Thicker than Blood (26 page)

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.

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.

“We don’t have a fucking choice,” I spat out,
increasingly agitated with her incessant mothering. “This place
isn’t exactly a pillar of women’s rights!”

“
Who are you?” she shouted, her face
suddenly far too close to mine. “What is with this split
personality disorder? One minute you’re cowering, the next you’re
killing infected, the next you’re crying, and then you’re willing
to dance for men? I don’t know you, Leisel. I don’t know this
person and I don’t understand it!”

“
I’m doing what I
have
to!” I screamed. Without thinking, I slapped my
hands against her chest and shoved her backward. “I’m trying to
adjust! I’m trying, Eve, I’m
trying
!”

“I don’t want you to adjust!” she cried, and
shoved me back. I caught myself before I could fall, and when I
raised my head to glare at Evelyn, I found tears forming in her big
blue eyes. “You were fine the way you were!” she continued shrilly.
“You were caring and sweet, the only truly good person left in this
world!”

“
I wasn’t fine!” I yelled, the sight of her
tears causing my own to fall. “I was
weak
, I was weak and stupid, and because of that I ended up
married to a man like Lawrence! He knew it, he could see it in me,
see that I was a doormat he could walk all over. I don’t want to be
a doormat anymore, Eve, I want to be strong! I want to be strong
like you are.”