his smile remained. Stepping aside, he gestured to the door, allowing us access.

  One by one, we climbed the stairs, and for reasons unknown to me, I chanced a glance back down. Both guards were still watching us, smiling widely, and I couldn’t help but think that maybe we’d made a huge mistake, that maybe we shouldn’t want to find out what was behind that door.

  When we were through the door, we were faced with yet another set of stairs that led to a corridor, then two more sets of stairs. Finally we came to a long dark hall lined with broken windows. A lone door was at the end, painted a bright red. As we trudged down the hallway, we couldn’t help but peek out the windows. From our vantage point here, high above the camp, we were able see a great deal of the entire spread, and even I had to admit that I was slightly awed by it all. This place was huge, much bigger than Fredericksville, and a lot less Truman Show, with more of a Mad Max vibe.

  We came to a stop in front of the opulent red door where our escort raised his fist and knocked twice. Several heartbeats passed, during which my apprehension mounted, and then a gruff, inaudible reply sounded from within.

  I gave Leisel’s hand another squeeze; she looked like she needed it. In fact, she looked downright petrified, and knowing that was all the incentive I needed to swallow my own fears and reservations.

  “We’ll be okay,” I told her quietly, and breathed a sigh of relief when she nodded in response. “Together, okay?” I smiled at her. “Always together, I promise.”

  The room we entered was a huge open expanse, large concrete pillars standing from floor to ceiling and spaced evenly throughout. Sections of the space had been cordoned off to create the ambience of an actual home, and it was just that—homelike, yet in a fucked-up sort of way.

  There was a living area consisting of three sofas, none of them matching, all of them with an insane array of colorful throws and mismatched cushions. The bedroom area was covered in mirrors—the walls, the ceiling, even the headboard. Near a row of partially boarded-up windows, I saw a bathroom area with a large claw-foot tub, which caused me to cringe in sympathy for whoever had been responsible for lugging it up all those stairs.

  Like the rest of the building, the place was clean yet eclectic, with colors splashed over walls, and a variety of throw rugs of different sizes and shades scattered over the floor. It was visually jarring and oddly welcoming at the same time.

  Through the center of it all, a man and woman approached us, unsurprising in my expectation of their appearances. The man was huge, not just muscular, but downright huge, covered with muscles. And as he continued toward us, a fierce scowl on his face and his bare chest on display, I was slightly more impressed by the sheer strength he radiated than by the place he presided over.

  A thick stripe of gray ran through his hair, making me wonder if he’d placed it there intentionally. But the closer he came, the more obvious it was that it was natural. With a toothpick jammed between his two front teeth, his scowl deepened as he closed in on us, and I briefly wondered if we should just say screw it and run.

  The woman beside him was less imposing, yet her very presence seemed to suck all the air out of the room, making her seem even more frightening than him. She was slight with a slim waist, heavily tattooed arms, and chin-length hair that had been dyed a bright pink. Someone of her size and stature shouldn’t have seemed so daunting, yet there was something off about her, something that suggested a raw edginess, as if a sleeping violence lurked just beneath her surface.

  We were watching them and they were watching us, while this woman hung off her man like a leech, her nose ring twinkling each time she made the slightest of movements.

  Several tense moments ticked slowly by, and just when I thought I couldn’t take another second of the silence, when I was feeling as if I was suffocating under this tiny woman’s hard gaze—not the man’s, because his eyes hadn’t left Alex—Leisel spoke up, shocking the hell out of everyone in the room.

  “I don’t know about you, but I would really like to sit down,” she said with a shrug. She let out a nervous laugh, trying to be brave, attempting to break the ice on this awkward situation we’d found ourselves in.

  “We’ve been walking all day, avoiding the infected,” she continued. “I swear, it’s like there’s a damn apocalypse going on out there.” She offered another soft laugh, her gaze darting over to mine.

  Trying not to gape at her audacity and her bad attempt at a joke, I wondered about how strangely calm she seemed, when here I was, feeling as if I might vomit from anxiety.

  Even stranger was the man, who’d since begun to smile at Leisel’s nervous twittering. His smile widened until he plucked the toothpick from between his teeth and grinned from ear to ear. Suddenly,
his grin became a full-bellied barking sort of laugh that left all three of us shifting uncomfortably.

