Thicker than Blood Read online

  “I’m covering this cake,” I told the photograph sternly. “And I’m saving it for you. You’re going to eat every last bite of it when you get here.”

  Turning, I headed toward the sink, flipped on the radio, and got to work on the pile of dishes, while humming along with the melody of “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan.”

  Sneak Peek

  BENEATH BLOOD AND BONE

  Coming later in 2015

  CHAPTER ONE

  Eagle

  My heavy boots stomped angrily over the dry earth, my lungs burning liquid fire in my chest as I headed back toward the gate. Correction, what was left of the gate thanks to her—my wildcat.

  I shouldn’t have bothered chasing her, I was never going to catch her on foot, and I’d only accomplished looking like a damn fool for trying.

  I still wasn’t sure what it was about that woman that had gotten under my skin. I wasn’t normally the type to bother with anyone, never mind a woman. Maybe her freeness, her unwillingness to be tamed by me or anyone else. Who the fuck knew?

  “E, man?” Daniel panted as he jogged up beside me. “Jeffers and Liv want to see you.”

  Frowning at Daniel, a skinny, ugly, useless son of a bitch, even more useless than a woman without a pussy, I shoved him out of my way and walked on. No one got away from me, no one, nothing, not fucking ever.

  “E!” Daniel hurried to catch up with me. “Liv, man, she’s pissed.”

  “So fucking what!” I yelled. Again I pushed him, backward this time, making him fall flat on his ass. Immediately he raised his arms, shielding his face from me. I was well known for my temper, even better known for the many fights I’d fought in Purgatory, never once losing or even coming close to it. Daniel was right to fear me. Almost everyone did.

  But not Wildcat…

  And definitely not Liv.

  “I’m sorry, man,” Daniel hurriedly said. “I was just—”

  “Following orders,” I interrupted. “I fucking get it.”

  Staring down at him, I felt like ripping into him, tearing his scrawny arms straight from his body and making him eat his own flesh for breakfast. Instead, I looked away and took a deep, not-so-calming breath.

  Not only had Daniel never done anything to deserve my wrath, but I was already in deep shit. Jeffers and his woman, Liv, had wanted that pretty boy Wildcat had belonged to. Needed him, actually. There weren’t a lot of men left who could fight like he could, and now he was as good as dead. Marcus had done him in with one neat slice-and-dice straight through the liver with a little extra twist to be certain, just like I’d taught him. Wouldn’t be a quick death, wasn’t going to feel good, that was for sure. I gave him a few hours at the most before he bled out entirely.

  A group of men rushed past me cursing, armed with tools to try to fix the mangled gate before any rotters happened to swing by. Off in the distance, I could already hear Liv’s shrill voice screeching away at Jeffers. Little pink-haired slut was a demon in bed, but out of bed…it was if the devil himself had gone and possessed a pink-haired, skinny little bitch with a mouth the size of Texas.

  As for Jeffers, fuck him. The man was useless now, entirely pussy-whipped by her. He used to be worth a damn, several actually, but now all he was good for was doing her bidding, while I was left to do her bedding.

  They were both waiting for me at the edge of the lot, just beyond the newest set of vehicles I’d towed in last week, waiting to get chopped. There were a few other people surrounding them, people I recognized but never had cared enough to meet them, let alone learn their names.

  When I reached them, stopping in front of the small group, Liv was staring at me, her eyes narrowed into venomous slits, her too-thin body vibrating with anger. Everyone else was silent, their eyes on anything other than me. Smart people…whoever they were.

  “Are you even fucking listening to me?” Liv stepped forward, jabbing a pointy finger into my chest. “Your little act just cost us big-time, asshole.”

  It never ceased to amaze me how fearless she could be, especially being as small as she was. She was scared of nothing and no one, not even me. I wasn’t too sure on the specifics of her story or how’d she come to be here, but whatever kind of hell she’d gone through, it must have been some fucked-up shit. Either that, or she’d just been born one crazy-ass bitch.

