Over me.
“You won’t,” he countered, not blinking. “Unless you want ‘em all out of commission for a few weeks.”
I didn’t know who “they” were, but he must’ve been right, because Ches let out of huff before she turned her attention back to me.
“Where are you from, little girl? And what the hell are you doing in the Burrows?”
“I’m looking for my sister. She’s just a teenager. We’re from the Mids.”
One perfectly groomed green eyebrow lifted. “A teenager? She looks like you?”
“Yes!” I answered, hopefully. “You’ve seen her?”
Ches chuckled, shaking her head. “No. But an attractive teenage girl, around here? Alone? You might as well go on home, break the news to your parents.”
“Our parents are dead,” I shot back, with a venom level that was probably ill-advised. “But what do you mean, break what news?”
“What I mean is that it ain’t safe around here for a young girl who doesn’t belong to anybody. Hell…” Her eyes narrowed as she looked me over, stepping in a little more. “It might not be safe for you either.”
Maddox stuck an arm between us. “You’re scaring her.”
“Good,” Ches countered. “She ought to be. This is my shit.” Her sharp gaze turned to Maddox, and she cupped his chin. Her long, jade lacquered nails were filed into points that pressed into his skin. “You’re the only motherfucker around here who isn’t scared of me, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
Maddox smirked at her, moving her hand from his face before he looked at me, locking his piercing black eyes with mine. “Your sister. That’s what you were doing in that alley?” he asked, and I nodded.
“She was exploring the ruins with a friend and got hurt. I believe someone got to her, but she left a trail for me. That’s where it led, but then those guys popped out. I told Bunny to run, and then…”
His thick eyebrows went up. “Bunny? That’s who came sprinting out of there?”
“Yeah, you saw her?” I asked, halfway afraid to sound optimistic.
He nodded. “That’s what got my attention, made me go see what was going on. I don’t know where she is though.”
“I told her to go home,” I explained, hoping like hell she’d been able to get there. I looked back to Ches, since it was obvious she held power not just here in the house, but in the Burrows themselves. “But I can’t go home. Not without my sister.”
Ches rolled her eyes. “You can keep the cute puppy act to yourself honey. I’m not sentimental. You understand… post-apocalypse, every woman for herself, all that?”
“Goddamn, Ches, can you cut the shit, please?” Maddox interjected. “Ya ass wasn’t always Franchesca Catlan, Baddest Bitch of the Burrows. You forgot what you used to do? How you helped peo—”
“That’s enough,” Ches hissed, with a sharp hand motion that Maddox must’ve understood as the end of her rope, because his mouth shut. Nostrils flared, she turned with a sneer. “I’m gonna do one thing for you, and then I want you out of my face, unless you’ve got something to offer.”
She turned and walked away, and I looked to Maddox, confused, hoping he knew what was happening. He shrugged, then crossed his arms, waiting.
It only took a moment before she was back, rifling through a small silver pouch. She took out a green tube, shoving the rest of the pouch at Maddox to hold.
I flinched as she grabbed me by the chin, lifting it to expose my neck. “Hold still,” she demanded, and I did, barely breathing as she unscrewed the tube to reveal metallic green lipstick she used to draw something on my neck. “This is my mark. It won’t come off for a few days unless you purposely scrub it off. This will let you move around the Burrows.”
She took her bag back from Maddox, who pointed to his own neck, where a green lipstick print – tattooed- was set apart from his other ink.
“Maddox will escort you,” she said, wiping the perpetual smirk from his face, replacing it with a wrinkled brow and a frown.
“I will?” he asked, in a tone that implied this was a serious affront. “But what about—”
“I don’t give a fuck,” she informed him, waving off whatever excuse he had. “This is your mess, not mine. You’re the one who brought her here.”
“Yeah, cause I didn’t want to leave a battered woman in an alley, not because I planned to play babysitter. I have things to do,” he said, looking past both of us, with enough focus that I glanced back. I hadn’t noticed until then, but the music was louder now, like a door had opened somewhere, and people were gathering in the foyer.
