Chapter Twenty
Brokenhearted, Marlee followed Leah down the ladder on the other side of the roof. The one that didn’t come out near Felix’s window. The one that would lead her to the shed. To the place where it all began.
She dashed her tears away. They wouldn’t quit coming, but she hefted the duffle onto her shoulder and tried to be brave like Ratchet believed she could be.
Jumping from the ladder to the lot, she landed with a quiet thud and followed Leah to the long metal building where she’d taken shelter after escaping Bastian.
Everything had come full circle.
Her captor was her liberator. Her despair was her hope. Her escape was the place she’d been snared.
It was irony, or she had the worst luck of any human alive.
But this part of her story wasn’t over. No matter what Ratchet said, this was not goodbye.
It was only goodbye for now.
“Come on, hun,” Leah rushed. “We need to get you in the shed before anyone sees. Once you’re in, you move straight for those back doors. It’s dark in there. Watch for the empty barrels. The door on the left will open to the street. You wait out there in the alley, and I’ll bring the truck around. We’ll get you to the station and on a bus and…” The older lady sighed, looking down at Marlee’s stomach, and her face broke into the saddest smile. “You take care of that baby, okay? Tell him about his grandma Leah. That you didn’t get to know her that well, but she made good chocolate cake and bad choices. But it all worked out in the end.”
Marlee nodded, more tears coming. She pushed her chin forward. “I will. I promise.”
With a big breath, Leah pulled open the door to the shed.
But before Marlee could slip inside, the area flooded with light and an earsplitting alarm went off.
She froze. Leah did too, looking confused and panicked.
Boots crunching on the gravel as someone neared couldn’t even spur them into moving. The alarm was loud enough to wake the entire block. The kind that announced a fire or… or… something.
A tall, wide man covered in brightly colored tattoos skidded to a halt in front of them.
“Aw shit, Mama. What are you doing?” His eyes were big and round as they went from Leah to Marlee and back. “I told you to stay away from the shed.”
Marlee recognized the voice. This was either Skittles or Monster. Going off the tattoos and lack of facial scars, she was going to guess Skittles.
“I-I-I changed my mind,” Leah stuttered. “I couldn’t do it. She’s with young.”
Skittles’ eyes went impossibly wider as his gaze fell to Marlee’s abdomen.
She stared at Leah who’d turned pale. Couldn’t do what?
“Hell, Mama,” Skittles spat. “I wasn’t going to hurt her. I was going to ask for her help.”
Help doing what?
But she couldn’t ask because the sound of more people running toward them had her panic soaring. A low, eerie whistle floated along the air as men came to a stop behind Skittles. Some stumbling like they were drunk, but snarling like they were ready to fight. Others, lucid, glaring angrily. They crowded around her and Leah, seemingly awaiting a command.
Alley Cats. So many of them. Enough she knew she wasn’t getting out of there unharmed.
Skittles caught her gaze, staring hard. He was trying to tell her something, but she couldn’t know what.
The sing-song whistle grew louder as one last set of footsteps strolled closer. This one was leisurely, as if he was enjoying making them all wait. And when he finally pushed through the crowd, revealing a huge shell of a man who must have at one time been strong and fierce, she knew she was looking at Felix.
He carried that familiar Alley Cat snarl and his golden eyes seemed morbidly excited. Like a predator who was anxious to give chase. A different kind of lion… who’d found a lamb.
“Well, well, well,” he purred, pacing closer. His voice sent chills of terror rolling over Marlee’s skin. Dangerous. This one was dangerous. And not like Ratchet was. Felix would hurt her. Hurt anyone. “What the fuck do we have here, cats?”
“Mama Kitty found her getting in the shed,” Skittles lied easily. He grabbed Marlee roughly by the arm, earning a cry. She clamped her mouth shut, remembering Ratchet’s warning. Don’t look weak. “I’ll get rid of her.”
“Not so fast,” Felix said, narrowing his gaze on her. “She’s new. And pretty. And she cries. Maybe I want to play with her.”