  Grabbing her finger, I pushed her hard enough that she stumbled backward. She glanced at Jeffers, waiting to see his reaction, though we both knew Jeffers wasn’t going to do a damn thing, not against me.

  When his eyes finally did rise, his gaze was hard, the way it used to be, the way it had been when we’d first put this place together. From the ground up, just him and me and a small group of survivors had made this place what it was today. Then Liv had come along and took him, his balls, and any last shred of testosterone he’d had, and wrapped it all up in a pretty pink bow around her little finger.

  “You let them go!” Liv screamed. “A fighter and two decent pieces of ass! And for what? Because you liked one of them? I had plans for them all!”

  I shrugged. “I’ll fight back what I owe you for the fence.”

  “Nobody wants to fight you!” Throwing her arms up in the air, she spun away and started stomping off. But not before sending her fist into Jeffers’s gut and hissing, “Do something!”

  With a sigh, Jeffers took a step forward and opened his mouth to speak.

  Smirking, I held up my hand, cutting him off. “Don’t you dare lecture me on letting pussy go to my head, you goddamn hypocrite. Not when that bitch has your balls locked up tight inside her skank hole. All I’m gonna say to you is I know I fucked up, and I’ll pay you back for that gate.”

  Pushing past him, I headed straight to the Cave, needing a drink or three and a nice hard fuck in order to put all this bullshit behind me.

  When I entered, I found Dori in the back, seated by the bar as usual. Spotting me, she waved happily, a smile curving her lips. She was a striking woman, or at least she had been before the rotters had gotten to her, forcing our sham of a doctor to take her legs. But she was still alive and infection-free, and that was more than most people who’d been bitten could say.

  Taking a seat, I held up two fingers, signaling for the man behind the bar to bring me my usual—Dori’s homemade concoction. Smelled like shit, tasted even worse, but it did its job in taking me from point A to point B. And I couldn’t ever seem to reach point B on my fucking own anymore.

  As soon as it was handed to me, I tossed it back and swallowed it all in one gulp, enjoying the burn it ignited inside me, the warmth that swelled in my stomach. Signaling for another, I could still feel Dori’s eyes on me, waiting for me to tell her what happened this morning, to give her all the dirty details of what had gone down and why the camp was in such an uproar.

  When I didn’t, she changed tactics. Rolling her wheelchair across the floor, she parked it next to my seat and placed her tiny hand on my arm.

  “The wildcat?” she asked, her voice soft and husky.

  “Gone,” I replied, swallowing back my second drink. Raising my fingers, I signaled for another.

  “For good?”

  Snorting, I nodded my head. Of course she was gone for good. Even after her man died, which he would, there was no way she was going to come back here—to me. And two women out there alone, no man to protect them… They’d be eaten up and spat back out before the next nightfall. By rotters, or whoever else happened on them. They were done for.

  And it was my fucking fault.

  “I don’t know,” I ground out, hating the guilt I was feeling. Part of me thought I should have gone after them and dragged them back here to safety. But the other part of me, the part of me that liked hearing women cry, the part of me that liked watching my fist obliterate the face of my opponent, the part of me that got off being a king in this cold, dead world, that part of me knew she’d fight me tooth and nail, if not outright kill me, before she’d ever come back here…back to me.

&nb
sp; “E,” she said, sounding hesitant. “I know you liked her. I know that you wanted her to stay, I did too. She would have been good currency around here. The mousy one too. God knows the men around here love that innocent act.”

  Turning to Dori, I took her slender face in my hand, squeezing her cheeks until she yelped in pain, pulling her toward me until it was only me keeping her from falling straight out of her chair. I was fully aware of the several men in the room who were now staring at us, waiting to see what was going to happen and probably wondering if they should help Dori. But I already knew none of them would say a word, let alone make a move against me. They weren’t that stupid.

  “You don’t know shit, woman,” I spat. “And that wildcat would have been my property. No way would my property have been working in a shithole like this. As for that other one, she’s about as innocent as they come these days. Why do you think they wanted to leave? Nobody worth a damn wants to live their lives in a shit pit like this, around people like you.”

