Thicker Than Blood (Thicker Than Blood #1)(123)
“Beautiful birds,” Thomas murmured, shielding his eyes to watch as it soared through the sky above us.
Snuggling closer to my husband, I couldn’t help but wish Leisel were here. She loved little things such as this. She always loved the little things.
“Ooh!” I said, jumping upright. “Give me your cell phone, Tom! We should take a picture for her, so we can show her when she gets here!”
Thomas slid his phone across the table and I quickly lifted it, swiping hurriedly to the camera app, then snapped several pictures before the eagle had flown out of sight.
“Yeah, so, before my beautiful wife interrupted us,” Shawn said, his attention back on Thomas. “What I was saying was that it isn’t the fault of the owner, it’s the fault of the goddamn recruiters! If they’d paid more attention…”
Sighing noisily, I tuned out and untangled myself from Shawn. Standing up, I headed for the house. Once inside, I closed the screen door behind me and glanced around my kitchen, at the chocolate cake sitting beside an opened bottle of vodka, at the sink piled high with dishes from dinner, and at the refrigerator, covered with colorful photographs of friends and family, taken throughout the years, and paused on my favorite one.
It was of Leisel and me, her in a plain white T-shirt and coral cropped pants, me in a black camisole and matching skirt, our arms looped together as we mugged for the camera with wide smiles on our faces.
“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 f*ck 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 *, I shoved him out of my way and walked on. No one got away from me, no one, nothing, not f*cking ever.
“E!” Daniel hurried to catch up with me. “Liv, man, she’s pissed.”
“So f*cking 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 f*cking 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, f*ck him. The man was useless now, entirely *-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 f*cking listening to me?” Liv stepped forward, jabbing a pointy finger into my chest. “Your little act just cost us big-time, *.”