  Looking perplexed and more than a little annoyed, the pink-haired woman glared up at her man. When he noticed her eyes on him, the man turned to face her, and after seeing the look of confused disdain twisting her features, his smile quickly fell away.

  “Come. Sit the fuck down,” he said, his voice full of gravel, his original snarl once again firmly in place. Together, although the woman was clearly leading the show, the couple started for the sofas.

  Alex looked first at me, then at Leisel, his eyes burning with questions that he didn’t dare voice. Not here, not yet. Shrugging ever so slightly, he headed for the sofas as well, leaving Leisel and me little choice but to follow him.

  Like lambs sent to the slaughter, one by one we took a seat, Leisel on Alex’s left, and me on his right. I didn’t like the seating arrangement, sure that Leisel should be in the middle, protected by both of us. But this place, this world, it wasn’t our reality. It was their reality, this new world where men lorded over women as if we were property. I could only assume we were seated like this because Alex sensed this, and was acting accordingly.

  Seconds ticked by, one by one, and still no one spoke until Alex finally broke the silence. “We, uh, helped two of your men escape a horde of infected. In return—”

  “Jeffers,” the man said, interrupting Alex, then tucked his toothpick back in place.

  “What?” Alex asked.

  “His name is Jeffers,” the woman explained, her voice thick with an accent I didn’t recognize. “And I’m Liv.”

  Suddenly she grinned at me and inched her way closer to Jeffers. Draping a long skinny leg over his thick muscular one, a little too much thigh and the noticeable curve of her backside revealed in the process, she arched into him and darted her tongue out, stroking a long, leisurely lick up the length of Jeffers’s neck. It was all very vulgar, the act reminding me of a dog pissing on a tree, marking its territory. Instantly, I concluded that I didn’t like her.

  “You been living in the wild this whole time?” Jeffers asked, his brow puckered.

  “Yeah,” Alex muttered. “Anyway…Jeffers…we helped two of your men—”

  “The three of you?” Jeffers looked at Leisel and me, his eyes narrowing.

  Alex nodded, clearly annoyed at the interruption. “Yeah, the three of us helped two of your men. They were trapped inside a barn, the whole place was crawling with infected, and we—”

  “Rescued them?” Liv offered, lifting one thin eyebrow. Her sly gaze landed on Jeffers. “You hear that, baby? These three wild rats rescued two of your boys.”

  Turning toward me, she grinned again. “Who was it? The men you rescued? What were their names?”

  Liv’s tone had become challenging. She ran her tongue across her lower lip, every so often biting down on it. I couldn’t tell if she just disliked me as much as I did her, and she was toying with me because of it, or if this was all some odd attempt at flirting with me. All I knew was that I didn’t trust her. Not at all.

  “Bryce,” I answered with hesitation, my gaze on her steely and hard. “And Mike.”

  Her body still draped across Jeffers, Liv started to laugh, a sharp, short, mocking laugh that sent gooseflesh pebbling up and down my arms. “Jeffers, baby,” she cooed, a little too sweetly. “These ladies rescued two of your boys. Meaning we have a couple of badass bitches ripe for the taking, don’t we?”

  Jeffers appeared less than impressed, his face still hard and unreadable. Every so often the muscles in his chest and arms twitched, a jumpy, unsteady tempo that did nothing but add to the already uncomfortable situation. Eventually he leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. Tonguing his toothpick from left to right, his cold stare fell on Alex.

  “I’ll want to settle that score,” he said darkly.

  “Settle the score?” I exclaimed loudly.

  Jeffers’s eyes shifted languidly toward me. “Keep your mouth shut unless you’re spoken to, and maybe I’ll let you stay.” He turned back to Alex. “You fight? Or you just big and useless?”

  Leisel’s hand suddenly found my arm, her nails digging painfully into my skin, and I was right there with her, both spitting mad at this audacious man, and fearful of what he had in store for us.

  “I can fight,” Alex said, his tone flat. Leisel’s nails were now digging vicious little holes into my flesh, and I had to squelch back a yelp of pain.

  “You fight, you stay,” Jeffers said. Spreading his arms out over the top of the cushions, he leaned back against the sofa. Liv followed him, curling herself around his large body like an attention-starved cat.

  Ignoring Liv, Jeffers glanced between Leisel and me. “Goes for you two as well. You either bring something to the table or you’re useless to me.”