  And me, I added silently.

  Beneath my fingers, her chin trembled while her eyes filled up with tears. The sight of her, so weak and pitiful, only made my mood worse. My upper lip curling with disgust, I released her face, thrusting her backward into her chair.

  “I thought I was your property,” she whispered. “You said before—”

  “You had legs then, and I was between them when I said it.” Grabbing the drink the bartender brought me, I quickly swallowed it and slammed the glass down on the table. “Now you’re just pussy. Nothing more.”

  Pushing out of my chair, I stalked across the room, grabbing the neck of a tall brunette who’d been hanging off the arm of another man. I’d fucked her before, too many times to count, but I still didn’t know her name, and didn’t care to ever learn it.

  Dragging her up the stairs, I pushed her into the first unlocked door I found, tossed her on the bed, and started undressing. I needed to fuck. I needed to fuck hard and fast, and then I needed to beat the shit out of someone, anyone…so much so I found myself hoping like hell Liv would let me back into the ring. Maybe if I promised to throw a couple of fights…

  The fuck did nothing for me. None of these whores did a damn thing for me. The sex was empty and hollow, just the mindless slapping of my body against her used-up one. More than likely she’d fucked twenty guys already this morning, and another fifty would be coming by for more when I was through with her.

  Worse, I was still thinking about the wildcat, those sweet red curls, her big blue eyes full of fire, and that tight little body of hers. Even better, how she’d fought me every step of the way, challenged me like no woman had done in far too long. Made me want something I’d thought I was no longer capable of. Made me want something that was no longer possible.

  It was good she was gone. I couldn’t afford any sort of weakness in this world. Not a single drop. You let that shit spill out of you, and people noticed. And when people noticed, they took advantage.

  “Two rats,” I yelled as I left the room. Because that was all she was worth to me—two slabs of dead rodent.

  As I passed by the bar, buttoning my jeans, Dori was still there, a fresh drink in her hand. Sitting down opposite her, I took her drink and swallowed it down in one wincing gulp.

  “You don’t mention her ever again, got it?” Glaring at her, I handed her the empty glass.

  Nodding, she took the glass and dropped her gaze. “I’m sorry, E.”

  Another unwanted sliver of guilt snaked its way through me, making my chest uncomfortably tight before coiling uneasily in the pit of my stomach. But instead of apologizing to her like I knew I should have, I got to my feet and muttered, “Know your fucking place, woman.”

  Exiting the Cave, I found the sun still shining brightly, mocking me from its place up high in the sky where no one could touch it. Because if I could touch it, if I could reach it, I’d beat the holy shit out of it, make sure it never dared to shine again. There was no place for sunlight here. Sunlight was for the living. And no one was living anymore. Speaking of which…

  Cracking my knuckles, I surveyed the people passing by me. I needed to beat someone senseless, wrap my hands around their throat and watch as the life began to leave their eyes. I needed to not just feel my strength, but use it. It was all I had left, the only thing that could mirror what actually living had felt like, the only thing that reminded me I was still alive.

  My wife had made me feel alive. My kids too. My old job, stripping and rebuilding old cars back to their previous glory, had given me a sense of satisfaction once upon a time. Even Wildcat, she’d given me a tiny slice of something familiar, something I’d been hoping would grow into more.

  Two men passing by paused in front of me, a mangy-looking and downright filthy brunette in their grasp. She hung limply between them, her wide gray eyes looking feral as they darted back and forth, taking in her surroundings.

  “Found her scavenging out by the turbines,” one of the men said, grinning. “The little bitch was eating bugs right off the ground like a damn animal.”

  “Where do you want her?” the other asked, looking more than ready to get rid of her.

  “Ask Jeffers,” I said callously. “I don’t deal with this shit anymore.”

  The man slowly shook his head. “Jeffers said otherwise, man. He said all new recruits are coming straight to you. Said it’s time you got to keeping yourself busy.”

