Thicker Than Blood (Thicker Than Blood #1)(12)
Alex dropped to his knees, his dark eyes burning holes through my thoughts. There was a spark there, alit with a fever I’d never noticed in him before. But I had never noticed much, always consumed with my own problems, my own pain.
“I don’t care,” he gritted out through clenched teeth. “I’ve been outside the walls, Leisel. Many, many times. It’s not pretty out there, but it’s not pretty in here either, is it? I’d rather be free.”
Free. The word sang through me like one too many cocktails, blinding me, drugging me with all its hazy, yet glorious possibilities.
His hand found my shoulder as he bent down to speak with me face-to-face, and it took everything I had not to flinch away from his touch. Being touched by a man, thanks to Lawrence, was not something I associated with tenderness or comfort. Not in a very long time.
“Don’t you want to be free?” It was more a statement than a question. A proclamation. A declaration.
I shrugged his hand away. “We need to get Eve,” I said. “I won’t leave without her.”
He frowned and his brow furrowed, causing delicate lines to appear on his otherwise smooth forehead, but he said nothing in response.
“I won’t leave without her,” I repeated, unable to imagine myself in life anywhere without Evelyn. I couldn’t stomach the thought of leaving her behind in this awful place.
“You won’t have to.”
Both Alex and I jerked at the sound of another voice. As I shrank back in fear, Alex leaped to his feet and quickly whipped his gun free from the holster on his hip.
Jami stood outside my cell, a ski cap hiding his unruly hair, his normally impish expression now serious. Seeing Alex’s gun, Jami’s hands went up in the air, including the one holding his own weapon.
“I come in peace,” he said, giving us a half smile. “And I’m glad I don’t have to kill you too.” He nodded at Alex.
“Too?” I whispered, fear slithering down my spine and chilling my blood.
“Michaels and Davidson?” Alex cocked an eyebrow in question, and Jami gave him a single nod in response.
“And Hamilton?” Alex asked, gesturing toward the door that led out into the hub of the station.
Jami shook his head. “There’s too many out front,” he said quietly. “I could only clear the back.”
“Never thought I’d be so goddamn happy to not have electricity,” Alex muttered, but he looked and sounded anything but happy. He turned back to me and unexpectedly held out his hand, the one currently holding his gun, and gestured for me to take it.
My lips opened and closed, and for a moment I could only stutter through several puffs of air. Finally finding my voice, I cleared my throat and tried again. “I don’t know how,” I whispered.
Panic was beginning to well inside of me. Both Alex and Jami were here, attempting to rescue me. And if Jami was here, that meant Evelyn was as well. Three people, three good people, all who could end up killed alongside me if we were caught. And two men were already dead?
True, there was no love lost between me and the majority of the men who policed Fredericksville. Most were self-centered, self-serving, violent men who were more than happy to adhere to the tyrannical rules of this place. But dead? I’d only ever wished one man dead before, and that wish had been granted by my own hand last night.
“This is the safety. Make sure it’s off before you pull the trigger. Hold it like this. Leisel…Leisel, are you listening to me?”
I nodded dumbly at Alex, who was watching me impatiently and with more than a little annoyance. Clearing my throat again, I tentatively took the gun, clutching the thick handle in my seemingly too small and shaking hand. Then with a deep breath, I got to my feet. The weapon was heavy and awkward in my grip, making me feel like a child playing dress-up.
“Eve’s watching the back,” Jami said to Alex. “And we’ve got five…no…”—he paused, glancing down at his watch—“three minutes to get the f*ck out of here before the patrol circles back around.”
“Let’s go,” Alex said, his voice deep, laden with determination that I didn’t share. I might have been standing, but it felt as if cement blocks had been strapped to my feet, my fear keeping me locked in place.
“Leisel!” Jami admonished me in a harsh whisper. “Eve is waiting for you! Risking her life for you! Move it!”
Evelyn. Her fate was my fate, and my fate would be hers. It was all I needed to propel me into motion. One step in front of the other, until I was sandwiched between my two unexpected saviors, and we were moving slowly but surely down the dark and narrow hall.
It was a mindless march on my part. Consumed by fear, the only thought that kept me going was that I would reach Evelyn, that there was finally a chance we could be free of this place and this life that wasn’t a life at all. At least, not one that was worth living. Out there we might have a chance at some sort of happiness, and at the very least, freedom. Freedom was happiness, wasn’t it?
My thoughts took a turn then, thinking of the infected, remembering how many there had been in the early days after the infection had hit, how quickly they’d ripped our lives to shreds. I quickly shook those thoughts away, knowing it would do me no good to overload my mind with more horrors than were already occupying it.
We hurried down a small flight of stairs and took a quick detour through a damp and dusty basement, the only light from a flashlight in Jami’s hand. Then up another flight of stairs, through another corridor, fumbling in the dark until a faded exit sign finally came into view.