  Leisel’s I told you so echoed inside my head, eclipsing the ringing in my ears caused by rage. I glared at this man and his ridiculous pink-haired toy, my humiliation burning hotly inside me. He knew we had nothing, nothing but our bodies, and I would die before I let another man hurt Leisel that way.

  “I’ll fight in exchange for all of us,” Alex said, his words coming fast and hard as he struggled to control his anger.

  Uncurling herself from Jeffers, Liv turned to Alex. “Sorry, sexy,” she purred seductively, running her eyes up and down his body, much like she had with her tongue on Jeffers’s neck. “That’s not how it works around here. No one is accountable for anyone else. You either hold your own or you’re out.”

  That imperious bitch. I wanted to punch her, rake my nails up and down her face, gouge her eyes out with my fingertips, rip her silly pink hair from her scalp and make her choke on it. But I did nothing, just sat there beside Alex, playing the part of the good little woman who knew her place, while praying that Alex would speak up in our defense.

  “They’re not for sale,” Alex said, and got to his feet. He glared down at Jeffers and Liv. “And if that’s their only option, then we’re done here.”

  Jeffers rose as well, matching Alex’s glare. “You might be done here, but I said there was a score to settle, and I’ll have my fight.”

  The men stared each other down, both pumped full of testosterone and ego, neither willing to bend for the other. It was a dangerous situation, Alex with only two small women in his corner, and Jeffers with an entire army.

  “So this pussy doesn’t put out,” Liv said, leaning forward with an amused smirk on her face. “Is that the problem? They only have eyes for you?” Without waiting for Alex to answer, she shrugged. “Then we’ll just find something else for them to do.” Her eyes landed on Leisel. “Do you like to dance, little mouse?”

  Beside me, Leisel flinched, and I could tell she was mere seconds away from completely losing it. Her breathing was frantic, her grip on me bruising.

  “I can fight,” I said suddenly, drawing all attention to me.

  Liv’s mouth curved into a cruel smile, making my stomach sink. What had I just gotten myself into?

  “I was kinda hoping you’d say that,” she sneered. Turning to Leisel, her grin only grew in its awful intensity. “And you, little mouse? Can you fight like this pretty little kitty can?”

  “No,” Alex growled, moving to stand directly in front of Leisel, blocking her from Liv’s line of sight.

  “Ah…” Jeffers drawled knowingly. Glancing down at Liv, the couple shared a shrewd look. Suddenly I felt worse, my anxiety spiking yet again. They now knew how Alex felt about Leisel, and I couldn’t imagine them respecting those feelings. If anything, these were the sort of people who took advantage of them.

  “There has to be something else she can do,” Alex said. “Cleaning or cooking…”

  Liv raised her index finger in the air and ticked it back and forth like a metronome. “Ah, ah, ah,” she said, smirking. “We don’t cook for the masses here. Some people have the resources and have set up restaurants of sorts, while the others either rely solely on their
wages or end up fending for themselves. As for cleaning, we reserve those jobs for the elderly. The men and women who no longer have the strength to fight, or the sex appeal to sell themselves.”

  Releasing me with a resigned sigh, Leisel got to her feet, slipping out from behind Alex’s towering frame.

  “I can dance,” she said.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Leisel

  “No, Lei, absolutely not! Four years of intermediate ballet when you were a teenager isn’t what these people have in mind for you!”

  Evelyn had been yelling at me for close to an hour now, only pausing in her rather shrill screeching to studiously ignore me, after which she began yelling again. And I was getting a splitting headache from it all.

  “Four years of ballet,” I said tersely. “Two years of modern dance, six years of hip-hop, and three years of Zumba, Eve. Remember? You took the classes with me. I can dance.”

  “Classes, Leisel, classes! This isn’t a class full of girls and women, this is you wearing next to nothing and dancing in a cage for an audience of men! You couldn’t even take your clothing off at the gates without having a panic attack!”

  I sighed noisily. Yes, this was much different from anything I was used to, or comfortable with, for that matter. But Liv had assured me that I wouldn’t be naked, not that I trusted that seedy woman in any way, and that the cage dancers were just that, dancers. As long as Evelyn and I made sure to have our property brands completed before we began working, a tattoo that would be identical to the one Alex was currently getting, no man could touch either of us without Alex’s permission. Considering the way Alex was acting—refusing to look at me, and his expression murderous—I didn’t foresee it being a problem. Him selling me to another man, that is.