  Closing my eyes, I gritted my teeth. Liv, that fucking bitch, wasn’t going to let me fight; she was putting me to work like one of her damn minions.

  Opening my eyes, I glanced down at the woman, taking in the tattered remains of her clothing, the caked-on dirt covering nearly every inch of her. Her eyes met mine, and though she was obviously dazed from one too many punches to her face, her bloodied nostrils flared as she tried to snarl.

  Bending my knees, I dropped down to her level, leaning in close enough to get a hearty whiff of body odor and shit, probably her own. Smart woman…the worse you smelled, the less the rotters noticed you.

  “Welcome to Purgatory,” I said coldly. “Last stop on the road to hell.”

  She didn’t respond, but neither did she snarl again. She just stared at me, those big wild gray eyes of hers shrewdly assessing me much the way a predator did its prey.

  Baring my teeth, I grinned at her. She wasn’t going to last here; her type never did. She was too accustomed to the wild, having gone too long without human contact. There was no domesticating those who had given in to the dormant beasts that hide inside us all.

  The fence that surrounded us and its gates were the equivalent of a cage, and she’d be climbing and clawing her way out the first chance she got. I would know; I sensed that beast inside me every damn day, constantly trying to rip its way free. Suppression only succeeded in making it worse, the animal within pacing manically back and forth in its small confines.

  “Give her to Dori,” I said, straightening. “She’ll clean her up and put her to work.”

  “She bites,” the second man said, laughing nervously. “Claws, kicks, and spits too. Drew had to hit her a few times just to get her to calm the fuck down. You sure you want her in the Cave?”

  “Give her to Dori,” I repeated. “Don’t make me say it again.”

  Moving aside, I let the trio pass by me, glancing down at my hands. Caged as I felt, they were all I had left, my hands and the chaos they could cause, the punishment they could bring. The destruction they could rain down on whatever was in my way.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Autumn

  Their calloused hands on my arms hurt. I wanted them to let go, to stop squeezing so much. But every time I tried to fight them, the tall one hit me. Best to keep still, to play helpless, useless. That was how I’d survived this long, out here all alone. Play dead, hide, stay away from others, and avoid the biters. Hush, hush, must keep quiet or they’ll hear you.

  I didn’t normally venture so close to people, always keeping my distance
from others, dead or alive, but I was so hungry. My traps had been empty for the third day running, the horde of biters that had recently passed through had scared all the animals off, and now I was starving and thirsty, ready to eat anything I could. And so I had gone in search of food, gotten too close to the noisy people who talked too much and still laughed like they hadn’t lost everything. Like life was still worth living.

  People were bad. Violent. Aggressive. Greedy. They were worse than the biters because other than eating you alive, they didn’t want to hurt you, not like the people did. People liked to make you cry; they liked to hurt you, to see you bleed. They kept you alive just to watch you cry and bleed, then laugh while you hurt.

  I wasn’t going to stay here, and I wasn’t going to work here. I was going to kick and scream, to fight and bite anyone who tried to touch me.

  The tall one was digging his fingers into my arm, looking down at me with a sick and twisted smile on his face, telling me he was enjoying this, hurting me, teaching me a lesson for hitting him in the face. But I wouldn’t have hit him if he hadn’t touched me, if he’d just left me alone. I wanted to go home, back to my cave, back to the darkness and the safety.

  The men dragged me inside, my feet dragging up the steps since I refused to walk, and they were refusing to be gentle. People weren’t gentle anymore; no one was gentle anymore. They used to be, though. I remember how they used to be. But everyone else seemed to have forgotten.

  Inside it was cooler, the brightness of the day staying outside where it belonged. I felt better in here with the darkness. My eyes adjusted to the dark quickly and I saw other people, fewer than outside, but still far too many for me to feel comfortable. My heartbeat, already erratic, began to pound harder in my chest. I swallowed hard, my mouth parched and my stomach empty and burning, the few beetles I’d managed to unearth not nearly enough to satisfy me.