Maddox was looking in one specific direction though.
I followed his gaze to twins – literally – two gorgeous, mahogany-skinned women with bald heads. Curiosity drove me to look them over – strappy high heels, tiny shorts, and crop tops with words printed across in white letters.
Eat Me, with an arrow pointing down on one. Suck Me, with arrows on either side, pointing to hard nipples prominent through the thin fabric of the shirt.
Oh.
That’s what he had to do.
“Dee and Dem will be here when you get back,” Ches assured Maddox, rolling her eyes as the twins waved at him, and he waved back, cupping his groin through his jeans. “I thought you wanted to help her?”
“I wanted you to help her,” he countered with a heavy sigh as he looked me over, probably comparing me to the twins, then turning back to Ches once he realized I wasn’t as appetizing. “But, fine. She’s gotta sleep off that concussion first though, before I take her anywhere.”
Ches sucked her teeth. “You’re just trying to get rid of her so you can get your dick serviced, but luckily for you, you’re right.” She glanced at me again, her lip curling in disgust. “She looks like hell. Feed her, put her to bed, and then take her to see Blue. If anybody knows anything about her sister…”
“Blue does. Got it,” Maddox said, making a gun motion at her as he backed away. He grabbed me by the good wrist. “Come on.”
He tugged at me, but I resisted, turning to Ches to meet her eyes. “Thank you.”
She smirked. “You’re welcome honey,” she replied, grabbing the edge of her mask and pulling it back up over face. “Good luck,” she told me, from behind that painted-on sinister grin. “You’ll need it.”
Five
“So you never told me what your name was.”
Maddox made that statement from the confines of a half-circle booth, where instead of sitting opposite me, he’d chosen immediate proximity. His legs were spread wide – one touching mine – and he draped his arms along the back of the seat, enveloping me in ambient heat from his body.
“Aly. Alyson.”
“Okay. Nice to meet you, Alyson.”
I felt, rather than saw, his grin. All the tables had a single bulb hanging over them for illumination, but the bench seats sank into the shadows. Sitting back like he was, I could only barely see him, but still.
His presence was potent.
He’d ordered for me, when I’d sat there gaping stupidly at the menu upon being asked what I wanted. It was embarrassing, really – I couldn’t tell you if the Mids had a place like this… a restaurant. I rarely deviated from my specific route, and if I did, there was no way I’d ever part with an amount so large for a meal that would only feed one person.
He ordered me a waffle, which I’d never had, and chicken, which I hadn’t tasted in years and years. Once it was just me and Nadiah, with Gran sick in assisted living, the budget had been cut to the bone. Meat was a luxury I couldn’t afford.
It didn’t feel like something I could argue against though. This place – Underground, as they apparently called it – belonged to Ches. We were underneath the foyer where we’d been introduced, where I’d felt the music under my feet. After Ches had offered her ominous farewell, Maddox led me through a heavy steel door and down another set of stairs, through a mass of sweaty bodies writhing to pounding music, to the area where we wer
e now.
I drew enough curious stares along the way to understand that I didn’t fit. Desperately, I wanted to sit back, out of the light, but that would mean sinking into Maddox – a thought way more mortifying than the stares were.
I’d seen a man before – the Mids were full of them. Over the years, I’d dated a little, with varying levels of success.
Mostly very, very low.
And none of them made me feel as flustered as Maddox did.
“So you’re from the Mids, huh?” he asked, right in my ear, nearly making me jump out of my skin.
I swallowed hard, steadying myself, not looking back when I nodded. “Yeah. Been there all my life.”
“Damn. How do you manage out there with that curfew?”
“I don’t notice it,” I shrugged. “Nadiah and I are never out that late anyway, so it means nothing to us.”
“Never?” he asked, with such skepticism I turned then, to meet his eyes in the low light.
