Thicker Than Blood (Thicker Than Blood #1)(62)

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 * 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.





Chapter Twenty-Five



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.