Thicker Than Blood (Thicker Than Blood #1)(105)

“No!” Leisel screamed, the terror in her voice ripping at my heart.

“No, Eve!” Alex shouted.

“And what if I say no?” I asked carefully, keeping my eyes on E.

“Then I kill your man,” he replied easily. “Let me make it easy for you, Wildcat. You don’t really have a choice here, just the illusion of one. So take my deal—stay with me and your friends can go free.”

Placing a hand on my arm, E roughly turned me to face the Jeep. Inside, I could make out several stacks of boxes, though I couldn’t see what was in them. “Everything I promised you, they can have,” he said.

“Eve, no!” Leisel continued to scream. “You promised! You f*cking promised me! We do this together, always together!”

Squeezing my eyes shut, my thoughts drowned out the sound of her cries as I thought back to Thomas—Leisel’s husband—and the night that he died. Lying on the floor of my living room, Leisel gripped tightly to his hand, tears streaking down her face while Shawn and I stood solemnly by. Candles flickered all around us, the warm scents of vanilla floating up from them. But even they couldn’t hide the scent of Thomas’s death that was so close.

He’d looked up to me and Shawn, his bloodshot eyes pleading with us. “Keep her safe,” he’d whispered hoarsely. “Promise me, you’ll keep her safe for me.”

I’d sobbed loudly, my tears streaking down my cheeks. Gripping Shawn’s hand tightly, I’d nodded. “I promise,” I’d whispered.

“No matter what?”

“No matter what, Thomas, I promise. I’ll protect her with my own life.”

“It won’t ever come to that,” Shawn had said, his grief palpable. “I’ll protect them both.”

Seemingly satisfied, Thomas had turned his gaze back to his wife, whispering things to her that I couldn’t make out. Only moments later, his eyes began to cloud over, a gray fog blanketing them. His lungs rattled loudly in his chest as he blinked sluggishly. His grip on Leisel’s hand loosened, and as she gasped, clutching him tighter, his eyes rolled back in his head.

“No!” Leisel had sobbed, shaking his arm. “No, Thomas, no!”

While Shawn had pried her off his body, I’d stood there, able to do little more than sob. I had cried for the loss of my friend, for Leisel’s devastating loss, for how bleak our futures seemed in that one moment…and every moment that had followed since.

Turning back to E, I swallowed back the lump in my throat and looked him squarely in the eyes. “I’ll do it,” I said firmly, thinking only of Leisel and Thomas, and of my promise to them.

Despite Leisel’s answering sobs, E was smiling, the first genuine smile I’d seen on him, giving me a glimpse of perhaps the man he’d once been. Reaching out to touch my cheek, E ran his fingertips down the side of my face in an almost romantic gesture.

“One more thing,” he said, and grabbed my neck, using his hold on me to bring my body flush against his. “A lesson, if you will,” he whispered, his breath hot against my ear. Then he tossed me aside, much the same way he’d grabbed me, into the arms of the same man he’d given my gun to.

Shrugging out of his denim jacket, rolling his neck from side to side, E headed toward Alex, his hands clenched into fists. Still being held at gunpoint, Alex showed no emotion as E approached him, meeting him stare for stare.

“You make one move to stop me, Wildcat,” E threw over his shoulder. “And I will kill him.”

“God, please, no!” Leisel screamed, bucking wildly against the man holding her. “Please don’t hurt him!”

Alex squared his shoulders as best he could considering the way he was being held.

“This isn’t exactly a fair fight,” Alex ground out, his nostrils flaring.

E laughed in response, a bitter, twisted laugh. “This isn’t supposed to be fair, boy. This is a lesson to be learned.” And then he sent his fist straight into Alex’s gut.

Coughing, choking, Alex tried to curl in on himself in an attempt to deflect the barrage of punches E was throwing at him, but it was a useless effort. E continued to hit him like a broken record on repeat, his heavy fist connected with Alex’s face, ribs, and stomach over and over again. Blood poured from wounds on his face, purple bruises appearing almost immediately, one eye swelling almost shut, and through it all Leisel was screaming, beating her hands on the roof of the Jeep, yet unable to move.

Once Alex had been beaten into near unconsciousness, his shoulders drooping, blood pouring from his mouth and nose, trailing down his shirt, E gripped a handful of his hair and used it to lift his face.

“You don’t come back for her, you hear me?” he said, his tone venomous, promising only more pain. “She’s mine. All f*cking mine.”

Alex blinked up at him through one eye. “Yes,” he managed to say between coughing gasps.

Drawing a wad of phlegm from the back of his mouth, E spat in Alex’s face and released his head. It fell forward, blood and saliva spattering.

“You see, Wildcat,” E said, turning back toward me. “I always protect what’s mine.”

Taking my face between his bloodied hands, he tipped my head back and pressed a hard kiss on my lips. “Do you see?”

I nodded numbly. “Yes,” I said softly. I’d seen it quite clearly, exactly what this “lesson” had been. This hadn’t been just a lesson for Alex, or any other man who tried to touch me, this was my lesson. I was owned, body and soul.