“No,” Leah said, her voice snapping out like a whip. “You don’t need to do that, okay? You have women upstairs who want you. Use them.”
His expression went hard and he twisted his gaze to Ratchet’s mother. “Since when do you care who I play with, Mama Kitty? Huh?”
He marched forward, ripping Marlee’s arm from Skittles’ grasp and twisting it behind her back. She hissed at his nearness, but his hands were less rough than Skittles’. He was weaker, even if he was meaner.
“What’s this female to you, Mama?”
Felix stared down into her face turning her toward the light so he could get a good look. And Marlee saw when recognition dawned in his eyes.
“I know you,” he growled. “You’re Bastian’s. He’s been looking for you, little girl.”
The words did something to her. Hit her all wrong. Brought her fight back a hundredfold.
“Not his,” she snarled back at him. “Never his. I belong to the one who gives more than he gets. The one who set me free.” She jerked her arm in his hold, not caring about the pain it brought.
Felix tightened his grip, growling out an earsplitting warning. But she didn’t care. She wasn’t giving up without a fight. And she wasn’t letting him take her back to Bastian.
Being free meant she was never going back.
A crackle of energy whipped through the air, jerking everyone to attention. Even Felix. It was like static electricity making the small hairs on her arm stand on end.
“Get. Your. Hands off her.” The voice was deadly, and almost unrecognizable. But she would recognize her man anywhere. And he sounded so damn good right about now.
“Ratchet?” Felix sounded confused. But when Ratchet stepped into the light, glowing eyes narrowed on Marlee, furious scowl leveled on the place where Felix had her arm twisted, the Alley Cat leader seemed to laugh him off. “Shit, man. What happened to you? You look like hell.”
“Take your hands off my woman. Now.” The last word ended on a threatening growl as the crowd parted for him and he stalked forward looking for all the world like a warrior intent on leaving a trail of blood behind him.
Animal, she thought.
“Your woman?” Felix scoffed looking more shocked than he probably meant to. “Since when do you have a woman, Ratchet? You steal her from Bastian? Because if you did, I don’t think I can help you. He wants her dead. You fucked up, man.”
Ratchet shook with fury and Felix dropped her arm, throwing his hands up.
“Fine. Shit. I’ll be taking this out of your skin, asshole,” he seethed, eyes narrowed.
Marlee noticed Leah balk. Felix was going to cut him for this.
“No one. Touches. Her. No one touches mine.”
The other Alley Cats shifted nervously, looking back and forth between their leader and Ratchet.
Felix gave him a ruthless smirk. “She won’t be yours for long. I’m giving her back to Bastian. Along with your mother as a peace offering.” He shot Leah a cruel look. “Sorry, Mama, really. But you shouldn’t have betrayed your clan like this. Now I have to fix this shit.”
“Wait,” Skittles said. “We giving Bastian our own? We doing that now?”
“Fuck yeah,” Felix snapped. “You rather die, asshole?”
Skittles didn’t answer. Felix spun to face the others.
“We die at Bastian’s hand if he finds out we have his property and didn’t give it back. Weak fuckers, all of you. Maybe it’s time for another flaying. Remind you all what the fuck you really are.”
Ratchet growled, stepping between Marlee and his leader. She felt the heat rolling off of him, warming the cool night air. So much heat. She wanted to reach out and touch him one more time. But he vibrated with so much emotion it seemed he would break apart.
“She’s going back. Right now. That’s a motherfucking order. Monster, Fang. Grab her. Mama Kitty will go willingly. Won’t you, Mama?”
“Ratchet?” Marlee whimpered.
His fists clenched. Open and shut. Again and again.
And she must have been panic-hallucinating because it looked like they were sparking.
He turned to find her over his shoulder. And his eyes flared that fiery blue. But more. There were… there were… flames.
“Run, lamb.”
It was the last words he said to her before his body exploded into a ripping, snarling, avenging ball of fire.