Thicker than Blood (51 page)

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.

“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.