“Never.”
“Not even like… out with your man or anything, sneaking around?”
My face heated as I shook my head. “No, not even that.”
“Ah, damn,” he grinned, then laughed. “That’s not surprising though, not really. Typical good girl from the Mids. You probably never even got your cherry popped.”
“I’m not a child,” I defended, suddenly feeling parched. I used my tongue to wet my dry lips, wishing I’d had the sense to put lip balm in one of my overstuffed pockets. “I’ve… you know?”
That enthralling smile spread wider. “Nah, I don’t, cause you can’t say it.”
“But I’ve done it.”
“If you say so.”
Ugh.
I clenched my teeth together, practicing my difficult client protocol to calm myself. A count to five, with a closed mouth, and then a smile. Another count to five, and then a swallowing of the anger that would only get me in trouble if I let it out. Maddox wasn’t a client, but that didn’t mean I shouldn’t practice a similar decorum. Working ensured my survival. Cooperating with Maddox would get me answers about my sister.
At this point, they were of equal importance.
The food helped quell my emotions. It was impossible to focus on my self-conscious irritation when the plate in front of me smelled like happiness. My mouth watered as they loaded the table with food and drinks and condiments, reminding me that Harriet’s coffee at the salon was the last thing I’d consumed.
That coffee – and the salon, and that conversation – felt like something that had happened days ago, instead of hours.
Maddox tucked into his food without hesitation, probably expecting me to do the same. Instead, I stared at the golden, syrup-drowned waffle piled high with fried chicken like it was going to come alive and attack me. Like I was waiting to wake up from a dream.
But then Maddox took a piece right off my plate, biting into it. “It’s good, Aly. You should eat.”
So I did.
Using every detail of the table manners my mother and grandmother had taught me, I prepared myself and then took my first bite. I tried my best not to moan, but the rush of flavor in my mouth made that impossible.
Quickly, I forgot most of my manners.
Long-term hunger – a feeling I’d become accustomed to, to make sure Nadiah had plenty to eat – and great food created a situation where I tuned out my surroundings – there was nothing there except me and my plate, and I had every intention of cleaning it.
Until I realized Maddox was looking at me.
Thinly veiled amusement was apparent on his handsome face, and for about the hundredth time in the last few hours, embarrassment rushed through me.
“You’ve got a little…” he picked up a napkin, aiming for my chin before I snatched the cloth from his hand to do it myself.
It was syrup.
A line of syrup I had to scrub at to get off, like it had been there for a bit and had time to dry. When I put the napkin down, my fork went with it. I took a big gulp of water I halfway choked on, not expecting it to taste so clean.
And then I put my hands in my lap and sat still before I humiliated myself any further.
“What’s wrong?” Maddox asked, and I shook my head.
“Nothing. Just waiting.”
“So you’re done? You’re full?”
“I’m fine.”
“I didn’t ask if you were fine, I asked if you were full.”
“I’m done eating.”
His expression softened to understanding. “Because I was looking at you?”
“Because you were laughing at me.”
“I wasn’t laughing at you. I was looking at you, because you seemed happy – like you were enjoying yourself, which I hadn’t seen before. Eat your food.”
I shook my head. “I had enough. I don’t want to make myself sick.” That was true. But I only had enough sense to think it because he’d embarrassed me out of stuffing my face.
Maddox stared for another few seconds, then shrugged, sliding my plate over to join the plates of food he was already working on. “May as well not let it go to waste.”
I gave him a tight smile – approval he didn’t need to polish off the rest of my food with his own. I finished my water, knowing I needed the hydration, then refilled the glass with the pitcher that had been left on the table.
The longer I sat, the worse I started to feel.
It wasn’t about being ashamed anymore, but physically. My head was swimming, body aching, and my tongue felt too big for my mouth.
“Did you… did… you drug me?” I asked Maddox, trying to resist the urge to put my head down on the table. “Something… in the water?” Just getting that sentence out was exhausting.
Through bleary eyes, I watched him shake his head as he wiped his mouth. “Nah. You got drugged hours ago, when Doc checked you out. It’s wearing off.”
Oh.
Yes.
You got your ass kicked, remember?
“Come on,” Maddox said, already on his feet, moving to the outside of the booth. He extended a hand, and I accepted it, allowing him to help me up. I barely had any strength in my legs, but his grip around my waist was steady. I blinked, and we were back in the foyer. I blinked again, and I was back in the room where I’d woken up, sitting on the edge of the bed while Maddox stripped my jacket off, and someone I couldn’t make out flashed a light in my eyes.
The last thing I processed was Maddox telling me not to leave the room, that he’d come by for me in the morning.
And then I was out, again.
I had to pee.
Even though I’d been told not to leave the room, at some point physiological need overrode that instruction, leading me out of the bed and out of the room, sneaking as quietly as I could down the hall.
Luckily, a cracked door caught my attention before I could build up the courage to try any of the closed ones. I snuck toward it, relieved that my suspicion of it being the bathroom was correct. Slipping inside, I flipped the light switch, then locked the door behind me.
First, I relieved myself, taking care of the primary reason for sneaking out of bed. Then, I took advantage of the big vanity mirror, checking for visible bruising to match all the tenderness I still felt.
My face was fine, which was a relief.
My looks weren’t usually of any concern – the men I encountered on my curated schedule were so underwhelming that I didn’t care if they thought I was cute. It was – unfortunately – safer to not be worth a second glance. I wasn’t, however, naïve enough to believe a pretty face and slim waist weren’t contributing factors to me getting my job. Not that I had control over either one. I inherited my face, and the slim build was a result of a tight budget. But that was of no concern to anyone except me, and maybe Gran and Nadiah.
In the Apex, it was the facade that mattered.
And maybe not just there…
The way Maddox looked at the twins hadn’t escaped my notice. Not that I could blame him
– they weren’t pretty. They were beautiful, strikingly so, and very comfortable with their bodies – healthy, filled-out bodies that didn’t have the slightest concern for where their next meal might come from.
Hell, I’d been looking too.
In the mirror, I saw nothing special – that wasn’t self-deprecation, just the truth. I pulled all my braids to one side, noting that while my face remained blemish-free, there was an ugly purple bruise at the back of my neck, disappearing under my shirt to spread onto my shoulder.
Gingerly, I grabbed the hem of my tee shirt, pulling it up as I twisted in the mirror. My back was mottled like a watercolor painting – red-brown skin, black and purple bruises.
Wherever she was, I hoped Nadiah wasn’t checking for bruises in the mirror. Just the thought of that had me tugging my shirt down and tucking it in, ready to get moving. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but the light coming through the windows in the hall told me the sun was coming up, which meant it was approaching 24 hours since I’d seen my sister.
I needed to be out there looking for her.
There were no extra toothbrushes, but I found the cabinet under the sink well-stocked with tiny bottles of mouthwash. I took one, figuring it was better than nothing – and better to ask forgiveness than permission – and cleaned my mouth as well as I could. Once I washed my face, depositing the towel I used in a marked basket, I left the bathroom to go back to the room I’d woken up in.
The door was locked.
I stepped back, trying not to panic as I counted again to make sure – I’d been in the third room from the corner. I knew I hadn’t turned the lock behind me, so what the hell?
The only people I knew here were Ches and Maddox, and I wasn’t confident in calling either of them a friendly face – not this early in the morning.
Especially after I’d been told to stay in the room, and Ches hadn’t seemed thrilled about my presence.
The sound of footsteps on the stairs sent my heart rate into overdrive – I didn’t know who was coming, or how much trouble I’d get into for being in this hallway. I tried the doorknob again, silently willing it, begging it to pleasepleaseplease open this time.
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